Into the 80s now, and as far as I'm concerned the obvious choice for the best female artist to emerge in this decade was Anita Baker. Here's 'six of the best' - her top charting singles from the 80s.
1986 - Sweet Love
1986 - Caught Up In The Rapture Of You
1987 - Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year)
1987 - No One In The World
There's also an 'amateur' video of her perfroming this with an impromptu contribution by BeBe Winans in 2021.
Ok we've had female artists from 40s, 50s and 60s, now for the 70s and it's the turn of Gladys Knight, probably the best female singer on Motown who must regret not offering a better deal before she left for Buddah in 1973 where she had four consecutive Top 10 Pop hits and her only #1 with 'Midnight Train To Georgia'.
Here's three of her biggest hits recorded live in 2019 at the age of 75!
For me,
Nancy Wilson
is one of the classiest jazz singers, with such a distinctive voice and
style who we lost in the same year as Aretha at the age of 81. This
is a live performance of one of her best songs which is the A side side of her Northern Soul classic 'The End
Of Our Love'.
I've also added a live rendition of a standard she released in 1961 which
she performs in her own inimitable way in 1994 and a full concert from
1987.
Nancy Wilson [1961] - Guess Who I Saw Today [Capitol #4647]
Now this is how to deliver a song! A spectacular performance in
1994.
Live @ Newport Jazz Festival 15 Aug 1987 - Full Concert
If you listen to nothing else on this concert, listen to her rendition of
'A Song For You' at 2:25.
Continuing the theme of International Women's Day, here's a classic performance of Gerswin's 'Summertime' sung live in Berlin in 1968 by 'The First Lady Of Song', Ella Fitzgerald.
If you're wondering what's going on today, I am celebrating International
Women's Day by featuring some legendary female artists of black music from
the last century.
This time it's the turn of Lady Day,
Billie Holiday
(born Eleanora Fagan) with probably her best known song, originally
recorded on the
OKeh
label in 1941 and another from 1946, both featured in the 1973 movie 'The Lady Sings The Blues' starring Diana Ross as Holiday.
As it's International Womens' Day it will be all female artists featured
today, and this popped on my feed after doing the 'Respect' post, so why not? Here it is.
The Aretha Franklin biopic
'Respect'
will star Jennifer Hudson as Aretha, chosen for the role by Aretha
herself. It was originally scheduled for release on 15 Jan 2021 and
then delayed until Aug 13 2021 due to COVID19, but still hasn't been
released. I can't find any info on a new release date, so watch out for it.
View the official trailer below and watch JHud perform in front of Ms
Franklin.
A new release on 5 Mar 2021 from Jenifer Hudson. On the face of it this 'should' be 'sensational', but I'm left feeling a bit
underwhelmed.
Undoubtedly JHud has a powerhouse set of pipes but
will.i.am was involved in the production and I guess he has attempted to
'modernise' it and, to these ears at least, it sounds synthesised, flat and empty compared to Marvin & Tammi's 1967 original (compare for yourself below). I doubt any real musicians came anywhere near this recording.
It's also been slowed down from 130BPM to the 'obligatory' 124BPM, I guess, so that
it can be programmed by house DJ's!
Don't get me wrong, her vocal performance is good, although a bit subdued, I thought she could have 'let rip' a bit more, it's the 'contrived', synthesised backing track that spoils it for me.
To celebrate the life of Mary Wilson after her sad passing on 8 Feb 2021,
Motown/Univeral are reissuing an expanded version of her debut, self-titled, solo album
released in 1979, with 8 additional tracks.
It's due on 16 Apr 2021 but they've pre-released a previously unissued track,
which sounds like it's a later, probably more recent recording, to
promote the forthcoming album.
Last week I posted up a track by Clydie King and in the write up mentioned
that she was with The Blackberries, a sought after backing group, who
supported Humble Pie among many others. Well, at the weekend I saw a music programme on BBC Four which featured 'Black Coffee' by
Humble Pie live on The Old Grey Whistle test from 1973 which had The
Blackberries, who at that time consisted of (left to right) Billie Barnum
(who is H.B. Barnum's sister and was also a member of The Apollas and
replaced Sherlie Matthews on this live recording), Venetta Fields (who was a member of The Ikettes / Mirettes) and Clydie King,
The song was written (and
recorded in 1972 on 'Feel Good') by Ike & Tina Turner and I was impressed
at how soulful and blusey Steve Marriott's voice was on this track.
The whole chemistry of the performance is great so I thought I'd share
it. Take it for what it is (and consider the line 'my skin is white
but my soul is black') but some nice vintage footage of The Blackberries.
