QUESTLOVE VS. PRINCE

One of my favorite animated videos of all time!  For more Questlove stories about Prince, read Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove.

FOR MY BROTHER ON HIS BIRTHDAY: MUSICAL MEMORIES (INSPIRED BY QUESTLOVE'S MO 'META BLUES)

If you haven't already, go pick yourself up a copy of Roots drummer Ahmir (aka Questlove) Thompson's Mo 'Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. The stories of how he met KISS and Prince alone are worth the cost of admission.

Music is the prism through which Questlove fashions his life and through which he remembers precise moments in his personal history.  

So, in the spirit of Mo 'Meta and its author, I'm sharing some of my own music memories, mostly ones I shared with my younger brother, Adam.   I treasure these memories and am grateful I had such an awesome partner in crime to experience the music with!

 PS - Feel free to use the comments section to drop a few memories of your own.


1. All Night Dancing
Remember that song "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc.? They had this other song called "All Night Dancing" which went on for almost EIGHT minutes.  One night, when I was about 10, my best friend and her parents came over for dinner.  My parents had this huge, old school slide projector and slide/movie screen set up in the livingroom, probably because we were showing our guests slides from a vacation.

While the adults stayed at the table to chat, my best friend,  my little brother and I peeled off and choreographed this awesome dance to "All Night Dancing."  We turned off the lights and moved in front of the slide projector so our dancing shadows showed up on the slide screen. (Very early MTV, no?) To accompany the sparkly disco lead-in sound, we rolled silver tinfoil into little balls and tossed them in the air as we danced around.  I think my mom had to pick them out of our olive shag carpet. 

Anyway, I am still proud of that dance we made up!!

2.  Breakin'/Beat Street
My mom let my brother and I go in to see Breakin' by ourselves.  I was super excited to wear these hightops I had found.  They were made of this sparkly rainbow weave fabric. I remember people in theater commenting on the shoes.  I LOVED them! My brother and I pretty much went wild for this part in the film where Turbo (played by Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers) danced in a way that makes it look like he brought a broom to life. 

After we saw Beat Street, we got the soundtrack on cassette and memorized the words to stuff like The Treacherous Three's "Santa's Rap." 

3.  Willie Style
How my parents would start out  our family road trips out was by doing this:  Once we hit the highway, they'd  put a  Willie Nelson CD (or was it a cassette?) in the music system of our van, roll down the windows, and crank up the song "On the Road Again" to FULL VOLUME.  My brother and I were so embarrassed that we would hide down on the floor.  (Secretly, I loved this song!)

4.  It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
Billy Joel was big in our lives.  I remember getting Glass Houses and listening to the first side of the record, like, 50 times before we even flipped over to Side B.  

5.  Rollerskating Routines  
I'd find a bunch of extension cords, plug them together, and bring the radio all the way out to the driveway so I could make up rollerskating routines to songs.  So proud of the yellow and orange suede Adidas roller skates I found and the yarn pom-poms I made for them. (I think my brother got a pair, too?) Favorite rollerskating outfit:  Jungle print shorts, leotard, purple sparkly legwarmers my brother gave me, and, of course, the Adidas skates.

6.  Etc.

Other stuff we listened to on albums:

1. Bob McGrath Sings for All the Boys and Girls
2. Star Wars soundtrack 
3. Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack
4. A Christian album my mom bought from a door-to-door salesman with lots of morality tales built into the songs 
5. The Perry Como Christmas Album
6. "Nadia's Theme" (originally written for the film Bless the Beasts and the Children, it was also the theme song for the soap opera "The Young and The Restless") 
7. Christmas with the Chipmunks 
8. Rocky soundtrack
9. Free to Be You and Me - Marlo Thomas
10. The Limeliters - Through Children's Eyes
11. Various John Denver Albums
12. Up With People
13. Viva Mariachi

AHMIR THOMPSON - AKA QUESTLOVE - PRESENTS HIS NEW BOOK, MO' META BLUES

Fow a while now, I've been following Questlove, drummer for The Roots, on Twitter.  Read a whole bunch of interviews with him, too. He has this really nice combo of humor and a serious ability to reflect on and analyze music and its relationship to everything else in life.

In addition to catching him on his nightly gig with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I've seen him live twice.  The first time, he was a panelist at the premier screening of the VHI rock doc Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America (see my post on it HERE).  Given the huge role that Soul Train played in his own life, Ahmir made for a fantastic presenter at this Paley Center event.

The second time I saw - and briefly met - Ahmir was last week at an event to promote his new book Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove.  At Powerhouse Books in Dumbo, Ahmir answered questions posed by both his co-author Ben Greenman and by audience members.

Questlove first shared his reluctance to write the book. "I thought my story would be boring, " he stated.  [Wait.  What??!! ] He continued:  "My life has not been mired in the narrative of drugs and violence where I was saved by music."  

He also expanded upon his reputation for having an incredible musical memory, one where he refers to particular songs to recall moments in his own personal history.  The first time he heard guitarist Bill Withers, at age 2, is when he cut his left hand pretending to play a glass guitar-shaped ashtray.

As the son of a singer, Ahmir grew up steeped in music.  His parents pretty much eliminated television in order to make room for music.  His childhood home contained a 5000+ record collection, one which reflected the particular tastes of each member of the family.

Questlove remembers 1996 as being a turning point in the life of Hip Hop.  "It's when Adam and Eve bit into the Apple: Hip Hop discovered consumer culture."

Here's an abbreviated, paraphrased recap of  the audience Q and A portion of the evening:

Q:  What are you listening to now?

A: Comedy records, including Tig Notaro. 

Q:  Who would be part of your dream music collaboration?

A:  Bill Withers.

Q:  What do you think of Kanye West's new album, Yeezus.

A: You have to listen to live with an album for a month before you pass judgement on it.

Q: What do you hope to have written four years from now?

A: I am writing a book about Soul Train.

Q:  How do you have time to do everything you do?  [Ed Note: In addition to being a drummer, Ahmir is a DJ, music journalist, record producer, and joint frontman for the The Roots, which is the in-house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.}

A: I will answer this question in 10 words or less:

Average
Workday
19
Hours
Time
For 
Absolutely 
Nothing 
Else 
Dammit!

Post Script: The day after the PowerHouse event, Ahmir tweeted: "First day of summer. Sick. :( " and I tweeted back: "The world needs you well-rested, good man."

I wanna see this guy live a good, long life.

Photo Credit: biography.com

MY FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON

What's not to love about Jimmy Fallon, The Roots, Mariah, and young people singing (love the knit monkey hat!) This video is an instant spirit-booster.

AHMIR (QUESTLOVE) THOMPSON & GUESTS PERFORMING AT BAM APRIL 19 & 20

Shuffle Culture

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson

Produced by BAM

Apr 19, 2012 at 8pm (Best availability)
Apr 20, 2012 at 8pm

“Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson just might be the closest thing we have to a hip-hop Zelig... expanding the assumed limits of hip-hop...” —Pitchfork

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the charismatic drummer and producer of the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop group The Roots, comes to BAM with an immersive musical experience. Enlisting a stellar lineup of artists, Questlove and musicians perform a free-flowing playlist—a kinetic mix of songs and sounds from unexpected musical bedfellows—that celebrates and
reflects our current shuffle culture.

Conceived and curated by Questlove

Directed by Annie Dorsen
Conducted by Andrew Cyr

Featured Artists:
Questlove
Jeremy Ellis
Sasha Grey
D.D. Jackson
Reggie Watts
Rahzel
Kenny Muhammad
Deerhoof
Willis Earl Beal (Friday show only)
Gray (Friday show only)
Metropolis Ensemble:
Conductor: Andrew Cyr; Violin: Kristin Lee, Annaliesa Place, Elly Suh, Emma Sutton; Viola: Juan Miguel Hernandez, Danny Kim; Cello: Ashley Bathgate, Hiro Matsuo.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Tickets start at $25

Stage Design by Samantha Sleeper
Sound Design by Jon Smeltz
Lighting Design by Joe Levasseur

FROM BLOGVERSATION 2012: SOME ARTISTS WHO INSPIRE ME

Over at Newvine Growing, Colleen Newvine is running Blogversation 2012.  Each week, six women (myself included) write a response to a question posed.  This past week, the question we wrote about was "Who or what inspires you?"  Here is my response.  Please check out Newvine Growing for other responses, and feel free to add your own thoughts to the original post!

Eleanor Traubman Says:
February 9, 2012 at 1:31 pm

There’s a bunch of artists who inspire me. Here are some of them:

Faith Ringgold – maker of storyquilts and children’s books
Keith Haring – pop artist
Missy Elliott – rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer
Maira Kalman – designer, writer, illustrator
Eva Zeisel – design legend
Women Film Directors – Nancy Savoca, Allison Anders, Karyn Kusama, Gurinder Chadha, Kasi Lemmons
Jim Henson – King of the Muppets, tv and film pioneer
Questlove – drummer for The Roots and King of Twitter!
Julie Taymor – Director of theater, opera, film
Rokafella – Female breakdancer, Director of the documentary of “All the Ladies Say”
All the women in Creative Conversations, the women’s artist group that I help lead

QUESTLOVE TALKS ABOUT SOUL TRAIN

WHAT WAS THE MAGIC OF SOUL TRAIN? (DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF DON CORNELIUS)

This post, originally published in 2010, is dedicated to the memory of Don Cornelius.
Last Wednesday, January 26, The Paley Media Center held a permiere screening and panel discssion of VH1's Rock Doc Soul Train: the Hippest Trip in America.

The makers of this film did an amazing job of capturing the historical significance of Soul Train as well as the accomplishments of its founder, owner, and host Don Cornelius.

Interesting Facts About Soul Train

* Soul Train is the longest continuously-running first-run syndicated television program in the country.

* The dancers on Soul Train were the heart of the show, but were not paid. As guest panelist and Soul Train dancer Tyrone Proctor said, "Dancers are often at the bottom of the totem pole."

* Chicago native and Soul Train founder Don Cornelius, an interviewer of players in the Civil Rights Movement, was one of the first African heritage people to own and run a television show. He hosted the show from 1971 until 1993 an and guest hosts appeared from then until 2006, including Mystro Clark, Shemar Moore, and Dorian Gregory. Cornelius, who owned the show for its entire run, sold it to MadVision Entertainment in 2008.

* Don was not a big fan of Hip-Hop, but aired the artists anyway because he wished to give people what they wanted.

The Panel Discussion

The post-screening panel discussion was made up of these folks:

Moderator: Danyel Smith, Music Journalist (who also appears in the film)

Guests: Big Bank Hank from The Sugar Hill Gang (of Rapper's Delight fame)
Questlove, Drummer for the Roots, Creator of Musical Score for the documentary
Tyronne Proctor, Soul Train Dancer, Choreographer

By the time all the panelists got up to the stage, Danyel Smith was choking back tears of deeply-felt emotion. I think the deep significance of this film and of the show had hit her.

Big Bank Hank, of Sugarhill Gang fame, said right after the screening: "I'm standing on history, on sacred ground." He shared that although Don was noted to not have big love for Hip-Hop, Mr. Cornelius gave Hank a warm welcome onto the set.

From the number of stories shared by Tyronne, the former Soul Train dancer, you could see that the dancers were truly the heart and soul of the show. In order to get onto the set, Tyronne was smuggled in via the trunk of a car! He talked about the anticipation of each weekend that the show was filmed, and of the reciprocal admiration between the show's dancers and its musical guests. Tyronne talked about how Don Cornelius made something which was audio - African American music - into something visual.

There were other former Soul Train dancers in the audience, and they shared their own vignettes from back in the day.

Questlove said although his parents were strict with him growing up, even on the tv-watching front, they did wake him up at 12:30 am so he could join the family in watching the 1:00 am airing of Soul Train (that's the time it came on in Philly). Since the early years of Soul Train episodes were not recorded, Quest worked his ass off to find and collect VHS recordings of the show from as far away as Japan. He is said to carry the whole show around in a bag of VHS tapes!

Here's an exerpt of Glide Magazine's interview with Questlove about his work on the Soul Train doc:

Soul Train is probably the most influential show of my entire life. It’s often pained me that I would have to go through extreme measure$ – and when you spell the word “measures,” there should be a dollar sign through the “s” at the end of “measures” – to collect the show. I guess the reason it’s so hard to get is, not foreseeing the future of VHS and DVDs, you know, a digital future, Don [Cornelius] really never made any publishing arrangements or artist arrangements for future reruns or reselling of the show. It prevented Soul Train from ever showing reruns, even though the original show lasted for a good 36 seasons.

[...]

Strange enough, the one of maybe four shows that I was allowed to watch in my childhood was Soul Train. So, this instantly became a labor of love because a lot of my memories of first seeing television, all of them have to do with Soul Train. It was kind of scaring people a little bit, because as they were showing me the reruns, I was recalling to them . . . At first, they didn’t believe me. They were like, “Ok, what three-year-old has a memory of Michael Jackson doing the robot for the first time?” It would be to the point where they would ask me, “Well, what are your memories of episode 206, with the Average White Band and the Main Ingredient?” And I’d be like, “Ok, they were performing on the floor. I remember Don Cornelius talking about collard greens and black-eyed peas in the introduction.” And they started jaw dropping, because they put the tape in, and you know, I’ve not seen this since I was a kid. It’s because it was the only thing I was allowed to watch. My parents didn’t want me sitting in front of a TV four to five hours a day. Instead, I sat in front of a turntable four to five hours a day.