Time to push through the holiday rush, spike your favorite eggnog, and pretend you really like that fruit cake you get every year! To help you get into the Christmas spirit, you may want to pick up Hidden Beach recording group, Naturally 7 with their newest release, Christmas: A Love Story now available on iTunes. For those of you who love the vocal purity of acapella groups like Take 6 and Boyz II Men, you will find yourself pleasantly pleased with this seven piece harmony group who showcase original interpretations of classics like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Silent Night and Joy To The World. To catch this incredibly gifted group, Naturally 7 will return to the road November 23rd through December 13th as special guests on Michael Buble’s Crazy Love Tour. Additional TV appearances will include ABC’sThe View ,Wednesday, November 17th when they join Ludacris and Rudy Currence to sing “Soul Bossa Nostra.” from Quincy Jones’ latest release, Q:Soul Bossa Nostra.
Now sit back and enjoy this full album stream beneath the hood!!! (more…)
In this era where there is often much debate between the use or often over use of technology in music, DOA anyone? But what are we really debating here? I often like to draw comparisons between tools and toys. When I was growing up and wanting to possess a keyboard there was really only one keyboard that I could afford to buy. Now I’m going to give brand names but let’s just say you could find this keyboard anywhere fine electronic items and watches were sold.
I was often frustrated by the lack of musicality that I perceived as shortcomings of the keyboard. But was it really the fault of the keyboard? Conversely nowadays when I program a couple of string patches to play a nice cascading line am I really an arranger of strings?
For comparison let’s look at the definition of Tool: an implement used in the practice of a vocation. Now let’s look at how a toy is defined Toy: an artifact designed to be played with. Well, I guess we’ll have to define play now. I think that definition can be summed up in one word: amusement.
I promised myself I wasn’t going to go off on this P.Y.T remix with T-Pain but damnit, they f**ked this up so bad, it would be a shame to be silent!! When my GFM crew schooled me to this travesty, I just shook my head and asked the Lord to please forgive me for the words I was about to say. It’s one thing when T-Pain wants to f**k up a contemporary artist today. Hell, most of them aren’t really on a high musical caliber anyway so you’re really not destroying much. But when you get off your “little yellow bus” of musical mediocrity and travel the fast lane of iconic greatness, you have created a f**ked up situation and forgot yo’ damn lane. So to commemorate this blasphemous scenario, we decided to do a battle of the worst Michael Jackson remake. First we have the current heavyweight winner of T-Pain with the P.Y.T remake single against our challenger The Hip Hop Dalmatians with The Hoe is Mine. Cast your vote!
If you ask me, they both sound like azz. And by the way, why does the head record exec in the Brown Sugar clip look like Phonte from The Foreign Exchange?!? Phonte, were you moonlighting, man!?! :)
01 – High Rise – Ashford & Simpson
02 – It Seems To Hang On – Ashford & Simpson
03 – Stuff Like That – Quincy Jones
04 – Found A Cure – Ashford & Simpson
05 – Love Don’t Make It Right – Ashford & Simpson
06 – It’s My House – Diana Ross
07 – Have You Ever Tried It – Main Ingredient
08 – Bourgié Bourgié – Ashford & Simpson
09 – Don’t Cost You Nothing – Ashford & Simpson
10 – Street Corner – Ashford & Simpson
11 – Over And Over – Sylvester
12 – Clouds – Chaka Khan
13 – I Ain’t Asking – Phyllis Hyman
14 – By Way Of Love’s Express – Ashford & Simpson
15 – Send It – Ashford & Simpson
16 – Is It Still Good To Ya? – Teddy Pendergrass
DJ Phaze mellows out on this one and brings you a quiet storm mix, GFM style. Check the playlist, download and feel free to share. And, if you enjoy it, hit Phaze up and let him know!
Tracklist:
The Secret Garden – Quincy Jones, Barry White, James Ingram, El DeBarge, Al B. Sure
Adore – Prince
For Your Love – Stevie Wonder
Love T.K.O – Teddy Pendergrass
The Lady In My Life – Michael Jackson
Summer Breeze – Isley Brothers
Groove With You – The Isley Brothers
Computer Love – Zapp and Roger
This Is For The Lover In You – Shalamar
Wishing On A Star – Rose Royce
Cherish – Kool & The Gang
A House is not a Home – Luther Vandross
Tonight, I Celebrate My Love – Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
Turn off the lights – Teddy Pendergrass
The Closer I Get To You – Roberta Flack & Pebo Bryson
Reasons – Earth, Wind & Fire
It really is all about the song and that’s what this series is all about. Persons can debate all they want whose version is better, it doesn’t really matter because there would be no debate if this was not a great song to begin with. Rod Temperton has proven over and over throughout his career that he is a true mastercraftsman of songwriting.
Maybe the problem today is that we don’t have enough apprentices…
