Maurice White, founder of the incredible psychedelic R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire, has died at age 74.
“Although we were basically jazz musicians, we played soul, funk, gospel, blues, jazz, rock and dance music … which somehow ended up becoming pop,” White wrote. “We were coming out of a decade of experimentation, mind expansion and cosmic awareness. I wanted our music to convey messages of universal love and harmony without force-feeding listeners’ spiritual content.”
Public Radio International aired this short audio piece on ska, the musical form that took off in the early 1960s, blending Jamaican jazz with American soul and rhythm and blues, and influenced numerous excellent bands, from The Clash and The Specials to No Doubt and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Read the rest
Allie Avital directed this wonderfully strange video for "World War Pt. 2," a new track by avant-R&B artist Autre Ne Veut (aka Arthur Ashin), starring Ashin, nude, and Macy Sullivan, nude, attached in what seems to be perpetual intercourse. And you can dance to it! NSFW. Read the rest
