Dee Dee McNeil, born in Detroit, Michigan, spent her early musical life as a contract songwriter for Motown Record Company. Her music has been recorded by Nancy Wilson, Jonah Jones, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Gladys Knight & the Pips, David Ruffin, The Four Tops, Edwin Starr and the wife of late, great Reggae master Bob Marley, Rita Marley, to name only a few. Although she is successful commercially, McNeil's roots and real passion have always embraced jazz music. She's a diverse writer, poet, plays piano, sings professionally and has written a number of plays and children's stories. Her freelance articles & CD reviews have appeared in Essence, Pathfinders Travel Magazine, Cadence Magazine, All About Jazz and many more publications, both in this country and abroad. She was the original lady who recorded with the historic Watts Prophets spoken-word group in the early 70's. Their "Rappin' Black in a White World" LP was nominated for an NAACP Award long before rap became popular. Her original song, "What Is A Man" (sampled from that LP) was used in the motion picture "Higher Learning." As part of the first spoken-word group to put danceable music to poetry, she became opening act for Roberta Flack, Les McCann, Richard Pryor, and many others. Ms. McNeil is currently producing jazz concerts in hopes of keeping jazz music alive; raising the pay scale for jazz musicians; introducing jazz to a younger audience and at the same time, sharing historic facts about some of our great jazz artists, who are too often taken for granted. In 2001, Dee Dee won the National BET (Black Entertainment Television) Jazz Discovery Contest, competing with vocalists all over the country. When she is not performing at jazz clubs, she is a part-time vocal coach at the California College of Music and also teaches Songwriting and Artist Development. www.deedeemac.com
Well, it's that time of year again. Happy Holidays everyone. Despite the challenging economics, most of us will still venture out to buy presents for the ones we love. Here are a few stocking-stuffer suggestions.
Artist: A Compilation of Various Artists
Title: Grooves for the Season - Holiday Sampler
NuGROOVE Records
Available exclusively at Circuit City, this NuGroove holiday sampler showcases some of 2008's smooth jazz artists who have helped put America's hottest independent label on the musical map. Right off the bat, Jay Soto introduces us to the We Three Kings of smooth jazz funk featuring a guitar solo full of fun and pizzazz. He signed onto nuGroove in 2007. (www.jaysoto.com) "We Three Funky Kings" is followed by "Angels We Have Heard On High", featuring Canadian born Darren Rahn, saxophonist and producer. Gail Johnson on piano brings a feminine touch to the keys with her sweet rendition of "Come All Ye Faithful." "Silent Night" features Michael Lington blowing a mean saxophone. His latest CD is titled "Heat" with guest appearances by Aaron Neville and songs produced by Keith Olsen of Fleetwood Mac notoriety. Bob Baldwin plays a rousing keyboard arrangement of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" that he medleys with "Behold Him." We finally hear some voices on the "Christmas Bells Medley" by De'nate. Deborah Connors adds her vocal styling. With R&B rhythm and tight harmonies, De'nate's musical gift is a pleasant listening experience. Next, Paul "Shilts" Weimar sings us a bluesy "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on his horn. Also featured on this compilation disc are Steve Oliver, Andre Delano and Michael Manson. All in all, this CD sampler is nice background music for a fireplace evening of holiday chit-chat and hot toddies.
Artist: Aretha Franklin
Title: This Christmas
Dmi Records #R2 516188
This is the Queen of Soul's first-ever Christmas album release. She has chosen a group of familiar standard holiday songs, intermixed with some not-so-familiar tunes like David Foster & Linda Thompson Jenner's "My Grown-Up Christmas List." On the title tune, "This Christmas," Ms. Franklin graciously features her son Eddie. I thought the song was way long and could have been edited. However, one tune is guaranteed to pick you up and rejuvenate you. Queen Aretha handles the arrangements and she produced this traditional gospel composition, "The Lord Will Make A Way." This production took me back to her Muscle Shoals sessions years ago. It has that historic type of excitement only Aretha can bring to the studio/stage. Charles (Volley) Craig puts the icing on the cake with those solid, funk bass lines. They made me want to get up and do a holy dance. Not to mention the rich background vocals sung by The Fire Choir, who add punch to Aretha's dynamic vocals, along with Arthur Maybury's amazing percussive work. Ms. Franklin sits down to the grand piano on "Silent Night" to serenade us with her impressive style of piano playing and an unforgettable vocal delivery. "Ave Maria" is sung sweetly, incorporating several Gospel 'runs' that add soul to an otherwise traditionally classical piece of music. "Christmas Just Ain't Christmas (Without the One You Love)" reminds us of the great Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff songwriting talents. Tena Clark produced the majority of songs on this album. However, Engelbert Humperdinck's "Angels" was one of the songs arranged and produced by Aretha. She is back at the piano on this number with her musical mainstay H. B. Barnum conducting the band. The Queen's rendition of "'Twas the Night before Christmas" is guaranteed to make you laugh as she adds her own unique lyrics to replace the original ones. This is a collector's item.
There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality and irreverence.
– Stan Getz
An elephant goes into a high-class restaurant and sits at the piano bar while the pianist is playing some nice, up-tempo jazz.
The pianist switches to a long and soulful blues ballad, and when he
finishes, the pianist notices that the elephant is all teary-eyed
over his drink.
He says to the elephant, "Wow, man - I didn't think you would be
that affected by my playing."
"No, no it isn't like that," said the elephant. "I just recognized
some of the keys."
