News & Updates — vintage footage

Happy birthday to the one-and-only "Maggot Brain", the funk-rock guitar god for Funkadelic, Eddie Hazel! Brooklyn-born, he grew up in Plainfield NJ, learning guitar as a kid and singing in church with future P-Funk bandmate Billy "Bass" Nelson. As teenagers the pair were working on the local Jersey scene. In '67 Nelson hooked up with the still-local group The Parliaments, led by George Clinton, for a tour, with Hazel joining soonafter. After securing drummer Tiki Fullwood from the Philadelphia scene, the group relocated to Detroit and became Parliament. Parliament's classic first album, Osmium, came out in '70 with the Funkadelic...

The Nigerian percussionist, teacher and activist Babatunde Olatunji helped bring African rhythms to the greater music world. His 1959 album for Columbia, Drums Of Passion, became a staple on hi-fis all over the world. His bands included amazing jazz musicians like Yusef Lateef, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen, Horace Silver, Charles Lloyd, Airto and others. He played with the Grateful Dead and made all kinds of music from huge ensembles of drummers and folkloric musicians to jazz and soul. As a guest or sideman he played on records by Cannonball Adderley, Stevie Wonder, Max Roach, Mickey Hart, Richie Havens...

The great Cuban conguero and bandleader Mongo Santamaría brought some spice to the American popular music scene. He had been bandleader for the prestigious Tropicana house band in Havana in the '40s before coming to NYC in 1950. He was the composer of "Afro Blue" and had a huge hit with Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man". In addition to his own groovy ensembles, he played with Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, Perez Prado, Fania All Stars, Willie Bobo, Dizzy Gillespie and others. It's always a pleasure to hear his Afro-Cuban arrangements of popular soul tunes, as well as his Orisha-guided rumbas. He...

Country music icon, outlaw poet and one of the greatest songwriters in American music history, Merle Haggard passed away on his 79th birthday, a premonition that he shared with his family. "The Bottle Let Me Down", "Branded Man", "Mama Tried", "Working Man Blues", "High On A Hilltop", "Silver Wings", "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers"...so many great tunes. And his politics veered left sometime in the last 20 years, even recording an anti-war song about the Iraq war. One of my personal favorite songwriters. "Sing me back home..." Sure, some harsh folks can get on my case about liking a...

Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros is my favorite of the great Cuban trumpeters. He had a powerhouse sound that could be brash and forceful, or sweet and lyrical. He got his professional start while still in Cuba, cutting his first sides in '49 with René Álvarez. The '50s saw him busy with Arsenio Rodriguez and Beny Moré. He also played with Nat King Cole on the pianists' Cuban sessions. He came to NYC in 1960 and got a lot of work doing sessions and playing in several bands. He played consistently with Eddie Palmieri from the late '60s through the '70s. In...