Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                                               In a pivotal scene (episode 4: The Racket) from Vinyl , HBO's short-lived (and must-see) series about the coke-crazed Seventies music industry, record man Richie Finestra's shady contract negotiations with fictional rock band The Nasty Bits is thwarted by gravelly-voiced ex-client Lester Grimes---a Black singer who lost his career (and vocal chords) at the hands of his domineering mobbed-up label bosses.  Lester descends into obscurity for a decade, plunging toilets as a handyman in a South Bronx housing project skeptically observing hip hop's genesis. Swooping in for the big payback, he negotiates a $20,000 advance fo...

                                                             Budweiser Super Fest lineups were a throwback to music package tours emerged during the 1950s and 1960s. Void of seamless logistics that made the Super Fest run like clockwork, they were bare bones affairs. In 2021, Boyz II Men's Vegas residency moves into its eighth year, a far cry from yester-year's circus arenas, civic auditoriums and hole-in-the wall venues.  1971's live rendition of Sex Machine and '72's Mind Power, finds  Soul Brother #1 James Brown name-checking cities along the chitlin circuit: Richmond. Philly. Harlem. Baltimore. Chicago. Detroit. Theaters dotted their main streets with names luminous like planets in the...