Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                          For those of us who feasted on 80s music, sampling the creative cuisine on the music menu was nothing short of satisfying. Diverse textures of R&B, pop,rock and rap tantalized our taste buds. The roux binding this sonic gumbo together consisted of one key ingredient---Prince Thanks to his restless creativity, he sharpened our musical palates to a well-honed sophisticated edge.  His speed of album releases were dizzying. Rather than giving you time to get the last one straight---Prince ran laps around our musical consumption possibilities, daring us to keep up. In commemoration of the fifth(!) anniversary of his passing---here's a quick run down of the discs that defined a decade.                                          ...

Leave it to Morris Day to write the closest thing we'll ever get to a Prince memoir. On Time: A Princely Life of Funk peels back so many layers of the flashy front man from the legendary funk band The Time. Thankfully, Day bypasses the sober reflections atypical of other memoirs that are so unworthy of his larger -than- life personality. On Time has a bounce that keeps the reader's attention throughout. How do I know? I pulled it out of my mailbox around 1:00am and sat  in my car reading it cover-to cover until I finished nearly three hours later. On Time also details the history of the Minneapolis Sound and Day's complex relationship with his friend and ally. Collaborator and mentor. Bandmate and occasional adversary. Day even brings Prince along for the ride, masterfully re-creating their sharp tag-team banter recalling their Purple Rain days. It works too. Prince's spirit hovers over Day, pushing, prodding and interrupting. So much so that their sim...

  They may have been two polar opposites of the musical coin but Michael Joseph Jackson and Prince Rogers Nelson were really kindred spirits whose lives and careers flowed in similar directions. Breaking free from the static industry grip on Black performers, their artistic liberation was fueled by a strong sense of self and fearless creative vision funded by the deep pockets of their record labels. Midwestern-born luminaries, they shared concurrent commercial breakthroughs and endured  industry dust-ups in the fight for artistic control. Belief in the Jehovah's Witness faith insulated Jackson from the vices that destroyed many entertainers. It offered Prince spiritual solace and the inspiration to distance himself from his racy younger years. Their dominance seemed destined to go on forever. In time, the pair went from leaders to followers struggling to keep pace with a youth-driven modern music industry they helped birth. Slight in stature and build, Jackson...