Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                                                "But if you can still hold onto what is yourself, that part of me that makes me Roberta and does not make me Chaka or Anita ... I'm going to hold on to that no matter what, and I'm going to nourish and cherish and nurture that and strengthen that."   Roberta Flack’s confident occupation of her creative space, captured in a 1989 Washington Post (“Roberta Flack; Charting Her Own Course") interview among the pantheon of Black female vocalists, evokes the title of one of her classic albums: quiet fire. There’s no one like her: traces of Minnie Riperton’s ethereal poetry live on in Jill Scott’s airy word-speak. Aretha’s litanies of longing are precursors of sorts to Mary J. Blige’s own heartache homilies. A young Evelyn King’s pairing with producers T. Life and...

                                                             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...