Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

"When I say that (Peabo Bryson) is beginning and the end of everything you want to listen to! ---former O'Jay Sammy Strain (2003)  Only a week into Black Music Month, five bricks from our music's mighty mortar have fallen, including Peabo Bryson. Alongside Teddy Pendergrass, Bryson represented the second wave of R&B solo male vocalists who rose to prominence at the tail end of the 1970s on the heels of soul men Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Al Green, and Bobby Womack, who defined the first half of the decade. The antithesis of Teddy's quiet fire and ferocious virility — Bryson carved out his own lane, delivering ballads with a soaring vocal gentility and devotion, inspiring his label, Capitol Records, to brand him "The Gentleman of Soul."  Akin to Pendergrass's coronation as Philly's R&B king, Bryson was Atlanta's crown prince. Before Larry Blackmon/Cameo, La'Face Records, Keith Sweat, and a slew of rappers migrated to ATL---the Greenville...

  On Apr 22, 1997, Mary J. Blige released Share My World , her follow-up to melancholy masterpiece My Life . Five years earlier, Blige’s debut What The 411 moved R&B away from energetic New Jack Swing to next-level hip hop/soul. During the era of Whitney and Mariah’s refined elocution and vocal theatrics, MJB offered up another alternative. Cut from the same cloth as seminal New Jack crooner Aaron Hall, Blige was modern R&B’s answer to classic singers from Black music’s yesteryear. Pouring out her heart like a modern-day Aretha Franklin, her emotional delivery revealed a pierced heart of glass resonating with fans caught up in the rapture of her raw talent. At last , the hip-hop generation had their own Etta James and Anita Baker. Her crown of thorns were fit for a queen. After back-to-back multi-platinum success with 411 and My Life (six million copies sold in all), her coronation was complete. Being Mary Jane wasn't a bed of roses for the young ghetto...

                                                               It's one thing to anchor a GROUP but its another to anchor a GENRE. When looking back at the legacy of the late Clyde Stubblefield, hip hop group Brand Nubian's lyrics described the low-key drummer best: "I don't wanna be the man/ I just wanna make jams/cuttin' sharp like Edward Scissorhands."                                                       ...