Category Archives: The Blues File

November 3, 2009 · 12:48 am

Gil Scott-Heron @ BB King Blues Club

Gil Scott-Heron

November 4, 2009 – BB King Blues Club, NYC

237 West 42nd Street, between 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue.

Poet, musician, activist, author, bluesologist. These are all terms that have been used to describe the great Gil Scott-Heron, who more humbly refers to himself simply as a “piano player from Tennessee”. Most famous for his era-defining 1970’s poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Gil Scott-Heron’s politically charged material made him a stalwart figure in the 1970’s civil rights movement. His lyrical content covered topics like the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries and white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents. Not only a pioneer of blues, jazz and funk, his honesty, matter-of-fact delivery and fearlessness to address important social issues in the face of media criticism made him one of the foremost progenitors of contemporary hip-hop and spoken word.. Expect an incredible new CD in early 2010.

Doors at 6:00pm, Show at 8:00pm
NB: General Admission – First come, first seated
$30 adv, $35 at door
VIP Booths available for four to six people; must buy whole booth|Tix/Booth for four: $200 / Tix/Booth for six: $300

Tickets may be purchased through Ticketmaster, online at ticketmaster.com or 212-307-7171.

Tickets can be purchased in person at our box office from 10:30 am to midnight every night.

Unless otherwise noted, all shows are suitable for all ages and offer general admission seating. Seating for all shows is first come, first seated; we do not take advance table reservation, except where noted as a condition of a VIP ticket. We cannot seat incomplete parties. Standing room for all shows is available at our bar.

For further show information, directions to the venue and for the latest updates visit us at www.bbkingblues.com or call 212-997-4144.

Produced by Jill Newman Productions

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Filed under ART | CULTURE | WRITING, Black Culture | United States, Hip Hop, Historic Black Politics & Figures, Movement & Message Music, Poetry, R&B, The Blues File

Tagged as BB King Blues Club, Funk, Gil Scott-Heron, jazz, Jill Newman Productions, Poetry, spoken word, The Blues

March 1, 2009 · 2:36 pm

Antoinette K-Doe’s funeral colorful New Orleans farewell!

{Note- It should be obvious that I am not the author of this story. It is listed below to include links. All stories, essays and columns written and published under my name are appropriately labeled as such. Readers should not confuse the WordPress “posting” tag with authorship. Please use some common sense when viewing a posting. My secondary goal on this blog is advocacy! So, many of the postings reflect a point of view or issue that I support or have an interest in seeing advanced in some way. }

Keith Spera / The Times-Picayune

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2009/02/antoinette_kdoes_funeral_was_a.html#more

Antoinette K-Doe’s funeral procession on Saturday included the mannequin of her late husband, Ernie K-Doe, which rode in a mule-drawn carriage.

Antoinette K-Doe

In her final appearance, Antoinette K-Doe sold out St. James Methodist Church.

By the start of Mrs. K-Doe’s funeral service Saturday morning, the neighborhood church on Ursulines Avenue had exceeded its standing-room-only capacity. A police officer turned away late arrivals, who pooled on the sidewalk to await the subsequent second-line.

Mrs. K-Doe, the widow of New Orleans rhythm & blues singer Ernie K-Doe and his equal in the annals of eccentricity, died of a heart attack early Mardi Gras morning.

She spent the decade preceding her husband’s death in 2001 rescuing him from alcoholism and returning him to the stage. After his death, she transformed the Mother-in-Law Lounge, the North Claiborne Avenue nightclub named for his biggest hit, into a community center and shrine to him.

Indefatigable, unflappable and generous with her meager resources, she looked after a wide cross-section of the city’s have’s and have not’s. She served her red beans to everyone from veteran R&B singers to tattooed Bywater hipsters. She welcomed all save the occasional New York Times reporter who got under her skin.

Ernie K-Doe manequin in Procession

On Friday, dozens of friends and admirers mingled in the tiki garden she installed next to the Lounge. Amid claw-foot tubs and toilets painted purple, green and gold, they traded stories, ate finger sandwiches and queued up patiently to view her body as it lay in state inside.

Hundreds of people would file past her white, glass-topped casket of 16-gauge steel. She was resplendent in an ankle-length white gown trimmed with silver sequins. Befitting the widow of the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Universe, Mrs. K-Doe also wore a tiara and grasped a scepter in her left hand.