Cali

That was not the original question.

The boot I'm speaking of was recorded at the Lighthouse with Maupin. My friend recorded it and also went to an Ali closed circuit fight during that engagement with Mabern and Morgan. Also, I don't remember the question about Lee's live repertoire being specific to pre '68 or post '68.

Actually, in person, Lee would play tunes he had recorded. As mentioned at the Lighthouse set he played SIDEWINDER, SPEEDBALL and on a bootleg tape from that session he did a killer version of CROQUET BALLET from THE LAST SESSION LP. He also would play CEORA and other signature tunes. It wasn't like he would play a "greatest hits" session but he would intersperse familiar tunes with new tunes and songs written by members of his band. Lee had a working band and didn't rely on pick-up musicians who didn't know his music. If you would like to find out more about his live performances you should ask musicians like Harold Mabern and Bennie Maupin who were in Lee's bands.

Kenny Garrett at Catalina's. Went last night, going again tonight. Mr. Garrett hits the ground running from the opening song. There's nobody like him. If you have not seen him in person, you don't know what you're missing.

James Brown's memorial services are on CNN. Michael Jackson is speaking right now.

"Now go look up the Sudan. His mother was a very dark-skinned African." I already answered that for you. There have been pictures published of her. Do some research for yourself if you're that interested. I don't need to give you point-by-point examples.

The reason I find this premise so distasteful is the assumption of the author and, obviously, others by their lists, to associate fame and celebrity with importance. Maybe some people ought to find out about the contributions of people like Benjamin Banaker, Garrett Morgan, Louis Lattimer, Hannibal, Elijah McCoy, Madam Walker, Nefertiti and other great queens and kings of Egypt, Timbuktu and other African nations, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Marcus Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Walker, Marshall "Major" Taylor and too many more to list. I don't think Nasser and Sadat were black -- they were north African Arabs. Guy Both of them said they were. Sadat addressed the Black Caucus and affirmed this and even promised financial contributions to the caucus shortly before he was killed. Regardless of what they said, if they were black there are a whole lot of black people around the Mediterranean and Middle East. Guy I hate to do your research for you but some of this stuff is real easy to look up. This is from Wikipedia: Early life Sadat was born in Mit Abu Al-Kum, Al-Minufiyah, Egypt, to a poor Egyptian-Sudanese family, one of 13 brothers and sisters. His father was Egyptian, his mother was Sudanese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadat Now go look up the Sudan. His mother was a very dark-skinned African. I don't need to make sh!t up.

Amen.

The reason I find this premise so distasteful is the assumption of the author and, obviously, others by their lists, to associate fame and celebrity with importance. Maybe some people ought to find out about the contributions of people like Benjamin Banaker, Garrett Morgan, Louis Lattimer, Hannibal, Elijah McCoy, Madam Walker, Nefertiti and other great queens and kings of Egypt, Timbuktu and other African nations, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Marcus Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Walker, Marshall "Major" Taylor and too many more to list. I don't think Nasser and Sadat were black -- they were north African Arabs. Guy Both of them said they were. Sadat addressed the Black Caucus and affirmed this and even promised financial contributions to the caucus shortly before he was killed.

You mean Randolph Jeffery, the past Sergeant At Arms of the National Chapter of the Black Panther Party???

Jim, I understand, truly. In those days I was very much a civil rights activist. I belonged to Push, Operation Breadbasket, US, SCLC and the NAACP. I walked on many a picket line, participated in several demonstrations and attended many, many rallies. Thus I had a pretty good picture of what was happening on the national scene. Plus I had recently been discharged from the military and served with guys from all over the country. We all were of the same mind when it came to the "Black" thing. To further put things in perspective, there was a documentary that used to air on PBS during the late 60's and 70's called "The Bloods Of 'Nam". It was a film about Black soldiers in Viet Nam. If there is a print of this in existence, try to get it. It would really let you see what the atmosphere was like in the mid to late 60's in the military, and would give you an idea of the mind-set of guys returning to civilian life. None of us were going to take any sh!t after that. JB's record just echoed what we were saying already. And we weren't whispering, either.

Thanks, you're welcome.

No. The term Black was in common usage by the time JB recorded "Black and Proud". The term Black was made popular years before JB's record. People who inspired this redefinition were Elijah Muhammad, the Black Panther Party, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and lots more. James, actually, was kind of late to the game and surprised a lot of us when he got on the bandwagon. Where I grew up (semi-rural East Texas), "Black" was considered a "militant" word (look at the list above, and you can see why people light-years behind reality on both sides of the tracks might see it this way). An African-American in those parts who referred to themself as "Black" outside of the African-American community was definitely not the norm. But afer JB's record hit, it was. The previously accepted term in the region, "colored", was over immediately. And it pissed a lot of white folks there off that "those people" would suddenly demand to be addressed in terms of their own choosing rather than accept what was offered. Now, I was only living in one place at one time, but I can't believe that the experience in my region was completely unique. Well, my friend that's the difference between the north and the south. By 1968, most of us were calling ourselves Black. Even my parents, who grew up in the south were calling themselves Black. And as far as "militant", "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud" sounds pretty militant to me. I loved and respected JB but let's not get overly sentimental and attribute things to him that he did not create. People were already saying "I'm Black and I'm proud". It was even being taught to children in Head Start schools. "Black" was being used in the formerly "Negro" newspapers all across the country. Black people were rejecting others definition of them and were defining themselves. Then after MLK was assasinated in April, 1968 and riots ensued all across the country, Black people were universally pissed off. Any Black person who hadn't been calling themself Black before certainly made the transition. That's when the terms "colored" and "negro" were over immediately. (Remember Los Angeles had already had a riot in 1965. Also, Black people's awareness had increased by the frequent killings of Black Panthers, some of them while they were in their beds, the jailings and brutality that we watched on the nightly news, the enlistments of Black men to go fight in a war in Viet Nam when they had to fight and march for civil rights back home in the U.S.) "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud" was released in August, 1968, after the riots. James was not a leader in this, he was a follower. People were already saying "I'm Black and I'm Proud", he just put it to music.

No. The term Black was in common usage by the time JB recorded "Black and Proud". The term Black was made popular years before JB's record. People who inspired this redefinition were Elijah Muhammad, the Black Panther Party, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and lots more. James, actually, was kind of late to the game and surprised a lot of us when he got on the bandwagon.

"Major" Taylor was never in the military and was never "promoted" to colonel. And if you have any question about his masculinity maybe you should read his autobiography. It can be found in most libraries. Secondly, the statement made by chewy was not about "the top 5 most important or greatest Black Americans of the 20th Century". Read it again, it was "the top 5 black people of all time", that covers a lot of history.

The reason I find this premise so distasteful is the assumption of the author and, obviously, others by their lists, to associate fame and celebrity with importance. Maybe some people ought to find out about the contributions of people like Benjamin Banaker, Garrett Morgan, Louis Lattimer, Hannibal, Elijah McCoy, Madam Walker, Nefertiti and other great queens and kings of Egypt, Timbuktu and other African nations, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Marcus Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Walker, Marshall "Major" Taylor and too many more to list. All "the top 5 black people" aren't/were not entertainers, athletes and/or Americans. Just because you don't know their names doesn't mean that they have not profoundly impacted the world.

Me either. I find the precept condescending and insulting. Maybe before making such an outrageous statement, one should learn more black history. Getting back to J.B., you can't fathom the groove he set unless you caught him at a hole-in-the-wall club on the "chitlin' circuit". I caught him in '65 in Augusta, Georgia. At the time I was in the army, stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia and Maceo Parker was in the "band" company. When the James Brown Revue came to town we went as Maceo's guests. Got to see James work from about 10 feet away. Electrifying!

Happy belated, D. Hope you're still enjoying it!

Man, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

That's it, and his ears sat out from his head. That coupled with his broad smile, there was a resemblance to the famous puppet. Billy Higgins, who had been Lee's best friend, used to say, "Howdy Doody (Lee) was r-r-rough!"

Well, from the rationalizations I'm reading I see that black folks and white folks are worlds apart on the issue of racism. Some people are saying he should be forgiven (by black people?) because everyone makes mistakes. And "he just snapped". Some of you don't even see the implied lynching in his rant. Certainly, I have never screamed racial epithets at others, and I don't associate with anyone else that would do such a thing. We all make mistakes but not everyone makes those kinds of mistakes. If you don't have those feelings in your heart they won't come out of your mouth. There are black comedy clubs in L.A., also, and I can guarantee he would not have "just snapped" in any of those. Rightfully or wrongfully he would have gotten his ass kicked if he had said those things at a black comedy club. Bodyguards could not have saved his sorry ass. No, he knew exactly where he was, West Hollywood, and that he could "snap" with impunity in that environment. In my opinion, he did not just "lose it". He picked his spot to lose it.

Why not Oprah?

Rodriquez was at the club when the incident occurred, therefore I understand him being interviewed. As a fellow comedian in attendance I think his point of view is insightful and creditable.

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. do you really know that to be a fact? i'm sure he did "something" to it, that's for sure. I was in his company on occasion and saw him several times. I know a "process" when I see one, I've been around that all my life. Several of my friends, who happen to be black, have hair just as straight as Lee. Also, I knew Billy Higgins and Billy and Lee were very tight. Billy said it was natural. well, i think i have the definitive answer to this from a really good friend of lee's bennie maupin says it was definitely not a "process" but a result of lee's indian blood. i believe that but still think he did some "plastering" with the style to cover the scar. boy, talk about a trivia discussion!! Well, I don't consider it trivia when it's published that "Morgan, for all his civil rights sensibilities, still had a process - chemically straightened hair - at a time when Afros were de rigueur." This misrepresentation implies that Morgan was conflicted about his racial identity, which is absolutely false.

Just as a point of information, Lee Morgan didn't have a "process". That was his natural hair. do you really know that to be a fact? i'm sure he did "something" to it, that's for sure. I was in his company on occasion and saw him several times. I know a "process" when I see one, I've been around that all my life. Several of my friends, who happen to be black, have hair just as straight as Lee. Also, I knew Billy Higgins and Billy and Lee were very tight. Billy said it was natural.