For other persons named James Brown, see James Brown (disambiguation).

James Brown
James Brown, circa 1965
Background information
Birth�name	James Joseph Brown, Jr.
Born	May 3, 1933: Georgia, USA
Origin	Augusta, Georgia, USA
Genre(s)	R&B/soul/funk
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, dancer, bandleader, record producer
Instrument(s)	Singing, organ/piano/keyboard, drums & guitar
Years�active	1956 - present
Label(s)	King/Polydor Records
Associated acts	The Famous Flames, The JBs

James Brown (born James Joseph Brown, Jr. on May 3, 1933 in Georgia)Anthony DeCurtis, & James Henke (eds) (1980). The RollingStone: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music, (3rd Ed.), New York, N.Y.: Random House, Inc., 163-170. ISBN 0-679-73728-6. is an African American entertainer who is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century music. As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer, Brown was a seminal force in the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into soul and funk. He has also left his mark on numerous other musical genres, including rock, jazz, reggae, disco, dance and electronic music, and hip-hop music.

Brown began his professional music career in 1953, and skyrocketed to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and a string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks, he continued to score hits in every decade through the 1980s. In the 1960s and 1970s Brown was a presence in American political affairs, noted especially for his activism on behalf of African Americans and the poor.

Brown is recognized by a plethora of (mostly self-bestowed) titles, including Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business, Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Please Please Please, The Boss, and the best-known, the Godfather of Soul. He is renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style.

Biography

Early life

Brown was born in the small town of Barnwell in Great Depression-era South Carolina as James Joseph Brown, Jr; as an adult, Brown would legally change his name to remove the "Jr." designation.Brown, James (2005). I Feel Good�: A Memoir of a Life of Soul. NAL Hardcover. 045-121393-9. Brown's family eventually moved to nearby Augusta, Georgia. During his childhood, Brown helped support his family by picking cotton in the nearby fields and shining shoes downtown. In his spare time, Brown variously spent time either practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls, or committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa from 1948.

While in prison, Brown later made the acquaintance of Bobby Byrd, whose family helped Brown secure an early release after serving only three years of his sentence, under the condition that he not return to Augusta or Richmond County and that he would try to get a job. After a brief stint as a boxer, then as a baseball pitcher (a career move ended by leg injury) Brown turned his energy toward music.

The beginnings of the Famous Flames

Brown and Bobby Byrd's sister Sarah performed in a gospel group called "The Gospel Starlighters" from 1955. Eventually, Brown joined Bobby Byrd's group the Avons, and Byrd turned the group's sound towards secular rhythm and blues. Now called The Famous Flames, Brown and Byrd's band toured the Southern "chitlin' circuit", and eventually signed a deal with the Cincinnati, Ohio-based King Records, presided over by Syd Nathan.

The group's first recording and single, credited to "James Brown with the Famous Flames", was "Please, Please, Please" (1956). It was a #5 R&B hit and a million-selling single. However, their subsequent records failed to live up to the success of "Please, Please, Please". After nine failed singles, King was ready to drop Brown and the Flames until the 1958 single "Try Me", while not a big hit, went to Number Forty-eight on Billboard Hot 100 which was enough to keep the group working Southern one-night stands. Nearly all of the group's releases were written or co-written by Brown, who assumed primary control of the band from Byrd and eventually began billing himself as a solo act with The Famous Flames as his backup.

These early recordings, also including "I'll Go Crazy" (1959) and "Bewildered" (1960), were fairly straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions, heavily inspired by the work of contemporary musicians such as Little Richard and Ray Charles. Yet, these songs were marked by a rhythmic acuity and vocal attack that would later become even more pronounced, contributing to a developing style called "funk". Brown, in fact, called Little Richard his idol, and credited Little Richard's saxophone-studded mid-1950's road band The Upsetters with first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat. "Little Richard". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved from http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=179 onm October 28, 2006.

Brown's initially standardized arrangements and instrumentation began to give way to more improvisational and rhythm-heavy tracks such as 1961's #5 R&B hit "Night Train", arguably the first single to showcase the beginnings of what today is considered the "James Brown sound". "Night Train" eschews singing of any sort, and excepting ad-libs by Brown, is completely instrumental, featuring prominent horn instrumentation and a fast, highly accented rhythm track.

The landmark Live at the Apollo LP from 1962.

Papa gets a brand new bag

While Brown's early singles were major hits in the southern United States and regularly became R&B Top Ten hits, he and the Flames were not nationally successful until his self-financed live show was captured and released on record as Live at the Apollo in 1962 recorded and released without the consent of King Records. When he violated his contract with King again in 1964 by recording "Out of Sight" for Smash Records, a legal battle resulted in a one year ban on his release of his vocal recordings.James Brown Biography. allmusic. Retrieved on 2006-11-22. Brown followed this success with a string of singles that, along with the work of Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, essentially defined funk music. 1964's "Out of Sight" was, even more than "Night Train" had been, a harbinger of the new James Brown sound. Its arrangement was raw and unornamented, the horns and the drums took center stage in the mix, and Brown's vocals had taken on an even more rhythmic feel.

"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)," both from 1965, were major #1 R&B hits, remaining the top-selling single in black venues for over a month apiece, and becoming Brown's first pop Top 10 hits. Both of these songs today are considered the most important of his works from this second stage of his career, and are also two of his signature tunes.

Brown would often make creative adjustments to his songs for greater appeal. For instance Brown sped up the released version of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" to make it even more intense and commercial. "Cold Sweat" (1967) was considered a departure lyrically, and even harder hitting. Critics have come to see this recording as a high mark in the music of the 1960s, or a nadir, depending on the outlook. The critic Dave Marsh wrote for example in the Heart of Rock & Soul (1989) that it was "dance music as skeletal as an X-ray and about as resistable as gravity," (p. 61) while later he remarked, "the post-'Cold Sweat' de-emphasis of melody" was a contributing factor in the "decline in the number of genuinely memorable songs" since the 1960's (p. 451). Mixed in with Brown's more famous rhythmic essays of the era were ballads such as "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" (1965), and even Broadway show tunes.

The 1970 LP Soul on Top.

The late 1960s: "Ain't It Funky Now"

Brown employed musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition. He was noted for his ability as a bandleader and songwriter to blend the simplicity and drive of R&B with the rhythmic complexity and precision of jazz. Trumpeter Lewis Hamlin and saxophonist/keyboardist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (the successor to previous bandleader Nat Jones) led the band, with guitarist Jimmy Nolen provided deceptively simple riffs for each song heavily tied to the dominating rhythm, and Maceo Parker's prominent saxophone solos. Other members of Brown's band included stalwart singer and sideman Bobby Byrd, drummers John "Jabo" Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Maceo Parker's brother Melvin, saxophonist St. Clair Pinckney, trombonist Fred Wesley, and guitarist Alphonso Kellum.

As the 1960s came to a close, Brown refined his style even further with "I Got the Feelin'" and "Licking Stick-Licking Stick" (both recorded in 1968), and "Funky Drummer" (recorded in 1969). By this time Brown's vocals were increasingly delivered in a rhythmic declamation that only periodically featured traces of melody. Brown's vocals, not quite sung but not quite spoken, would be a major influence on the technique of rapping, which would come to maturity along with hip hop culture and hip hop music during the following decade. Supporting his vocals were instrumental arrangements that featured a more refined and developed version of Brown's mid-1960s style. The horn section, guitars, bass, and drums all meshed together in strong rhythms based around various repeating riffs, usually with at least one musical "break".

Brown's recordings influenced musicians across the industry, most notably Sly and his Family Stone, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and soul shouters like Edwin Starr , Temptations David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards, and a then-preadolescent Michael Jackson, who took Brown's shouts and dancing into the pop mainstream as the lead singer of Motown's The Jackson 5. Those same tracks would later be resurrected by countless hip-hop musicians from the 1970s on; in fact, James Brown remains the world's most sampled recording artist, and "Funky Drummer" is itself the most sampled individual piece of music.

The content of Brown's songs was now developing along with their delivery. Socio-political commentary on the black person's position in society, and lyrics praising motivation and ambition filled songs like "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968) and "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I'll Get It Myself)" (1970). However, while this change gained him an even greater position in the black community, it lost him much of his white audience who could no longer relate to his lyrics.

The cover to the 1970 live Sex Machine LP.

The 1970s: The JB's

By 1970, most of the members of James Brown's classic 1960s band had quit his act for other opportunities. He and Bobby Byrd employed a new band that included future funk greats such as bassist Bootsy Collins, Collins' guitarist brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins, and trombonist/musical director Fred Wesley. This new backing band was dubbed "The JB's", and made their debut on Brown's 1970 single "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine". Although it would go through several lineup changes (the first in 1971), The JB's remain remembered as Brown's most familiar backing band.

As Brown's musical empire grew (he bought radio stations in the late 1960s, including Augusta's WRDW, where he had shined shoes as a boy), his desire for financial and artistic independence grew as well. In 1971, he began recording for Polydor Records; among his first Polydor releases was the #1 R&B hit "Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)". Many of his sidemen and supporting players, such as Fred Wesley & the JB's, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Collins, Myra Barnes, and Hank Ballard, released records on Brown's subsidiary label, People, which was created as part of Brown's Polydor contract. These recordings are as much a part of Brown's legacy as those released under his own name, and most are noted examples of what might be termed James Brown's "house" style. The early 1970s marked the first real awareness, outside the African-American community, of Brown's achievements. Miles Davis and other jazz musicians began to cite Brown as a major influence on their styles, and Brown provided the score for the 1973 blaxploitation film Black Caesar.

In 1974 Brown performed in Zaire as part of the build up to the The Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

The 1974 LP The Payback.

His 1970s Polydor recordings were a summation of all the innovation of the last twenty years, and while some critics maintain that he declined artistically during this period, compositions like "The Payback" (1973); "Papa Don't Take No Mess" and "Stoned to the Bone" (1974); "Funky President (People It's Bad)" (1975); and "Get Up Offa That Thing" (1976) are still considered among his best.

Into the late-1970s and 1980s

By the mid-70s, Brown's star-status was on the wane, and key musicians such as Bootsy Collins had begun to depart to form their own groups. The disco movement, which Brown anticipated, and some say originated, found relatively little room for Brown; his 1976 albums Get Up Offa That Thing and Bodyheat were his first flirtations with "disco-fied" rhythms incorporated into his funky repertoire. While 1977's Mutha's Nature and 1978's Jam 1980's generated no charted hits, 1979's The Original Disco Man LP is nonetheless a notable late addition to his oeuvre, containing the song "It's Too Funky in Here," which was his last top R&B hit of the decade.

Brown experienced something of a resurgence in the 1980's, effectively crossing over to a broader, more mainstream audience. Brown made cameo appearances in the feature films The Blues Brothers, Doctor Detroit, and Rocky IV, as well as being a guest star in the episode "Missing Hours" on Miami Vice in 1988. He also released Gravity, a modestly popular crossover album, and the hit 1985 single "Living in America". Acknowledging his influence on modern hip-hop and R&B music, Brown collaborated with hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa on the single "Unity", and worked with the group Full Force on a #5 R&B hit single, 1988's "Static" from the hip-hop influenced album "I'm Real".

Later years

In spite of his return to the limelight, by the late 1980s, Brown met with a series of legal and financial setbacks. In 1988, he was arrested following a high-speed car chase down Interstate 20 in Augusta. He was imprisoned for threatening pedestrians with firearms and abuse of PCP, as well as for the repercussions of his flight. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he was eventually released in 1991 after having only served three. A new album called Love Overdue was released that same year, with the new single "Move On".

During the 1990s and 2000s, Brown was frequently arrested for drug possession or domestic abuse. However, he has continued to perform regularly and even record, and often makes appearances in television shows and in films such as Blues Brothers 2000. The 1991 four-CD retrospective Star Time spans his four-decade career; nearly all his earlier LPs have been re-released on CD, often with additional tracks and enlightened commentary by experts familiar with Brown's music. In 1993, James Brown released a new album called Universal James, which spawned the singles "Can't Get Any Harder", "How Long" and "Georgia-Lina". In 1995, the live album Live At The Apollo 1995 was released, featuring a new track recorded in the studio called "Respect Me". It was released as a single that same year. A megamix called "Hooked on Brown" was released as a single in 1996. And in 1998, James Brown released a new studio album, I'm Back, featuring the single "Funk On Ah Roll".

In 2002, James Brown released his latest album, The Next Step, which features the single "Killing is Out, School is In". Brown appeared at Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push, the final Live 8 concert, on July 6, 2005, where he did a duet with British pop star Will Young on "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". He also did a duet with another British pop star, Joss Stone, a week earlier on UK chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. He will duet with singer Annie Lennox on the song "Vengeance" on her new album Venus, scheduled for release in early 2007.

As of July 2006, Brown is continuing his "Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour", which is believed to be his last, performing all over the world. His latest shows are still greeted with positive reviews.

On November 14, 2006, Brown was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame and was one of several of the inductees that performed.

Personal life and dedications to Brown

Brown has been married four times. He and his current wife Tommie Raye Hynie, were married in 2002, but the marriage was annulled. They later remarried in 2004 and have one child together. Brown also has two children by his first wife, Velma Warren, and three more by his second, Deidre Jenkins. Adrienne Rodriegues, Brown's wife through most of the 1980s and 1990s, had him arrested four times on charges of assault, and also had problems with drug abuse.

James Brown lives in a riverfront home in Beech Island, South Carolina, directly across the Savannah River from Augusta. On November 11, 1993, Augusta mayor Charles DeVaney held a ceremony during which Augusta's 9th Street was renamed "James Brown Boulevard" in the entertainer's honor. On May 6, 2005, as a seventy-second birthday present for James Brown, the city of Augusta unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of Brown. The statue was to have been dedicated a year earlier, but the ceremony was put on hold because of a domestic abuse charge Brown was facing at the time. He later forfeited bond on the domestic abuse charge.

On August 22, 2006, the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted to rename the city civic center the James Brown Arena.

Trivia

• Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for 2003, and a scheduled 2004 unveiling of a statue of Brown in Augusta was delayed because of James Brown's ongoing legal problems.

• Brown's eyebrows are tattoos.

• In December 2004 Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery.

• Brown collaborated in the production of Soul Survivor -- The James Brown Story with English director Jeremy Marre.

• Brown holds the record for the artist who has charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.

• At around the time of his legal troubles in the late 1980s, there happened to be a Supreme Court vacancy. Late-night talk-show host Arsenio Hall proposed nominating Brown, because "He's black, he's liberal... and he's familiar with the court system!"

• A mistaken news broadcast reported him as dead in 1992. A sample of that broadcast became the basis of a techno hit for L.A. Style called "James Brown Is Dead".

• James Brown Jr. was featured as a recurring character on Mad TV, played by Aries Spears. The portrayal was an exaggeratedly humorous parody of Brown's energetic performing style.

• Brown is the subject of the Tom-Tom Club's 1982 hit song, "Genius of Love."

• Brown's 1976 single "Hot" (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)" (R&B #31) was a cover of David Bowie's "Fame", not the other way around. The funky riff was provided to co-writers Lennon/Bowie by guitarist Carlos Alomar.

• "Funky President" and "The Payback" were included in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on fictional radio station Master Sounds 98.3.

Discography

For a full listing of albums and singles, see James Brown discography.

Top ten singles

These singles reached the top ten on either the Billboard Hot 100 or the Billboard Top R&B Singles charts.

Albums

The most critical albums of Mr. Brown's career are debatable. The following four albums, mainly compilations, all appear on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time:

• Live at the Apollo (1963)
• In the Jungle Groove (1986)
• Star Time (1991)
• 20 All-Time Greatest Hits! (1991)

The following albums (which were originally released as double LP records), feature extensive playing by the legendary JB's, now-classic funk arrangements and rhythms, and were the source of many samples for subsequent musical artists:

• The Payback (1973)
• Get on the Good Foot (1972)
• Hell (1974)

The Live at the Apollo Vol. 2 double LP album, released in 1968, was notably influential on then-contemporary musicians, and remains an example of Mr. Brown's highly energetic live performances and audience interaction, as well as documenting the metamorphosis of his music from R&B and soul styles into hard funk.

Sample

Notes

External links

• James Brown - Godfather of Soul, Brown's official site.
• The James Brown Burn Team
• James Brown discography
• James Brown at the Internet Movie Database
• James Brown at the All Music Guide
• DMoz, listing of James Brown sites.bg:Джеймс Браун

cs:James Brown da:James Brown de:James Brown es:James Brown fr:James Brown gd:James Brown it:James Brown he:ג'יימס בראון nl:James Brown ja:ジェームス・ブラウン pl:James Brown pt:James Brown ro:James Brown ru:Браун, Джеймс scn:James Brown simple:James Brown sk:James Brown fi:James Brown sv:James Brown

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia