People, Arts and Entertainment
^|ll^Black Ink
No, My Brotha-- YouVe Got To Get Yo
Page 9
December 3
' Own!
Alright, I confess—I’m an advertising
majcff.
This means that for a living. I’ll be
behind those irritating jingles resonating in
your head for hours after you hear them
(even though you tried to flip the channel as
soon as the commercial came on). It’ll be
me who gets busted for subliminally im
planting pro-British Knight messages dur
ing episodes of A Different World (just
kidding—gulp!). And I will rewrite part of
the all-time favorite, “No, My Brotha” Mid-
nightLove commercial. My version will be
Midday! Love, and ahright, ahright, quit
groanin. Seriously joking, my version will
be under the ingenious name of “Pre-Dawn
Love,” and it will include such righteous
aphrodisiac tunes as Don King’s rendition
of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,”
Whitney Houston ’ s before unheard of track
called “All of My Songs, They Sound the
Same (to the tune of “Didn’t We Almost
HaveItAll”),”andVarious Artists’ version
of “Blame It on the Rain” (‘cause Heaven
knows that the original was by various
artists, also). I’ll have some 1980s-looking
brothers and sisters sitting on opposite sides
of an apartment room, twiddling their
thumbs and being bored. One guy will jump
up and grab his remote (which, by then, will
be an ancient piece of hardware) and flip on
his CD playCT. The Opening Anthem sung
by Roseanne Barr will start blaring through
the speakers then the pretty ladies will cover
their ears, get angry, and break. The guys
Point After Touchdown
Chris L. Brown
will be talkin’ about “Don’t leave, baby!
We got this great wine....the year is 1989!”
But, to no avail, the r^turous noise will
prevail, the pretty ladies will diss them
well, and the brothers will be mad as...they
could be. Then the conversation will go
like this:
Brother #1: “Yo, where did you get this
whack-as-quack CD?!! ”
Apartment-Ownin’ Brother #2: “From
the Pre-Dawn Love Collection.”
Brother #3: ‘Turn it off!”
Brother #1: “It should be called, ‘The
Pre-Dawn, Non-Love, Brothas-Get-Kicked
OutofTheir Own Crib, Fake K-TelLookin’
Collection of Horrors!”
Bix)ther #3: ‘Turn it off!”
Brother #2: “Here. Take it—please.”
Brother #1: “Nooooo, my Brotha—
You’ve got to get yo’ own trash vaporizer.
SSSSee yaaa!”
Brother #3: “SSSeeyaaa!”
Please, no ^plause. Aww, you’re too
nice. I can’t accept it. Please ma’am, take
your child back. Thank you. I love you. I
can’t go on. I CAN’T GO ON! I CAN’T
GO ON NO MORE! Shades of Barry So-
bel’s rendition of Patti LaBelle’s feigned
exhaustion after singing half of a song at a
concert. Yeah! Maybe I could market an
album called “Patti-LIVE” ! She would
sing for 30 seconds and then spend the rest
of the 49 and 1/2 minutes on the album
saying, “I love ya’ll! Thank you! I’m so
tired—look here—my Tina Tumer Collec
tion™ wig is failin’off! I CAN’T GO ON!
I CAN’T GO ON NO MO’!! ”
Back to the subject: Advertising. I must
admit, I get irritated by attempts by certain
products to appeal to African-American
audiences with those ‘colorized’ commer
cials. I mean, like sure, because we see a
Burger King commercial, strategically
placed during In Living Color, where the
customer comes in and raps her order while
the cashier rhythmically nods his head.
they think we’re going to speed over to grab
a bite? Right. Everybody knows that the
customer must rap and beatbox in order to
get any credibility in the African-American
community, right?!! Don’t get me started.
How about that commercial for Food
Lion where they have the two thirty-five
year old-lookin’ brothas rapping while
holding a loaf of bread and wearing those
blue apron things? Talkin’ about, “Fooood
Liiiion!” I’m surprised they didn’t have a
black man in a trenchcoat in the back
ground, who whips out a shotgun j ust as the
commercial ends. That would be as realis
tic.
I don’t think commercials have to be
incredibly realistic; the idea is to inform the
consumer of a need, and to demonstrate
(directly or indirectly) that a certain product
will fulfill that need. But I really dislike it
when anybody’s intelligence is taken for
granted— the African-American commu
nity, young children, elderly people, et
cetera. I hope to create commercials that are
diverse in their selling technique, with a ton
of respect to whomever the target audience
is. And that’s word.
Sounds like a neat career, huh? You like
it? You’re thinking about choosing this
career, also? Noooo, my brotha, you’ve got
to get yo’ own (competition is war, baby)!!!
The Basie Band: Bad To The Bone
By Michelle Thomas
Staff
With the current recession, times are
getting to be hard. Money is tight. Everyone
is pinching pennies and restricting them
selves to tight budgets. I, too, am a penny
pincher, but last night (November 30) I
invested a hard earned $10 on a cultural
experience of a lifetime. The Count Basie
Orchestra, performing at Winston-Salem
State University, introduced me to the most
original American art form—jazz Basie-
style.
Led by composer/arranger/tenor saxo-
phonistFrankFoster, the band had the crowd
at the edge of their seats for the entire two
hour performance. With a mixture of Basie
originals and those written and arranged by
others, the band maintained the style and
finesse that was there when Basie led the
group.
The saxophone section led the pack with
their excellent harmony and intonation.
Almost all the saxophonists doubled on
flute and clarinet, though they used no clan-
net in this particular concert
One tune, “Angel Eyes,” featured James
“Danny” Turner on alto sax. Turner’s rich,
mellow tone mixed with his wide range,
slow vibrato and beautiful intonation on the
high register created an artistic solo. He was
accompanied by the wonderfully harmonic
sax section (which for a short time doubled
on flute), brushes on the snare and hi-hat,
and trumpets and trombones using silver
hats and plumbers plungers for mutes.
Another tune, “Comer Pocket,” which
was written for the late, great Freddie Green,
who played with Basie from the mid-1950s
until his death three years ago, was led by
Charlton C. Johnson who has been with he
band for the past three months. Johnson left
a lot to be desired. He could not compare
with Green. Johnson could only be heard
for about four bars, though the band played
relatively soft. There was a nice, soft piano
introduction, followed by a call and re
sponse between the trumpets/trombone and
the saxophones. In his solo, trumpeter
George “Sonny” Cohn played with a full
yetdry tone. There wasn’t much improvisa
tion, but he had excellent command over his
instrument and an overall good sound. The
next solo, by tenor saxophonist Eric Miller,
was phenomenal. Although he played
mostly in the lower range, he played well in
all registers of the instrument and his origi
nal improv had a deep, rich sound. Overall
the tune was nice, but Charlton Johnson did
not live up to the legacy of Freddie Green.
A Basie original, “Weather Girl,” had
the crowd on their feet. The piano introduc
tion was still light, as was most of Carl
“Ace” Carter’s playing, but it was up tempo
with little left-hand accompaniment. Time
was kept with sticks on the hi-hat while a
call and response went on between the
piano and the rest of the band. As the song
progressed, the band really started swing
ing. A tenor sax solo by Edward Miller was
full of original improvisation while the
trumpet section played short riffs in the
background. The trumpets were hilarious.
They repeatedly stood up as if to solo,
looked around at each other, did something
silly, laughed and sat back down. This
happened about six times during Miller’s
solo. But it was the drum solo that stole the
show. “Duffy” Jackson ripped the set up.
His speed and agility was that of a true
professional percussionist. His solo ended
with the crowd on their feet, cheering re
lentlessly.
The 20 song performance was the epit
ome of big band jazz. Asa whole, the band
made wonderful use of dynamics. Never
had I heard such drastic changes in volume
with such ease. They would be playing
double forte one minute and pianissimo the
next. The overall sound was one that would
have made Basie very proud. For those of
you who have never heard the Count Basie
Orchestra before, if ever given the opportu
nity, do! On a scale of 1 to 10,1 give them
a 10+.
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