Soul Clap Back

Soul Clap Back Every month musicians, poets from from different groups get together and play Soul Music. Revolutionary response to the chaos of today. Music matters again

02/10/2021

Good mornin' Soul Sistas.

01/13/2021

So you haven't been to a concert in months. Haven't hit gig either. Then you gotta get your ticket for this virtual concert. Jon Cleary is a great guy (met him at The Tin Pan finally) and a great performer. You will not be disappointed. So instead of watching reruns of S.W.A.T. or streaming Netflix. Get a ticket and gather the family around the digital fireplace. But hook up da big speakers.

Deep dive will open your eyes.
03/16/2020

Deep dive will open your eyes.

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Hey.... I got the hat.   Got the guys together for 2020.  Gonna keep it loose.  Gonna build up for this election year sh...
01/17/2020

Hey.... I got the hat.
Got the guys together for 2020. Gonna keep it loose. Gonna build up for this election year sharing Soulful Grooves to cross the political divide. Come on our to The Nutty Buttery on Friday the 24th. Wear your dancing shoes.

PRINCE was 27 in 1985.When you think about it, we got an extra 30 years out of his remarkable life. We now know he was a...
10/29/2019

PRINCE was 27 in 1985.
When you think about it, we got an extra 30 years out of his remarkable life. We now know he was a real student of modern music history. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew how important it was to make it past 27. He had just celebrated the success of Purple Rain. Be it luck or grace he made it.

There are kids nowadays that cant see living past 21. Think about that.

https://www.inspiremalibu.com/blog/drug-addiction/the-27-club-a-tragic-tour-of-famous-people-that-died-too-young/

Music that springs from the human soul defies hatred and oppression.
10/28/2019

Music that springs from the human soul defies hatred and oppression.

This is the chilling moment soprano Ayleen Jovita Romero defies the silence curfew, imposed under martial law by the government of Sebastián Piñera in Chile ...

There was a time when everyday and everynight was a righteous All Hallows Eve.
10/26/2019

There was a time when everyday and everynight was a righteous All Hallows Eve.

10/13/2019
A MASTER CLASS.I am constantly both amazed and irritated by the western depiction of musical styles. We live in a time o...
05/08/2019

A MASTER CLASS.
I am constantly both amazed and irritated by the western depiction of musical styles. We live in a time of redefining the things we value most. Music is not immune to misunderstanding. If you don't say what a thing truly is you risk its loss of power and pride. Commerce forces musicians to be categorized. But the danger is how the music itself is then lumped into a box and sold with the wrong labels.

Food that is salty is not salt. Salt is Salt. R&B (R$B) can be soulful. But its not Soul. A soulful rendition or a Jazzy rendition of a song isn't always Soul or Jazz, respectively.

I say all this to say we are suffering a tragic fact. The battle that was secular music vs religious music has made us weaker in both arenas. The merging of the two realities is what made Soul Music "our" strength. How do we even believe that we can move towards social justice without Soul/Soulful music? How does one have a loving relationship with out the juxtaposition the carnal and the divine? When Musiq "Soulchild" came out with the song "Love" it was immediately seen as an ode to both a human physical relationship and a divine ode to the Creator. It's no accident that loving an unseen God is as problematic as truly loving another person. That is if you try to do one without using the other as a template. How can you not see that the yearning that comes from worship defines our expectations on how we want others to be? More importantly how we should be to each other.

Aretha praised God. But when she sang about "Dr. Feelgood" she was offering the same reverence. Her hands raised high but her feet firmly standing on the dirt of reality. That's why she and many other true Soul singers were so dynamic. That formula will not change. Even though the powers that funnel songs to the masses discourage that type of secular creativity, those that creep thru always touch the masses. I recently read that when Lauryn Hill submitted "Miseducation" to the label they didn't like the vibe of certain songs. (They also didnt like the album cover which was a homage to The Wailers album "Burnin") Every great work of musical art was disliked by someone that was not involved artistically. Artists who recognize the vibe of the past have to constantly force the issue.

YOur /OuR kids will get what they ask for. But if they don't know that the spirit of Soul Music isn't locked to a specific era they may never fill the void in their lives.

They took music out of urban schools. They siphoned Soul out of Black music. Both have had the same effect. It has made us weaker as a collective. Yeah, some of us Bohos gather and get things done "for the culture". But the rank and file are being suffocated. Not because of the music per se. But the content within. R&B and Hip Hop without lyrical truth is empty calories. No one should live in a world without new Soulful music. And write now as we breath the spirit of Soul Music is in its final stages of artistic gentrification. Not racially exactly. But in it's depiction as a harmless style of singing as opposed to a definite merger of the Black gospel experience and worldly need for love, respect and dignity.

The Soul Clapback is the attempt of a few musicians to spark more writing and performing of this type of music. We will reconvene this Summer.

Two songs that show off Aretha Franklin’s gospel roots. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Aretha Franklin will always be the Queen of Soul. In t...

03/18/2019

A tribute mixtape by DJ Jazzy Jeff a lot of this mixtape tape could not be uploaded due to copyright reasons If you like this I suggest you get all the songs from it.

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Soul Clapback is a real thang.

Last year I started thinking heavily about where music is. I came to a strong conclusion that we tend to think that the things we create are temporal. When you are young you are always looking for the next big thing. Society says “don’t do what your parents did”. As a result, generations have abandoned The Blues and Jazz. They have been sold concentrated R&B and one sided Hip Hop. But to me the worst thing that we have allowed is the neglect of SOUL MUSIC. SOUL MUSIC was/is the intersection of the Negro spiritual experience and the Black awakening of the 2oth century. My contention is that those styles of music that we neglect (or have been directed away from) are not styles. They are tools. Tools that we own. In 2012 I had a conversation with Ronnie Laws. We riffed on how different “styles” of music could be used for social disciplines. BLUES- is seeing and feeling the pain GOSPEL- trying to reattach to the Creator JAZZ- is us figuring it out how to fix it R&B (is R&R) - releasing frustration SOUL- Taking hope and truth to the streets FUNK- Getting it done with sweat HIP HOP - Rewriting the blueprint using everything that came before The Soul Clapback is about using all of those musical disciplines to lift people up. We can no longer pretend that Music is just sound. It is a response ( clap back). Commercial music is responding with apathy. So it is creating an apathetic response. We have had 8 Clapbacks since March of 2018. Each month we will more. So like the Stylistics sang “Lets Put It All Together”. Everytime we get together. And as Curtis sang “And never let anybody say, Boy, you can't make it 'Cause a feeble mind is in your way”. Stay tuned in. All power to all the people. jm