April 2008 ::
Musical collaborations happen all the time. From Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 to The Killers and Lou Reed to Jamie Foxx and Rascal Flatts, many fans cease to so much as bat an eye when told news of a new pairing between musicians. However, that's because most musical match-ups aren't nearly as cool as this one. Soul legend Al Green has new album (due May 27), which he worked on with The Roots' ?uestlove. Other artists featured on the album include John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae, and neo-soul singer Anthony Hamilton. Luckily, ?uestlove seems to recognize the need for Green to make good with younger, hipper artists, all without crossing the line and transforming his persona and sound completely. In a recent Billboard.com article, ?uestlove is quoted as saying, "I'm not saying Al Green wants to do his version of [Chamillionaire's] 'Ridin'..." Phew. Good thinking, ?uest. Click here for full article July 2007 ::
The reviews are in from critics and fans who were lucky enough to witness the extraordinary Al Green on his recent tour of the UK. They all agree that Al Green is on top of his game and sounding better than ever! David Pollock, a critic from Edinburgh, summed it up best in a review of the concert at the Playhouse: "Al Green has still got some voice, the perfect distillation of the soul and gospel styles." Thanks to all the great fans in the UK for showing such strong support for the Reverend on his recent trip.
::
By Matilda Egere-Cooper
Two things are quite endearing about Al Green: his eccentric sense of humour and his jolly rapport with people. But he's not a fan of interviews. On this particularly scorching afternoon in Tennessee, the staff at his office behind his gigantic Full Gospel Tabernacle are cagey about his whereabouts. It's not the first time the Bishop has been suspiciously AWOL when his schedule has called for discussions with journalists.
January 2007 :: Noble PR :: Kennedy Street is pleased to announce that tickets for Al Green’s 2007 UK tour go on sale later this week. Tickets for the London dates will go on sale Thursday 1st February at 9am. Tickets for the Manchester and Birmingham dates will go on sale on sale Friday 2nd February at 9am. Tickets for all four UK concerts can be ordered from calling the following credit card hotline number 0871 424 4444 or book online from www.ticketline.co.uk Regular Music presents Al Green’s only Scottish date on 2nd July at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Tickets for the Edinburgh concert are available from 0870 903 3444 or book online from www.ticketweb.co.uk. 28 Jun London Royal Albert Hall http://www.ticketline.co.uk/order/step1.php?id=13212988 29 Jun Manchester Evening News Arena http://www.ticketline.co.uk/order/step1.php?id=13213047 04 Jul Birmingham NIA http://www.ticketline.co.uk/order/step1.php?id=13213099 06 Jul London Hammersmith Apollo http://www.ticketline.co.uk/order/step1.php?id=13213057 For more information on this tour of the UK, click here
AL GREEN CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF UNPARALLELED SOUL GREATNESS WITH CAREER-SPANNING HITS COLLECTION Capitol/EMI To Release Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits On CD and Digitally; Deluxe CD/DVD Adds Music Video and TV Performances Six
Classic Al Green Tracks to Make Ringtune Debut Hollywood, California - January 09, 2007 – In 2007, Al Green celebrates the 40th anniversary of his soul-transcendent music career. To commemorate the occasion, Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits, a new career-spanning collection of his most beloved and enduring hits, will be released January 16 by Capitol/EMI Music Catalog Marketing in CD and deluxe CD/DVD packages and digitally. The collection’s 21 tracks, all 24-bit digitally remastered, include six classic Hi Records-era Number One hits, “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still In Love With You,” “L-O-V-E,” “Livin’ For You,” “You Ought To Be With Me,” “Full Of Fire,” and other career-defining tracks Green recorded for Hi and Blue Note. The CD package features new liner notes by Colin Escott and archive photos, and the deluxe CD/DVD adds six film and video clips, including TV performances from 1971, 1978 and 2004. In addition, six classic Al Green tracks will make their ringtune debuts on January 16. During the course of his career, the Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer, nine-time Grammy winner and ordained minister Al Green has racked up seven number one albums and 16 Top 10 singles in the U.S. alone. Green’s recordings have earned a bevy of gold and platinum sales awards around the world, including, in the U.S., eight gold singles, five gold albums, one platinum album, and one triple platinum album. It has been 40 years since “Al Greene and the Soulmates,” then based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released their first album, Back Up Train, on their own Hot Line label. The album became a hit, and the hit begat a tour. Somewhere in Texas, the Soulmates quit, leaving Greene to work a show date in Midland with bandleader Willie Mitchell, a star artist and producer on Memphis’ Hi Records label, a chance meeting that evolved into a collaboration that would shape both of their careers. After signing with Hi Records himself in 1968, Al Green (with Greene’s last “e” dropped) became a soul music sensation within 18 months and an international superstar within seven years. Backed by The Hi Rhythm Section (the Hi Records house band) and produced by Mitchell, Green merged his inimitable vocals of sultry depths and soaring falsetto heights with the Section’s funk-tinged arrangements, originating a feverish and yearning brand of soul music. By 1972, Al Green was preeminent in R&B and one of pop music’s biggest luminaries. Green’s recordings are transcendently brilliant, at once definitive of their time and relevant for the ages. His illustrious career has been chronicled in more than 30 albums and an autobiography, Take Me To The River. Since 2003, Al Green has released two new studio albums on the Blue Note label, I Can’t Stop and Everything’s OK. Still actively recording and performing, Green’s concert tours take him to cities around the world every year for roof-raising shows. To order the new cd & dvd combo click here. Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits (CD and Digital Album)
Al
Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits (Deluxe CD/DVD)
Click Here to View the Wal-Mart TV Commercial for Al's Definitive Hits Collection Click Here for Al Green Ring Tones from the Definitive Hits !
::
Al was in the studio in New York City this past October beginning an exciting new album for Blue Note. The conceptualization for the record is a fresh take on vintage soul. A bridge between the legendary soul man's classic stylings and the sounds of today's R&B and hip hop is being facilitated by drummer/producer Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson of The Roots and keyboardist James Poyser who has produced Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Anthony Hamilton and many others. The crew will also be joined by the Al Green of this generation, D'Angelo, and other very special duet partners to be announced soon.
November 2006 ::
By
JEFF MIERS NIAGARA
FALLS, Ont. - Al Green opened a two-night stand in the Avalon Ballroom on Friday
by taking everyone to church. But he did stop by a juke-joint on the way. Green came from the church, was a gospel singer before he was anything else, had to make a tough decision at a young age whether he wanted to be a pure gospel singer, or whether the pull of the secular, sensual, sexual world would offer him the future he desired. That struggle between the sacred and the secular has informed Green's work, always.
Whether he was celebrating Saturday night with velvety, sexy soul music reminiscent of a few of his heroes - Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, most clearly - or offering straight-up testimony to his religious beliefs, Green was "on" all night, and the full house responded in kind to his exhortations and good-natured clowning. At moments, the show threatened to devolve into a Vegas-like run-through of Green's hits. But every time, Green pulled it back into the realm of the here and now, whether he pulled the band back and dug into a sweet falsetto flight slightly off the microphone, or whether he simply urged the crowd to listen while he closed his eyes and sought for the transcendent note. Green is one of the greatest living soul singers, and Friday's show lived up to his considerable legend. October 2006 ::
Known the world over for his extraordinary voice, unmistakable sound and legendary hits, The Reverend Al Green has hit the road again touring behind his latest release Everything's OK on Blue Note Records. Strong in voice and spirit, The Reverend sings with a renewed passion for the kind of music that made him a household name some 30 years ago. The upcoming tour includes two special small club appearances at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City on Friday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 4th, don't miss the rare opportunity to experience an intimate performance by one of the greatest soul legends of all time. Opening the show at B.B. King's will be new Blue Note artist Elisabeth Withers, a phenomenally talented r&b; singer currently starring in The Color Purple on Broadway, who will be giving a sneak peak at songs from her upcoming debut It Can Happen To Anyone, which will be released January 30, 2007. Click Here to Read the Full Article
::
Green closes night with a sizzle BY CHRIS VARIAS | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR It was a lovely afternoon and evening for Wednesday’s kickoff of the musical portion of the Tall Stacks festival. The music was for the most part pleasant and mild-mannered, and performers and audiences enjoyed the Indian-summer weather. Then, it rained. And then, Al Green took the stage and closed out the night. The Memphis soul legend brought down the house, which in this case was the P&G Pavilion (or Great American Insurance Group Stage as it’s called during Tall Stacks), drawing the biggest crowd of the day and thrilling it with an electrifying performance in the process. There were other high-energy shows, like rediscovered soul singer Bettye LeVette who preceded Green and guitar hotshot Sonny Landreth, but nobody on the bill combined Green’s showmanship, talent and material. There are few singers anywhere who can. “Sometimes some things are worth a little drop of rain,” the Reverend Al observed, and some things are also worth the wait. The operation ran on Al Green Time, meaning he was a half-hour late to the stage. Upon his arrival, he and his full-gospel-sized ensemble, which included brass, bongos and backup singers, got right into it with the newer (“I Can’t Stop”) and the older (“Let’s Get Married”) secular stuff. After an obligatory but completely satisfying “Amazing Grace,” he took the crowd back to his ’70-style bedroom – “Here I Am,” “For the Good Times,” “I’m Still In Love with You” and “Tired of Being Alone,” with lots of song snippets, soul testimony and ageless falsetto along the way. He finished with “Love and Happiness,” singing his parts and then exiting, as the band proceeded to turn it into a 20-minute funk epic, which might have served to fill a contractual time obligation. But there was nothing filler about the song. A crowd stood in the rain to hear the monster-jam to the end. There wasn’t a bad act among the 10 nationals who played in the pavilion and the Edyth and Carl Linder Stage at Yeatman’s Cove. But whichever performance is deemed next best to Green – whether it’s LaVette or the bluegrass virtuosos Hot Rize or western-swing mainstays Asleep at the Wheel – it was still a distant second.
May 2006 :: Capitol Records :: AL
GREEN
Al Green's classic, self-produced 1977 album, digitally remastered and expanded to include three previously unreleased tracks recorded during the original Belle sessions. "The singer's first and finest self-produced disc" - Rolling Stone (February 9, 2006) Tracklist Liner
notes essay by Colin Escott From the time that Al Green had signed with Hi Records, it was a Memphis-based independent label, and he was produced by one of its partners, Willie Mitchell. By the time THE BELLE ALBUM was released in late 1977, Hi had been purchased by Al Bennett's Cream Records. Bennett, who'd once been president of Liberty Records, moved Hi to Los Angeles. Al Green remained with the label, but had decided to produce himself in his own studio. He bought a failing studio, American Music, on Winchester Road in south Memphis, and spent half-a-million dollars upgrading it. The house band that had backed him so ably at the old Hi studio was Willie Mitchell's group, so Green recruited an entirely new band. THE BELLE ALBUM was the first album from the new studio with the new group, and it remains a classic, if an under-rated one. Al Green co-wrote the songs, played acoustic guitar, and produced. Upfront in the mix, the guitar added an entirely new texture to Green's music. His new co-writers, bassist Reuben Fairfax and keyboard player Fred Jordan, invigorated him as Mitchell once had. "It was," Green wrote later, "the most important release of my life. Musically, I was stepping out in faith, walking a tightrope without the old comforting net of Willie and the rest of the crew. I have to say from the very beginning, it felt good. I was long overdue to take a creative chance, and BELLE, which had a sound that was more layered and textured than anything I'd done before was a bold step in the right direction. I had to leave the sensual for the spiritual." The title song has the ambiguity that Willie Mitchell had managed to subvert ("it's you that I want, but it's Him that I need"). Now there would be no hiding. At Mitchell's insistence, every Al Green album had included some standards. They might be pop, R&B, or country classics, but Willie saw them as a bridge to a wider audience. Now the audience would have to come to Al Green on his own terms; there would be no standards. If there was a blurred lyrical focus, so be it. THE BELLE ALBUM would be all Al Green, and he would stand or fall on it. The plan was that Al Green would be a man of God and a man of the people at the same time. On that point, singers had usually fallen on one side or another of the great divide. Belle reached the R&B Top 10 and seemed to imply that Green could serve two masters. It was his best showing in a while - but when the disco-fueled I Feel Good stalled in the lower reaches, Al Green's career on the R&B charts seemed to follow suit... Al had dominated the 1970s. In terms of sales, only James Brown, Aretha, and a just few others eclipsed him. Artistically, Al Green had no peer. That's why three decades later we still unravel his sweet little mysteries. April 2006
::
Today is Al Green's birthday; he turns 60. In honor of Reverend Green's birthday, let's take a look back at the item I posted here after attending his show in Minneapolis two years ago: I first saw Al Green perform live at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 1985. He had long since more or less abandoned soul music for the Church (he had bought the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis and gone into preaching) and for gospel music. He was touring behind a newly released album of gospel music that he had recorded with producer Willie Mitchell, who had created the Al Green sound that brought him a string of hits between 1971 and 1976 unprecedented in Southern soul music history. The performance was nevertheless a revelation to me. Hearing the raw power of Green's voice in person made it possible to understand how much a producer's artifact of imposed restraint -- Mitchell called it "softness" -- was the voice heard on the great Al Green hits. In person, Green had a voice of awesome power and incredible dynamic range, with full control from a whisper to a shout -- just like the Sam Cooke of the Soul Stirrers' 1950's gospel recordings. In his outstanding history Sweet Soul Music, Peter Guralnick describes it as follows: Willie Mitchell and Al Green came up
with an old idea phrased in a new way, the last eccentric refinement of Sam Cooke's
lyrical, gospel-edged style as filtered through the fractured vocal approach of
Otis Redding and the peculiarly fragmented vision of Al Green himself. This was
a vision it would be virtually impossible to characterize...and it proved in the
end to be incompatible with worldly ambition, but it was always marked by an unerring
musicality. Last night Green returned to the Guthrie and gave one of the most fully satisfying performances I have ever seen. Playing with a band of ten musicians (drums and percussion, keyboards, horns and guitars), three backup singers and two dancers, Green put on an old-fashioned James Brown-style soul revue, but with gospel numbers and preaching included. The show ranged over his 35-year career in a seamless web of love and devotion. The show maintained a pitch of incredible intensity from the opening number. But one emotional high point came in the middle of his 80-minute set when he launched into a deeply moving "Amazing Grace" (the hymn Sam Cooke had worked into his magnificent version of "Must Jesus Carry the Cross Alone" with the Soul Stirrers) that concluded with a vamp on the old Sam Cooke show-stopper, "Nearer My God." Green climaxed the show with a long, hot version of "Love and Happiness" and declined to take the stage for an encore. The man remains something of an enigma. Below is a photograph by Star Tribune photgrapher Jeff Wheeler of Reverend Green caught in the act during his 2004 performance in Minneapolis.
::
Rev. Al Green helped
celebrate LeMoyne-Owen College during a celebration Sunday. The annual celebration is a continuation of the campaign to raise $1 million for the college. "We are here to celebrate what LeMoyne-Owen College means to our community," said LeMoyne-Owen president James Wingate. Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, a 1963 graduate of LeMoyne, and Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton proclaimed Sunday LeMoyne-Owen College Sunday in the county. Sunday's events segue into LeMoyne's second annual Faith in Action Community Conference, which kicks off Wednesday through Friday. That conference will be held at the Renaissance Center on the campus of LeMoyne-Owen and Parkway Gardens United Presbyterian Church at 1005 E. Shelby Drive. The conference will feature speakers including Ed Gordon, television personality and host on National Public Radio. For information about the conference, call 453-1538 or go to loc.edu. -- Yolanda Jones: 529-2380
::
Happy Birthday to the Reverend Al Green!! Thank you to the fans that posted all of the birthday greetings to Al on the message board. He appreciates the genuine love and thoughtfulness of the fans.
February 2006 ::
By Sarah Kaufman There were ballerinas and cavaliers, Broadway singers and a country crooner, but it took the Rev. Al Green to really get the party started at the White House on Monday night. The soul man turned soul saver worked his magic on the East Room crowd, gathered to honor the Dance Theatre of Harlem and its famed founder, Arthur Mitchell.
Al
Green shared a laugh with the president at the White House dinner and performance
Monday by Dance Theatre of Harlem, which will air on PBS this summer. At right
is Shirley Massey. (By Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press) Of course, there were many in the audience of 80 or so who could sing Green's enduring hit "Let's Stay Together" in their sleep. But was one of them President Bush? Green put him to the test. "Ooh, loving you forever," Green purred, "is what I -- " Suddenly, he thrust the microphone right up to the lips of the surprised president, who recovered enough to mouth something back. Whatever it was could not be heard, but Green was more than satisfied. "He said 'Nee-eee-eeed!' " squealed the amazed hitmaster, hitting even higher notes than he'd been singing. "He did! He said 'Neeeeed!' " After laughter and applause for the president's grace note, the set then became a singalong -- was that Karl Rove joining in? -- and then a dance-along, after Mitchell, a former star of the New York City Ballet, pulled Laura Bush up onstage. President Bush, apparently pumped up after parrying to Green's thrust, followed suit, taking with him Shirley Massey, wife of Walter Massey, president of Morehouse College. "We got the president up onstage!" exclaimed Mitchell afterward. Not a man who ordinarily likes to share the spotlight, Mitchell nevertheless gave Bush points for effort, if not for style. "He did really well," Mitchell said. "He was tapping his foot, and . . . moving. You know." Mitchell is no stranger to the White House -- he says he has been invited there by every president since John F. Kennedy. He's been there so often he knew many of the waiters by name. But this night was different. The dinner and performance by members of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and others were the work of entrepreneur and philanthropist Catherine Reynolds, chairwoman of the board of the predominantly black ballet company. The show will air this summer on PBS. "What better place to showcase Dance Theatre of Harlem during Black History Month than the White House?" she said. "It's a ballet company in the midst of Harlem -- that in and of itself is so American." The presidential affair, she said, sprang from a conversation she had a few months ago with Laura Bush about the ailing company, on hiatus for the past year and a half because of rising debt. Reynolds said the first lady asked, " 'How can I help?' " Reynolds had her answer ready, and the result was a cozy little black-tie dinner in Mitchell's honor, with the guests seated at intimate round tables mounded with roses. Among the invited: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, undoubtedly relieved to be anywhere but in the Senate hot seat where he'd spent the day; donors and arts officials such as the Ford Foundation's Susan Berresford, Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and a contingent of the black elite, such as "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley and Spelman College President Beverly Daniel Tatum. The menu favored creamy comfort foods: puree of parsnip soup, cheesy grits and spinach alongside roast kobe beef, a yellow pepper and avocado terrine, and whipped-cream-dolloped lemon custard cakes with coconut ice cream and a blackberry-ginger sauce, thick as syrup. It was not fare for the calorie-conscious. But there weren't many of those to be seen, anyway; the dancers were off warming up for the performance that was to follow.
Al
Green shared a laugh with the president at the White House dinner and performance
Monday by Dance Theatre of Harlem, which will air on PBS this summer. At right
is Shirley Massey. (By Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press) "I hit a crossroads when I was a senior in high school," Card said, describing a choice he faced between accepting a scholarship to the Hartt School of Music (on the strength of his trumpet playing) in West Hartford, Conn., or a Navy ROTC scholarship at the University of South Carolina. Guess which one he chose. Still, he said, "I believe in the arts very strongly. Every once in a while I get the trumpet out. Of course, my wife wants me to play it in the closet." It being Monday night, and close to 9 by this time -- fans of Fox's "24" know how sacrosanct that hour is -- we pressed Card on another issue: Did he ever tune in to the Kiefer Sutherland thriller, which recently revealed that the chief of staff of the show's president is a murderous villain of presidency-destroying dimension? Card's eyebrows shot up merrily. "I hear the chief of staff is kind of a bad guy. Didn't he drug the first lady?" Yep, and Card's TV counterpart also conspired to engineer a nerve gas leak to incriminate a terrorist organization to prove it had weapons of mass destruction. Card backed up in mock horror. "I'm not him," he said emphatically, eyes wide, waving his arms in front of himself to ward off any notion of a link to reality. "I didn't do that." And then he was gone, spurred by a desperate need to catch up with his wife. Addressing the audience, Mitchell pointed out his company's oft-reported origins, that it was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 that inspired him to found a classical ballet company of African American dancers -- which is, all these years later, still a unique institution. Left unsaid was what it would mean for black ballet dancers if such a company could not survive. In fact, none of the speeches mentioned Dance Theatre of Harlem's having come so close to financial ruin, or the fact that its laid-off dancers' unemployment claims ran out long ago. Bush, seated with his wife in the front row and within a few feet of the small stage, smiled throughout the show, which included children as well as professionals. Hands clasped in his lap, he kept up a steady piston action with one knee -- an intriguing tic, yet what did it mean? Restlessness? Excitement? A dream of mashing the pedals on a mountain bike? Harolyn Blackwell, Audra McDonald and LeAnn Rimes each sang solos as well as songs that accompanied more dancing. It was all very classy, very polite, if somewhat restrained. Enter Al Green, the great uncorker, who got throats to open and hands to clap -- some on the beat, quite a few off -- and got the president to join in the dance. "The whole evening was so relaxed," Mitchell enthused afterward. "That was a major miracle." Speaking of miracles, Mitchell stated his favored outcome: "I hope this opens the door, that dance becomes a line item in the federal budget so we can take the arts all across America." A different miracle may be a bit closer to actually coming to pass. When she became board chairman and vowed to get the troupe back on its feet, Reynolds told The Washington Post that "failure is not an option." So how close to success -- and public performances -- is the company now? "We're close," she said. "We'll probably be making an announcement in the summer."
::
Several 2006 tour dates have recently been confirmed and added to the tour dates page of the website. Al will be performing TWO SHOWS at the House of Blues in Chicago and he'll also be visiting the House of Blues out in San Diego after that. Check it out and make plans to see the Reverend LIVE and in person !!
December 2005 ::
Tina Turner was recently one of five individuals honored at the 28th Annual Kennedy Center for the Arts ceremony held in Washington D.C. - Al performed "Let's Stay Together" at the ceremony. Tina scored big in the 1980's with her version of Al's classic song. Catch Al's performance by tuning into CBS for the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors broadcast on December 27, 2005 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
::
This January brings a refreshing beginning for jazz and blues lovers: the Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival. Scheduled from January 26-28, this year's lineup will include John Legend, Patti LaBelle, Maxi Priest, Shaggy, James Ingram, Al Green, Air Supply and more. . Keep checking back for up to date details on this huge show. |
Paste
Magazine ::
AlGreenMusic.com
::
Belfast
Telegraph ::
Blue
Note Records ::
Buffalo
News ::
JamBase
::
Cincinnati
Enquirer ::
Power
Line Blog ::
Web Design & Maintenance by JonHensley.com