LEEDS, SHOCK G, D'ANGELO, QUESTLOVE

Some unexpected treats for the end of black history month

This is the first black history month under Trump II and clearly black history is not the President’s favorite topic. That said, the triumphs and innovations made by African-Americans in this country are my bread and butter. So no matter what the White House mandates I’ll continue to celebrate, explore and illuminate my peoples’ contribution to America.

This post starts with part of an interview with one of the most extraordinary figures in American music - Alan Leeds. Alan isn’t a musician (though his brother Eric is a tasty saxman), but he’s been part of the R&B world since working as a white DJ on a Virginia soul station in the ‘60s. It was at the at gig that he met James Brown who would hire him to work as a road manager during Brown’s peak as Soul Brother #1. Alan was present for the birth of funk when Brown and the JB’s reinvented soul music in the ‘60s. His book, ‘There Was a Time: James Brown, the Chitlin’ Circuit and Me,’ is an essential text. Subsequent to working for the Godfather, Alan would work with Prince, Maxwell, KISS, Cameo, D’Angelo and Chris Rock.

Drawing upon his extensive archives we published ‘The James Brown Reader,’ fifty years of articles about the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

This is part of Alan’s interview in Finding the Funk documentary.

When I interviewed the late Shock G in 2012, I told him I really wanted to focus on Digital Underground’s use of Parliament-Funkadelic funk samples and how George Clinton inspired that band’s vibe. But Shock, who was living up in Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon, didn’t want to end the interview and took us on an unexpected tour of his mountaintop home. I actually had forgotten about this footage and recently found it on an old hard drive. Shock G aka Gregory Jacobs, who died in Tampa, Florida in 2021, seemed a bit haunted by the past when we spoke, a bit wisteful what used to be. Unfortuntely we had to leave to meet Marcus Miller for our next interview so we had to cut it (as you’ll see.) Now I’m glad we were able to capture more of his personality in this clip.

Almost two years before the release of his third album, ‘Black Messiah,’ D’Angelo and his long time collaborator Questlove AKA Amir Thompson, did a show at the Brooklyn Bowl, which I always thought of as the Black Stripes, since it was just D on keys and vocals and Thompson drums. I was in the final stages of Finding the Funk and had interviewed D’Angelo already, but this was a unique opportunity. At that time Alan Leeds was managing D’Angelo so we he allowed myself and my then girlfriend (now wife) Malika to get into the photographer’s area infront of the stage. Most of the sound from my digital camera got blown by the speakers but this clip of the two friends playing a soul classic is OK enough to post. I have more footage from this performance and clean audio too. One day I’ll try and wed them. Until then here’s a gem from one night in Brooklyn many years ago.