James Brown: the 100 most inspiring musicians of all time
James Brown (b. May 3, 1933, Barnwell, S.C., U.S.—d. Dec. 25, 2006, Atlanta, Ga.), known as “the Godfather of Soul,” American singer,songwriter, arranger, and dancer, was one of the most important and influential entertainers in 20th-century popular music. His remarkable achievements earned him the sobriquet “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business.”
Brown was raised mainly in Augusta, Ga., by his great aunt, who took him in at about the age of five when his parents divorced. Growing up in the segregated South during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Brown was so impoverished that he was sent home from grade school for “insufficient clothes,” an experience that he never forgot and that perhaps explains his penchant as an adult for wearing ermine coats, velour jumpsuits, elaborate capes, and conspicuous gold jewelry.
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Neighbors taught him how to play drums, piano, and guitar, and he learned about gospel music in churches and at tent revivals, where preachers would scream, yell, stomp their feet, and fall to their knees during sermons to provoke responses from the congregation.
At age 15 Brown and some companions were arrested while breaking into cars. He was sentenced to 8 to 16 years of incarceration but was released after 3 years for good behavior. While at the Alto Reform School, he formed a gospel group. Subsequently, secularized and renamed the Flames (later the Famous Flames), it soon attracted the attention of rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll shouter Little Richard, whose manager helped promote the group.
Intrigued by their demo record, Ralph Bass, the artists -and-repertoire man for the King label, brought the group to Cincinnati, Ohio, to record for King Records’ subsidiary Federal. Brown’s first recording, “Please, Please, Please” (1956) eventually sold three million copies and launched his extraordinary career.
Along with placing nearly 100 singles and almost 50 albums on the bestseller charts, Brown broke new ground with two of the first successful “live and in concert” albums—his landmark Live at the Apollo (1963), and his 1964 follow-up, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal. During the 1960s, Brown was known as “Soul Brother Number One.”
His hit recordings of that decade have often been associated with the emergence of the black aesthetic and black nationalist movements, especially the songs “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968), “Don’t Be a Drop-Out” (1966), and “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothin’ (Open Up the Door, I’ll Get It Myself)” (1969).
In the 1970s, Brown became “the Godfather of Soul,” and his hit songs stimulated several dance crazes and were featured on the soundtracks of a number of “blaxploitation” films (sensational, low-budget, action oriented motion pictures with African American protagonists).
When hip-hop emerged as a viable commercial music in the 1980s, Brown’s songs again assumed center stage as hip-hop disc jockeys frequently incorporated samples (audio snippets) from his records.
He also appeared in several motion pictures, including The Blues Brothers (1980) and Rocky IV (1985), and attained global status as a celebrity, especially in Africa, where his tours attracted enormous crowds and generated a broad range of new musical fusions.
Yet Brown’s life continued to be marked by difficulties, including the tragic death of his third wife, charges of drug use, and a period of imprisonment for a 1988 high-speed highway chase in which he tried to escape pursuing police officers.
Brown’s uncanny ability to “scream” on key, to sing soulful slow ballads as well as electrifying up-tempo tunes, to plumb the rhythmic possibilities of the human voice and instrumental accompaniment, and to blend blues, gospel, jazz, and country vocal styles together made him one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century.
His extraordinary dance routines featuring deft deployment of microphones and articles of clothing as props, acrobatic leaps, full-impact knee landings, complex rhythmic patterns, dazzling footwork, dramatic entrances, and melodramatic exits redefined public performance within popular music and inspired generations of imitators (not the least Michael Jackson).
His careful attention to every aspect of his shows, from arranging songs to supervising sidemen, from negotiating performance fees to selecting costumes, guaranteed his audiences a uniformly high level of professionalism every night and established a precedent in artistic autonomy.
In the course of an extremely successful commercial career, Brown’s name was associated with an extraordinary number and range of memorable songs, distinctive dance steps, formative fashion trends, and even significant social issues.
A skilled dancer and singer with an extraordinary sense of timing, Brown played a major role in bringing rhythm to the foreground of popular music.
In addition to providing melody and embellishment, the horn players in his bands functioned as a rhythm section (they had to think like drummers), and musicians associated with him (Jimmy Nolan, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker) have played an important role in creating the core vocabulary and grammar of funk music. Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
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James Brown Greatest Hits Full Album – Best Songs Of James Brown
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Alan Silvestri Contact Main Thitle Piano Solo | ||
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Alanis Morisette – Hands Clean | ||
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Alanis Morisette – Uninvited | ||
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Alban Berg – Schliesse mir die Augen beide (Piano and voice Noten) | ||
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Albert Ammons – Swanee River Boogie Woogie | ||
Albert Harris Sonatina Guitar Solo | ||
Albert Harris Variations And Fugue On A Theme Of Haendel (Guitar) | ||
Albert King The Very Best Of Albert King (Guitar TABs) | Albert King The Very Best Of Albert King | |
Albert Lee – The Best Of Albert Lee Guitar Tabs | Albert Lee – The Best Of Albert Lee Guitar Tabs | |
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ALBINONI-Adagio | ||
Album of Russian piano music | Russian music 1 | Russian music 2 |
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Aleksander Vertinskiy songbook | Aleksander Vertinskiy songbook | |
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Alex North Spartacus Love Theme (Lead sheet) | Alex Norrth SpArtacus | |
Alexander Scriabin 24 Preludes Op. 11 1 To 12 Musescore File.mscz | ||
Alexandra Streliski Burnout Fugue | ||
Alexandra Streliski Le Noveau Dèpart | ||
Alexandra Streliski Par La Fenêtre De Théo | ||
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Alexandra Strevisky Pianoscope | Alexandra Strevisky Pianoscope | |
Alexandre Desplat Elisas Theme Piano from The shape of water | ||
Alexandre Desplat The Shape Of Water Main Theme | ||
Alexandre Desplat – Lust Caution | Alexandre Desplat – Lust Caution | |
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game | ||
Alexandre Desplat – The Meadow New Moon Piano solo Sheet Music | ||
Alexandre Desplat Almost A Kiss (From The Film New Moon) | ||
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Alexandre Desplat Brunos Theme From Suite Fran?aise | ||
Alexandre Desplat Full Moon (From The Film New Moon) | ||
Alexandre Desplat My Week With Marilyn – Marilyn’s Theme | ||
Alexandre Desplat Ost Godzilla Main Theme | ||
Alexandre Desplat The Danish Girl Theme Piano Solo | ||
Alexandre Desplat The Imitation Game | ||
Alexandre Desplat The King Speech | Alexandre Desplat The King Speech | |
Alexandre Desplat The Power Plant from Godzilla | ||
Alexandre Desplat The Wonder Of Life | ||
Alexandrov Piano Works Vol I | ||
Alexandrov Works for Piano Vol II | ||
Alexandrov Works for Piano Vol III Sonatas | ||
Alexandrov, Anatoly 6 Preludes For Piano Op. 1 (1961) | ||
Alexis Ffrench – Bluebird | ||
Alfred Basic Adult Christmas Book Level 1 | ||
Alfred Basic Repertoire Level 4 | ||
Alfred Brendel A Pianists A-Z A Piano Lovers Reader Book | Andrew Hill 21 Piano Compositions | |
Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 1 | Lessons Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 1 | |
Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 2 | Lessons Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 2 | |
Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 3 | Lessons Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 3 | |
Alfred’s Basic Piano Level 2B | ||
Alfred’s Basic Piano Level 4 Jazz Rock Course | ||
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 2 | Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 2 | |
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library – Solo Book Complete Levels 2 & 3 for the later beginner | Alfred’s Basic Piano Library – Solo Book Complete Levels 2 & 3 for the later beginner | |
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library – Top Hits! Solo Book – Level 4 | ||
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 1 | Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 1 | |
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 3 | Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Essentials Of Jazz Theory Book 3 | |
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Lesson Book Level 3 | ||
Alfred’s Teach Yourself To Play Guitar Everything You Need To Know To Start Playing The Guitar! (with Tablature) | ||
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Ali and Nino (Dario Marianelli) | ||
Alice Coltrane Monument Eternal (book) The Music of – by Franya J. Berkman | ||
Alice In Chains Dirt Full album Guitar TAB with lyrics | Alice In Chains Dirt Full album Guitar TAB with lyrics | |
Alicia Keys – A Woman’s Worth | Alicia Keys – A Woman’s Worth | |
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Alicia Keys – And I | ||
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Alicia Keys – Diary | ||
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Alicia Keys – Fallin’ (Sheet Music – Piano) | Alicia Keys – Fallin’ (Sheet Music – Piano) | |
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Alicia Keys – If I Aint Got You | ||
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All American Folk Complete Sheet Music Editions Volume One (Creative Concepts Publishing Corp.) | All American Folk Complete Sheet Music Editions Volume One (Creative Concepts Publishing Corp.) ( | |
All Blues For Jazz Guitar Comping Styles Chords And Grooves by Jim Ferguson Guitar Tablature | All Blues For Jazz Guitar Comping Styles Chords And Grooves by Jim Ferguson Guitar Tablature | |
All Blues Soloing For Jazz Guitar – Jim Gerguson Play Along (Book + audio MP3) with Tablature | All Blues Soloing jazz guitar | |
All By Myself – Celine Dion (Musescore File).mscz | ||
All I Want For Christmas Is You (Musescore File).mscz | ||
All Of Me – Jazz Standard Stride Piano arr. Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons | All of me (Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons) Jazz Piano Solo arr. sheet music | |
All Of Me – Jazz Standard Stride Piano Arr. Gerald Marks And Seymour Simons (Musescore File).mscz | ||
All Of Me Fingerstyle Guitar TABs By Lucas Brar Jazz Standard (Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons) | All Of Me Fingerstyle Guitar TABs By Lucas Brar Jazz Standard | |
All Of Me Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons 1931 Jazz Standard (Vintage sheet music) | All Of Me Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons 1931 Jazz Standard (Vintage sheet music) | |
All Of The Jazz Standard Vol. 1 | All Of The Jazz Standard Vol. 1 | |
All Of The Jazz Standard Vol. 2 | All Of The Jazz Standard Vol. 2 | |
All Saints – Never Ever | ||
All Sondheim Vol I Music and lyrics | All Sondheim Vol I Music and lyrics | |
All Sondheim Vol II Music and lyrics | All Sondheim Vol II Music and lyrics | |
All Sondheim Vol III Music and lyrics |
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All Sondheim Vol III Music and lyrics |
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