Getting To Know . . . . Tiffany 'SongBird' Starks

I recently had the chance to meet with Tiffany Starks and find out more about her, her music and her thoughts on today's musical landscape. We went off topic a little when we started discussing the state of current music, but I had a great time speaking with her.

Getting To Know . . . . Will Brown

I had an opportunity to speak with a profoundly talented young man making his mark in the gospel world. Will Brown is the leader of the group Will Brown and Another Level. They are a small group located in Newark, NJ that was started about five years ago. I had a discussion with him about why he does what he does and what he hopes to do. In the first section, he discusses his background, gives some info on Another Level and how he writes music.

In the second part of the interview, he talks about his musical progression, an album that he loves and what type of impact he hopes to make in the industry and the world.

A Year in the Life of Harambee Records, Part 2

This is the second six-month installment of my assistance with Harambee Records. At this point, we are getting closer to producing an album for Will Brown and Another Level. In order to ensure that everything is done properly, the correct protection is needed. I helped Will Brown secure the proper copyright information for the fourteen tracks on the album. It is also important to make sure that everyone involved in the songs gets paid correctly. Splitting the copyrights properly between the parties is a timely process and took about a month to complete.

While this is going on, it is important to keep the groups in the public eye. I helped find venues for other live events for both Tiffany and Will Brown & Another Level. They were also asked to sing with other artists in the area. I assisted in the review and approval of the live contracts for these events. I also made sure that they had transportation to the concerts to ensure they arrived on time.

During the recording process I learned the importance of different types of engineers for the studio. There is a tracking engineer who handles the basic music for the track and then you have a recording engineer who makes sure that the sound is correct when recording the vocal parts of the song. It is also important to have the proper producer with the correct engineer. I researched the mastering engineer for Will Brown’s project since it is in the final stages of creation. This person will finalize and polish the product for distribution and duplication to the masses. Below there is a clip of a studio session going over the little things that can come up in song when reviewing for final mastering.

Over these last twelve months I have learned so much about the recording process and how much work it takes to put out an album. I will continue to work with Harambee Records because even though it’s a lot of work, the fun is seeing the final product. I haven’t see a final product yet so I want to stick around for that.

Poets I Love

April is National Poetry Month so I decided to make this post about my introduction to poetry. One of my first introductions to poetry was through the movie "Love Jones". It made me want to go to a place like that. Listening to people recite their poetry, getting new ideas for pieces. I also started reading poetry through school and began to find different poets to read. Two of my favorite poets are Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. In "Love Jones", Nina quotes the following Sanchez poem.

I gather up

each sound

you left behind

and stretch them

on our bed.

each nite

I breathe you

and become high.

One of my favorite Nikki Giovanni is "Don't Hold Me Back"

And when I dream I dream

In colors

Even rainy days sparkle

Even clouds have shine

And when I hope I hope

In smiles

Even laughter has bubbles

Even giggles ballet

And so I understand

That life is precious

And important

And wonderful

When things go wrong

When things go back

When things don't work

I start to dream

Now I am nowhere near their talent but I love to write because it allows me to get things off my chest. I can express things that I sometimes cannot articulate without writing. Here is one of my poems, "Music".

It's all I need

Ministering to me

Saying things you never could

Explaining things you never would

Showing me what I could not see

Leaving me craving for more

Feed my hunger

Give me what I need

The words, the sounds

Taking me to a different world

Let me be where I need to be

Just my music and me

Let me know what you think.

DMP

Concert Review - Alicia Keys and Friends: Freedom Tour

This was my first concert of the year and let me say, this was a great way to start the year. I had never seen Alicia Keys live and she did not disappoint. But let me go back to the beginning of the show.

Jermaine Paul opened the show. You know who he is, the guy who killed Diary with Alicia live. Gives me chills every time I hear it. He sang three songs, which were hard to understand because of the sound system. He came out and started jamming on his guitar and moving across the stage. He has great stage presence and energy. Although he only sang three songs, he was a nice warm up for the rest of the evening. I would love to see him in concert where he has more time to showcase his own material. I listened to two of his songs online after the concert and he has good content. Airplane and Ready To Fall In Love are good, especially the second song.

Melanie Fiona was a surprise performance. I had seen some clips of her performing live before but it was different experiencing it myself. She started off with the high energy Bang Bang then went into her hit single Give It To Me Right. She took us back to Chaka Khan and early Mary J Blige with her cover of Sweet Thing. She then went to her newest hit, It Kills Me, and tore it down. You could feel the emotion while she was singing it. She closed out her set with Ay Yo, inspiring people to reach for their dreams. I would love to see her in concert again once she has some more material.

Robin Thicke's portion of the show was too short. Considering his catalog, I wanted him to perform longer. He started with Magic, which was the perfect opening. He then went into two songs from his new album, Shakin' It For Daddy and 2 Luv Birds. He had the saxophone player from his horn section solo before he began singing. His set was a red and black theme and he played 2 Luv Birds and Dreamworld at a cherry red piano that was center stage. He did Shooter next which got the crowd hyped up. He went into Sex Therapy and ended his show with Lost Without You. He had great energy throughout his performance and I loved the fact that he had a full band and only used tracks on a few songs that had sounds that couldn’t be played on a traditional instrument.

Alicia Keys was next and the crowd was wild before she even came on stage. Her set was one of the most inventive sets I’ve ever seen. It consisted on three different levels of digitized screens that moved throughout the show and displayed different graphics throughout the show. She did such classics such as You Don’t Know My Name, Fallin’, and If I Ain’t Got You. Off her new CD she did Like The Sea, Love Is Blind and Wait Til’ You See My Smile. Early in the show her piano came out on stage and it was wrapped in a digital screen that asked her to play it. Once she began playing it said thank you. Later in the show, the images on her piano synched with the images on the screen. On Go Ahead, Alicia had a keytar (keyboard/guitar combo) and had a battle with her guitar player.

During a wardrobe change, one of Alicia’s background singers went into a cover of Feeling Good. I understand why Alicia has her on her team. The girl killed the song and made it her own. The crowd went wild when Alicia went to the keys and turned up that intro note on Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart. Jermaine Paul came back out and sang Diary with her and it was just as good as on the Unplugged live album. Empire State Of Mind was her encore and she flipped the words in the chorus to Newark for one chorus to rep for the city she was in. it was the perfect way to end the concert.

Alicia had three dancers with her and she was getting down with them on the upbeat tracks, especially Put It In A Love Song. I was glad she wasn’t strapped to the piano the whole night. You could tell that she was having a good time on stage and enjoyed interacting with the crowd. I would love to see her in concert again.

Welcome to Who's the Bose!

This space will be a place for me to speak on different things I feel about music and other current events. I am interested in many different things and will hopefully be able to talk about them here. Now don't be surprised if you see an article about sports or current events on here. I have no specific direction for this blog yet. I am going to let the writing spirit lead me.

Music is my first love. I am always listening to music; in the car, in the shower, at my desk at work. It helps me get through the day, especially at work. Poetry is also one of my loves. For me, it is a way to express many things you sometimes can't say. My business plan is a combination of these two loves.

Business Plan

Café Lush will be a full service café with space for spoken word, live music and DJs. The music will primarily be R&B, Neo-Soul, and Hip-Hop. It will be based in East Orange, NJ focusing on an underrepresented market. There are no other such locations for young people to go to hear spoken word and different types of live music in the area. The need for such a venue is the growing interest in spoken word. Def Poetry on television and slam competitions across the country are producing a greater interest in this type of expression.

With this business I hope to give young adults an outlet to express themselves. I also hope to impart knowledge about the entertainment industry through various classes to be offered.

A Year in the Life of Harambee Records, Part 1

Since I have been doing so much work with Harambee Records, I haven’t had time to update with monthly reports. So I will do a six-month update.

In June, Harambee Records had a concert to showcase their artists and I was heavily involved. For the concert I helped with the marketing and publicity of the artists and the event. It was important to have sponsorship through advertisements in the programs to fund the concert.

Scheduling rehearsal for the artists was important to make sure that the sound was good for the event. It was also necessary to ensure that equipment was set up and broken down correctly and in a timely fashion. We coordinated security for the artists and their belongings. This process took about a month and a half but it was well worth it. The concert went off without a hitch and all had a good time.

G-fy-G

Will Brown & Another Level

Tiffany Starks

Once the concert was over, it was important to send thank you notes to the donors. This helps to maintain a relationship with these donors who can help with future events. In order to keep the projects moving forward for the artists it was important to schedule recording times for the artists. Will Brown and Another Level needed to get their musicians into the studio to begin the recording of the tracks for their album.

We had to schedule a photo shoot for Tiffany Starks, another artist on the label. I assisted with securing designer wardrobe rental and a location for the photo shoot. These photos were used in promotional materials for her CD and press kit. This was an exciting event because I had never been to a photo shoot and you could see the creativity growing as the day went on.

There has been a lot of work in these first six months and there will be more to come. I am looking forward to learning more about the recording process.