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THE WARREN-WATCHUNG CONNECTION
APRIL/MAY 2017
Gift Gallery Bring in this Ad for 10% Off One Item in the Gallery! I first saw The Supremes before Berry Gordy renamed the group to Diana Ross and the Supremes. Since then I have had the pleasure of attend- ing performances by a variety of soul and jazz artists including Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Jean Carne, Chick Corea, Isaac Hayes, Grove Holmes, Phyl- lis Hyman, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Melba Moore, and Jeffrey Osbourne. Do you recognize the person in the photo? While I never attended one of his live performances, I did see him dance a few steps. You would be cor- rect if you identified him as James Brown, aka Soul Brother Number One and The Godfather of Soul. I moved to Atlanta in 1976 and not too long after that I traveled to Toron- to on business for a few days. Our meetings were held at the Inn on the Park hotel, no longer in existence, in the Don Valley area near the city. Ten of us were cooped up in a room all day. We had dinner together and continued by adjourning to the hotel’s night club. It was early in the evening and there were few peo- ple in the club. However, across the empty dance floor was a small group of people seat- ed around a man in a white sequined jump suit. It was none other than James Brown. As a newbie to Atlanta, I felt com- pelled to say hello given my affinity for soul and jazz as well as a regular watcher of a tele- vision show called Future Shock, featuring him. James was spending a lot of time in Atlanta work- ing on this show, that aired on Ted Turner’s first television station, WTCG, from 1976 to 1979. I crossed that dance floor and without any has- sles, introduced myself. He was very cordial and we talked for no longer than a minute or two about his show and Atlanta. Eventually, he took the dance floor with one of the women in his small entourage. During one song, we were treated to a few seconds of his signa- ture moving feet. Five years later, I had boarded a flight in Washington DC returning to Atlanta at the end of a business trip. The plane was packed. There were only two empty seats on the plane to my left. We were already a half hour delayed at which point the flight atten- dant made an announcement that the flight was being held for the last two passengers. Ten minutes later a couple was seat- ed next to me. When the man took off his big fur coat and sat down next to me, I turned to him and said, “Nice to see you again Mr. Brown. We met in Toronto a few years ago.” During the short flight, we had a nice chat and I got an update on which of his moves Michael Jackson had adopted. SOUL AND JAZZ By: Dan Rosenberg www.theconnectionsnj.com