Read the Associated Press report

This of course, comes at the same time as the death of Etta James, Johnny Otis and Errol Scorcher.

So, while life moves on, reflect on the good things, brought to us by individuals whose legacy will always remain as long as a select portion of the world have good taste in music.

More news to come on this, I’m sure!

We first saw LFH and his one-man-band in London during 2008, the last time at the community-run Hackney-Chats Palace.  He has since gone on to much bigger things and we were excited to see him out in Australia playing some shows and busking.  The man will always be compared to Hendrix in his guitar playing, but with drums at his feet, guitar amp in a pram as a sidekick and a most witty sense of humour, one stops making comparisons and is drawn into the LFH experience.

On this occasion he blended soul, psych, folk and hip-hop to chaotic success, feeding red wine to himself and his guitar amp pram between songs.  The tiredness from a days work drifted away from me  – the second-wind one hopes for came thanks to the energy from LFH and I can’t help but think 2012 might continue in the direction he has set.  He is in the country for at least another week and I suggest you seek him out and enjoy his talents.

The night will highlight the wide variety of exceptional music that came out of Jamaica and the USA in the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Find all the details below and see you at the bar!

DJs spinning the best selection of vintage reggae, soul, funk, r’n'b, rocksteady and traditional ska!

From Newcastle: Dan Phelan, Luke Dolan and Juz Moon
From Sydney: Rudy Powell, Glen Smyth, Beccy Connell and Mark Keith Brown

When: Saturday 13th August 2011!
Where: The Sly Fox, 199 Enmore Rd Enmore
Time: 9pm – late!
FREE!

Join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/so​ulshakedownparty

Check out the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198822866836905&ref=ts

Having grown up with Sesame Street, like so many others, it doesn’t really ever leave you. The reason being, the quality of the songs, as well as the fairly novel approach to them, making them universally infectious.

What started the youtube marathon of Sesame Street was Gen putting me on to a reggae tune about a rubber duck, after I’d bought her a St Pauli FC one for her birthday.  A favourite topic of Ernie, of course. With the wonderful credit, from the motion picture The Harder They Scrub, it is an extravaganza of muppets, introduced by the Count, and catchy to boot.

It would have been amazing to have Bob Marley appear on Sesame Street, but we have his son, with a welcoming message. Ziggy starts off a little unsure about interacting with the muppets, but soon gets in the swing of it.

The next video sees the stick puppet worms bringing the roots reggae, introduced by Downtown Julie Brown. Note the worm in the audience who may or may not be affected by mary jane.

Reggae isn’t given anywhere near the attention that soul is given on Sesame Street. Some of the biggest names of soul music get a run on the show and while they may not be in, what I consider, the best years of their career – the earliest, dressed in sixties suits and backed by two or three other amazing vocalists, there is still something particularly appealing about them – not just their voices, which will always stand the test of time, but their willingness to engage with puppets and children for the benefit of learning and good times.

Smokey Robinson is the first video and one everyone may have seen before. The comical nature of this take on his famous song makes it a favourite.

You don’t get that many straight out performances by groups on Sesame Street, but Stevie Wonder and his band do a straight version of Superstition. The only reason you know it’s Sesame Street are the kids grooving on the fire escape stairs.

In the same episode (or at least in the same shirt) Stevie does go on to teach Grover a little song(of sorts), but we don’t see quite the same level of humour or interaction that we get with other artists.

Teaching the alphabet is a common task soul stars are set and no-one does it better than Ray Charles. Check out the rhythm of the kid in yellow sitting on the stairs, and at the end Ray Charles showing his disappointment at the performance, though I think it’s great.

Patti Labelle doesn’t do a bad alphabet herself, with muppet accompaniment, of course.

While Johnny Cash isn’t strictly soul, his performances on Sesame Street are particularly appealing. In one of them, he sings Five Feet High and Rising. Biff, the construction worker, uses boxes to demonstrate just how high the flood would be. The interaction between Johnny Cash and Biff is as good as you’ll see between a muppet and singer on Sesame Street.

To bring it full circle, the rhythm and blues master Little Richard sits in the bath to sing his love for his rubber duckie. Hoots the Owl chips in with the sax, to great effect.

All videos and images are copyright the Sesame Street Workshop. Their use here is not for profit.

Here is the spiel from the organisers:

We are delighted to announce after the huge success of The London Intl Ska Festival’s return this year we will be making it an annual event. 2012′s festival will be held on 3-6 May’12, with 30+ bands & DJs from all over the world!

We are offering the first 100 x 4 day earlybird tickets at a discounted price – saving you £40! We are also delighted to be offering these with no booking fee!

Pick yours up now at http://www.londoninternationalskafestival.co.uk/tickets/

Venue & line up details to follow. If you enjoyed 2011′s festival, 2012 is going to raise the standard even higher!

The date is Saturday May 28, 2011 in case you weren’t sure.

And just for the record, in case some “readers” at Dizzybeat think otherwise, we celebrate ska, reggae, rocksteady, rhythm and blues, soul, garage and punk. We’re a positive movement that welcomes any race, sex or creed.

Also, we don’t post comments in response to the haters on this site or any other. It seems obvious, given some feedback, that the haters assume people don’t share my views and don’t act in their own ways. Of course, after ten years of doing dizzybeat.com, I know that many worldwide believe what we believe, and wholeheartedly support our love for music, are welcoming to us, but also act in different ways to us with our best interests at heart.

To another ten years!

Rhoda Dakar and Jerry Dammers are amazing, by the way.

Skip to video below

Her latest project is in combination with the other original Selecter vocalist Arthur Hendricksen, performing as The Selecter  (Neol Davies is performing with a seperate incarnation of the band).  Pauline and Arthur’s new single is titled Big in the Body, Small in the Mind, a cover of the Woody Guthrie Song, All You Fascists Bound to Lose.  It will make up part of a new album they are set to release in September titled Made in Britain.  The press release for the new single is worth reading too, with some stirring words about the amount of rhetoric being heard from the right in many Western nations currently:

The Selecter was once described as “conspiring to make dancing the only way to walk”. 31 years later, those words still hold true.

In late 2010 the Selecter returned to the music scene with a plan. Uniting the original singing duo of Pauline Black & Arthur ‘Gaps” Hendrickson with a sleek, tight band augmented by a horn section at Bloomsbury Ballroom on Nov 13th, led to instant offers of a storming slew of shows early this year. Energized by the enthusiastic audience response, they decided to record a brand new 10-track album “Made In Britain”, produced by Neil Pyzer- and due for release on Sept 1st 2011.

“Big In The Body- Small In The Mind” is the first single taken from the album. It is a slice of The Selecter doing what they do best, mixing a ska/rocksteady beat with a pop sensibility, coupled with some acute social observations on the state of the world right now. An homage to Woody Guthrie and a rallying call to all those fans who still feel that 2-Tone bands should be musically confronting the ugly face of racism, represented worldwide by odious organizations like EDL,BNP, KKK, Forza Nuova, Tea Party etc. The Selecter is proud to embrace the idea of multiculturalism. Many of the organizations just mentioned and seemingly the British ‘ConDem’ Government want to stamp it out. We believe multiculturalism is worth fighting for – and not only that, in the words of the song – all you fascists bound to lose!

For more info visit: http://www.theselecter.net/

I was also saddened to hear of the death of Lionel Rose this past week, at the relatively young age of 62.  An amazing World Title winning Indigenous boxer, role model, snappy dresser and friend to Elvis. Humility is a wonderful thing.  Read the obituary on the Sydney Morning Herald website.