Prince's Rainbow Children - what the F*ck?!?!

Anyone else remember the incredibly bizarre television ads for this album that aired on daytime television in the U.S.?
They didn't show Prince, but they had testimonials from "fans" who spoke glowingly about its positivity.

would love to see those ads!

xpost - its not about the hip hop rhythms (though mamas gun has barely any hip hop aspects to it) and voodoo isnt that hip-hop flavoured either. its more about neo soul making prince go back to 70s soul/funk/jazz in a consciously retro way; TRC is also his most rhodes-heavy album, and the rhodes was dangelos key instrument. he didnt suddenly pick it up for no reason.

prince uses lots of slang on his 80s records, it's just slang of his own invention...

but yeah there's a desperation to the way he deploys curse words and hip-hop jargon in the 90s stuff, from "sexy mf" on down.

Days of Wild

I'm totally fine with ridiculous high concept albums that's not really my issue with it, the *sound* of it is just really unpleasant, this kind of generic easy listening jazz crap. (whoever said he really didn't understand how to play jazz is otm)

― Οὖτις, Thursday, May 5, 2016

I think we should distinguish between jazz and easy listening. George Benson, who isn't Miles Davis nor did he attempt to be, was often very good and occasionally great. His good music has a lot of detail and quiet virtuoso filigrees that work perfectly on the radio or in a hotel lounge.

The question of Najee is easier to answer: he's on the showboat end of easy listening and is often gross.

he reminds me of what was just said in the Prince R.I.P. thread about good JB-influenced funk: the idea of holding back and teasing instead of filling every space. The latter's what Najee does.

Prince's choice in sax players after Eric Leeds was pretty weak. Except for those few moments he had Maceo with him.

This album isnso fucking tight there's riffs for days on this thing!!!

Prince's choice in sax players after Eric Leeds was pretty weak. Except for those few moments he had Maceo with him.

I'm totally fine with ridiculous high concept albums that's not really my issue with it, the *sound* of it is just really unpleasant, this kind of generic easy listening jazz crap. (whoever said he really didn't understand how to play jazz is otm)

― Οὖτις, Thursday, May 5, 2016

I think we should distinguish between jazz and easy listening. George Benson, who isn't Miles Davis nor did he attempt to be, was often very good and occasionally great. His good music has a lot of detail and quiet virtuoso filigrees that work perfectly on the radio or in a hotel lounge.

The other thing about jazz playing is that there is a perhaps complicated set of guidelines and practices for what sounds "inside" and what sounds "outside." If you know a lot about that and have internalized it through years of practice and listening to others, you have considerable latitude of what you can play and have it still accepted as jazz. If you haven't mastered it yet, then when you intend to play "inside" it may sound like you are just playing jazz cliches, and your "outside" playing may sound like you are just playing another tune than what you started with. As an aside, my general impression from my recent crash course in Princeology, is that his dad may have been considered a bit of an eccentric more than a genuine jazz player.

i'd like to read more about his parents, who were both musicians. his dad was IIRC fairly old when prince was born -- in his mid-40s, maybe -- and i wonder if that meant he brought some old-school jazz/pop influences to bear.

my first thought when prince died was whether his parents were still alive (prince was only 57, it's not unlikely) but i guess they were both older when he was born and passed away some time ago.

=(

In Matt Thorne book-which I bought so you don't have to- Alan Leeds says that Prince didn't seem to know much about jazz until Eric Leeds educated him about it and Wendy pigeonholes him as more of a smooth jazz operator than a bebopper.

Xpost George Benson was a stone cold prodigy virtuoso as a teen.

I'm not even so sure about Eric Leeds himself. He is is my least favorite Leeds brother by a mile.
― Wrecka Stow Ralph (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, May 7, 2016 12:53 PM (5 hours ago)

Fair enough but Alan Leeds doesn't play anything. Eric Leeds is a fine sax player and he and Prince were great together. That's undeniable. Unless you prefer Candy Dulfer.

Maybe I just might.

Read something a while back about how George Benson was really into Hank Garland when he was starting out.

Prince actually had najee as his sax man for a while IIRC

It's one thing I like about Prince - he does not care about good ideas of taste or cool canons. His sax tastes veer mostly towards smooth rather than hard.

I think I read in some Prince biography (though I can't remember whether it was pure speculation on the writer's part) that it bothered Prince that he could play all the other instruments needed for a funk/R&B track, except for the horns. Obviously he was a person who liked to be in control of everything, so maybe he preferred sax players (as well as trumpeters and trombonists) who would bend to his every wish rather than having a unique instrumental identity themselves?