Otis Redding

Latest Articles

Review: Alvin Ailey's Revelations headed to PPAC

Heart, spirit, and soul
Over the years, choreographers and dance companies have been feted in many ways, but there has never been another dance piece that inspired not only a US postage stamp and a US Senate resolution and a special Barbie doll!
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | May 04, 2011

Midnight ramblers

Rock legend Peter Wolf serves dinner and verse to the Phoenix ’s poet .
In rock ’n’ roll, it was possible to live in Harvard Square, be a musician — a local musician — and be able to pay your rent and find restaurants where you could eat and buy food and survive, and feel that there was a sense of . . . future, with hope and opportunity.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 08, 2010

Interview: Steve Swallow on the Gary Burton Quartet

An interview with Steve Swallow
DO YOU REMEMBER EXACTLY HOW YOU GUYS FIRST GOT TOGETHER? I have a memory. I tend to distrust them, but my recollection is that I met Gary when he called me up and asked me if I would consider playing in Stan Getz's band, which he was already in.
By JON GARELICK | June 30, 2009

Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy | Spirit Moves

Greenleaf Music (2009)
One of the most genial CDs in Douglas's vast discography is also one of his most accomplished.
By JON GARELICK | June 16, 2009

Lee Fields and the Expressions | My World

Truth and Soul (2009)
It's hard to dislike Lee Fields. He's an almost archetypal jobbing soul singer in the shouter/grunter/talker/improviser tradition of Otis Redding and James Brown, and he's currently undergoing something of a revival as a Sharon Jones collaborator and featured vocalist for Eurohouse hits.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | June 16, 2009

Come on home

Lyle Divinsky croons his way back into town
What's that about the apple and the tree? With college degree in hand, Lyle Divinsky returns to his Portland stomping grounds with a debut CD, Traveling Man , that not only features dad Phil Divinsky's drummer (Marty Joyce), bassist (Peter Masterson), and guitarist (Andy Argondizza) from the ToneKings, but plays in a Motown/R&B sandbox.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 03, 2009

The Detroit Cobras give new life to old soul

Blessed versions
There's nothing lazier than the typical cover band: musicians taking the easy way out for listeners who don't want to be challenged — or, worse yet, revisiting the glory years when their shitty taste in music was current and therefore socially acceptable.
By BARRY THOMPSON | June 01, 2009

Golden years

Alvin Ailey at the Opera House
The last thing I had in mind when I went to the Opera House Tuesday was raining on Alvin Ailey's parade — particularly since the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which he founded in 1959, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year while making its 41st annual Celebrity Series appearance in Boston.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 06, 2009

A voice from on high

The second coming of Antony and the Johnsons
On his new album The Crying Light, Antony Hegarty lifts his voice without raising it.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 18, 2009

Review: Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Time/Life (2009)
In any given Black History Month, the three-disc Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement would be a powerful anthology.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | January 06, 2009

Behind closed doors

Trinity fires off The Receptionist
Ricky Gervais meets Dick Cheney in The Receptionist.
By CAROLYN CLAY | December 19, 2008

Feel the music

We may be the last generation to give tangible tunes for Christmas
I personally find it comforting that the current number-one single in the country has a chorus that goes "I'll gas up the jet for you tonight, and baby we can go wherever you like."
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | December 11, 2008

Gossip=Truth

Ray LaMontagne on his new Gossip in the Grain
On LaMontagne’s new Gossip in the Grain (RCA), he’s having a lot more fun.
By SAM PFEIFLE | October 09, 2008

Hollerpalooza

Eli Reed says he’s better than Otis
Eli “Paperboy” Reed seems dubious about my following him for a few hours before and after his five o’clock Lollapalooza show in Chicago’s Grant Park last Sunday.
By DEVIN KING | August 05, 2008

Lobby Bar & Kitchen

Room for improvement
We walked into Lobby the same day the Boston Globe ’s critic slammed the place — meaning, she gave it only one star.
By ROBERT NADEAU | April 30, 2008

New bottle

Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed’s vintage sounds
“A lot of today’s music is a little bit ironic," says Reed, and I don’t have any of that. It’s not about irony.”
By JIM SULLIVAN | April 07, 2008

Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration

Stax
This year, California’s Concord label took ownership of Memphis’s greatest musical treasure chest, the Stax Records catalogue.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 17, 2007

Smoken’ Joe’s Authentic Southern Barbeque

It's time to turn up the heat
You wouldn’t have told Otis Redding to sing faster, so take a hint from him and slow down the cooking.
By ROBERT NADEAU | October 10, 2007

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Lifeline | Virgin
On Lifeline , Ben Harper’s latest disc with the Innocent Criminals, the soulful slide-guitarist captures the feel of an intimate live concert.
By BRETT SINGER | September 17, 2007

The heart of soul

At 50, Stax Records keeps on beating
“At Stax Records, I learned the formula for success,” says William Bell.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | March 20, 2007

Dennis Ferrer

The World as I See It | MVD
Dennis Ferrer now has a full-length CD out after a decade and a half of single-track releases, many of them hits.
By MICHAEL FREEDBERG | February 26, 2007

James Brown

1933-2006
Brown was arguably the only rock and roll era performer to equal Elvis Presley in vocal authority, charisma, stage presence, song interpretation, and sexual magnetism.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 28, 2006

R.I.P., Godfather of Soul

James Brown stood his ground against Cianci
Regular readers of the Cool, Cool World obviously recognize the musical genius of James Brown.
By PHILLIPE & JORGE | December 27, 2006

The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 30

Southern accents

Cat Power reveals the secrets of her stability
It wasn’t so long ago that a Cat Power show was a roll of the dice. Cat Power, "The Greatest" (mp3)
By MATT ASHARE | September 01, 2006

Flashbacks: September 1, 2006

The Boston Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Ian Sands and Paul Babin.
By BOSTON PHOENIX FLASHBACKS | August 30, 2006

Soundoff: McNallica

Weighing in on Rulers of the Raging Main and Ray LaMontagne
McNallica , the hardest rocking rocker of rock, weighs in on songs by Ruler of the Raging Main and Ray LaMontagne.
By SOUNDOFF | January 28, 2010

Flashbacks: August 4, 2006

The Boston Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Sam MacLaughlin and Hannah Van Susteren.
By EDITORIAL | August 02, 2006

French revolution

Afropop conquers Bastille Day
Boston’s 31st annual Bastille Day street party this Friday commemorates events in Paris, but the soundtrack will be West African.
By BANNING EYRE | July 14, 2006

Soul brothers

James Hunter and Jamie Lidell
Hunter and Lidell's music shares something deeper than demographics: an abiding interest in the classic Southern R&B of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Both men prove that blue-eyed soul didn’t die with Hall & Oates.
By MIKAEL WOOD | June 21, 2006