One of the most unsung singers in the world was Marva Whitney. She had such an outstanding voice singing music that she was called the Soul Sister Number One. She could sing R&B, soul, and funk music. Kansas City, Kansas was the city of her birth. When she was a child (at the age of 3 years old), she was on tour with her family's gospel group called The Manning Gospel Singers. She lived from May 1, 1944 to December 22, 2012. When she was 16 years old, she joined the Alma Whitney Singers. During the 1960's, her career has grown massively. One funky song that she made was Unwind Yourself. Her early albums were Unwind Yourself (1968), Live and Lowdown at the Apollo [actually live in Georgia] (1969), and It's My Thing (1969). She joined many groups, and she worked with James Brown, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and Lyn Collins. She even worked in gospel music too. Marva Whitney loved to tour worldwide in Europe, Japan, and in other locations. Her friend Dawayne Gilley said that she was one of the first women to embody the authority of funk. Whitney loved to show her voice in the midst of a bass, guitar lines, and horns. Her 2007 album of I Am What I Am was critically acclaim. Marva Whitney was a legend of musical expression to the fullest extent.
Lyn Collins (or Gloria Lavern Collins) lived from June 12, 1948 to March 13, 2005. She was an American soul singer. Her 1972 funk single Think (About It) had a classic sound. She worked with James Brown too. Dime Box, Texas was the place of her birth. Since she was 14 years old, she recorded music. She played with Charles Pike and The Scholars. She possessed gospel influences too. Her music was heavily sampled by hip hop artists, because hip hop is a descendant of funk music literally. She worked in house music with the song of "Shout." House was born in Chicago by the 1980's as a powerful form of self-expression. In February of 2005, she formed her first solo tour. For three weeks, she performed in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She is respected by her peers and colleagues as an outstanding singer.
Levi Stubbs is one of the greatest singers in history. He was the lead singer of the R&B group called the Four Tops. He was born in Detroit, Michigan part of the Motown explosion of revolutionary singers plus groups that excelled massively in the world. His voice is baritone. His emotional, dramatic style of singing has been noted by many people. He lived from June 6, 1936 to October 17, 2008. Many people don't know that he was a voice artist in film and television. Tons of people admire his musical skills. Levi Stubbs loved his wife named Clineice with their 5 children. His cousin was Jackie Wilson. His brother Joe was in the group of 100 Proof (Aged in Soul), The Falcons, The Contours, and The Originals. He worked with his friends to form the Four Aims in 1954, and they changed the name to the Four Tops in 1956. They signed with Motown Records in 1963. They made many classic songs like Baby I Need Your Loving, I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), It's the Same Old Song, I'll Turn to Stone, Reach Out I'll Be There, Bernadette, Still Water (Love), Standing in the Shadows of Love, etc. Levi Stubbs supported the Four Tops even when people offered him to go solo. He didn't do it or left the Four Tops. He was loyal to the group which takes a lot of courage and compassion. When Lawrence Payton passed away in 1997, Theo Peoples replaced him. The FourtTops were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2013. They sold over 50 million records worldwide. Levi Stubbs was one of the best, and his legacy lives on forever. Berry Gordy, Martha Reeves, Hall and Oats, Brian Holland, Ali-Ollie Woodson, and Dennis Edwards all supported him. Levi Stubbs Day exists in the city of Detroit to this very day.
Annette Simmons is a great R&B singer and soul singing legend. She was an original member of the group of Martha and the Vandellas during the 1960's. Now, she is a member of the singing group of The Original Vandellas. July 4, 1943 is the date of her birth. She worked on doo-wop, rock and roll, funk, and disco music. Detroit, Michigan is the city of her birth. Her parents are Ann and Roger El Wood Beard. Like many legends, she sang in church choirs at an early age. When she was 14, her career grew. She was in The Del-Phis in 1957. She had a child back in the 1960's and left the group in 1964. She continues to be friends with her former bandmates. In 1995, Beard joined Reeves, Ashford, Betty Kelly, and Lois Reeves as Martha and the Vandellas were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Annette Simmons loves her husband Dann Simmons RN or Ashland, Ohio. She lives in Madison Heights, Michigan and Ashland, Ohio.
Soul singer Vicki Anderson was born on November 21, 1939. She is the mother of Carleen Anderson. Vicki worked with James Brown, and she is the widow of Bobby Bryd. Houston, Texas is the place of her birth. She joined James Brown in his singing group in 1965. James Brown said in his autobiography that Anderson the best singer he ever had in his revue. In 1970, her most famous song was The Message from the Soul Sisters displaying a feminist anthem. She toured the world too.
The songwriting and production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff are very influential in music in general. Gamble is from Philadelphia and Huff is from Camden, New Jersey. The helped to form the Philadelphia soul music genre of the Philly sound of the 1970's. Gamble and Huff have written and produced 175 gold and platinum records. That is why they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category by March of 2008. Leon Huff worked on keyboards. Gamble was on a DJ assisting people. Kenneth Gamble was a solo artist. Gamble, Ross, and Huff worked on the song I'm Gonna Make You Love Me. They produced their first Top 5 hit of Expressway to Your Heart by The Soul Survivors. They worked with people like Archie Bell and the Drells, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, and the Sweet Inspirations. Jerry Butler and Dee Dee Warwick worked with them too. Gamble and Huff formed Philadelphia International Records in 1971. The Philly sound inspired songs like If You Don't Know Me by Now by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Love Train by the O'Jays, and Me and Mrs. Jones by Billy Paul. Gamble and Huff used basslines, lush strings, and hit-hat rhythms (which would be found in disco later on). By 1975, Gamble and Huff were the premiere producers of soul beyond even Motown. Gamble and Huff were political activists by promoting songs that advanced Blackness and self-determination like the O'Jays' Give the People What They Want (1975) and Billy Paul's Am I Black Enough for You? (1972). Gamble worked to help properties in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago via his Clean Up the Ghetto project. Gamble and Huff made so many contributions in R&B, that you can't know R&B fully without mentioning their names.
One of my favorite singers is Marlena Shaw. She can sing jazz, blues, and soul music. September 22, 1942 was when she was born. By the 1960's, she became an icon of music. Her music has been sampled in hip hop music and television commercials. New Rochelle, New York is the place of her birth. Her uncle and jazz trumpet player Jimmy Burgess introduced her to music. Shaw listened to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, gospel, and Al Hibber. Marlena Shaw worked in jazz clubs all of the time. She worked with jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee in 1963. She performed California Soul which is my opinion is the best version that she has sung. It was written by Ashford and Simpson. It was sang by the quintet the 5th Dimension. The song is found in Dockers, KFC, and Doge Ram trucks commercials. She made music in the 1970's and beyond. The Spice of Life album was released in November of 1969, and her album of Marlena was released in 1972.
Odetta Holmes is one of the greatest folk singers in history. She lived from December 31, 1930 to December 2, 2008. She inspired many artists. As the voice of the Civil Rights Movement, Odetta was always a civil and human rights activist for decades. She can play the guitar, act, and worked so hard in her walk. She loved to perform folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. She inspired everybody like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. One of my favorite songs from her is Take This Hammer. Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were fans of her music too. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama on December 31, 1930. Later, her family moved into Los Angeles. Her teacher noticed her singing talents. She started operatic training at the age of 113. Odetta sang professionally in a musical in 1944. She toured with singing groups. Later, she Odetta recorded Odetta and Larry with Larry Mohr for Fantasy Records in 1954. She made solo albums too. She sang Water Boy and There's a Hole in My Bucket in 1959 on Tonight with Belafonte TV special. Dr. King called her The Queen of American Folk Music. She sang at the 1963 March on Washington with the song O Freedom. She had jazz/blues albums like Odetta and the Blues (1962) and Odetta (1967). She was on many films as an actress like The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) and Dinerama Holday (1955). She made more albums too. She was a friend to Ella Fitzgerald and made a CD in her honor called "To Ella." It was released in 1998. Odetta was honored everywhere. She wanted to perform at Barack Obama's inauguration in January of 2009. She passed away on December 2, 2008 at New York City. Odetta influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Maya Angelou, John Waters, Carly Simon, and other artists. Odetta was a black woman with a one in a lifetime talent that was so excellent.
To understand Vice President Kamala Harris's life, you have to start from the beginning. Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964. Her mother was Shyamala Gopalan, who was a biologist whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer researcher. Shyamala came into America from India in 1958 as a 10 year old graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. Gaopalan received her PhD. in 1964. Harris's father is Donald J. Harris. Donald J. Harris is a Stanford University professor emeritus of economics. He arrived from the United States from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study at UC Berkeley, receiving a PhD. in economics in 1966. He is of Afro-Jamaican descent. Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan met via the Civil Rights Movement. Kamala Harris and her younger sister Maya lived in Berkeley, California during and after her parents' studies. They stayed briefly on Milvia Street in central Berkeley, then at a duplex on Bancroft Way in West Berkeley, That area is called the flatlands with a large black population. When Kamala Harris was in kindergarten, she was bused as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program to Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in a more prosperous neighborhood in northern Berkeley which was previously 95 percent white. After the desegregation plan went into effect, northern Berkeley became 40 percent black American. A neighbor regularly took the Harris girls to an African American church in Oakland where they sang in the children's choir. The girls and their mother also frequently visited a nearby African American cultural center. Their mother introduced them to Hinduism by taking them to a nearby Hindu temple where she occasionally sang. As children, she and her sister visited their mother's family in Madras (now Chennai) many times. Kamala Harris said that she was heavily influenced by her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a retired Indian civil servant shoe progressive views on democracy and women's rights impressed her. Kamala Harris has always remained in touch with her Indian aunts and uncles all over her adult life. Harris has also visited her father's family in Jamaica.
When she was 7 years old, her parents divorced. Kamala Harris said that when she and her sister visited their father in Palo Alto on weekends, other children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play with them because they were black. When she was 12, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to live in Montreal Quebec, where Shyamala had accepted a research and teaching position at the McGill University-affiliated Jewish General Hospital. Harris attended a French-speaking primary school, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, then F.A.C.E. School, and finally Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, graduating in 1981. Wanda Kagan, a high school friend of Harris, later told CBC News in 2020 that Harris was her best friend and described how she confided in Harris that she had been molested by her stepfather. She said that Harris told her mother, who then insisted Kagan come to live with them for the remainder of her final year of high school. Kagan said Harris had recently told her that their friendship, and playing a role in countering Kagan's exploitation, helped form the commitment Harris felt in protecting women and children as a prosecutor. After high school, in 1982, Harris attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, she interned as a mailroom clerk for California senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Harris graduated from Howard in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics. Kamala Harris then returned to California to attend law school at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law through its Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP). While at UC Hastings, she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association. She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989 and was admitted to the California Bar in June 1990. Therefore, the early part of Kamala Harris's life is characterized by huge accomplishments.
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