The Greater Concept

one last moment from Janelle’s show at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. here she is funkin’ it up on “Make Me Feel.”

whew! here’s Janelle performing “Pynk” at the Hulu Theater at MSG in NYC. 

i had to do all i could to stay focused on shooting for this one.

i got to be front & center for Janelle Monae’s show at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden last night. she crushed it! so much fun. here’s her performance of “Q.U.E.E.N.” and “Electric Lady.” 

And finally, St. Vincent performs her love letter to her adopted city.

Next up, St. Vincent lets it rip on a cut from her new album, Masseduction.

Annie ain’t nothin’ but cool on that guitar.

Just wanted to share some moments from St. Vincent’s show in Brooklyn last night (12/2). First up, a couple of songs from her 2014 album, St. Vincent.

One more from Anthony Hamilton at BB King Blues Club in NYC. They funked hard on this one, laying his song “Sister Big Bones” on a foundation of Zapp’s “More Bounce To The Ounce.” Slammin’! 

It took too long, but last night, I finally got to see Anthony Hamilton live. I knew he was gonna kick some ass and he did not disappoint. Here he is doing “Charlene” (sorry about all the crowd chatter around me; I didn’t have my usual spot at the front of the stage).

The great Sheila E. returned to BB King Blues Club in NYC last week. She repped hard for Prince, doing many of his songs (and not just the ones he wrote for her). The crowd was hyped all night. Here’s a taste where she not only does some Prince tunes, but throws in some P-Funk and Sly Stone, as well (adding to the funk even more, Lynn Mabry, an original Bride of Funkenstein, is in the band).

Kendra Foster is another funk soldier, lending her talents to P-Funk and D’angelo. She did a solo show at Lincoln Center in August, sharing her jazz influence with her version of the standard “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”

The purple connections kept coming this summer as some of the singers who worked with Prince in his later days performed in Brooklyn at the BAM R&B Festival. Liv Warfield, Shelby J., and Judith Hill all did sets of their own, then came together at the end of the show.

The headliner at The Bowery Electric that night was Andre Cymone (Prince’s friend, brother-from-another-mother, and former bassist). Here he is doing the song P. wrote for him, “The Dance Electric.”

After Kellindo, came a set from Tomas Doncker & The True Groove All Stars. Here they are turning Bowery Electric into a funk church with a rompin’ version of Funkadelic’s “Funky Dollar Bill.” 

The day after the Cory Henry show, I saw cool bill at The Bowery Electric. First up was Kellindo (Janelle Monae’s guitarist). He did a nice take on Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”

I had the chance to see Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles for the first time at the BAM R&B Festival in early August. They were funkin’, for sure; especially so on this cover of The Pointer Sisters’ classic “You Gotta Believe.”

Roy Ayers and Seun Kuti came to Central Park Summerstage on a blazing hot day in July. Roy sat in for a bit on Seun’s last song. 

Another summer of great live music has come to its conclusion. Just wanna share some highlights, starting with a true funk OG, Fred Wesley. He and his band came to Brooklyn on July 4 (which happens to be his birthday, as well).