Tamika Nicole Lets Go With Gospel, Soul and Blues on New CD

By Lee
Hildebrand

“I know you ain’t right. I gotta constantly fight to keep you outta my life,” Tamika Williams-Clark sings in pain-soaked alto tones on “Only (You Ain’t Right),” a tune from “The Art of Letting Go,” her just-released second CD.
Upon first hearing, one would think that the Oakland-born, San Leandro-based vocalist, known professionally as Tamika Nicole, is singing about a no-good man, but closer listening reveals it’s about her ongoing battle with something far more sinister.
“I’m talking about the devil,” she explains. “It’s about that relationship a lot of Christian people have, myself included, whereas you want to do the right thing, but you just can’t seem to get it right. I aim to be stronger and know that I need to be better if I’m with God.”
“Only (It Ain’t Right)” is one of several religious songs on the disc, which also includes tunes about romance and other earthly matters, even a blues. Tamika wrote all 10 tunes herself, in collaboration with producers Jimi Fischer and Jamie Hawkins.
Unlike Jennifer Hudson and other secular artists who sometimes place one gospel song at the end of their albums, Tamika puts hers smack dab in the middle of “The Art of Letting Go.”
“My Christian beliefs don’t happen at the end of my life; they happen every day,” she says. “Even if I’m performing in a club, I still have God with me. I love God regardless of where I am. I won’t put it in a box and take it out when it’s convenient to do.”
Keyboardist Jamie Hawkins, son of gospel music greats Walter and Tramaine Hawkins, now serves as Tamika’s bandleader. They met at Love Center church through Jamie’s wife, former Broadway actress Sunny Hawkins, who is Tamika’s Sigma Gamma Rho sorority sister. Tamika’s next scheduled appearance with her band is at 10 a.m. June 6 at the Cherry City Faire in downtown San Leandro.
The new CD contains a highly sensual song titled “Chocolate Carmel Brown,” which first appeared on her 2001 debut disc, “My Message.” That CD was totally ignored by commercial radio stations in the U.S., although it did create something of a buzz in England and Japan, which is so often the case with American artists on independent labels.
“Enough,” a gospel song from the current CD, has been played by Tinka Floyd on her KMEL gospel program. Tamika is hoping secular programmers will pick up on some of her other songs.
Tamika presently is composing a bunch of blues songs that she plans to record on a CD by herself and other singers. “I really like the blues,” she says.
“I think it fits our time, but people don’t do it appropriately. They’ll write a blues song, but it’ll be about something from 30 years ago, as opposed to right now. People are struggling right now, and I write songs from the fact that people are struggling. Because I struggled, I understand what that’s like.”

Free Four Seasons Concert, May 3

Tickets are still available for  the free Memorial Concert for W. Hazaiah Williams by world renowned African American pianist, Leon Bates, Sunday, May 3 at 4 p.m. at Scottish Rite Theatre in Oakland.
To reserve your tickets: call (510)845-4444 and they will hold them at the door. No charge!

“Next Day Air,” Weak Trailer But Exciting Film

By Sandra Varner

Do you determine what movie you’d like to see based on the trailer?  If so, don’t let this one fool you.  The “Next Day Air” movie trailer does not get me excited about this movie. However, since I write about films, it is my duty to see as many as I can.
Thank goodness I saw the movie. I was very pleasantly surprised.
The premise is very simple.  What happens when a next day delivery is delivered to the wrong address?  Well, this simple scenario is a bonanza of a story in the comedy drama, “Next Day Air,” directed by music video legend Benny Boom (Scarface: Origins of a Hip Hop Classic), and starring Mike Epps (Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins), Wood Harris (“The Wire”), Donald Faison (“Scrubs”), Omari Hardwick (“Saved”), Emilio Rivera (“Weeds”), Darius McCrary (“Family Matters”), Cisco Reyes, Yasmin Deliz, Mos Def (16 Blocks, The Italian Job) and Debbie Allen (“A Different World”).
Smalltime hoods Brody (Epps) and Guch (Harris) have seen better days. But when a wacked-out courier named Leo (Faison) accidentally brings them a box containing 10 kilos of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors, all breaks loose and the consequences could cost them their lives.
Brody and Guch immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody’s drug dealer cousin (Hardwick) and his tightlipped bodyguard (McCrary). But when the intended recipients of the package, wannabe gangster Jesus (Reyes) and his feisty girlfriend (Deliz), realize the box hasn’t arrived, they set out on a desperate search to find it before ruthless drug kingpin Bodega Diablo (Rivera) notices it’s missing.
But it’s too late. Furious over the loss of his shipment, Bodega will stop at nothing to get the drugs back. With Brody and Guch’s deal about to go down, heavy gunfire follows. And whoever’s still standing when the smoke clears could walk away with nearly a million dollars in cash and drugs!
Interviews with “Next Day Air” cast members will be posted at www.Talk2SV.com.

Oakland Museum Presents “African Presence in Mexico”

The Oakland Museum of California’s new exhibition, “The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present,” will examine Africa’s overlooked historical contributions to Mexican culture.
In 1609 Yanga, an African leader, founded the first free African township in the Americas, almost a century after Africans first arrived in Mexico (in 1519).
Africans have continued to contribute their artistic, culinary, musical, and cultural traditions to Mexican culture. The exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, musical instruments, and other examples of art and popular culture.
The exhibition was curated by Sagrario Cruz-Carretero of the University of Veracruz and Cesáreo Moreno, visual arts director at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.
The bilingual exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, and musical instruments. “It’s a fascinating hybrid—a visual arts exhibition based on a cultural history,” says co-curator Evelyn Orantes.
The exhibition will be on view May 9 through Sunday, August 23. For information, go to http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_apim.html

Kinchen Presents Negro Spiritual

Lucy Kinchen and the Lucy Kinchen Chorale will bring to life the history of the Negro Spiritual from the early 1600s when they perform at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland at 27th and Broadway in Oakland, on Sunday, April 26th at 2 p.m.
Kinchen has historically attempted to reveal the Spiritual in its original form without much of the glitter that many have added through the years, forgetting where and under what conditions the songs were born.
Kinchen and her Chorale have been performing in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, astounding audiences with their insightful interpretations of one of the America’s original art forms, the African-American Spiritual.  Their songs reflect the unflinching faith of the slaves in their new-found religion as they struggled to surmount the bonds of slavery.
Miraculously, these songs  were instrumental in aiding the escape of slaves during the period of the Underground Railroad and have survived more than 200 years.
Kinchen was head of the Vocal Music Department at Encinal High in Alameda until she was appointed Co-chair of the Laney Music Department. She continues to teach voice.

Mary Mary Brings Gospel Music to Yoshi’s

By Lee Hildebrand

Mary Mary: Erica Campbell (right) and Tina Campbell.

By Lee Hildebrand Mary Mary’s spring tour itinerary includes no churches and only a few theaters. Most of the gospel duo’s dates are at nightclubs, including House of Blues clubs in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Anaheim. On Tuesday, April 28, sisters Erica and Tina Campbell, who comprise Mary Mary, appear at Yoshi’s in Oakland. “We decided to do smaller venues to reach more of the un-churched and have a closer connection with the audience,” Erica Campbell, 36, said by phone from Foxboro, Massachusetts, where she was having breakfast with her younger sister. “It’s a much more intimate experience than in a large arena.” Erica said that she and Tina are following the edict of Jesus Christ to “go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23). “We know our purpose and we know who we are, so no matter where we are, we’ll be gospel artists,” she added. “There’s an old gospel song that my grandmother used to sing that said, ‘Take the Lord along with you everywhere you go.’ If we sing in a club or a church or a county fair, we’re gonna be Mary Mary.” Born Erica and Trecina Atkins in Inglewood, California, the women are married to unrelated men named Campbell, both of whom have heavy music-business credentials. Erica’s husband, Warryn Campbell, has worked with Tupac Shakur, Alicia Keys, Kanye West and Yolanda Adams, among many others, and has been Mary Mary’s producer and songwriting collaborator since the inception of the duo’s recording career in 2000. Tina’s husband, Teddy Campbell, is the drummer in the “American Idol” house band and has worked as musical director for Britney Spears, Kelly Price and other top artists. As they have in the past, the Campbell sisters push the envelope on much of their current CD, “The Sound.” The title song combines ‘60s “girl group”-style vocals with jarring punk rock rhythms, and the Grammy-winning track “Get Up” employs a hip-hop groove and rapper David Banner. “It Will All Be Worth It,” a praise-and-worship song written by Warryn Campbell and Marvin Winans, is more traditional and features perhaps the most impressive gathering of gospel greats ever assembled for one recordings : Rance Allen, Dorinda Clark-Cole, Karen Clark-Sheard, Daryl Coley, Andrae Crouch, Tramaine and Walter Hawkins, and Joe LIgon of the Mighty Clouds of Joy. “It’s funny when people think that artists like us and Kirk Franklin were the first to do this type of music, but there are so many artists that go far back that were really radical in their presentation,” Erica said. “There have to be artists who come along every so often and change it up to Introduce people to God. “I’m glad to be one of those artists, and I’m glad to stand on the shoulders of great people like Rance Allen and the Hawkins family and the Clark Sisters who were doing things that were really different from what traditional gospel artists were doing.”

Andre Ward Joins Dellums In “Fight for Peace”

By James A. Watson

Andre Ward, 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner in Athens, Greece, is undefeated as he approaches a May 16 fight against top contender Edison Miranda at the Oracle Arena.
Ward, a 25-year-old native of Oakland, is as easy to talk about as the next “Rocky” or Oscar De la Hoya.  He’s a romantic figure with a compelling personal story.  His father, a promising boxer, died at an early age.  Guided by Virgil Hunter a former athlete himself and now his godfather, he escaped the life of a “gang banger” to become a two-time national amateur champion, a strong Christian man and a devoted husband and father.
Along with his proud promoters Goosen Tutor and Antonio Leonard, Ward has the expectation of the Ward/Miranda fight being a hard but successful contest that will win him respect and move him up to the next professional level.
But Ward sees this battle on May 16 as  a metaphor for a bigger struggle; something he calls a “fight for peace.”
At a press conference announcing a recent fight, Ward talked about emerging as “a Christian man of dignity…a role model to other young brothers who might think they don’t have an opportunity.  God gives us all an opportunity.  It’s what we do with that chance that makes the difference in our lives.”
Ward wants to make a real difference in the lives of his fans, Black, White and Latino. That’s why Mayor Ron Dellums, the city and Preventive Care Pathways, a medical non-profit, are creating an opportunity for Ward to speak to those who might hear his voice.
His goal is to  found a series of Youth Boxing Centers throughout Oakland, where he can tell young people that they can do something positive with their lives instead of dying under the despair of hopelessness.
Young people will be given places to train seriously and learn the art of boxing. It will be a place to focus on their minds, their bodies and their spiritual growth.  While the year-round centers will thrive with training and athletic activities, those few gifted enough will be selected to train with Virgil Hunter with an eye towards a professional career.

Idris Elba Stars in “Obsessed”

By Sandra Varner

Derek Charles (Idris Elba), a successful asset manager who has just received a huge promotion, is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage to the beautiful Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles).  But when Lisa (Ali Larter), a temp worker, starts stalking Derek, all the things he’s worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy.
“Obsessed” is rated PG-13.
Elba most recently starred in Warner Bros crime thriller “Rocknrolla” for director Guy Ritchie and Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.
Sandra Varner/Talk2SV: Who else would you cast yourself alongside and why?
Idris Elba (IE): Good question. Umm, I would love to do a film with Jack Lemmon.
B And why is that?
IE: Jack Lemmon is an incredible actor and one that found so much truth in his characters that it would be such a nice challenge to be alongside an actor like that, one that challenges me to be as truthful to the character as I could be.
Talk2SV: Tell us what people would be most surprised to learn about you – either as an actor or as a musician.
IE: Well, I guess people would be surprised about how I learn my lines.  And, it surprises me as well because I honestly don’t learn my lines.  I read them and then I try and remember what it is I’m saying by virtue of the sense of ‘what’ I’m saying.  Once I’ve got the sense of ‘what’ I’m saying, I don’t go back and read lines.
Talk2SV: What is it that makes you so versatile as an actor?
IE: From one role to another, I never want to play on something that people know I do well.  So, I try and do all kinds of different types of characters and in order to stay consistent at being good…

Bay Area Star DJ Shred One

By Melonie and
Melorra Green

We sat down with one of the Bay Area’s dopest DJs – DJ Shred One, talking about her youth in Diamond Bar, suburb near Los Angeles; New York life while working at Rawkus Records; her style as a DJ; and what’s ailing the DJ scene.
Early Years?
Sheila Red aka Shred One grew up surrounded by music and learned more than most kids her age while tagging along with her older record collecting brothers and cousins who “schooled” her on artists at 8 years old.
Shred One laughed as she recalled them going from one record to the next saying “Sheila, who is this… Sheila, what song is this?” They truly planted a seed with her and we can only thank them for creating a DJ who knows how to pull some of the true old school tracks.
Shred left suburb life and headed for New York at 18 years of age. She landed gigs with Rawkus Records and Blacksmith Management where she learned the music industry game. During this time she started collecting records and honed in on her technique for gathering some of the best music around. She usually follows a producer or a musician when searching for records that she can count on to provide hot mixes.
“I started collecting vinyl in 1998 in New York and then started DJing in my bedroom in 2000… moved back to LA in 2004 and started spinning at Root Down and Soul Sessions,” she explained.
“When I moved to San Francisco, I started going to ‘Open Table Night’ at Poleng Lounge. We used to sit and wait our turn to spin. The ?rst couple of times, I kept getting skipped; I was trying to be polite. It got me nowhere, so I had to stop being polite and get aggressive.”
Gender Issues?
“I love the solidarity with female DJs. And I have to say, if it weren’t for DJ Zita it would not be this way. She has done a lot to make this happen,” she said.
Shred expressed her concerns about feeling pigeon-holed because she is a female and
in frustration expresses, “Don’t just book me for ladies night; and don’t book me for the
?rst set just because I’m a woman. I can hold my own”.
Style?
“Right now I’m in a “boogie” phase… and Shalimar and synthesizers are what
I’m jamming right now”, said Shred, “Soul is my favorite… ‘81-’85 is the best!”
We asked what are her top three artists/producers when she plays a gig… “Chaka Khan. I can’t think of a gig – besides the pop ones – where I didn’t play her… Dilla- ‘old school’ Dilla and de?nitely Stevie (Wonder).”
Our dialog ?owed into equipment and Shred looked to the ceiling, pondering how to not make this answer too complicated. “I use vinyl and serato. I never go to an event without a crate of records… I prefer vinyl”, she said.
DJing Woes?
“Serato is cool and it has really allowed a lot of people to be part of the DJing game, which is great… But Serato DJs don’t let the beat ride; they ‘cut-cut’ before you can get into the beat,” she said. “You can tell when a DJ has never worked with vinyl- here comes the ‘cut-cut’. As great as serato is, it has made DJs so lazy.”

Hildebrand Joins The Post

Lee Hildebrand begins a weekly column for the Post with a page 4 story on B.B. King. Seeing King perform at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1964 changed Hildebrand’s life and led indirectly to a career in music journalism. He specializes in blues, R&B, jazz and gospel, with emphasis on the music of Oakland.
He served as music editor of the East Bay Express for 21 years, wrote stories and reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle for 35 years and is a longtime contributor to Living Blues magazine. His work also has appeared in Billboard, the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Rock & Soul, Rolling Stone, Vibe and other periodicals.
He is the author of “Hammertime” and “Stars of Soul and Rhythm & Blues” and co-author of “Bay Area Blues, Colors and Chords: The Art of Johnny Otis and Images of the Blues.” He has worked as a drummer for several blues and R&B greats, as well as produced over two dozen reissue CDs by such artists as Rance Allen, Sister Wynonna Carr, Brother Joe May, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Pilgrim Travelers, Swan Silvertones, Soul Stirrers and Johnnie Taylor.

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