By: BD

BD — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:07:05 +0000

Well while your talking about it my family grew up with music always playing in the house. Saturday was the day us kids cleaned up the house and we got to play whatever music we wanted. That is when we lerned how to appreciate the music of Ashford and Simpson and all there hits. RIP to a gentle giant. He was music royalty and a class act.

By: Truthiz

Truthiz — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:50:16 +0000

Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson. Need anyone say more!?! Two musical GIANTS and class-acts. No question about it. But I would be remissed if I didn't take this opportunity to give a major SHOUT OUT to my parents for passing on to us (their 4 children) an absolute LOVE for, and appreciation of, MUSIC. My mother trained in classical music (piano) for 12 yrs from age 7 to about age 20. She married my father at age 23 and they had their 1st child 2 yrs later. My sibs and I grew up listening to hours of her playing works from Beethoven, Bach and Mozart..to..George & Ira Gershwin (Porgy & Bess), Walter Gross (Tenderly) and Burton Lane & E.Y. Harburg (How Are Things In Glocca Morra), etc. AND for years she was the one of the chief pianists in our church…a Pentacostal church, where Black gospel music jumps off the pews…lol. My maternal grandmother was a huge fan of the likes of Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland. My dad was/is a secular music man so after after he'd get home from work (AND mom was through playing the piano) the stereo wascranked up. From Sam cooke, The Temptations, Smokey & the Miracles and Curtis Mayfrield …to Stevie Wonder, Marvin gaye, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Wilson Picket, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross & The Supremes, etc. Then of couse each of us (my sibs and I) grew up to expand on that rich foundation with artists We loved of OUR childhood, from Earth Wind & Fire to Luther Vandross et al. But back to Ashford & Simpson… Though quite young when introduced to the music of Ashford & Simpson my young ears knew GENIUS when I heard it! They were/are among the many artists with REAL talent whose body of work is part of My music library, ALWAYS timely NEVER OUTDATED, MAGIC to the ears and FOOD for the Soul! My thoughts and prayers go out to Nick's partner-in-life AND music, Valerie, and to their 2 daughters. R.I.P Nick. R.I.P. Jerry

Comments on: MUSICAL PASSAGES

By: BD

By: Truthiz