james brown nicknames
Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, The King of Funk, Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Please Please Please Please Her, The Boss and foremost the Godfather of Soul.
- he worked as a drummer and organ player in the club's house band which accompanied Bill Johnson, the Four Steps of Rhythm and the Gospel Starlighters.
- At that time, they switched from gospel to r&b which was then in the air.
- Later, James Brown became a member of Bobby Byrd's gospel group Three Swanees which became the Swanee Quintet and later the Swanees.
- In 1955, the singer Sylvester Keels and the guitarist Nafloyd Scott where part of the group.
- The band toured Georgia and developed into the Famous Flames, a black music revue in which all members had at least to play two instruments and to act as dancers and singers.
- In 1956, James Brown took over the direction of the Famous Flames which consisted of Keels and Scott, but also Johnny Terry and Nashpendle Knox, Wilbert Smith and Ray Felder, Clarence Mack and Edison Gore.
- James Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, as an only child in 1933.
- His father was a filling station attendant.
- When James was four, his parents separated and he grew with his aunt, a poor woman in Augusta, Georgia. Brown left school in the seventh grade.
- He picked cotton, was a shoe-shine boy, washed cars and dishes and swept out stores.
- At the age of 16, he took part in an armed robbery and was caught breaking into a car.
- James was sentenced to eight to sixteen years' hard labor.
- He served a short period in the county jail before being transferred to juvenile work farms.
- He spent three years in a community home.
born:may 3 1933
died:
In April 1990, after only having spent 15 months at the State Park Prison in Columbia, South Carolina, James Brown was moved to a reintegration center for good conduct. During that period, he produced radio and television contributions warning against alcohol and drug abuse. In February 1991, he was released on the condition that he neither drove or possessed firearms.
in 1964, James Brown had several hits in the US charts
James Brown transformed popular music.
He not only added gospel dialogues and a jazzy saxophone played by Maceo Parker, but as well as being the "Godfather of Soul" he is the "Godfather of Funk" since he invented the style long before George Clinton came along
The IRS was was asking James Brown to pay $4,5 million back tax.
The contract with Island Records was cancelled.
He switched to RCA. In 1983 he had two singles in the UK charts, Bring It On - Bring It On
The irony was that George Clinton had looked up to James Brown as his model. James Brown was also a role model for ghetto kids. He made political statements, donated money to colored organizations, supported programs against drug abuse and fought for the ideas of Martin Luther King.
His decline began when musicians like Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley and Bootsy Collins left him in order to join, with the exception of Ellis, George Clinton's bands Parliament and Funkadelic.
In the summer of 1991, James Brown made his comeback on the scene of the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Together with a twelve-man band and a dynamic show, he enchanted a public which included Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones and MC Hammer
He was involved in a radio station bribery scandal, his marriage broke up and his son Teddy died in a car accident.
In 1985, James Brown had a hit with the title song to Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV. His patriotic hymn Living in America
In 1969, Look magazine called him "the most important black man in America", LeRoi Jones "our number one black poet"
In 1987, James Brown was arrested for drug abuse for the fifth time in ten months. His resistance to the police, an attack on his wife and the illegal possession of arms made it worse.
The tax debt forced him to sell his radio station and his airplane. In order to overcome his financial difficulties, he had to tour Japan and Africa. Until then, he had sold over 100 million records.
In the mid-1970s, the picture darkened.
In December 1988 he was convicted of the attempted murder of his wife and sent to prison for six years.
James Brown became a victim of the disco revolution. A guest part in the cult movie The Blues Brothers in 1980 allowed him a comeback that led to a success with the title Rapp Payback
In 1993 he received a Grammy for his life-time achievements. The same year, his album Universal James tried to reconcile tradition and contemporary styles by mixing soul with hip-hop. Neither the critics nor the public liked it.
In 1988, Brown was accused by his wife of assault and battery. After a year of legal and personal troubles, he led the police on an interstate car chase after allegedly threatening people with a handgun.