JAMES BROWN - HARDEST WORKIN’ MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS

September 10th, 2008 admin

One of the most fascinating and complex musical stars I have ever produced has to be James Brown. People often over use the word “legend”. 

In his case, there isn’t a big enough word to use as a result of his powerful impact on an entire generation of bands from rock to R&B, soul, rap, hip hop and more. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and countless other world famous musicians have paid tribute to James Brown as a major influence in their life and their music.  Chuck Berry, Little Richard and blues great John Lee Hooker also had similar influence on the music industry.

His dancing style and the way he performed would be mimicked by Michael Jackson, Prince, Mick Jagger and countless others.  But no one had the guts to do the “cape” gag at the end of the show.  After the last song, James, bent over in exhaustion, would be led off the stage as one of the band members put a cloak around him.  Then, James would start dancing, rush back to the mic and let it rip.  He would do this 2-3 times during the finale.  I think it was the coolest thing I had seen as a kid when he was on the Johnny Carson show i.e. that he had given more than his life for his adoring audience but gave a little more - never mind that he left nothing on the table.  Now that’s a showman extraordinaire Jack!

I produced two shows with James Brown in San Antonio and Austin.  From the moment I picked him up with the limo at the airport his persona filled the space around us.  It was like a big rush of the tides coming to shore washing the little people with soul grace.

I noticed he had a standard, brown, nondescript glove on his right hand.  While we were driving in the limo in downtown San Antonio, he asked the driver to stop at a department store.  He went inside and came back out with several boxes of gloves. I asked him about it as it was unusual.  He said, “John, people are dropping like flies in LA”.  He went on further but his point was that he was worried about contracting AIDS which was ravaging the world at that time.

Later, still in the limo, he was talking to me as I was sitting in the front passenger seat.  I moved the rear view mirror to see him.  He said, while rubbing his face, “You feel good to me.  I feel you”.  It was meant as a compliment and I took it as such.  He wasn’t kidding.  That was his way of feeling a connection.

Backstage, I passed his dressing room while he was getting his hair ready in one of those 1950’s bonnet hair driers which was a trip to see. That’s what created the famous “pompadour”.  I noticed his clothes were impeccably arranged - multiple James Brown style suits hung on the clothes rack.  Several pairs of pointy toed, short boots were lined up in a row.  James had a very sleight figure and was incredibly fit.  He maintained that physique until very late in his life. You can learn a lot about a star by seeing the little things that no one else gets to witness.

At about 15 minutes before he was to go on stage, we did the settlement.  I paid him in cash which was a non negotiable part of his contract.  It was a lot of cash.  We were the only ones in a private room near the stage.  He set a gun down on the table and proceeded to county the hundred dollar bills very slowly.  His band was already on stage vamping until he was introduced.  Then, he counted the bills again. The audience could wait while James made sure he wasn’t shorted on his fee thank you so much.

Then, one member of his band started to introduce James.  I have never heard an introduction run on that long.  It went something like this:  “Ladies and Gentlemen.  Are you ready?  The hardest working man in show business. Soul brother number one.  Disco king.  Funk master” and on and on.  The trick worked as the audience - die hard James Brown fans - were whipped in to a frenzy.

Unfortunately, I lost a bundle of money on the two shows that just about gutted me.  Oftentimes, an act will lower their fee partly to help with a large loss if they feel the producer had done everything possible to promote the dates. They need to keep us alive for the next tour.  We were now in Austin the day after that SA gig.  We were driving by Memorial Stadium where the University of Texas football teams plays its home games.  The stadium seats over 80,000 people.  He patted me on the arm in the limo and said, “When I come back, I’ll fill that stadium”.  In other words, you’ll get your money back - eventually.  We didn’t sell more than about 1200 tickets per city.  He wasn’t kidding.  He really believed he could sell out a stadium.

I had taken to calling him “James” from early on in our work.  The last day he said, “I don’t like you calling me James.  You call me Mr. Brown”.  That’s pretty much how we left it.  I never produced him again.

Still, it was another incredible moment in my 35 years as a producer.  James Brown is one of the strangest people I have ever been around off stage.  On stage, he truly was the King of Soul. I wonder that heaven was ready for the likes of him when he hit those pearly gates with “Please, please, please”.  God bless James Brown.

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Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts - Austin, Texas

September 1st, 2008 admin

Between the years 1973 and 1985, I had the honor to have been the co-founder of the restoration and rejuvenation of the historic Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas.  The theatre, built in 1915, was in danger of being demolished for a Holiday Inn.  Located a few blocks south of the Capitol building, the Paramount has long been an anchor business in the heart of the inner city.  An official Texas Landmark, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in Washington, D.C., the Paramount has had a major impact on the cultural diversity of Austin for 93 years combining Broadway plays, music, comedy, variety classic films, ballet, classical music, opera world film premiers, a SWSW venue and more.

In the early years, the theatre played host to legendary performers including Houdini, Helen Hayes, Enrico Caruso, Sally Rand, the Marx Brothers, Cab Calloway, Sarah Bernhardt to name a few.  In 1930, the theatre was upgraded with air conditioning at the same time that the public’s appetite for motion pictures was reaching a fevered pitch. Little by little, over the next three decades, motion pictures became more and more typical while touring live plays and variety acts began to wane.  The Paramount reached a low point becoming a venue for kung fu films and exploitation product in the late 1960’s and mid 1970’s.  ABC Interstate Theatres – the operator of the theatres all throughout the Southwest – had turned its back on all of its downtown theatres allowing them to deteriorate and to be shuttered or demolished in many cases in favor of more profitable suburban multi screen movie theatres..

During the first phase of the Paramount’s reincarnation (1973-1985), the theatre was a major venue for music and comedy concerts via major touring stars and Broadway shows.  Over 200 big music and comedy headliners were presented covering the disciplines of jazz, reggae, rock and roll, R&B, classic rock, folk and more co-produced with Art Squires and Michael Dunham of the then Southwest Concerts.  Billy Joel made his debut at the Paramount among dozens of other touring acts.  Some of these concerts included Little Feat, B.B. King, Iggy Pop, Al Jarreau, Dave Brubeck, Rush, Al Stewart, Randy Newman, Cheech and Chong, Rodney Dangerfield, Toots and the Maytals, Peter Tosh, the Pointer Sisters and dozens more.

The Paramount began this active concert phase overlapping the famed Armadillo World Headquarters.  Owing to the significant difference in the two venues, there were plenty of acts available that fit the aesthetic of both facilities. Even prior to these music powerhouses, the Vulcan Gas Company was actually Austin’s first rock venue in the psychedelic era in the mid 1960’s featuring Johnny Winter, Steve Miller Band, Jimmy Reed and Big Mama Thornton.

Today, the Paramount continues to hold the torch high along with the Austin City Limits Musical Festival, the Backyard, Stubb’s Barbeque, Austin City Limits television show on PBS, the Music Hall, the Long Center, Bass concert hall on the UT campus and innumerable clubs making Austin, truly, the Music Capital of the World.  The theatre is also a favorite for film premieres including work by Ron Howard, Robert Rodriquez, Richard Linklater and others.

Paramount Theatre link:

http://www.austintheatre.org/site/PageServer?pagename=paramounttheatre_history

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