Latest news with #TheStapleSingers
RNZ News
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Music Feature: The legendary Mavis Staples.
This week for our music feature, Dianne Swann is here to guide us through the music of the greatest singers of all time, the legendary Mavis Staples Mavis has spent over 70 years on stage, she began her career at just 8 years old when she debuted as a singer with her family band 'The Staple Singers'. She later forged a remarkable solo career and became a powerful voice in the civil rights movement Over the decades, Mavis has sung across a wide range of genres - including gospel, soul, folk, pop, R&B, the blues, rock, and hip hop. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Montreal Gazette
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Dunlevy: Mavis Staples kicks off 45th Montreal jazz fest with a whole lotta soul
Music It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout. Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset. Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement. 'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back. 'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago. She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge. And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling. She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.' Then came the Staple Singers' 1971 classic Respect Yourself, covered by Bruce Willis for a pop chart smash in 1986. Staples sang it with brooding purpose and Gospel-infused intensity. She took it down a notch for Friendship, her touching 2023 collaboration with Norah Jones, in the final stretch. As satisfying as her performance was, Staples left fans hanging by leaving the Staple Singers best-known song I'll Take You There off the set list. It's not like there wasn't time. The band wrapped up just shy of 10:40 p.m. The stage was booked 'till 11. It was a baffling finish to an otherwise memorable show. Earlier on, Philadelphia R&B artist Bilal exhibited his jazz chops in a far-ranging, virtuosic set on the Rogers Stage. Colombia's Balthvs had warmed up the main stage crowd with a trippy batch of psychedelic instrumental grooves; and at the corner of Jeanne-Mance and Ste-Catherine Sts., their countrymen Kombilesa Mi fused hip-hop chants with frenetic, traditional percussion to intoxicating effect. Meanwhile indoors, Mexico's Natalia Lafourcade, Montreal DJ Kid Koala, Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning North Carolina multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, Pakistani-American vocalist Arooj Aftab and American jazz freaks Clown Core held court at various venues as the jazz fest got off to a rousing start.
Ottawa Citizen
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Dunlevy: Mavis Staples kicks off 45th Montreal jazz fest with a whole lotta soul
Article content It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout. Article content Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset. Article content Article content Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement. Article content Article content 'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back. Article content 'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.' She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago. Article content She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge. Article content And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling. Article content She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.'
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Mavis Staples can teach us about resisting Trumpism
On Sunday, June 8, I sat in a gentle rain at the Chicago Blues Festival with thousands of others, waiting for Mavis Staples to take the stage. At 85, Staples is an icon, with songs that include 'Why? (Am I Treated So Bad),' 'For What It's Worth,' 'Freedom Highway' and 'Long Walk To D.C.' As part of The Staple Singers, she helped provide the soundtrack for the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the long Black Freedom Struggle. We must see legends like Staples while they are still with us. We are losing so many of them so fast. The Staples Singers' music helped people keep marching when it was hard. Those songs taught lessons about how to resist the terror of Jim and Jane Crow and its many forms of evil; they were a literal cadence for people to march toward justice, and they reflect the centrality of music to Black Americans as a source of cultural resistance, struggle, triumph and joy in the face of oppression. As Cornel West said in a 2012 interview, 'The blues is an autobiographical chronicle of a personal catastrophe expressed lyrically and endured with grace and dignity. Meaning what? Meaning that the blues are all those who are willing to look unflinchingly at catastrophic conditions.' In Chicago, the rain stopped, and Mavis Staples walked out onto the stage. The audience clapped and whooped and hollered. She welcomed the crowd with her song 'City in the Sky.' Then she launched into the freedom anthem 'I'm Just Another Soldier,' singing, preaching and teaching at the same time: You know I'm just another soldier in the army of love I'm just another soldier in the army of love Hut two three four; crying sometimes as I go I'm just another soldier in the army of love Now hate is my enemy; I gotta fight it day and night Love is tha only weapon with which I have to fight I believe if I show a little love for my fellow man Then one day I'll hold the victory in my hand During these dire times, America needs many such soldiers. Next to me, an Asian brother jumped up and down to the music like he was 'catching the spirit' at a tent revival somewhere in Mississippi. For a moment, I thought he was going to fly away up into the sky. Near him was an older white sister, smiling, nodding and clapping along. I immediately recognized her as a long-in-the-fight hope warrior, an old hippie or other anti-war peace-and-justice type who was reliving her youth. I would not be surprised if she had some personal stories of marching in places like Selma and Birmingham, singing those same songs. She was 'good white people' who had found lots of 'good trouble' in her life. I wanted to thank her. To my right were two older Black women. One was seated in a walker; the other was in a wheelchair. But not for long. Staples literally got the sick and infirm to stand up. Before the concert, I had made a promise to myself: I would not look at the news on my phone during the show. I needed a haven from the oppressive energy of Trumpism, from what was happening in Los Angeles and around the country. Predictably, I broke that pledge. No matter the power of Staples' words and voice, my mind could not help drifting westward. Trump is using his personal 'Battle for Los Angeles' to expand his autocratic rule and nakedly authoritarian campaign to end multiracial democracy. He has federalized the California National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in mass deportation efforts — and to help put down protests that may arise in response. On Sunday night, he made it clear: The target of these high-profile raids are Democratic-led cities and blue parts of the country. This move is central to Trump's plan to seek political retribution for those who dissent and, more broadly, to take away the American people's civil rights and freedoms. The Germans call this 'synchronization,' or 'gleichschaltung.' CNN recently reported that Trump's deployment of federal troops in Los Angeles was not, as too many in the mainstream news media had dutifully parroted, spontaneous. In reality, the administration has been planning for months to use the military as part of its mass deportation — and larger authoritarian — campaign. In a new essay, Rick Wilson, co-founder of the pro-democracy organization the Lincoln Project, boldly warns that the future of American democracy is imperiled by Trump's escalating and largely unprecedented use of military power in Los Angeles and, potentially, across the country: The military is not a domestic police force. It is not a tool of partisan vengeance. It is not a weapon to be brandished at political enemies. But Donald Trump doesn't care. He wants to blur that line. Erase it. Smash it. Because if the only thing between him and ongoing, eternal power is American democracy, then American democracy is what must die. And it won't die with a bang. It'll die with a bullet, fired by a Marine who was never meant to be there in the first place. This is what authoritarianism looks like. Not in jackboots and armbands, but in curated TV clips using old footage, policy memos, press conferences, and armed deployments justified by lies. Michael Waldman, the president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, echoes Wilson's alarm. 'For years,' he writes, 'we have warned against the danger of an unchecked president turning the military against American civilians… The situation in Los Angeles is bad. What might come next could be worse.' On Saturday, at more than 2,000 locations across the country, 4 to 6 million people said 'enough.' The 'No Kings' protests offered a stark contrast to Trump's military parade and de facto birthday celebration that took place the same day in Washington, D.C. In advance of the parade, he warned that any protesters who attempted to disrupt the spectacle would face 'very heavy force.' As it turned out, heavy force was unnecessary. Conditions in D.C. were cloudy and rainy. Parade organizers were forced to start the event early to avoid the worst of the weather, and attendance was embarrassingly low. The Independent's Richard Hall described it as 'something closer to a medium-sized town's July 4th celebration.' During an interview with MSNBC, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson was less generous. 'It was a colossal waste of time, effort and money we don't need,' he said. 'That's not who we are; we don't do these kind of things. We don't march down the streets like that. We prove ourselves and our value as an army, our strength as an army through our actions, not parades. That's something that dictators do.' During her performance, Mavis Staples performed her iconic song 'Freedom Highway.' As she sang, I couldn't help but think that to get through the next 1,300-odd days — and potentially longer, if Trump 'wins' a third term — the American people will need to internalize Staples' loving command to 'march for freedom's highway / march each and every day.' Political scientist Erica Chenoweth, co-author of 'Why Civil Resistance Works,' has argued that if just 3.5 percent of a country's population actively and peacefully opposes the government, the protesters can begin to force some concessions. The No Kings protests were a good start on the long march to end the Age of Trump. But the highway promises to be long and difficult. Detours and roadblocks will demand much more than just showing up for a few hours on a day in June. The march looks to be perilous. Do the American people have the heart, soul and bravery for this freedom struggle? They, and the world, will soon find out. The post What Mavis Staples can teach us about resisting Trumpism appeared first on
