Chrisette Michele – Yoshi’s, April 17, 2011

I’d like to believe that I’m one of the reasons Chrisette Michele performed at Yoshi’s the weekend of April 15; many months ago, I signed up to receive upcoming event e-mails from Yoshi’s, and they asked if there was an artist I would like to see perform.

I wrote Chrisette Michele.

And the rest, as they always say, is history.

Having seen Chrisette in New Orleans at the Essence Music Festival in July, I hesitated before buying tickets to her last show in Oakland. These days, I have a loose rule when it comes to buying concert tickets – if I’ve already seen the artist perform, I think twice before attending their concert again.

Obviously, I broke my own rule, which is why I say it’s loose.

While she was off stage, Chrisette’s set began with the song Be OK. She appeared before the sold-out crowd sans shoes and wearing a simple white T-shirt and jeans with silver bangles adorning both arms. Her voice sounded a bit hoarse, but I chalked that up to the fact that she performed five shows in the span of three days.

She flowed right into I’m a Star from her third release, Let Freedom Reign, and followed with What You Do and Epiphany, both from her second album Epiphany.

In between songs, she entertained the audience with stories on her song writing process, the real meaning of If I Have My Way (it’s not about sex, but abstinence) and pleasing her pastor, Donnie McClurkin, by writing non-offensive songs.

She paid homage to Erykah Badu (singing Badu's hit On & On) who Chrisette said heavily influenced her style. She also said Badu showed her it was okay to do the music that made her feel most comfortable.

Chrisette called Goodbye Game and Blame It, “angry songs that are hard to sing,” and said one of her favorite penned songs was Best of Me.

She ended the night with an observation about Michael Jackson: When she used to watch Jackson perform and he would tell the audience he loved them, Chrisette wondered how that was possible because he didn’t know every single person.

She said she realizes he truly did because she could feel the vibe and love in the room.

I only have one complaint – her hair. This night, she was wearing braids, but Chrisette cut all her hair off in 2010 and looked absolutely beautiful. Apparently she thought the move was “crazy” because she said that she appreciated people sticking with her even through her "crazy moments" – like cutting off her hair.

I honestly don’t think Chrisette was crazy for going natural and hope she reconsiders going back in the future.

Upcoming show I'm attending: Soul Survivors, featuring Eric Roberson and Vivian Green, Yoshi's, May 25 & 26. Ticket: $22 & $28.

Chrisette performs at the Essence Music Festival in July 2010.

Still in disbelief

One day after I turned a year older, the man who the world knew as the King of Pop went into cardiac arrest and departed this Earth.

The fact that Michael Joseph Jackson is gone still hasn’t quite sunk in just yet. As they were paying tribute to him on the radio yesterday, the tears just started coming.

Crying and driving down the highway, I started thinking just how much of an impact this man’s music has had on my life.

See, I grew up on Michael Jackson. He was to my generation what James Brown was to my parents. His songs provided the soundtrack for my elementary and middle school years.
Off the Wall was released when I was 4 years old, and ironically it was playing on my iPod right before I found out he had passed.

Thriller – released when I was in the second grade – changed music forever. Michael gave us a classic that is still the world’s best selling album of all time.

Here is an album that you play from beginning to end. There’s no skipping of tracks; there’s no “this is my favorite song on the album” because all of them are so good it’s hard to choose just one.

Do you know understand just how difficult it is to create an album like that?

MJ created a music video (Thriller) that had movie-like qualities and transformed how artist utilized the visual medium to sell their music.

Michael changed music forever, and no matter who tries to imitate or be like him, there will never, and I mean NEVER be anyone that will come close to what Michael Jackson gave the world.

Although his music will live on, I wish he would have as well.

There are just some people you can’t fathom will die in your lifetime – and for me, Michael was one of them.

Do you remember Thriller?

This morning, a local DJ remarked that Michael Jackson’s album Thriller is still selling thousands of copies a year – more than 25 years since its initial release.

His comment sparked a memory of when I first saw the video for Thriller. Back in 1984, there was a relatively new television station that played only music videos. Aptly titled Music Television, MTV played music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s hard to fathom that MTV used to be all about music and not what it is today.

In the beginning, MTV did not play black recording artists. Then along came Michael Jackson and Thriller. According to Wikipedia, Michael is the artist who broke the self-imposed MTV color barrier and made it more acceptable for black singer’s videos to be placed in to rotation.

The night of the video’s premiere was preceded by days of anticipation. Everyone knew the day and time the video would be shown. At my god parent’s house, my sister, god sisters, god brother ate fast and I made sure our homework was out of the way.

We did not want to miss this event because we knew the next day everyone would be talking about it at school.

We prepared as if we were going to witness the greatest thing since the showing of the miniseries Roots. In our eyes, this video was something that we would never witness again.

I remember sitting in front of the TV, eating popcorn and waiting for the show to begin.

And what a show it was.

Michael Jackson gave us 14 minutes of something we had never seen before – a video complete with acting and a story line that actually went with the song lyrics. Sitting on the floor, I felt myself becoming scared as the scene opened with Michael and his date being at the movies.

I remember flinching and closing my eyes when Ola Ray did.

Walking down that dark street, we knew something was going to happen. But what? I was on edge the entire video.

Michael Jackson did not disappoint with Thriller. He set the bar high and made it so you expected much more from a music video than just singing and dancing.

Despite what you may think of Michael, his influence and revolutionary way of entertaining us through song changed how we would forever view videos.

There are many who have tried to duplicate his style, but there will never be another artist who has done what Michael has.

Never.