2. Soul Patrol Welcomes Soul Singer/Songwriter Marlon Saunders To Philadelphia Saturday, May 1  

Here is a press release from Marlon Saunders.
It's a FREE event and I invite all of you in the Philly area to come on out to the Intermezzo Cafe and Lounge, located at 3131 Walnut Street in Philadelphia and experience the man I consider to be one of the most prolific 'new' artists on today's music scene!

Marlon Saunders was named as Soul-Patrol's #1 Nu Soul artist for 2003. I have seen him live before and he is SLAMMIN

I'll be there, and as a special bonus, I'll be selling 2004 Soul-Patrol East Coast Convention tickets for just 20 bucks per ticket OFFLINE [remember the online ticket price goes up to $20.00 on May 1st]. Keep in mind that the price goes up to 30 bucks/ticket in June. So those of you who don't want to buy a ticket online will be able to get your tickets for the online price for ONE NIGHT ONLY, if you catch up with me at the listening party this Saturday night :)


2004 SOUL-PATROL EAST COAST CONVENTION

The event is FREE, however bring some X-TRA $$$$ with you that night .
Even if you don't want to buy a Convention ticket, you should buy a CD or two from Marlon. "Enter My Mind" is an EXCELLENT CD and you might even want to buy two, & consider giving one to a friend!

--Bob Davis
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Marlon Saunders, co-founder and lead singer of Jazzhole, comes to Philadelphia May 1 for a listening party and celebration of his recent critically-acclaimed solo debut, Enter My Mind. The New York-based singer/songwriter/producer will also sit at the keyboard for a few live musical selections. This FREE event begins at 8 pm at the Intermezzo Cafe and Lounge, located at 3131 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.

Saunders, who is also a faculty member at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, creates soulful melodies that keep the legacy of good Black music alive. Emphasis is placed on vocal harmony while the band is used to lay the basic foundation of rhythm and soul ala the sounds and stylings of Donny Hathaway, Gil Scott Heron, and Roy Ayers. Saunders use of poetic lyrics, inspired by the writings of Nikki Giovanni, allows the listener to discover the complexities that he sees in soul music.

Saunders has worked with such renowned artists as Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Billy Joel and Michael Jackson, and has penned songs for Barry White, Maysa Leek and Vanessa Rubin. His recently released solo project, Enter My Mind (Black Honey Records/Soulbrother Records UK) has been rated "exceptional" by Vibe Magazine and described by The Baltimore Sun as an invitation "into a sun-drenched place of romantic and spiritual love, of inspired funk, passion and rich imagery.

For more information about Marlon Saunders, please visit www.marlonsaunders.com. For more information about Soul Patrol, please go to www.soul-patrol.com

3. Soul-Patrol East Coast Convention Vendor Info and Tickets

Yes that's right, the Soul-Patrol East Coast Convention going to be a two-day event this year (July 30-21).
We have secured the use of a fantastic multi purpose facility, the Kennedy Center in Willingboro, NJ (right outside of Philadelphia) and this year in addition to providing all of our artists FREE space to display and autograpgh their merchandice, we will be making vendor table space available to other interested entities (for a fee). Click here to veiw the vendor table space application/instructions.(MS Word Document)












































Sound like your kind of event? In addition to the artists listed, longtime Soul-Patrollers Billy Paul, Mighty Sam McClain and Gladys Horton (of the Marvelettes) will also be in the house! Then click on the button, to purchase your ticket(s) (via PayPal) at the current rate of $10.00 (the price doubles to $20.00 after 5/1/2004)

4. Black History: Philly's Uptown Theatre

I remember fondly the Uptown Theatre. It was were I saw my first EVER live show/band/singer/artist//instrumentalist/soloist.It had to be around 1961/62 or so. The acts included Jimmy Smith and Gloria Lynne.I barely remember any particulars because I was very young and enthralled with it all. My hands would be clenched into fists, and sweating badly. I didn't know what to expect. It felt like I was gonna perform. All I DO know was it looked, sounded, and felt GOOD!!!!!
These feelings would repeat themselves many,many,many times again,and again.The butterflies would come before shows at the State, and Nixon Theatres in West Philly, and of course at the Apollo in New York. Remember all of the pictures along the hall of fame in the Apollo? How about those sepia-toned-perfectly-processed-hair-overly-made-up pictures of the stars on the show you were about to see? They often had some description of the act (the temptin Temptations; eighth wonder of the world: Stevie Wonder; wicked Wilson Pikett...and so on) along with the tune that was their current hit.

The combination of Corporate radio ownership; similar situation amongst the record labels; lack of local promoters (due to the aforementioned 'corporate' problems); lack of funding for production costs/promotion; little or no encouragement of local acts/artists/musicians by even having a venue like this at all contributed to the demise of The Uptown.

Stevie Wonder, The Delphonics, The Intruders, The Ethics, The Epsilons, The Unifics, The Ambassadors, Wilson Pickett, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, The Contours, Blue Magic, The Jackson Five, Willie and the Mighty Magnificents, The Magnificent Men, The Vibrations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Manhattans, The Moments, The Whatnauts, The O'Jays,and many many more all appeared there, and that barely scratched the surface of artists that did! You also had the pre-MFSB Earl Young-Sam Reed-Willie
Mitchell-Dexter Wansell-Fat Larry-Bobby Eli-Norman Harris house band. Talent
on top of talent nurtured, developed, encouraged, recorded and (mostly under) paid. This was the legacy of the music business on the black hand side in Philadelphia. There would be subsequent promoters and concerts (the super funkdowns at the Spectrum in South Philly; The Arena and Convention Hall/Civic Center in West Philly) but NOTHING like the intimacy and overall cache of the Uptown.

They reopened the Uptown briefly in the early 80's as a sort of multi-level entertainment center. They called it the NUTEC (New Uptown Entertainment Center). It had like 3 or four floors. They rented out an adjacent building in which there was a jazz club; cold-blooded wine-flow-disco; soft/chill lounge; and a club where people like Marlon Saunders or Rio Soul or (your name here) could perform. Each floor had a room (or club), which had the aforementioned theme. There was an elevator and valet parking. Oh, did I mention that they were simultaneously running shows next door at the Uptown? There was a walkthrough...they weren't completely separate entities. I played there with a lady named Monica Thornton. We got to see James Brown free because we were working there. I also remember going there on a New Years eve to bring in the New Year with The Dells and James Brown. These were Brown's inhuman days when he refused to leave the stage. Obviously a midnight show...we didn't get out of there until dawn...and Brown
was still going strong...I'll never forget it! The live show situation at NUTEC was much like the way they're doing things at the Apollo now. Hardly the five-show-a-day-seven-day-a-week runs of yore. Sporadic events here and there until it all died. Artists cited insufficient pay opportunities considering what they could all command at the bigger venues. I don't even think that the church that occupies the place even uses it anymore.
If I came across a decent sum of money that is one of things that I definitely would invest in. However to anybody that's interested ..the Uptown is mired in a politico-financial quagmire that wont be easily remedied.

Hire A Band
Peace
--LP

5. Soul-Patrol: 3,000,000 Served In March/2004

I'm often asked the question: What Is Soul-Patrol?
And my response is always the same:
"GREAT BLACK MUSIC FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE FUTURE..."

Sometimes when I say that, people give me a puzzled look and say...

"do you mean old skool"?
or
"do you mean classic soul"
or
"just what do you mean"?

My response is...
"GREAT BLACK MUSIC FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE FUTURE..."

they say...."what in the hell does that mean..."?

I explain...
"The term is respectfully borrowed from the Art Ensemble of Chicago and I find it to be
totally descriptive of the nature of the overall activity of the Soul-Patrol website. We are
attempting to cover the last 50 or so years of the history of Black music (what the mass media calls: soul, funk, rock n' roll, blues), with an eye towards helping to figure out a
methodology to extend it's legacy into the future..."

Some people get it
Some people don't

However the internet search engines "get it" and that's why the Soul-Patrol.com domain surpassed 3,000,000 hits for the first time during the month of March.
It is currently ranked NUMBER ONE in both the GOOGLE and YAHOO search engine for many of the search terms that one might consider typing in when looking for information about anything implied by the term...

"GREAT BLACK MUSIC FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE FUTURE"

So if anyone ever asks you what the term...
"GREAT BLACK MUSIC FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE FUTURE" means, just tell them to spend some time surfing the 650 web pages or the 500,000 data base pages site and they will learn what it means...


--Bob Davis