Growing up in the seventies, the whole Blaxploitation movie era was in full effect, and one of the first movies to hit the screen was Shaft. Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree was about a bad ass private eye who got the job done. The movie was cool no doubt, seeing a sharp dressed brother in the leading role, getting the girls and sticking it to the "Man" was a something fresh.
What really made the movie great was the soundtrack composed by the great Issac Hayes "aka" Black Moses. Every song one that album that's right album not CD was outstanding, lead by Theme from Shaft, the most popular song on the album. I couldn't stop playing the album it was that good, the variety of the songs on the album provided music for all ears. "Cafe Regio's" for the Jazz lovers "Do Your Thing" for the funk fans, and "Elle's Love Theme" for the Easy Listeners.
Issac Hayes was awarded a Grammy back in 1971 for this dynamic piece of music. Issac Hayes a musical genius created other great albums that solidified his place in music history. "Hot Buttered Soul", "Black Moses" and "The Issac Hayes Movement". His talents exceeded beyond music, he appeared in several movies, hosted a morning radio show and was a key character in a long running adult television cartoon.
I still play Shaft on a regular basis on my IPod,
his death came much too early and he will be missed.
1 comment:
I'm ashamed to say I initially slept on the genus of Issac Hayes. (Something about the fact that I thought I knew more about music than many of the people who were instantly into him from Black Moses).
But I do remember what a BIG thing it was to have Issac Hayes headline our black student weekend at Yale in 1971 or 1972.
And as I listen back now, during the eulogies, I realize that Issac Hayes, like Barry White shortly after (but really not as well) brought something to black America that we had been missing since Duke Ellington was big: respect for orchestration and arrangement of popular music.
Very very few, black or white, have done it as well since.
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