The late Billy Preston giving a transcendent performance at possibly the very first major fund raising concert in 1971 organised by The Beatles guitarist George Harrison for the folk of Bangladesh. I was reminded of this song when a compilation program celebrating 250 great performances from 'Later... with Jools Holland' was shown recently.
On the same program DJ Trevor Nelson, when talking about Mary J Blige, used the expression 'Took it to church' to describe a particularly brilliant performance where artist and song become one entity, a special moment which transcends personal taste and totally captivates the whole audience. I immediately thought 'Took it to church' as an expression to describe something so special by linking it to 'church' was both challenging and something to always aspire to...
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2 comments:
Excellent stuff, this is really cool Peter! I saw the aforementioned clip from Later with Jools Holland and was taken to church myself by Billy Preston. I first discovered him on the Rolling Stones' 'Exile on Main St.' album which he infuses with a lovely gospel touch with his Hammond playing.
Cheers James... yes, BP was a fantastic exponent of the Hammond AND use of the Leslie, of course, which is such an important part of his technique. You can see him literally 'taking it to church' on the piece from which I chose the title of this post: Music is A Voice of God... fabulous stuff!
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