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Pointer Sisters <thepointersisters>

"I know there's a pot of Gold for me. All I've got to do is just believe."

	Backstage With Anita Pointer	528 dagen geleden
	This legendary performer knows how to put on a show, and living a healthy lifestyle plays a major role. by Dan Carrison The life of an entertainer has much in common with that of a professional athlete. In either case, reward depends upon a curious mixture of self-assertion and self-sacrifice. Both professionals are, in every respect, performers who must take command when their moment arrives, but who must also surrender to a schedule that threatens to drain the very energy they are expected to deliver. It’s not easy. So why do they do it? For Anita Pointer and the Pointer Sisters, the answer is simple: “Love!” she exclaims. “In what other profession do so many people show their love for you and what you’re doing? It’s worth all the travel and all the hassle because the love of an audience can really be very humbling and very wonderful.” Anita is just as grateful for the quieter displays of affection. “We were doing a world tour based on the Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin’. One night, we performed for an elderly audience, which remained seated before us and didn’t—and couldn’t—whistle and stomp. But the love emanated from them as clearly and as strongly as from any audience of more excitable fans. It was very moving.” The Pointer Sisters have been feeling the love, and returning it, since childhood. With parents in the ministry, sisters Ruth, Anita, Bonnie, and June began pleasing congregations early on, singing gospel music with a joyful exuberance that would characterize their later performances. Bonnie and June were the first to go professional, as a duo; they were soon joined by Anita and became the Pointer Sisters in 1971. A couple of years later, Ruth joined the group, and the quartet of beautiful, talented sisters began making unforgettable music history. In 1974, the group recorded two gold albums (albums selling over 500,000 copies). In 1975, they won their first Grammy. In 1978, the Pointer Sisters, by this time a trio (Ruth, Anita, and June), released their hit single “Fire,” which soared to the top of the pop charts. In 1980, the album He’s So Shy, as well as the titular track from that record, went gold. The following year, “Slow Hand” became a gold single and was followed by another gold album, Black & White. The trio added two more Grammys to their collection as well as two American Music Awards in 1985, all while their best-selling album, Break Out, sold over 3 million copies! This album features the smash hits “Jump (For My Love)” and “I’m So Excited.” From then on, this remarkable team—now comprised of Anita, Ruth, and Ruth’s beautiful daughter, Issa—continued to appear on stages around the world before throngs of adoring fans. All the World’s a Stage “We went to Belgium contracted to do three shows,” explains Anita, “and ended up doing 10!” As if that weren’t enough pressure, the Pointer Sisters had previously committed to doing a television show in Paris. “We hopped on a train, did the show, then hurried back to Belgium,” laughs Anita. “It was pretty hectic!” Europe is only one of the continents toured by this tireless trio. “One of our greatest trips,” recalls Anita, “was to Africa. We accompanied Muhammad Ali to Zaire for his championship fight with George Foreman. I’d never seen so many people: 300,000 strong. I visited villages there and ate dinner in huts. I spent the night on the Congo River and watched the sun rise and the fishermen going out in their tiny canoes.” Anita remembers the first time they toured Egypt. “We got in late and went immediately to sleep. In the morning, I opened the window of my hotel room and standing there before me were the three pyramids! I was so astonished, I dropped to my knees and thanked God for giving us the chance to see the world, and to sing to the world.” Intense Workout “Not only do we dance and jump and kick as we sing, we’re doing it under the hot lights of the stage. It can be exhausting, especially if you do 10 shows in 14 days. But, thankfully, a responsive audience gives you energy.” How is she able to maintain such a pace? “Well, we all try to eat very healthfully. Ruth is especially good at keeping us on the straight and narrow. The first thing she does in a foreign country is go to the local market. She brings home the greens and the fruits and vegetables and that’s what we eat. If we do go to a restaurant, you’ll never see butter or gravies or white bread and rice at our table. We eat salads and broiled fish and stay away from the desserts.” The Show Must Go On As performers, their reputation for reliability is impeccable. Shows are booked months, perhaps years, in advance. However, viruses have no regard for a singer’s schedule. “I’ve gone on stage so sick, [with] a doctor waiting in the wings,” recalls Anita, “but I wasn’t about to let the audience down. That’s our philosophy as a group: the show must go on. One of my sisters, years ago, left her hospital bed to appear on the Johnny Carson Show. She just made herself do it. “Of course, the trick is not to have to push yourself. So we work at staying healthy year-round because we are booked year-round. We eat right, take vitamins, exercise, and stay away from the vices you read about in the entertainment industry, like alcohol and drugs. It’s not rocket science, but it’s amazing how many performers don’t treat their bodies right.” Anita also has a “daily routine of drinking liquid greens,” a ritual she swears by. As to their future plans, “Retirement has crossed our minds, because there are other things we’d like to do one day,” Anita says. “But I imagine we’ll be performing as long as we can.” When asked how she continually moves forward, she tells the Journal, “Being happy is the real source of energy, and happiness is the real source of healing.”
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	Pointer Sisters jump, jam, jubilate at the Meyerson ...	605 dagen geleden
	By MARIO TARRADELL / The Dallas Morning News mtarradell@dallasnews.com Sometimes concerts don't need to be long-winded. In a short hour, backed by their band and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the enduring Pointer Sisters delivered a blast of a show Sunday afternoon at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The gig was the last of a three-performance engagement that began Friday night. But if this was the finale, that opener must have been uncontainable. The revamped sistahs include mainstays Ruth and Anita and third Pointer Issa, Ruth's daughter with former Temptations member Dennis Edwards. Issa replaces June Pointer, who died of lung cancer in 2006. By the encore, 1984's "Jump (For My Love)," the house was jamming. Everybody was standing up, folks were dancing, clapping and the ambience was jubilant. The Pointer Sisters always banked on feel-good music, whether it was of the pop-R&B variety or the occasional excursions into country and seductive balladry. While the '70s and '80s remain the trio's heyday, nothing sounded dated. That's because they tackled well-written songs with plenty of rhythm, heart and groove. Plus, Anita and Ruth looked fabulous. They looked just as good as Issa, who is easily 30 years their junior. The voices haven't lost any shine, either. During "Slow Hand" clearly one of the sexiest ballads of the last three decades, Anita proved her vocals remain strong, penetrating. Ruth put plenty of soul into "Neutron Dance," the powder-keg hit that defined an era. Issa got her turn in the spotlight during "Dare Me." Her rich, potent pipes served the slinky number well. Issa was the one to watch while aunt Anita belted "I'm So Excited." The song, which was pure frenetic fun, prompted Issa to kick up her heels chorus-line style and wiggle her rear with frivolous abandon. You couldn't help but get caught up in the infectious allure. Finally, in an effort to remain hip, the Pointers refashioned their early '70s staple "Yes We Can Can" into an urbanized, bass-heavy manifesto featuring Anita rapping. It was way cool. These women can still work it.
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	USA Singles Discography (1971-2005)	672 dagen geleden
	Don't Try To Take The Fifth / Tulsa County - Atlantic 2845 (12/71) Destination No More Heartaches / Send Him Back - Atlantic 2893 (3/72) Yes We Can Can (Edit) / Jada - Blue Thumb 229 (7/73) Wang Dang Doodle (Edit) / Cloudburst - Blue Thumb 243 (12/73) Steam Heat (Edit) / Shaky Flat Blues - Blue Thumb 248 (3/74) Fairytale (Edit) / Love In Them There Hills (Edit) - Blue Thumb 254 (9/74) Love In Them There Hills (Edit) / Fairytale (Edit) - ABC/Blue Thumb 254 (10/74) Live Your Life Before You Die / Shaky Flat Blues - ABC/Blue Thumb 262 (2/75) How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side) (Edit) / Easy Days - ABC/Blue Thumb 265 (7/75) Going Down Slowly (Edit) / Sleeping Alone (Edit) - ABC/Blue Thumb 268 (11/75) You Gotta Believe (From "Car Wash") / Shaky Flat Blues - ABC/Blue Thumb 271 (11/76) Having A Party (Edit) / Lonely Gal - ABC/Blue Thumb 275 (10/77) I Need A Man (Edit) / I'll Get By Without You (Edit) - ABC/Blue Thumb 277 (12/77) Fire / Love Is Like A Rolling Stone - Planet 45901 (10/7 Happiness / Lay It on The Line - Planet 45902 (3/79) Blind Faith / The Shape I'm In - Planet 45906 (10/79) Who Do You Love / Turned Up Too Late - Planet 45908 (11/79) He's So Shy / Movin' On - Planet 47916 (7/80) Es Tan Timido / Cosas Especiales - Planet 47918 (8/80) Could I Be Dreaming / Evil - Planet 47920 (10/80) Where Did The Time Go / Special Things - Planet 47925 (12/80) Slow Hand / Holdin' Out For Love - Planet 47929 (5/81) What A Surprise (Edit) / Fall In Love Again - Planet 47937 (9/81) Sweet Lover Man / Got To Find Love - Planet 47945 (11/81) Should I Do It / We're Gonna Make It - Planet 47960 (1/82) American Music (Edit) / I Want To Do It With You - Planet 12354 (6/82) I'm So Excited / Nothin' But A Heartache - Planet 13327 (9/82) If You Wanna Get Back Your Lady (Remix) / All Of You - Planet 13430 (2/83) I Need You (Remix) / Operater (Alternate Version) - Planet 13639 (9/83) Automatic (Edit) / Nightline - Planet 13730 (1/84) Jump (for my love) (Remix) / Heart Beat - Planet 13780 (4/84) I'm So Excited (Remix) / Dance Electric - Planet 13857 (7/84) Neutron Dance (Edit) (From "Beverly Hills Cop") / Telegraph Your Love - Planet 13951 (11/84) Baby Come And Get It (Edit) / Operater - Planet 14041 (3/85) Dare Me (Remix) / I'll Be There - RCA 14126 (6/85) Freedom (Edit) / Telegraph Your Love - RCA 14224 (10/85) Twist My Arm (Remix) / Easy Persuasion - RCA 14197 (2/86) Goldmine / Sexual Power - RCA 5062 (10/86) All I Know Is The Way I Feel (Remix) / Translation - RCA 5112 (2/87) Mercury Rising (Remix) / Say The Word - RCA 5230 (5/87) Be There (Remix) (From "Beverly Hills Cop II") / (Dub Version) - MCA 53120 (7/87) He Turned Me Out (Edit) (From "Action Jackson") / Translation - RCA 6865 (1/8 I'm In Love (Edit) / Uh-Uh - RCA 8378 (5/8 Power Of Persuasion (From "Caddyshack II") / (Instrumental) - Columbia 08015 (11/8 Friends Advice (Don't Take It) (Remix) / (Dub) - Motown 1986 (5/90) After You (Edit) / (no b-side) - Motown 2061 (8/90) Insanity (Remix) / (no b-side) - Motown 2071 (10/90) Don't Walk Away (Edit) / Tell It To My Heart - SBK 17637 (10/93) Christmas In New York - YMC 00401 (Promo Single - 10/05)
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	Classic Tracks: The Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can"	673 dagen geleden
	Classic Tracks: The Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can" By Blair Jackson. When the Pointer Sisters burst onto the national scene with “Yes We Can Can” in mid-1973, they seemed completely different from any other popular group of the time. The Oakland, Calif. — born sisters — Anita, Ruth, June and Bonnie — clearly had some gospel music in their background and oodles of “soul,” but they also had a look and sound that hearkened back to the '30s and '40s, with echoes of Billie Holiday and the great female big-band singing groups. Nobody was going to confuse these girls with The Supremes. And “Yes We Can Can” was the perfect vehicle for their intricate harmonies and upbeat attitude: The song, written by the great New Orleans producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint, had been a minor R&B hit for Lee Dorsey in 1970 (Dorsey had previously had hits with such Toussaint numbers as “Ya-Ya,” “Working in the Coal Mine” and “Get out of My Life Woman”), but it was essentially unknown in rock music circles. The Pointer Sisters, it turned out, successfully bridged the white and black music worlds, and “Yes We Can Can” was precisely the kind of optimistic anthem of harmony and brotherhood that seemed to strike a universal chord at a politically volatile and divisive time. “Yes We Can Can” was one of a number of fine songs the Pointer Sisters recorded at the suggestion of David Rubinson, who produced their first few albums. “I had loved the original of that song,” Rubinson told me recently by phone from Jamaica where, now retired from the music business, he lives several months a year. “In fact, I loved almost everything Allen Toussaint ever wrote; what an amazing man! But I could really hear the Pointer Sisters doing that one, and in that case, my instinct was right.” By the time Rubinson and his studio partner, engineer Fred Catero, recorded the Pointers' eponymous first album, he was already well-established in the Bay Area recording community. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., Rubinson got his start at CBS Records in New York in the mid-'60s, at first doing Broadway soundtrack work, then moving into other genres, working with everyone from Mongo Santamaria to the Clancy Brothers to comedian Phyllis Diller. Along the way, he went to San Francisco and checked out the burgeoning rock scene there in the late '60s, producing classics such as Moby Grape's first album and the Chambers Brothers' The Time Has Come, and falling in love with the area. After he was unsuccessful in his attempt to get CBS to open a major studio in San Francisco (that would come later), he and Catero left New York and moved to the Bay Area as independents (still a rarity in 1969) and set up shop in a mid-sized studio called Pacific Recording in San Mateo, south of San Francisco. Outfitted with a custom console and one of the first Ampex MM-1000 16-tracks when the New York duo arrived, Pacific Recording later acquired a Quad Eight console when those came in vogue; that was the board they used to record various projects by the likes of Herbie Hancock, Taj Mahal, Cold Blood and others. For a while, Rubinson worked as part of Bill Graham's Fillmore Corporation, but by 1972, he had broken off and formed his own production and management company, David Rubinson & Friends (of which Catero Sound was one element). The Pointers, meanwhile, were following their own path. Bonnie and June sang as a duo in Bay Area clubs; after Anita joined, they went to Houston hoping to make a dent in the music scene there, but ended up broke and desperate instead. A call to Rubinson, who had admired their talent but did not know them well personally, brought them enough money to return to the Bay Area, where he started to use them as backup singers on projects by Cold Blood, Elvin Bishop and others. “The greatest thing about the Pointer Sisters back then is they hadn't been brainwashed by anything,” Rubinson reflects today. “Not by religion or ghetto life — they didn't really pre-conceive who they had to be and what they had to look like or sound like. They were very open. But they were also sui generis; there's no place they really fit, which is why I was so attracted to them. I remember very early on I gave them a Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album, which they'd never heard, and a couple of days later, they came back with it learned. It knocked me out. They were singing with Sylvester, which I think is part of how they were influenced to wear thrift-store clothes and boas and all that, and they seemed to be able to sing just about anything.” Catero notes, “David was one of those people who, if someone had raw talent, if you were undirected but artistic and had a lot of energy, he could mold them into a viable act. That's what happened with the Pointer Sisters. He really shaped them and directed them and found what they were best at. So much of that first album was songs and ideas that he came up with.” Rubinson and Catero almost didn't get the chance: The Pointer Sisters first sessions were cut for Atlantic Records, but that label was interested in a more traditional “soul” sound, and neither the group nor the label were pleased with the results. So in early 1972, Rubinson signed the band to a management deal, and it was around that time, too, that sister Ruth joined the group. That fall, they went into Pacific Recording and started work on the group's first album, beginning with “Yes We Can Can,” “Jada” and “Cloudburst” (all of which they had demo'd before the Atlantic Records debacle). As fate would have it, midway during the recording of the album, Rubinson and Catero left Pacific Recording for good and moved their operation to Studio A of Wally Heider Recording in San Francisco, the hottest facility in town. “We were busy, busy, busy,” Catero recalls. “It seems like we barely slept.” Studio A, too, was equipped with a Quad Eight console, but by '72, Heider's had switched from Ampex 16-tracks to 3M models. The studio was a famously good-sounding tracking space, with a nice complement of high-quality microphones and a great-sounding echo chamber. “I know we did the basic track for ‘Yes We Can Can’ at Pacific Recording,” Rubinson says. “I can remember recording [drummer] Gaylord Birch there — getting that bass and drum part down that was the foundation of the song.” (On the album, there are no musician credits for individual songs, but Rubinson's recollection is that the bass on that song was played by Richard Greene of the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, whose nom de bass was Dexter C. Plates. Ron McClure played bass on most of the album, however.) The guitarist was Willie Fulton, “who had really invented this whole funky, slinky sound as part of Tower of Power,” Rubinson continues. “Boy, was he funky!” Fulton laid down a rhythmic thwack all through the song, and later added an overdubbed lead part. And really, that was it: The rest of the track is the intricate vocal arrangement, with Anita's lead dancing above perfect group harmonies for nearly all of the tune's six minutes. “We used to rehearse our asses off to get the vocals right,” Rubinson says. “That's one thing I really believed in. Because if you got the vocals down in advance, then you could get free in the recording and have some fun. When you hear some of the other vocals on the first album, we let them be raw; we didn't refine some things. And that makes them sound very human. The best thing about ‘Yes We Can Can’ is that Anita's vocal is so human and so real, and then the way it meshes with the background vocals and the double layers going against each other is very organic.” Rubinson says that he always liked to record vocals live with the band playing, “and then we'd go and put in the background vocals and leads and we'd see what spaces were around rather than putting down a whole bunch of [instrumental] tracks and trying to fit the vocals around that. Having all those vocals that double-back on each other didn't leave a lot of room for other things, so we left it simple. It's funny, because later, after the song was done, various people asked me, ‘Aren't you going to add some horns? Don't you think it needs some keyboards?’ And I'd look at them stupefied because it was right there; there was nothing else needed.” When it came to recording the Pointers, “I never liked to put a group of vocalists on their own mics because they know what their blend is better than the engineer and I do,” Rubinson says. “They balance themselves and they react instinctively and intuitively — they know when to move in, move out, shape the tones to match. When you have people all on different mics, you're dealing with headphones and the monitor mix and they're not hearing their blend the way they're used to. So to record the Pointer Sisters, we always put them around one microphone”; in this case, a Neumann U87. “The great thing about the 87 is it had a 360 setting; you could open it all the way around,” Rubinson continues. “You could do a cardioid pattern or a 180 or a 360. I think when we were still at Pacific Recording, we might have used a [Neumann] 67, but we definitely used an 87 [at Heiders].” “We didn't care about leakage,” Catero adds. “Unless they were going to change vocal parts, it didn't matter. We always did as much as we could live in the studio.” Rubinson says that the intricate vocal parts — indeed, all of the tracking and overdubbing — was done fairly quickly, “a matter of hours, not days. We had a very limited budget — maybe $15,000 to $20,000 — but beyond that, I never believed in whacking at vocals for hours and hours, and I didn't like picking three words from one take and five words from the other take. If you have good musicians and good singers, that shouldn't be necessary. I was more interested in getting good performances.” Clearly the formula worked. The album was released in March 1973 to immediate acclaim, and an edited version of “Yes We Can Can” stormed the airwaves that summer, lodging at Number 11 on Billboard's pop chart and Number 12 on the R&B chart. This started a chart run for the Sisters (and Rubinson) that included “Fairytale,” “How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side),” “You Gotta Believe” and “Having a Party.” In the late '70s, Bonnie departed for a solo career and the remaining trio and Rubinson parted ways, as well. Then, with producer Richard Perry at the helm, they traded their vintage look for modern clothes, and they went in a more rock direction, scoring huge crossover hits with such songs as “Fire” (by Bruce Springsteen), “He's So Shy,” “Slow Hand,” “Automatic,” “Jump (For My Love),” “I'm So Excited” and “Neutron Dance” — all cracked the pop Top 10. By the late '80s, however, their star had faded and they never regained their footing as a popular act. Even a mid-'90s turn back to their earlier style, spearheading a new version of the Fats Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin', failed to turn the tide in their favor. But today, they still are fondly remembered as hit makers and true originals in a world filled with copycats and sound-alikes. And “Yes We Can Can” was the beginning.
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	The Pointer Sisters - Greatest Hit Singles ...	689 dagen geleden
	The Pointer Sisters amassed twenty-five Top 40 Pop and R&B hits in the United States between 1973 and 1990. They remain the second most successful female vocal group after the Supremes on both the Pop and R&B singles charts according to Billboard magazine. 1973 "Yes We Can Can" (Pop #11/R&B #12) 1974 "Wang Dang Doodle" (R&B #24) 1974 "Fairytale" (Pop #13) 1975 "How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side)" (R&B #1/Pop #20) 1975 "Going Down Slowly" (R&B #16) 1976 "You Gotta Believe (From Car Wash)" (R&B #14) 1978 "Fire" (Pop #2/R&B #14) 1979 "Happiness" (R&B #20/Pop #30) 1980 "He's So Shy" (Pop #3/R&B #10) 1980 "Could I Be Dreaming" (R&B #22) 1981 "Slow Hand" (Pop #2/R&B #7) 1982 "Should I Do It" (Pop #13) 1982 "American Music" (Pop #16/R&B #24) 1982 "I'm So Excited" (Pop #30) 1983 "I Need You" (R&B #13) 1984 "Automatic" (R&B #2/Pop #5) 1984 "Jump (For My Love)" (R&B #3/Pop #3) 1984 "I'm So Excited" (Remix) (Pop #9) 1984 "Neutron Dance (From Beverly Hills Cop)" (Pop #6/R&B #13) 1985 "Baby Come And Get It" (R&B #24) 1985 "Dare Me" (R&B #6/Pop #11) 1985 "Freedom" (R&B #25) 1986 "Goldmine" (R&B #17/Pop #33) 1988 "He Turned Me Out (From Action Jackson)" (R&B #39) 1990 "Friends' Advice (Don't Take It)" (R&B #36)
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	KLEOPATRA GIRL'S RINGSIDE REPORT: Bonnie Pointer @ Jax Bar and Grill in Glendale, Ca.	707 dagen geleden
	Once a reigning diva during the disco era with her famous sisters, Bonnie is still flying solo singing the Blues. But don’t cry for her, this pro says, she still the ‘midnight bitch.’” JAX Bar and Grill or “Jazz at JAX” (as locals call it) is a little hideaway club in Glendale next to the city’s B of A main banking location. If you were to blink you’d pass right by it, but it is a lively night spot once you make your way inside through its long narrow entry that boasts a red-wood bar that stretches across the wall from the entrance to mid-club. Musicians and jazz aficionados in the know are hip to this longstanding small joint that serves great platters of hearty fare and the most delicious mashed potatoes West of the Mississippi along with delectable Cali-fornia cuisine. On January 2nd, of the New Year this is the place I stopped by to hear Bonnie Pointer sing. You may remember Bonnie as one of the Pointer Sisters. They were a hot girls group in the seventies. Some might even say they were equivalent to Destiny’s Child and that would not be stretching the imagination too far. After settling in with a drink and some crispy calamari and condiments, I was ready for a little retro, hoping to hear some of the recordings that made the Pointer Sisters so famous like “Yes We Can Can.” From where I was sitting, practically arms reach from the stage with a view of the entrance, I saw this very slender woman enter, wearing a long gold beaded dress, with an oversized faux leopard coat half off her shoulders. I turned to my friend and asked, is that Bonnie Pointer? Seems to me I remembered her being curvier and a little more glamorous. (Later I learned she had forgotten her make-up). When Bonnie was introduced by her producer, Michael Francis Takamatsu, yes it was the same person I had just seen a few minutes prior. Okay, now I was prepped for Pointer Sister songs, but that was not on the music menu. Bonnie Pointer was showing a very sophisticated music flair and her repertoire was versatile, from soul to blues, to scat, to samba and even singing in Spanish (I might add she handled it very well). Bonnie demonstrated that she had departed from the disco era and that she could tackle new and different music styles, one right after the other. I enjoyed her rendition of the song “Smile.” She invited the intimate crowd to smile along with her and they were receptive and cheered her on. She even sat in a gentleman’s lap and he was smiling and loving every minute of it. Bonnie really grasped me though when she sang the blues. Her body language and facial expressions while singing tunes that called for emotions emanating from deep within blew me away. Her face and demeanor changed and she was feelin’ her songs as if she had been there. No longer smiling, her eyes were even moist on the verge of teary. I couldn’t help but look at her and think… Billie Holliday. For a minute I also thought of the film Sparkle and the tragic character “Sistah” portrayed by actress, Lonette McKee. Bonnie had that style and brokenhearted persona and yet, she would bounce back to jazz or lively samba with ease, with the help of Alexandra Caselli on piano and Rochelle Coatney on timbales percussion, and smile once again showing the audience her pearly whites. Just when you thought she was a lost in the sadness of the blues, she’d switcharoo. It was a great fake-out and reassuring I must admit. Once a fantastic singer always a fantastic singer regardless of what music genre you are singing, I always say. Bonnie, a Grammy recipient shows that she still has solid performance abilities. After her set I had a chance to speak with her and Bonnie told me that she is also rapping these days and plans to break out with a rap record. She gave me a little sample. Hmmm, not bad, not bad, just needs a little fine-tuning and this die-hard from West Oakland will be right on pointe. Bonnie is a survivor and fearless that’s for sure. I also asked, being so busy on the road and on the go does she ever just “call it in” (entertainment term to perform on auto-pilot) and she responded honestly that she has at times. I was also curious to find out what she wanted fans to know about her that they didn’t already know…. she responded that she’s down, she’s Black, she won’t stop till she gets enough. “I also want them to know I’m still the midnight bitch!” Apparently others think so too including the media. Fox news crews were on hand to catch Bonnie on stage. On March 09th Bonnie Pointer is scheduled to appear with legendary activist, Desmond Tutu at the Prince Albert Theatre in England to celebrate the Abolition of Slavery. –Kleo out. Eugenia Wright is a former actress turned freelance writer/publicist. You may write to her at kleopatragirl1117@hotmail.com.
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