Brer Soul | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1968 | |||
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Label | A&M | |||
Producer | Melvin Van Peebles | |||
Melvin Van Peebles chronology | ||||
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Brer Soul is the debut studio album of Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1968, the album introduced Van Peebles as a recording artist, following his work as an independent filmmaker, playwright and novelist. It is notable for its use of sprechgesang, a vocal style which lies between speaking and singing.
Unlike later albums, which are more varied in style, Brer Soul features an experimental spoken word style, with soul jazz instrumentation. Van Peebles' unconventional songwriting style has since been cited as an influence on hip hop music and rapping.
While living in France, Van Peebles began to write plays in French which were intended to express the ghetto's turmoil and pathos. Van Peebles used the sprechgesang vocal style in these plays as a form he could tell stories in. This style formed the basis of his debut as a recording artist, Brer Soul, which was categorized as a spoken word album. [3]
Brer Soul features Van Peebles delivering spoken lyrics accented by soul jazz grooves. [1] Allmusic writer Ed Hogan compares Van Peebles' vocals to "Louis Armstrong, the comedy albums of Bill Cosby from the '70s, and the wild antics of cartoon voice artists Mel Blanc and Hans Conreid [ sic ]". [4] Another Allmusic writer, Thom Jurek, compared Van Peebles' delivery to that of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. [5] Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South Chicago. [6] Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of African-American music: "[...] people like Blind Lemon Jefferson and the field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France." [7]
The music is more jazz-oriented and less beat-conscious than that of other spoken word artists, such as the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. [1] Writer Darius James described the music as being minimalist and similar to that of Charles Mingus. [2] While the album contains socially conscious themes, it primarily reflects stream of consciousness rather than political activism or rebellion. [1] Allmusic writer Richie Unterberger describes Van Peebles' lyrics as "portraits of romantic losers, a women's house of detention, and admiring the neighborhood foxes, all delivered in Van Peebles' brand of hipster jive." [1]
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Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Brer Soul has been cited as influencing rapping and hip hop music. [3] [4] [7] Describing the album, Darius James called the album "'spoken-word' performance at its raw best." [2] Allmusic gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with writer Richie Unterberger calling it "an interesting antecedent to the use of spoken prose in African-American R&B-derived music." [1] In 2010, the album was released on compact disc by RPM, with liner notes by Van Peebles commenting on the album's production and lyrics. [1]
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Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
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What the...You Mean I Can't Sing?! is the fourth studio album by Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1974, this album marks the first traditional music effort by Van Peebles. Previously, Van Peebles released the experimental spoken word albums Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack.
Ghetto Gothic is the fifth studio album by Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1995, this album marks the second traditional music effort by Van Peebles, after What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! Previously, Van Peebles released the experimental spoken word albums Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed To Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack.
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Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Tunes from Blackness) is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Van Peebles. The musical contains some material also on three of Van Peebles' albums, Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack, some of which were yet to come out.
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