''Brer Soul'' is the debut studio album of

Melvin Van Peebles Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) 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'' ( ...

. Released in 1968, the album introduced Van Peebles as a recording artist, following his work as an

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

maker, playwright and novelist. It is notable for its use of

sprechgesang (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice") are expressionist vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, ''Sprechgesang'' is directly related to the operatic ''recitative'' manner of singing (in which ...

, a vocal style which lies between speaking and singing. Unlike later albums, which are more varied in style, ''Brer Soul'' features an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

style, with

soul jazz Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including ten ...

instrumentation. Van Peebles' unconventional songwriting style has since been cited as an influence on hip hop music and

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

Background

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

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

album.

Style

''Brer Soul'' features Van Peebles delivering spoken lyrics accented by

grooves.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

writer Ed Hogan compares Van Peebles' vocals to "

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, the

comedy album Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

s of

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

from the '70s, and the wild antics of cartoon voice artists

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

and ". Another Allmusic writer, Thom Jurek, compared Van Peebles' delivery to that of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

. Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South

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. Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of

African-American music African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Their origins are in musical forms that first came to be due to the condition of slave ...

: " ..people like

Blind Lemon Jefferson Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929)Some sources indicate Jefferson was born on October 26, 1894. was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues sing ...

and the field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France." The music is more

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-oriented and less

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

-conscious than that of other

artists, such as

the Last Poets The Last Poets are several groups of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African-American civil rights movement's black nationalism. The name is taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who bel ...

and

Gil Scott-Heron Gilbert Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American Jazz poetry, jazz poet, singer, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician ...

. Writer

Darius James Darius James (aka Dr. Snakeskin, born 1954) is an African-American author and performance artist. He is the author of ''That's Blaxploitation: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury)'', an unorthodox, semi-autobiographical h ...

described the music as being minimalist and similar to that of

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...

. While the album contains socially conscious themes, it primarily reflects

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...

rather than political activism or rebellion. 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."

Reception and legacy

''Brer Soul'' has been cited as influencing

and hip hop music. Describing the album,

called the album "'spoken-word' performance at its raw best." 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 African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

R&B-derived music." In 2010, the album was released on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

by RPM, with liner notes by Van Peebles commenting on the album's production and lyrics.

Track listing

Side One

# " Lilly Done The Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail" 7:15 # "Mirror Mirror On The Wall" 4:39 # "The Coolest Place in Town" 3:17 # "You Can Get Up Before Noon Without Being a Square" 3:27 # "The Dozens" 5:05

Side Two

# "Tenth and Greenwich (Women's House of Detention)" 9:06 # "Come Raise Your Leg On Me" 4:16 # "Sera Sera Jim" 4:15 # "Catch That On The Corner" 6:59

Performers

- vocal * Coleridge Perkinson - piano, organ * Warren Smith - drums, percussion * Herb Bushler - bass, bass guitar * Carl Lynch - guitar * Nat Woodard - trumpet * Al Gibbons - tenor saxophone, flute * Howard Johnson - baritone saxophone, tuba * Gene Radice - Engineer

References

{{Authority control Melvin Van Peebles albums 1968 albums Spoken word albums by American artists A&M Records albums