''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 early 2020s. His feature film debut, ''The Story of a Three-Day Pa ...

. 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 film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

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

sprechgesang (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, is directly related to the operatic re ...

, 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 whe ...

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

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 sa ...

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

hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

and

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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 A comedy album is an audio recording of comedic material from a comedian or group of comedians, usually performed either live or in a studio. Comedy albums may feature skits, humorous songs, and/or live recording of stand-up comedy performan ...

s of

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...

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

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 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 come ...

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. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

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

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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

African-American music African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their African-American culture, culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the Slavery in ...

: " ..people like

Blind Lemon Jefferson Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929) was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular and successful blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Fat ...

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

-oriented and less beat-conscious than that of other

artists, such as the Last Poets 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 for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackso ...

. Writer Darius James 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 Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

. 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. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...

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

. Describing the album, Darius James 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 known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

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 co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

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