Lamar Thomas Prom Clips

Send For Me, R & B, Soulful track, taken from the new CD, "Dry Water Wet Tears"

Soul Veteran Lamar Thomas wrote a book that tells the truth about the Blues, Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Rock N Roll

Last year Drew Schultz put out the "Back To Class" CD that benefited the public school music programs in Detroit with The Four Tops and a ton of other old-school Motown artists as featured guests. This music project, which he just starting to continue:

Last Sunday, September 1st, he released the follow up single featuring Eddie Willis, original guitarist of Motown's studio recording band, The Funk Brothers. Eddie is the guitarist on almost every Detroit-era Motown hit by folks like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, The Contours, Mary Wells, Junior Walker & The All Stars, Edwin Starr, and many more. As with the original CD, 50% of the profits will go to benefit the music programs at the Detroit Public Schools. This is the first in a line of singles, and Drew has plans on starting to branch the project out to other cities as well.

Humpty Dumpty is not the traditional egg, but a somewhat egg-shaped bass playing cat! This track is from the CD release "Music in Motion" from Groove Kid Nation. Rodney Lee is a professional musician and with this release he wants to bring the funk into the next generation!

Thursday, April 1, 2004; Page B06

Ernesto McKenzie Phillips, 50, a Columbia resident who was a musician in pop rhythm-and-blues groups and then produced a series of local entertainers, including singers Toni Braxton and Kimberly Scott, died March 25 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after a stroke. He had hypertension.

Mr. Phillips, a native Washingtonian, was raised in Crownsville and graduated from Arundel High School in Gambrills. He was a self-taught guitarist, and during high school he attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore to study trumpet.

He was a graduate of Anne Arundel Community College and attended Howard University, where he intended to study medicine as his father -- a psychiatrist -- had. He decided instead to make music his career.

With his four brothers -- George, Lloyd, Orlando and Gregory -- Mr. Phillips formed Licyndiana, an R&B group named after his mother and his sisters. Ernesto Phillips sang and played guitar. He also wrote songs and did production work.

Singer Renee Diggs, who was Mr. Phillips's longtime companion, and musician-songwriter Kayode "Ky" Adeyemo later joined Licyndiana.

Mr. Phillips had greater success as leader, co-producer and primary songwriter of a successor pop R&B band called Starpoint, which included the same members except for Lloyd.

The band toured nationally, opening for such performers as Luther Vandross, and appeared on "Soul Train," "Solid Gold" and other television programs. Its album "Restless" (1986) sold more than 500,000 copies, according to news reports, and included the hit song "Object of My Desire."

At the 1990 Washington Area Music Awards, Starpoint was named best R&B/urban group. Mr. Phillips, on guitar, was named best instrumentalist.

The group disbanded about 1990 as members went in different directions professionally. Until his death, Mr. Phillips worked as a producer. He owned and operated Longevity Records and Pearl Studios, both in Columbia.

"I pledged that once we made it, I was going to prove there is a lot of talent in this area," he told The Washington Post in 1995.

His best-known find is Braxton, the Grammy Award-winning singer whom he met through a friend.

In recent months, he worked as a counselor for teenagers at Sheppard Pratt psychiatric clinic in Ellicott City.

Survivors include his mother, Ana Phillips, of Columbia; four brothers, George Phillips and Lloyd Phillips, both of Columbia, and Orlando Phillips and Gregory Phillips, both of Annapolis; and two sisters, Diane Laguerre of Elk Ridge, Md., and Lisa Phillips of Columbia.

ATTENTION: A FEW HOURS LEFT

I just wanted to let you know I have found another large auction of soul, funk, jazz, latin and rare groove LP's on eBay right now including many tough to find titles.  There are over 300 LP’s with audio up for some of the more obscure things.  These all end on Thursday, January 23rd.  Here is a link:

Click this link for the auction: http://www.ebay.com/sch/jaybreezie/m.html?_sop=1

Gico Music’s Gina Carey...The Songbird will sing her way back into our hearts on January 31st, with the release of “Gina Carey…The Songbird.”