Motown

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff DETROIT — As the radar map from Weather.com shows, we've got some major bad weather coming this way. There's a tornado watch for this area and the tarp is already on the field weighed down by 11 tractors of varied sizes. We will keep you posted as to the status of the game.

MAYER HAWTHORNE With Chromeo 1 At: House of Blues , 15 Lansdowne St. , Boston , Tuesday, 8 p.m. . Tickets: $25-$35 , 888-693-2583 , http://www.houseofblues.com As Mayer Hawthorne has proven, it doesn't take an old soul to understand soul music. As a hip-hop DJ/producer working in Los Angeles in 2009, the Michigan-born singer (real name Andrew Cohen) recorded a handful of soul songs as an informal side project that was never intended for release.

LOS ANGELES — Teena Marie, who made history as Motown’s first white act but developed a lasting legacy with her silky soul pipes and with hits like “Lovergirl,’’ “Square Biz,’’ and “Fire and Desire’’ with mentor Rick James, has died at the age of 54. The confirmation came from a publicist, Jasmine Vega, who worked with Ms. Marie on her last album. Ms. Marie, known as the “Ivory Queen of Soul,’’ was certainly not the first white performer to sing soul music, but she was arguably among the most gifted and respected, and was thoroughly embraced by the black...

NEW YORK - Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for the likes of Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others, died yesterday at age 70, his former publicist said. Mr. Ashford, who along with his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote some of Motown's biggest hits, died in a New York City hospital, said Liz Rosenberg, who also was Mr. Ashford's longtime friend. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had undergone radiation treatment, she said.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Songwriter Ron Miller, whose tunes included the pop classics "Touch Me in the Morning" and "For Once in My Life," died Monday of cardiac arrest at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center after a long battle with emphysema and cancer, said his daughter, Lisa Dawn Miller. He was 74. Mr. Miller got his start in the music business in the 1960s, when Motown founder Berry Gordy saw him perform at a piano bar and invited him to Detroit as one of the label's first songwriters and record producers.

DETROIT -- Willie Hutch, an award-winning Motown and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter, and producer who co-wrote the Jackson 5 hit "I'll Be There," died Monday in Duncanville, Texas. He was 60. The cause of death was not available. Born Willie McKinley Hutchison in Los Angeles, he grew up in Dallas. Best known for his work at Motown during the 1970s, Mr. Hutch -- along with Hal Davis, Bob West, and Motown record label founder Berry Gordy Jr. -- co-wrote "I'll Be There" for the Jackson 5, which went to No. 1 in 1970.

Funk is in the air this weekend. The much-acclaimed Papa Grows Funk , voted New Orleans's best funk band at the Big Easy Awards, is at Harpers Ferry tonight. Then tomorrow the Funk Brothers , the Grammy-winning act featuring Motown sidemen who were the subject of the film "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," headline the Berklee Performance Center. An added treat is that Peabo Bryson and Phoebe Snow will be their guest vocalists. Elsewhere tonight, Boston rockers Missing Joe headline the Paradise, while the Charms hold a CD release party at T.T. the Bear's with Cracktorch , Sarah...

I generally have a hard time believing anything that any of the Jacksons say. No, I’m not suggesting they’re out-and-out liars. It’s just that their lives have been so thoroughly distorted by media overexposure, they’re always straining to counter public perception, or to feed the tabloid ticker. And their comments are so sopped with grandiose warm-and-fuzzies about love for the fans and love for one another, they generally seem more disingenuous than honest. A&E’s six-hour reality series “The Jack5ons: A Family Dynasty’’ did not change my mind.

MAYER HAWTHORNE With Chromeo 1 At: House of Blues , 15 Lansdowne St. , Boston , Tuesday, 8 p.m. . Tickets: $25-$35 , 888-693-2583 , http://www.houseofblues.com As Mayer Hawthorne has proven, it doesn't take an old soul to understand soul music. As a hip-hop DJ/producer working in Los Angeles in 2009, the Michigan-born singer (real name Andrew Cohen) recorded a handful of soul songs as an informal side project that was never intended for release.

Most people know a couple of salient facts about Marvin Gaye: He was a brilliant musician and he died a tragic death, shot by his father the day before his 45th birthday. Beyond that, though, the story of Gaye's life and music hasn't been widely told, and the PBS documentary "Marvin Gaye: What's Going On," which premieres tonight, feels long overdue. Unfortunately, it also feels a bit thin, especially when it comes to Gaye's incalculable impact on the evolution of black popular music.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff DETROIT — As the radar map from Weather.com shows, we've got some major bad weather coming this way. There's a tornado watch for this area and the tarp is already on the field weighed down by 11 tractors of varied sizes. We will keep you posted as to the status of the game.

The years between ages 19 and 21 are often formative ones, a fact that you hear throughout Adele’s assured new sophomore album. The British singer was still in her teens when she wrote the songs on her debut, which won Adele the Grammy for best new artist in 2009. Her riveting vocals on that album suggested she wasn’t an ingenue, but the songwriting came straight from the heart of a young woman getting her first taste of failed romance. She called her first album “19,’’ and its follow-up is “21.’’ Here’s the catch with Adele: No matter the quality of...

LOS ANGELES — Teena Marie, who made history as Motown’s first white act but developed a lasting legacy with her silky soul pipes and with hits like “Lovergirl,’’ “Square Biz,’’ and “Fire and Desire’’ with mentor Rick James, has died at the age of 54. The confirmation came from a publicist, Jasmine Vega, who worked with Ms. Marie on her last album. Ms. Marie, known as the “Ivory Queen of Soul,’’ was certainly not the first white performer to sing soul music, but she was arguably among the most gifted and respected, and was thoroughly...

JORDAN VALENTINE & THE SUNDAY SAINTS “VAN VAN & CLEO MAY’’ Self-released There are few singers around town who can touch Jordan Valentine for brassy bluster and old-school sizzle. But capturing the energy, urgency, and charismatic swagger of an in-the-moment live performance, and then translating it to a studio setting for posterity, is another matter entirely. Just ask James Brown, Tina Turner, or Otis Redding — all of whom blazed brightest under the hot lights, working it out in front of a live audience.

After getting his start as an electronica DJ in his native England, Jamie Lidell confounded listeners when he stepped in front of the mike and delivered a one-two punch of blue-eyed soul albums (2005’s “Multiply’’ and 2008’s “Jim’’). Lidell’s third studio effort, “Compass,’’ transcends mere Motown homage: This unsettling record is the indie-rock answer to Sly Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On,’’ with warped vocals, twitchy polyrhythms, and tensely funky instrumentation.

I generally have a hard time believing anything that any of the Jacksons say. No, I’m not suggesting they’re out-and-out liars. It’s just that their lives have been so thoroughly distorted by media overexposure, they’re always straining to counter public perception, or to feed the tabloid ticker. And their comments are so sopped with grandiose warm-and-fuzzies about love for the fans and love for one another, they generally seem more disingenuous than honest. A&E’s six-hour reality series “The Jack5ons: A Family Dynasty’’ did not change my mind.

MANSFIELD -- Supreme cool is an ineffable quality. But you know it when you see it, or hear it, and Steely Dan -- a.k.a. singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen, guitarist Walter Becker, and, this time out, 10 sublime servants of a singular legacy -- had it in spades during a sharply focused two-hour performance Sunday night. With the exception of a lengthy drum solo -- rock music's equivalent of the leisure suit -- and the band handing over the opening verses of "Do It Again" to ex-Doobie Brother-cum-Motown revivalist Michael McDonald, who flattened them, this was a flawless evening.

Solange Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams (Geffen) ESSENTIAL "I Decided Part 1" When she made her tepid debut five years ago, Solange Knowles clearly wasn't ready for the big leagues. But Beyonce's sister sure is now. This is such a smartly executed, classy set of songs that's miles away from the hoochie pop being turned out by young female R&B vocalists these days. Solange is confident and in command throughout, and she sings with commitment and sass on "Valentine's Day" and the Mark Ronson-produced "Six o'clock Blues.

Pop Michael Jackson Hello World: The Mowtown Solo Collection Hip-oselect.com ESSENTIAL “Got to Be There’’ In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death, sales of his albums have raced up the charts as if it were 1982 all over again. Fans, and surely some new ones who missed out on “Thriller’’ and “Bad’’ the first time around, have been hungry to relive those musical moments that shot Jackson’s fame into the stratosphere. But before that, Jackson was finding his voice and identity as a wunderkind solo artist on Motown.

INDIE ROCK Portugal. The Man The Satanic Satanists Approaching Airballoons ESSENTIAL “Lovers in Love’’ And you thought Sarah Palin’s absurdist non sequiturs were the trippiest thing to ever come out of Wasilla. On “The Satanic Satanists,’’ the prolific Alaskan-bred outfit Portugal. The Man channels Motown and funk excursions, folk anthems, and “Abbey Road’’-style rock and soul experimentation into a collection of songs as tightly wound, and potent, as stuffed rolling papers.