The Roots' Questlove To Release Book Chronicling History Of Soul Music

If you really want to prove your fandom to legendary live hip hop crew The Roots, and learn an awful lot of music history in the process, then the band’s leader has a great offer for your essential music library.

Already headed to Australia as headliners of the Falls Festival 2013 lineup, part of WA’s Southbound festival, and a couple of headline sideshows, The Roots’ drummer Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson has revealed details of a brand new book that chronicles the history of soul music via one of the genre’s key cultural platforms, legendary long-running American TV series Soul Train.

As much as the Afro’d ringleader of the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon house band is an avid practitioner of music and much-touted collaborator (most recently with Elvis Costello on Wise Up Ghost), Questo is a voracious music listener, historian, and reader (to rival even David Bowie and his list of 100 essential reads), all which will be self-evident with the publication of Soul Train: The Music, Dance and Style of a Generation, as SPIN reports.

Set for release on 22nd October by Harper Design publishing, the tome will track the history of soul through the lens of the vintage variety show, that helped launch the careers of pioneers such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, The Jackson 5, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and even young bucks like LL Cool J and Lenny Kravitz.

The Roots drumming author heavily committed himself to the project. “I’ve spent every free second of my life listening to music, watching Soul Train, creating music, and reading books about music… That’s what I did with my life.” Questlove told SPIN. The hip hop hero also had unprecedented access to the Soul Train archives, with Questlove viewing over 1,100 episodes of the Don Cornelius-hosted program, as well as photos and documentation.

Questlove’s words are “paired with more than 350 photographs of the show’s most memorable episodes and the larger-than-life characters who defined it: the great host Don Cornelius, the extraordinary musicians, and the people who lived the phenomenon from dance floor,” according to the synopsis from publishers Harper Collins.

As well as featuring the penmanship of Thomson, Soul Train: The Music, Dance and Style of a Generation also features a contributed foreword from The Pips’ leader, Gladys Knight, as well as actor/artist/Mr. Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon – a former dancer on Soul Train – who writes the book’s preface.

The Soul Train title is in actual fact the second book authored by Questlove, his first being Mo’ Meta Blues, a “punch-drunk memoir” that covers Ahmir Thompson’s career in his own words, including his rise with The Roots and his “plethora of run-ins with celebrities, idols, and fellow artists, from Stevie Wonder to KISS to D’Angelo to Jay-Z to Dave Chappelle to… you ever seen Prince roller-skate?!?” according to the synopsis of publishers Grand Central.

A long-running music career, two books, an ongoing gig as the house band for a popular US Network show, celeb friends, a twitter junkie, and a regular stint lecturing at New York University about classic albums by Michael Jackson and the Beastie Boys – it’s a wonder Questlove gets anything done at all!

The Roots Australian Tour 2013

with special guest URTHBOY

Friday 27th December – Sydney | Hordern Pavilion (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

Saturday 28th December – Melbourne | Festival Hall (All Ages)
Ticketmaster.com.au | Ph: 136 100

Frontier Members pre-sale via www.frontiertouring.com/theroots | Tuesday 8 October (2pm AEDT ) to Wednesday 9 October (2pm AEDT)
General public on sale from Thursday 10 October (9am local time)

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