Annual James Brown Tribute Concert To Remember Brown As The MLK Jr Of Music

Bootsy Collins wants to keep the music and memory of James Brown alive and well. He recently stated, "I don't want people to forget what he's done. To me, he's like the Martin Luther King Jr. of music." Therefore, he's spent much of this year organizing a series of annual James Brown tribute concerts and the first one will take place Saturday, December 22nd. December 25th marks the one-year anniversary of Brown's death. Proceeds from the event will contribute to the rebuilding of King Records in Cincinnati, the early recording home of James Brown and the launch of a museum. According to Billboard:

Organized through Collins' Bootzilla Productions, the inaugural James Brown Tribute Concert will take place at the Madison Theater in Covington, Ky., located across the bridge from Cincinnati. Featured acts include Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, rapper Lil' Boosie, Buckethead, Freekbass and Brown's most recent band, The Soul Generals.Also on tap: an appearance by members of the JB's, Brown's original backing unit, including Collins, his brother Catfish and drummers Clyde and Jabo. On hand as well will be comedians Michael Colyar, Tommy Davidson and Brown's longtime MC Danny Ray, as well as members of the Brown family and the family of late Brown collaborator Bobby Byrd.

The city of Cincinnati is supportive of the museum idea, which Collins intends to be a hands-on interactive experience through which today's youth can learn more about instrumentation and performances. Like a language that is being lost, Collins wants the next generation to embody the passion that James Brown brought to his music. Billboard quoted Collins:

"We're losing the feeling in music," adds Collins who plans to release a new album, "The Money Monster," in summer 2008. "This generation doesn't have a clue that it's being slowly programmed out of us. I want to do as much as I can to help keep the feeling there."

For more info, check out the article on Billboard.James and Bootsy live "Sex Machine"A very unusual collaboration between Brown and Pavarotti:This performance is so incredible, I just had to include it here.