DUKE ELLINGTON ELLINGTON AT NEWPORT
COLUMBIA, 1956
PRINCE was the son of a jazz pianist father and vocalist mother, but his own interest in classic jazz wasa slow evolution. He credited his longtime saxophonist, Eric Leeds, for turning him on to Duke Ellington’s comeback concert recording, whose 15-minute “Diminuendo And Concerto In Blue” featureda show- stopping Paul Gonsalves solo. Prince especially dug that “the solo went as long as it did [because] this lady jumped up on a table and started dancing to the rhythm, so naturally nobody wanted to quit”, he said in 1997.
JAMES BROWN VARIOUS SINGLES
KING,
LATE 1960S – EARLY 1970S
James Brown is central to Prince’s legend — the young tyro famously rode his bike to north Minneapolis record shops to pick up each new JB 45. Prince clearly absorbed the Godfather’s lessons: “Funk is the opposite of magic,” he said shortly before he died. “Funk is about rules.” Prince covered Brown numerous times in concert, notably “Cold Sweat”, “Soul Power”, “Sex Machine” and “Licking Stick — Licking Stick”.