ERYKAH BADU

In the mid-'90s, a record executive named Kedar Massenburg coined the term "neo-soul" to describe a new breed of R&B artists—particularly D'Angelo, Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, and a certain head-wrapped chanteuse from Dallas—who defined the incense-fogged utopianism of the period. The name stuck, but Erykah Badu, now 40, never loved the label—fortunately she outlasted that moment in music. Or rather, she transcended it. First with the sultry, ballsy "Tyrone," letting her freak flag fly both sonically and follicly, through more than a decade of jams, and into the future with her recent New AmErykah diptych. Badu talks here about growing up in Dallas, getting inspired by Steve Harvey, and learning to keep it real from Mahalia Jackson and her grandmother.

GQ: What inspires you?
Erykah Badu: Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You literally mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy.

GQ: What was the experience that spawned your last two albums, New AmErykah Part One and Part Two?
Erykah Badu: I didn't have a vision for it. I don't think about that before I start writing. Not until a body of work starts to appear do I think about a concept for it. It's usually not because of what I'm saying, it's because of the frequency of the music—it all sounds right together, you know? Certain kinds of music make me write about a certain kind of thing.

GQ: What about when you're putting a tour together?
Erykah Badu: That's different. When you're doing an album, you're perfecting a moment in time that will be like that forever. When you're performing, you're creating a moment. It's a different mindset, you know? You need that immediate feedback from the audience, who have come for the same reason you came. It's more fun, with less deadlines and pressure, and a lot more freedom.

GQ: How often do you change your set list?
Erykah Badu: We have a certain set we rehearse, and then, depending on how the audience is feeling, I change it up. Like for [the festival] Rock the Bells, I was supposed to be doing [her 1997 debut album] Baduizm in its entirety and that's kind of wild. That was not written to be done as a live album.

GQ: What's it like going back to that record now?
Erykah Badu: I do a lot of it in my shows. The whole thing, from beginning to end. It matters to me, where I was at that time, the things I remember going through.

GQ: How are you different now?
Erykah Badu: I'm more experienced in certain areas but I have the same me to evolve as I did then.

GQ: Back in 1997, there was a lot of attention being paid to neo-soul. Did you feel a part of that moment?
Erykah Badu: It was constructed outside of us. I think titles in music are mainly constructed to categorize things to sell units. If I can speak for a lot of artists who feel the same way I do, it doesn't really matter. I don't have one song that sounds like another one in my entire catalog. It only sounds alike because I'm present in all of it.

GQ: Would you change anything about the way you handled the start of your career?
Erykah Badu: Nope.

GQ: You're happy with how everything played out?
Erykah Badu: Absolutely. I don't have a horror story at all.

GQ: How did you get started as a singer?
Erykah Badu: I had been a theater major and a dancer for most of my life, from the time I was 4 years old. I liked singing and any kind of art and I knew this love for art and this practicing would be my career at some point. I just didn't know if it'd be theater or film. I wrote my first song when I was in a group with my cousin, called "Apple Tree." My cousin liked the song; he played it for people and they liked it, and I said, "Alright, another one!"—and on and on, until we had put together a 14-song demo in Dallas in his room. We took a couple of pictures and we were called Erykah Free—his name was Free. But in my heart, I didn't want to be in a group. I wanted to be a solo artist. I'm a warrior, a lone kind of chick. We separated and I moved to New York and auditioned for many labels and they didn't really get it. A couple put me into artist development—a Special Ed kind of thing [laughs]. Then I met this guy, Kedar Massenburg, who was managing D'Angelo at the time, and he understood what I was doing. He also understood that what me and D'Angelo had in common was not that we sounded alike, but that we didn't sound like what was happening [in music at the time]. That's how Kedar put it. He asked me to open for D'Angelo when he went to Dallas and Kedar really liked what he heard and both of us got a deal at Universal and I've been there ever since. I've been moved to Motown 'cause they divide you up like cattle in different sections of the system—the machine [laughs]. Anyway, Baduizm came out the way it was as a demo. I added a few songs from The Roots whom I did not know until I moved to New York. "The Other Side of the Game" turned out to be my favorite song to perform live. Period.

GQ: You were a rapper at one point, too. Was there a time when being an MC seemed more likely for you than being a singer?
Erykah Badu: That was back when I was in college. I went to [Grambling State] university from 1989 to '93 to study theater, so I was an actor at that point. It wasn't my aspiration to be a singer, it was to be an artist. When I was 23 or 24, I was rapping and emceeing a lot with Free, but I was also working at Steve Harvey's comedy house. He was my boss—the best boss ever. Funny, generous, considerate, and he knew I was an artist. When I started working there I was a waitress, and somehow I became a hostess. When he knew he could trust me, he moved me to the ticket booth. I handled money and helped organize transportation and hotel reservations for the comedians that came in. I noticed Steve didn't have a stage manager, so I got that job, making sure everybody was taken care of. I love being of service to people—the whole act of it is really great to me. One day Steve was late going onstage, so I went out to the mic and threw out some jokes and stuff. People were laughing and heckling and having fun and Steve came onstage and scolded me in front of everybody. It was so funny. We started doing it every night. [Laughs] It felt like, This is where I want to be. Steve was really inspirational in that.

GQ: Do you remember when you first sang in public?
Erykah Badu: I was five or something. At school. I was in a Christmas play in kindergarten. There was a part of a little boy who sings "Somebody Snitched on Me," and all the boys in my class were in line auditioning. So I got in line, too. It was acting, and I figured I could act like a boy. The music teacher, Ms. Goodman, who had a big influence on me, encouraged me to do it. The other kids were laughing, but I was like, I'm serious, I can pull this off if you give me the opportunity. That was the first time. I was petrified and at first my voice and hands were shaking, but when I saw people having that look—the look I always look for, the I'm happy for you look—I knew I was doing a good job. I got unscared and, you know, pulled some antics, and that was my first time.

GQ: When you were making that demo with Free, did you ever imagine you'd end up where you are now?
Erykah Badu: I just knew it felt good and I had a real competitive spirit, just wanting to be accepted among my peers. I didn't know. I still don't know. I try to be honest and I keep moving.

GQ: What was Texas like when you were growing up?
Erykah Badu: Texas, to me, was my school, home, my Church sometimes, the movies sometimes. My world was in my head—it still is. I didn't know who was poor or rich. My mom and grandma and everybody just made it a good time all the time. Music was always going. My grandmother was very, very hard, and I saw that, but we would always be laughing. I got two grandmothers and my mother's mother and father's mother are both in their 80s and still alive and still—how do I put it?—actively opinionated. [laughs] And I trust them dearly. My grandmother on my father's side bought me a piano when I was seven. I didn't know how to read music, so she'd put the charts up, and she don't know how to read either, so I would pretend. If she hears this interview, then she'll know that, otherwise she'll never know! I wrote the first song on that piano and she sang. She has a beautiful voice. It reminds me of [starts singing] Soon I will be done... [stops singing]. What's that lady's name? An old gospel singer. Very famous.

GQ: Mahalia Jackson?
Erykah Badu: Yes! She was a straitlaced grandmother, very religious. If I had to sing something on the piano, it couldn't be saying baby or nothing, it had to be Jesus. It had to mean something.

GQ: How did that influence you?
Erykah Badu: Greatly! I still carry that with me. Not literally, but I understand the lesson, which is, Make sure it's real. When you do it, it gotta be real, or that's not it. That is something I carry with me in my pocket.

GQ: Did your mother encourage you being an artist?
Erykah Badu: Hell yeah. She's my number-one fan, supporter, and everything. I don't know nothing about failing as a result of what she says to me. "You're gonna win. You're the best. Don't worry about it. You got it. You're the dopest. They can't fuck with you." That's her. All day. That's, to me, an example of great parenting. Maybe we missed a couple things, some name-brand cookies, but I had everything.

GQ: What did she think of your moving to New York?
Erykah Badu: Same thing. She encouraged me. She saw it before me, you know? She knew what was going to happen because she saw how much time I put into my craft. She made it available to me. Instead of going to summer school, go to summer art camp. She would meet people in charge of certain programs, and we'd get in for free—different art programs and things. She knew. She noticed it. My mom is an artist in her own way, not in the same way I am, but she recognized that I had a talent. [long pause] She didn't push me to do it, or make it something I had to do; I didn't feel like I was living vicariously through her. She knew what was up, you know? She rarely came to the shows. She had other stuff she needed to do. But I showed her the pictures, what I wore. She knew. We had such a great relationship.

GQ: Your style is like nobody else. Where did that come from?
Erykah Badu: That's just what I was. That's what I love about Kedar: He didn't say anything about that. I felt embraced by him. It just so happens that it was something fresh to people. I try to keep it fresh, you know? I enjoy it. It's art, for me. It's a functional art.

GQ: What's next thing for you?
Erykah Badu: I'm recording an album right now, with [experimental music producer] Flying Lotus. I'm touring. But things are slowing down now 'cause my children are in school again. [Badu has three children: a son with Andre 3000; a daughter with rapper the D.O.C.; and a daughter with rapper Jay Electronica.] This is the time of year when we all nest in our little home in Dallas and cook breakfast and all those things we been doin' on tour, just in one place. I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside.

GQ: How did you and Flying Lotus hook up?
Erykah Badu: We were talking to each other on MySpace years ago when MySpace was a thing. Social networking was how we hooked up. I told him I'd be in L.A. and he came over to Steve Wilson's house—Stevie is a psychedelic guitar player, a great musician. If both of our worlds can meet and we feel good about it, it's going to be something dope.

via gq.com

'Living Hell':

Somalia's Hidden Rape Epidemic

October 26, 2011 - 4:47pm | admin

By Taylor Hom

Nadifa, a widowed mother of four, left her hut near Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to search for food. When she returned home hours later, she found a man raping her 11-year-old daughter. Nadifa tried to defend her daughter but was torn away by armed men as she screamed. The neighborhood watched helplessly as the men abducted Nadifa. She was pistol-whipped, kicked, punched, and scorched with burning plastic. 

In Somalia, this is no anomaly. In a country torn by civil war, terrorism, and a mass famine, tens of thousands have died, and there has not been a functioning government for two decades. In mid-October, Kenya invaded Somalia, allegedly to fight al-Shabab, one of the world’s most fearsome terrorist organizations. With rising food prices, aid agencies like the UN’s World Food Program fear increased problems with food theft. While the world focuses on al-Shabab and food aid efficiency, the deteriorating situation has created an environment ripe for escalating gender violence. While the whole of Somalia carries the weight of the famine blistering the Horn of Africa, it’s women like Nadifa who bear the burden of the nation’s humanitarian catastrophe. Ensuring the safety of Somali women will pay long-term dividends for the stability of the country, and in the short-term, save thousands from the horrors of rape.

Sinead Murray, a program manager for the International Rescue Committee, says there has been a four-fold increase in sexual violence since June. More and more women are being raped while fleeing to refugee camps, and even more tragically, once they are inside the camps as well. With no form of authority to punish the rapists, women fear menial tasks like walking to a bathroom. Establishing an efficient means of food aid in this corrupt nation is essential, but it won’t do much good if women have to fear leaving their homes. 

International forces have given money and various forms of aid to the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia and neighboring Kenya, who hosts thousands of Somali refugees in Dadaab camp, the world’s largest refugee site. It is time these international forces, alongside the Somali and Kenyan governments, make protecting women a priority. Rape has become not just a tactic of war but a devastating social norm. Amid so many other problems, women’s rights have been placed on the backburner. If gender violence continues unnoticed and unpunished, beside the scars of starvation and war, there will be a fear embedded in the women of Somali that no level of international aid can heal. Gender violence undermines any potential success in the region.

Somalia is one of the world’s worst places to be a woman, according to a recent survey by Trust Law, a project of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Somalia’s minister for women's development and family welfare, Maryan Qasim, says she is “completely surprised” that Somalia isn’t number one (it currently ranks behind Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo), calling the nation a “living hell” for females. 

Since women rarely report sexual violence, the statistics are at best fuzzy. Being a rape victim is taboo in Somalia. Al-Shabab considers a woman that reports her own rape to be a criminal. In 2008, Amnesty International released a report of a 13-year-old girl who was killed after her family reported she was raped. A number of eyewitnesses say she was brutally beaten to death in front of 1,000 spectators. She was buried neck high and pelted with stones. Allegedly, during the stoning, nurses were sent to check if the girl was still alive. They reported yes, so they removed her from the ground and continued to beat her until she died.

Rape has become an everyday crime that wriggles itself free from any form of justice. Sexual violence is seldom reported because many  women “fear that their families will blame them, communities will reject them or simply because they feel ashamed to talk about it,” says Ann Burton, a senior public health officer at the United Nations Refugee Agency.

It is important that along with food aid, support is given to clinics that aid victims of rape, paving the way towards some kind of justice, showing that rape doesn’t have to be a fact of life. Organizations like Sister Somalia, which established the first sexual violence hotline, should be supported and encouraged. They also provide medical service, counseling, and business starter kits for rape survivors. But Sister Somalia currently only serves 300 women a year--among them Nadifa--but this is just a small fraction of the nation's victims. 

Women travel hundreds of kilometers with their children to find peace at camps like Dadaab in Kenya, now the word’s biggest refugee site. Here, gangs of men have found opportunity. In the 50-mile stretch from Mogadishu to the border, bandits wait for refugees where they often rob men and rape women. 

Once in the Kenyan refugee camp of Dadaab, the majority of the families are female-headed, according to the UN. Many husbands have died, been killed, or simply abandoned their families, leaving women to lead their families through drought, famine, and civil war, alone. As the camp continues to grow, sexual violence has increased drastically. Women fear leaving the safety of a large group for such quotidian tasks as retrieving firewood, since groups of men often lurk in the woods waiting for a lone woman.

"Some women interviewed during (the IRC) survey said they witnessed women and girls being raped in front of their husbands and parents, at the insistence of perpetrators described as 'men with guns.' Others were forced to strip down naked, and… they were raped by multiple perpetrators," says Murray.

Dadaab camp now constitutes Kenya’s third largest city, and some reports claim that Somali citizens employed by the Kenyan government to protect the border against al-Shabab are often rapists themselves. Kenya receives millions in aid from the U.S. If Kenya has enough troops for an invasion into the southern portions of Somalia, they should be able to provide some sort of protection around the refugee camps.

Kenya is right—al-Shabab needs to be eliminated. But protecting women cannot wait until terrorists, famine, and disease are defeated entirely. Protection for women must be implemented simultaneously. If millions of dollars, countless pounds of food, arms, and drones are devoted to Somalia by western powers, then they can afford to emphasize the plight of women, especially in and around the refugee camps. 

The UN and other aid agencies say that the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid has not been wholly effective. While much of it is lost in the corrupt and disorganized political system, it’s also impossible to ensure food reaches the female-headed households if women are afraid to leave their huts. Making sure that women feel safe, especially in and near refugee camps, will do wonders to improve the efficiency of aid delivery.

The country is in shambles, and helping Somalia will not be simple. Many analysts are worried that in the coming rainy season diseases like malaria, cholera, and measles could ravage an already weak population. But we cannot wait for the many ails of Somalia to be cured before the Somali women are noticed. Right now, there is an unacknowledged war being waged. The rape epidemic has become an emblem of Somalia’s chaos. The shattered nation is in desperate need of organized governance. To address the plight of women would not only be a step towards justice, but towards the rebuilding of a cohesive and functioning society.

                                                         *****

                                                         *****         

Taylor Hom is an editorial assistant at the World Policy Journal.

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/Turkey's photostream]

__________________________

Male Rape:

Too Taboo to Address?

Stevie Wonder’s

Songs In the Key Of Life

revisited on its

35th anniversary

| Return To The Classics

 

September 28, 2011 by Chris Williams  

 

Eighty five minutes and twenty one seconds of artistic brilliance captured the minds of a generation.
September 28, 2011 marks the 35th anniversary of  Songs in the Key of Life  being released by  Tamla Records , a subsidiary of  Motown Records . This album is regarded as one of the most important recordings in the history of music.

The 21-song offering gives an introspective look into the many cycles of life from love found and love lost to hardships borne out of the inner city experience shared by people of color to hope for humankind. Wonder gave the world a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore the mind of an incomparable genius in his prime. And just to think it may have never seen the light of day without Stevie Wonder having a change of heart about his recording career.

By late 1974, Wonder was seriously considering leaving the music business altogether. He expressed his disdain with the way the United States was conducting its affairs in Ghana. As a result, he made a conscious decision to emigrate to Ghana to begin working with handicapped children in the country. A farewell concert was in the works until Wonder decided to resume his recording career by signing the most lucrative contract for an artist during that time. His record deal was reportedly worth $37 million and he received full artistic control over his work.

Coming off winning Album of the Year Awards from the Grammy’s in 1974 and 1975 for “Innervisions” and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale,” the mass hysteria surrounding this album was at an all-time high. For the whole of 1975, Wonder began recording his eighteenth album while on the road performing concerts and in various studios. Meanwhile, he found new members to fill slots in his newly revised Wonderlove band.

During this juncture, he also utilized the vocal talents of a young Deniece Williams, Minnie Riperton, Susaye Green, the late great harp playing skills of Dorothy Ashby and percussionist Bobbye Hall. The album had 130 different contributors and the infusion of youth helped to keep the creative juices flowing throughout the recording process. Together, Wonder and his Wonderlove band held legendary recording sessions at Crystal Sound Studios, The Record Plant and The Hit Factory Studios. The original release date for the album was Halloween of 1975, but Wonder felt the album needed more fine tuning.

After going back to the drawing board, Wonder finally decided on a title for the album. The original title was “Let’s See Life The Way It Is,” but he settled on “Songs in the Key of Life” because he yearned for the album’s content to represent the key of life and its indefinite success. Due to the insatiable craving for new music from Wonder, Motown seized the opportunity to capitalize on the public’s fervent desire by selling “We’re Almost Finished” T-Shirts. The culmination of a two year musical journey came to fruition when the album was released in early autumn of 1976.

Between the months of March 1975-July 1976, Songs in the Key of Life was recorded at Crystal Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, The Hit Factory Studios in New York, New York and The Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California.

SoulCulture recently sat down with the legendary Nathan Watts and Michael Sembello to discuss the history behind the album and their involvement in making it a success.

Sembello and Watts recall how they became involved with the album.

“Basically, it was an accident or you can say it was fate,” says Sembello. “I just happened to be in the right place at the time thanks to a friend of mine. He woke me up one Sunday morning and told me that this guy named Stevie Wonder was looking for a musician. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s I really didn’t know who he was, but I heard about him. I was into John Coltrane and a bunch of jazz stuff back then. I asked my friend, ‘Is it that blind guy?’ He replied, ‘Yes, that is him.’”

“My friend told me to come with him because he really wanted the gig. So I went there with no knowledge of who Stevie Wonder was or his music. Fortunately for me this is when Steve started to move into his jazz phase. When I showed up to the tryouts there were a couple of hundred different musicians waiting in line. They all had Stevie Wonder’s music and his books with them while they were sitting down. It was kind of like a game show almost. I had my big, fat jazz guitar with a broken handle on the guitar case.

“I remember one of the guys saying, ‘What song are we going to play Steve?’ Everyone started flipping through their Stevie Wonder song books. Steve replied, ‘Man, just follow me.’ And that was the beginning of him playing Coltrane stuff. All of a sudden, I said to myself, ‘This is my element.’ So I started to play and by the end of the audition I was in pretty strong standing and quite perplexed because I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. At the end of the 1960s, there was still this whole segregation thing between Whites and Blacks.

“Most Motown bands didn’t have more than one White player in their band at the time. They already had a White trumpet player and there was an argument going on in the corner of the studio. Tucker, who was the publicist, told Steve, ‘Look, you don’t realize you hired a White guy.’ So Steve motioned me to come over to him and he said, “Hey man, what’s your sign?” My answer is probably what helped me get the gig. I didn’t know what he meant so I thought he was asking me what my nationality was so I answered him, “I’m Italian.” Steve turned around and said, “Guys, he’s Italian. He’s not White. He’s in the band!” [laughing]

“When I first played with Steve I didn’t audition for him,” says Watts. “I came from Detroit where I went from playing in front of 35 people a night to playing in front of 250,000 people for a concert for Jesse Jackson. I got a call on a Tuesday saying that Steve wanted to check me out and to learn as much of his albums as I could. I was recommended by Ray Parker, Jr. because we grew up together. At the time, I had only played guitar for two years and I was young. I was playing an instrument called a national bass.

“I came in and went backstage after one of his shows. He was surprised when I started playing ‘I Was Made to Love Her.’ It was the first song I learned of his from a cousin of mine who was from the South. We proceeded to go through a few more songs and at the end they said, ‘You sounded great.’ Steve began to play the song ‘Contusion’ and I never heard of the song before. I went over by him and watched his left hand carefully. Every time he hit a certain note, I would hit the same note on my guitar. Then he made a transition in the song and from there I was lost, but when I got the gig we went back into the studio and we got it together.”

Sembello and Watts remember how much the studio atmosphere contributed to the production of the material and the overall success of the album.

“We were so excited about playing and being together that it allowed us to feed off of one another,” says Sembello. “Steve really knew how to take the energy and create something great. We used to sit around and listen to him do chants and Big Band music. We had no boundary lines and the fact we were there as a buffer system for him helped for sure. There still was that thing that the record company puts on you to hurry up and finish the album.

“Steve used to take a long time doing things because he was on his own flow. He would get to the studio and we would be there waiting for him. Steve is superhuman and he’s like a musical vampire. He can stay up for three and four days at a time. It was a long, long process of everyone trying to keep the inspiration going and that’s hard to do when there are a bunch of executives coming in every few days asking you questions.”

Sembello continues. “We would show up to the studio at one or two o’clock in the morning. And like I said before, Steve is tireless. When he gets in the zone, he stays in the zone. Steve would show up and we would have everything set up ready to play. He would literally be writing another song while we would be tracking one song. We had two engineers in the studio at all times. We would be tracking a song and Steve would yell, ‘Hold on! Wait a minute! Roll the tape!’ He would start singing something that was coming to him and due to the fact that we were musicians and had great ears we started playing alongside him.

“All of a sudden a new song started to form and this is how the song ‘Sir Duke’ came about. There are probably hundreds or even thousands of songs in the vault from Steve that have just come from the top of his head that he has never finished. He could have material playing a hundred years from now. He was the conductor of the universe. We were a musical force due to him. It was very magical. We wanted to get better as musicians. We didn’t care about getting Grammy’s. We wanted to be the best we could be.”

“Everything on the album happened organically in the studio for the simple fact that we rehearsed a lot of material with Steve while we were on the road touring,” says Watts. “Most of these songs we rehearsed with him before we recorded them in the studio. This is where his production skills came into play. He would decide if he wanted a four part band to play on the song or if he was going to play the instruments on the song. He carried copies of the songs that we rehearsed with him and he would listen and decide what direction he wanted to go in for a particular song.

“Back then the recording was done in all analog. It was a lot of fun to be around there. There would always be food and things around. We would always take breaks and go out to dinner somewhere as a group. One good thing about Steve is he is big on having a family atmosphere around him. We would have our share of arguments, but we would get over them quick. We were more like family more than anything. So we would get to the studio each day and we would get there on time. We would do our jobs then go grab something to eat then come back and work on the next song.

“We learned so much as musicians about the technology and what it took to know about engineering and the sound of a record. We used to call it ‘The Wonder School.’ We got an education on what it took to become a success in music. Many times he would be by himself in the studio working and we would be around the studio with him. You have to remember that Steve had been doing all of the work before we got there. He did everything by himself on Music of My Mind and Talking Book. When he got to Songs in the Key of Life we were his tool to allow him to make his greatest album to date in my opinion.”

Watts recollects the making of “I Wish,” which would be the lead single from the album.

Stevie Wonder – “I Wish”:

“‘I Wish’ was a song that he never rehearsed,” says Watts. “He wrote the song in one day. I was there with him the whole day and we did nothing that day. I was there until one o’clock in the morning and I told Steve that I was leaving because I was tired. He told me to go ahead and head home. He called me back at 3:30 in the morning and told me to come back to the studio. He said, ‘I got a song and it’s going to be good. You gotta hear it and you have to play on it.’ The next thing I know I was back at the studio and we came up with the song style and that was it. We came up with the bass line and he was playing on the keyboard then I embellished from what I was hearing from him. I finished up my part at five o’clock and went back home. He did the horns and the backgrounds the next two days and it took about three to four days to complete the entire song.”

“I Wish” went on to peak at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, #1 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #5 on the UK Singles Chart. It helped to generate steam and set the tone for the album’s incredible success.

The next song to be released from the album would be the jazz laden tune, “Sir Duke.” Sembello and Watts discuss the making of the record inside and outside of the studio.

“We would basically sleep at the studio most of the time,” says Sembello. “I remember falling asleep in the vocal booth and I knew I had to do my guitar part in the song. I would wake up every few minutes and ask, ‘Is it time yet?’ They would tell me no. Two days go by and it’s like 6 o’clock in the morning and Steve says, ‘It’s time!’ There I was sitting in the booth next to a Marshall amplifier with headphones on and half awake waiting to play my complicated guitar part. The reason I was able to do it was due in part to everyone being so energized and fueled to do the music. It was an incredible experience and it made me realize that I could play while being half asleep.”

Stevie Wonder – “Sir Duke”:

“On ‘Sir Duke’ Steve was humming the melody of it one day and he didn’t have the words to the song yet,” says Watts. “By the time all of us were in the studio, the band was ready to do the song. I think we finished the song in two takes because we rehearsed the song enough to have it so Stevie didn’t have to worry about it. There was one thing he might have changed later after the recording, but what you hear on the album is what we cut in the studio. Wonderlove was an incredible band back then and incredible influence on him as well. He had some of the baddest players around in that band. I had only been playing the guitar for two years, but I had a quick ear to pick up stuff and that made the difference. I must have had a little talent, I guess that’s why he kept me,” he says laughing.

“Sir Duke” went on to peak at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, #1 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. This single exceeded the previous single in overall sales and charting longevity.

The next single to be released would be “Another Star” and it featured the talents of a young George Benson. Watts tells a funny story during the recording of the song in the studio.

“‘Another Star’ was a fun song to do,” says Watts. “It had a Latin feel to the record. We had such diversity with the music because of the musicians involved with the project. George Benson was on this record. I remember coming into the studio one day and one of the guys told me that Nat King Cole had come by and recorded ‘Stormy Weather.’ What I didn’t know was that George Benson could do such a great Nat King Cole impersonation, but once I heard what they recorded I knew they were playing a joke on me,” he laughs.

Stevie Wonder – “Another Star”:

“Another Star” went on to peak at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, #18 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #29 on the UK Singles Chart.

The next song to receive airplay in the US and UK would be the classic “As.” It wasn’t released as a single because Wonder preferred the song to remain as an album track. Sembello and Watts describe how the song came together and what it felt like to record with another living legend.

“Herbie Hancock came into the studio to play on ‘As,’” says Sembello. “He was one of the many people that came by the studio during the recording of the album. I got to meet a lot of people that I really admired. It was just a party of musicians there and everyone wanted to be involved with the album. Greg Phillinganes had just joined the band and he was the kid of the group. He was 18 at the time and I was a little older. Herbie’s album had come out a couple of weeks prior and Greg hopped on the keyboards and started playing some songs from the album. Herbie had this look on his face and he was impressed. It was like we all died and went to music heaven during the whole process of making the album. It was young people mixed with veterans that had a mutual respect for one another. There was just a lot of joy there and Steve really attracts that.”

Stevie Wonder – “As”:

“I was just a young boy walking into the studio and there was Steve and the wizard working on ‘As,’ says Watts. “I didn’t even know how to act. There were the two greatest piano players who have ever lived. Herbie Hancock, are you kidding me? I walked in there and then we began playing and we hit it off from that point forward. Herbie was sitting down at the piano playing in the key of B. Anyone who plays an instrument knows how difficult it is to play in the key of B. Herbie walked through it like it was day and night. I was sitting there in awe. Michael Sembello was in there with us. I remember calling back to my friends in Detroit telling them I just finished playing with Herbie Hancock.”

“As” went on to peak at #36 on the Billboard Pop Chart, #36 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.

“Isn’t She Lovely” would be last song to receive widespread airplay on various radio formats around the country. It ended up peaking at #26 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart.

Stevie Wonder – “Isn’t She Lovely”:

Sembello and Watts give a inside glimpse of how some of the rest of the songs on the album were produced.

“On ‘Village Ghetto Land’ Steve played all of the instruments,” says Watts. “Many people didn’t realize that there were no strings on the song. They were actually synthesizing the strings from a Yamaha keyboard he had in the studio. During the early ’70s, he acquired one of these keyboards when they first came out. The way they made the strings sound on that record was incredible.”

Stevie Wonder – “Village Ghetto Land”:

“On the song ‘Contusion’ we were rehearsing right across the hall from John Mclaughlin and Chick Corea,” says Sembello. “We all used to hang out as musicians back then. Stevie was influenced by everything. We would sit around and listen to different jazz artists. I think the song ‘Contusion’ came out from the type of stuff Chick Corea was doing. He wanted to express the fact that he could play and that he wasn’t just this pretty voice. Everything on that record would be an A&R guy’s nightmare today,” he laughs.

Stevie Wonder – “Contusion”:

“He was writing so prolifically and so fast that we didn’t even know what the names of the songs were going to be,” says Sembello. “Things were flying out of him and “Ordinary Pain” was one of those songs. It was like a double entendre.

Stevie Wonder – “Ordinary Pain”:

“Steve’s metaphors are really double entendres and ‘All Day Sucker’ is another one of those. A lot of times it was us playing music spontaneously and the groove from a live band will become a song. Essentially, he had the groove and the next thing we know we have a song. We didn’t have names for the songs at that time.”

Stevie Wonder – “All Day Sucker”:

“’Pastime Paradise’ was a song that had religious overtones, ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ was a song for his daughter, ‘Joy Inside My Tears’ was a soulful, emotional song,” says Watts. “Steve did ‘Joy Inside My Tears’ by himself and he brought in Hare Krishna and a choir to do the background vocals for the song. It was the West Angeles choir.

Stevie Wonder – “Joy Inside My Tears”:

“He wrote ‘Ebony Eyes’ about some woman he knew. He had the melody in his head and then he went from there to finish the song. When he played the song, I had an idea of where to go with it being that I played a brass instrument in high school.”

Stevie Wonder – “Ebony Eyes”:

“It’s funny how the song ‘Saturn’ came about,” says Sembello. “He asked me if I had any ideas for this song he was working on. He gave me this tape and he was saying something about going back to Saginaw. I asked him what he was actually saying and he told me, ‘The song is called “Going Back To Saginaw,” but that’s not going to work.’ I said to him, ‘Yea, that doesn’t sound very exciting.’ Later on that night, I told him the first thing I heard when I listened to the lyrics again was ‘Going Back To Saturn’ and he said, ‘Yep, that’s it! Go finish it!’ He told me to come back the next day so we could record the song. I thought to myself what would it be like to be a disgruntled alien that came to this planet to try and do good and help people and we ended up running him away with our guns and bibles in our hands. So he says I’m going back to Saturn. I didn’t think it would ever make it on the album because the record company hated it so much. Thank God for double albums because if it was a single album it would have never made it,” he laughs.

Stevie Wonder – “Saturn”:

“The first recording that I used an upright bass was on ‘Easy Goin’ Evening” (My Mama’s Call),’” says Watts. “It was the first time I played the upright bass guitar at all. I taught myself how to play the instrument and I had only been playing the guitar for two years when I met up with Steve to do this album. Steve gave me some grace on that record because I had a good ear and I could pick up things quickly, but I was having trouble at first, then once I felt my way through it I was good. I used a lot of open strings on the record and most upright bass players use open strings on a record.”

Fifty songs were recorded in total for the album, but only twenty one made the final cut. It makes one wonder what the other twenty nine songs contain. Wonder recorded this album during his “classic period” where he was at the apex of his creative powers. His God given talent was on full display for citizens of the world to embrace and they welcomed it with open arms. The precision of his lyricism and command of various instruments showed his versatility during a time in history where musicians were the real deal. Wonder became the standard among his musical brethren and this album became his greatest work of art.

Songs in the Key of Life landed at #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart in the early autumn of 1976 and it found its way to the top ten album chart listings in six countries. It has gone on to sell more than 20 million albums worldwide. Wonder became the first American recording artist to have an album debut at #1 on the Billboard Music Charts. It stayed atop the charts for eleven consecutive weeks and on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart for an unprecedented eighty weeks between 1976, 1977 and 1978. The album has achieved multi-platinum status in six countries and it’s lasting effect on popular culture remains imperishable.

To this day, it’s touted as the one of the greatest albums in this history of recorded music and it is the highest selling album of his career. This album earned a plethora of Grammy nominations and wins for Wonder. Songs in the Key of Life was the ultimate fusion record. It meshed the worlds of R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz and Pop in a way never imagined previously. Every aspiring musician and vocalist in any genre has been influenced by the wondrous gifts of Wonder. This album’s transcendent quality was recognized by musicians and artists a generation later. A multitude of Wonder’s classics have been sampled by modern day popular acts to create hit records for their careers.

Sembello and Watts express their feelings on Wonder and the album’s legacy.

“I was this ball of energy and when I listen back to the record today I realize that I was just learning how to play and Steve was one of my greatest teachers when I worked with him,” says Sembello. “I’m just starting to comprehend the record because when you’re in the process of doing something; you don’t know the magnitude of it. When I go on the internet and I go to YouTube I type in my name and Steve’s I see young kids competing with each other by playing our song ‘Contusion.’ It’s like WOW. I begin to realize I was a part of something great here and left something for the next generation.”

“We were all young and in awe of him because he was the master,” says Watts. “We all went to the same school of learning how to write and produce songs by watching him. It was a benefit for all parties involved. He had tools that were unblemished and willing to work hard to make him happy. And we had a tool that we could learn from. A lot of the material done on the album was magical and a once and a lifetime type of thing. It sold millions of copies and is in the top ten of all-time albums in music history. It will stay that way forever. It is timeless. I was lucky to be a part of it. I was just a young man from Detroit.”

This album belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Albums. Stevland Hardaway Morris aka Stevie Wonder is our present day Mozart and a global treasure. He should be celebrated as much as humanly possible. Simply put, we owe him a debt of gratitude for Songs in the Key of Life.

Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life
Released: September 28, 1976
Label: Motown

 

Paris, France, No. 1

November 5, 2011

by Sean Jacobs

What do the masses listen to in Paris? My French-Algerian connection promised to do an occasional round-up of what’s popular on the streets and on phones (and in car stereo systems) of the French capital. Here’s round one. It’s a smooth, R&B ride:

First up, live footage of Monsieur Nov, the “bald Chinese” (his first album, “Sans dessus de Soul,” is her favorite):

Awa Imani, the daughter of a Guinean singer father and Senegalese dancer mother, has been singing since she was 9.  She was first noticed when she performed on the single “Celebration,” with 113 (featured on this blog) and the actor Jamel Debouzze, where she sang the hook:

Then there’s Isleym, a 16 year old singer discovered (thanks to Nessbeal) for the song ”A chaque jour suffit sa peine”:

Now she’s working on her own album. The first song named “Avec le temps”:

Leila is a is a Canadian singer (like the male crooner Corneille; also big in France). This is the video for her song, “Passeport”:

 

2012 Poetry Chapbook Contest Rules

• First prize $500 and publication + 5 copies
• Nonprofit mission is to publish new authors — contest only for authors without published book or chapbook
• Deadline: January 15, 2012 postmark
• Submit 20-24 pages of poetry
• Blind review: On a cover sheet submit name, address, and contact information (address, e-mail, and phone #) and the title of your chapbook. On the chapbook manuscript put only its title. Put chapbook title on every page of the manuscript. Author's name cannot appear anywhere on the chapbook manuscript.
• At least three independent readers
• Reading Fee: $16 in check or money order to Flying Trout Press
• Four finalists get a free copy
• Poems can be on any topic
• Finalists also considered for publication
• No manuscripts returned without SASE. No electronic submissions.
• Notification in April 2012

See 2011 Winner Charlotte Pence's Weaves A Clear Night 

info@flyingtroutpress.org
MAILING ADDRESS
Flying Trout Press
P.O. Box 1256
Bellingham, WA 98227-1256

A River & Sound Review now holds two writing contests a year, The Duckabush Prize for Poetry and The Nisqually Prize for Fiction.  Length of manuscripts and subject requirements for each category are the same as for our regular submissions. Reading period for both contests will be open from August 1 to November 30. Stay tuned for more details, or join our mailing list to receive regular updates.

Judges for our 2011 Contests are Lia Purpura (Poetry), author of the book of poems King Baby, and Kent Meyers (Fiction), author of the novel Twisted Tree.

All finalists will receive special recognition and winners will receive a $500 prize, be published in the Winter 2011 issue of RSR, and be featured on a future RSR Live podcast.

Contest Submission Rules:

~ All RSR writing contests are open to all writers, save those who are related to members of the RSR staff and final judges, and those who are current or former students of the final judges.

~ Prose submissions are limited to one story/essay per entry, regardless of length.

~ Poetry submissions are limited to three poems per entry, regardless of length.

~ Writers may submit as many entries as they choose, provided each entry is accompanied with the proper entry fee.

~ The entry fee for each submission is $10. 

~ Judging of all writing contests will be conducted by the RSR staff, along with guest judges making the selection among finalists.

~ RSR will offer a cash prize to the first place entry and publicly announce the names  of all finalists.

~ RSR will consider all submissions for publication in our online literary journal.

~ Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but writers must inform RSR staff if any submitted work has been accepted elsewhere and withdraw it from the contest.

Contest Submission Directions:

~ Save your manuscript(s) as a word file and make sure your name does NOT appear anywhere on the document. 

~ Please include your name and contact information on the separate cover sheet provided. Include your name, full mailing address, email address, and phone number.  Also on this page, list the title of the manuscript(s) you submitted.  Readers of all manuscripts will not have access to this information.

~ Entry fee can be paid through the submission manager.

~ Submit your FICTION CONTEST ENTRY HERE. 

~ Submit your POETRY CONTEST ENTRY HERE. 

~ Or submit through our home page on Submishmash.

Previous Winners:

     ~ Don Colburn, 2009 Duckabush Prize for Poetry

                            Final Judge: Judith Kitchen

     ~ Michelle Peñaloza, 2010 Duckabush Prize for Poetry

                            Final Judge: Rick Barot

     ~ Jim Gish, 2010 Nisqually Prize for Fiction

                            Final Judge: Pia Ehrhardt

The Waywiser Press is now accepting submissions of poetry manuscripts for the seventh annual Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize.

Collections may be submitted online (in which case the deadline is midnight on December 1st 2011)
or by post (in which case the postmark deadline is December 1st 2011).

The Winner Receives

1) £1,750 or $3,000 paid in May 2012

2) Publication of the winning manuscript by Waywiser both in United Kingdom and in the United States in the autumn of 2012.

Eligibility

1)    Entrants must be at least 18 years of age.

2)    Entrants may not have published more than one previous collection of poems, though they may have published an unlimited number of books belonging to other genres, and individual poems from the submitted collection may have been published in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks of 32 pages or less, or self-published books of 46 pages or less.

3)    Nobody who has a book published by or forthcoming from Waywiser may enter.

4)    Manuscripts must be in English, and the original work of the entrant (though as much as one third of the poems they contain can consist of public-domain or permission-secured translations).

 

Judging

The final judge's decision will be made known in May 2012, and the news will be posted on this website at that time.

 

Guidelines

(i) Format

1)    Manuscripts must be a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 85 pages.

2)    Manuscripts must be typed or word-processed - preferably in 11-point type - on standard paper.

3)    Pages must be numbered consecutively, and a table of contents, as well as a list of acknowledgements (where appropriate), should be included.

4)    The author's name and contact details (i.e. physical address, phone number and email address (where possible)) must appear on the front page of the manuscript and nowhere else.

5)    No illustrative material should be sent, unless it forms an inextricable part of the manuscript.

6)    A list of previous poetry book publications should be included, and with it a list of the magazines in which you have had poems published.

7)    Entrants may submit a manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but must immediately notify Waywiser of its withdrawal from the competition if it is accepted for publication by another organization.

8)    Once submitted, a manuscript may not be altered, though the winner of the prize will be given the opportunity to revise before publication.

9)    Waywiser cannot accept responsibility for missing submissions.

10)   If the judge is not satisfied that a high-enough standard has been met, the press reserves the right not to award the prize in a particular year.

The decision of the judge is final.

Submission of a manuscript will be deemed to constitute acceptance of
all of the provisions set out above.

 

(ii) Entry Fee

1)    Online submission: US $27, or the equivalent in whatever currency your card draws on. (Please note that the difference between this and the postal submission fee shown below is to cover the online submission administration costs.)

2)    Postal submission: £15 or US $25

(iii) Submission Procedure

(a) Online

1)    Manuscripts may be submitted between August 1st 2011 and December 1st 2011.

1)    Only single file submissions can be accepted, so if your manuscript is stored in multiple files, they will need to be amalgamated.

2)    We can accept files in three different formats: Doc, Docx and PDF. Please do not lock the file you submit (i.e. make it impossible for us to print or cut and paste from it).

3)    You will need to have your credit or debit card or PayPal account details ready, since you will only be allowed to submit after the entry fee has been paid.

4)    When you are ready to upload your manuscript, please click on the link below:

  Submit to The Waywiser Press

5)     If you wish to withdraw your manuscript for any reason, please contact us directly rather than using the submission manager. Fees cannot be refunded.

 

(b) Postal

1) Please complete the entry form (see below for instructions on how to obtain this), combine it with your stamped self-addressed postcard and/or envelope (if required), your manuscript and a cheque for your entry fee made payable to THE WAYWISER PRESS. You shouldf post everything to one of the two addresses shown below. As stated above, the postmark deadline for submissions is December 1st 2011, and no late entries will be accepted.

Residents of the UK and all other non-USA residents should send to:

The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
The Waywiser Press
29A, Carr Hill Road
Upper Cumberworth
Huddersfield
HD8 8NW
UK

Residents of the USA should send to:

The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
The Waywiser Press
P.O. Box 6205
Baltimore
MD 21206
USA

2) Manuscripts should be bound with a spring- or bulldog-clip (no paperclips or staples, please, and no folders, files or boxes).

3) If you would like notification of receipt of entry, please include a stamped self-addressed postcard with the words "Hecht Prize: Entry Received" appropriately entered.

4) If you would like notification of the results, please include a stamped self-addressed envelope.

5) Manuscripts cannot be returned. As a result, we strongly advise all entrants to keep a copy of their submission.

---

To obtain an entry form and a copy of these guidelines

The guidelines set out above and the entry form can be obtained in either of two ways. First, you can send a stamped self-addressed business-size envelope to Waywiser.

Residents of the UK and all other non-USA residents should send to:

The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize (Guidelines & Application Form)
29A, Carr Hill Road
Upper Cumberworth
Huddersfield
HD8 8NW
UK

USA residents should send to:

The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize (Guidelines & Application Form)
The Waywiser Press
P.O. Box 6205
Baltimore
MD 21206
USA

The second method of obtaining entry forms and guidelines is to download them from here. They are available in Word format and in PDF format. If you wish to have the PDF version, please be sure you have Adobe's PDF Reader installed on your computer. If you don't already have it, it can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's website by following this link: Adobe PDF Reader

For the PDF version of the guidelines and application form please click here

For the Word version of the guidelines and application form please click here

Marley Africa Road Trip 2010 

By Anthony Bucci

“It’s a historic moment for Africa. We’re gonna take a road trip through it.”

These are the words of Ziggy Marley, eldest son of reggae superstar Bob Marley and heir to one of the most legendary families in music, on the historic motorcycle trip he took to Africa with his brothers, Rohan and Robbie, during World Cup 2010: the first-ever World Cup to be held in Africa.

REV'IT! tested to the limit

Camping under the stars and staying with local families kept the team close to Africa’s people, land, and wildlife, and their REV’IT! GORE-TEX® Defender GTX jackets and trousers kept the Marley brothers well equipped for all the twists and turns of their trip. Capturing all of the action was award-winning producer/director David Alexanian and his production crew from Elixir Films, for a series called Marley Africa Road Trip. Alexanian is known for filming Ewan McGregor’s unforgettable motorcycle trips across the world, in the series Long Way Round and Long Way Down, and he has created a wonderful record of the Marleys’ trip and its meaning to them, in part through personal interviews and tour diaries.

 

>via: http://networkedblogs.com/pa6Wj#

THE FINANCIAL STANDING

OF THOSE WHO ALLEGEDLY

REPRESENT US 

According to a Roll Call analysis of Congress members’ financial disclosure forms, the collective net worth of American lawmakers jumped 25 percent to over $2 billion in just the last two years — with 50 of the richest Congressmen and women accounting for 90 percent of the increase.

Source kateoplis

Reblogged from kateoplis

__________________________

And Congress’ Rich Get Richer

Net Worth of Lawmakers Up 25 Percent in Two Years, Analysis Demonstrates

• By Paul Singer and Jennifer Yachnin
• Roll Call Staff
• 
  
• Nov. 1, 2011, Midnight

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo

Members of Congress such as Rep. Michael McCaul reported major increases in their net worth, and Congress’ collective net worth also increased.

Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members' financial disclosure forms.

Two years ago, Roll Call found that the minimum net worth of House Members was slightly more than $1 billion; Senators had a combined minimum worth of $651 million for a Congressional total of $1.65 billion. Roll Call calculates minimum net worth by adding the minimum values of all reported assets and subtracting the minimum values of all reported liabilities.

According to financial disclosure forms filed by Members of Congress this year, the minimum net worth in the House has jumped to $1.26 billion, and Senate net worth has climbed to at least $784 million, for a Congressional total of $2.04 billion.

These wealth totals vastly underestimate the actual net worth of Members of Congress because they are based on an accounting system that does not include homes and other non-income-generating property, which is likely to tally hundreds of millions of uncounted dollars. In addition, Roll Call's tally is based on the minimum values of assets reported by Members on their annual financial disclosure forms; the true values of those assets may be much higher.

While wealth overall is scattered fairly evenly between the two parties, there is an interesting divide in the two chambers. Democrats hold about 80 percent of the wealth in the Senate; Republicans control about 78 percent of the wealth in the House.

And as protesters around the country decry the supposed consolidation of wealth in America, the trend can be seen starkly in Congress, a comparison suggested by American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Mark Perry. The 50 richest Members of Congress accounted for 78 percent of the net worth in the institution in 2008 ($1.29 billion of the $1.65 billion total); by 2010 the share of the 50 richest had risen to 80 percent ($1.63 billion of the $2.04 billion total). The pie of Congressional wealth got bigger, and the richest Members are getting a bigger slice.

But there is still plenty to go around. Overall, 219 Members of Congress reported having assets worth more than $1 million last year; subtracting the minimum value of their liabilities brings the total number of millionaires in Congress down to 196 — again not counting any value on their homes or other non-income-producing property. If one were to assume that every Member of Congress has $200,000 worth of equity in real estate, the total number of millionaires would rise to 220 Members, just more than 40 percent of the Congress.

As with the general U.S. population, a few exceedingly wealthy people skew the averages for the rest of the membership. But still, by almost any measure, the average Member of Congress is far wealthier than the average U.S. household.

For example, dividing the total wealth of Congress by the number of Members creates a mean (average) net worth for each Member of about $3.8 million (excluding non-income-producing property such as personal residences). By comparison, for the rest of the country, based on statistics released by the Federal Reserve, average household net worth is around $500,000 this year (including personal residences), according to David Rosnick, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

But a handful of Members of Congress are worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars — the richest Member of Congress this year, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), is worth a minimum of $294 million, meaning that McCaul's own wealth has the effect of raising the average of every Member of Congress by about $500,000.

So a better number for comparison is the median, the number where half the group is above and half the group is below. For Congress, the median net worth in 2010 was about $513,000. For regular households, the Federal Reserve Board pegged that number at about $120,000 in 2008, and that number this year is probably around $100,000, Rosnick said.

While it is hard to make an exact comparison between Congress and the rest of the nation, what is clear is lawmakers "are all a lot richer than anything you would call a typical American," Rosnick said.

And Congress appears to be getting richer faster than the rest of the nation. Citing Federal Reserve data, Rosnick said, "From the end of 2008 to end of 2010, aggregate household worth increased
12 percent." That is about half the increase Congress achieved during the same time period.

The cautionary note in any Congressional wealth analysis is that significant changes in apparent wealth of Members do not necessarily represent an actual change in net worth.

For example, Rep. Darrell Issa reported this year that his 2010 assets were worth at least $295 million, nearly double what they were the year before. The reason for the change appears to be in part because the California Republican moved some properties from a single account into separate accounts. An account that Issa had listed as having a minimum value of $50 million in 2009 dropped to a minimum value of $25 million in 2010, but he added 11 accounts with a minimum combined value of $38.2 million. Even if none of the actual account (or property) values increased, the minimum value of those assets on paper rises by $13.2 million, or more than 25 percent.

Alan Ziobrowski, a professor of real estate at Georgia State University, has produced studies of Congressional investment patterns indicating that lawmakers in both chambers tend to fare better in their investment portfolios than the average American, in part because "[t]here is no doubt in my mind that they are trading in some way on information that is there."

But he also points out that the Membership of Congress has turned over since 2008, making it difficult to compare wealth over time. "You've got different people," he said.

In the aftermath of the 2010 elections that swept Republicans to power, about 20 percent of the Members included in the 2010 survey were not included in the 2008 survey.