April 11, 2013 – Don Blackman was born on September 1st 1953 in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
A childhood neighbor was Charles McPherson, and while still a teenager (15) he played in McPherson’s ensemble with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. At the beginning of the 1970s, he played electric piano with Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Roy Ayers, before becoming a member of Lenny White’s group Twennynine, for whom he penned songs such as “Peanut Butter” and “Morning Sunrise”, key pieces in Jamaica Queens’ ’70s’ jazz-funk explosion.
He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982 on Arista Records, including the songs “Holding You, Loving You”, “Heart’s Desire” and “Since You’ve Been Away So Long” that became minor hits in Europe.
He wrote the composition “Lie to Kick It”, which appeared on Tupac Shakur’s album R U Still Down? (Remember Me), “Dear Summer”, which appeared on Memphis Bleek’s album “534” featuring artist Jay-Z, and “Holding You, Loving You”, which appeared on Master P.’s album I Got The Hook Up. He sang and co-composed “Funky toons” for Skalp on his album “From my head to your feet”.
For television, he scored and wrote music for commercials, TV shows, and movies, appearing on Fox Network’s New York Undercover, producing and writing the theme song for Nickelodeon’s show “Gullah Gullah Island”, as well as producing songs for the MTV Network movie Joe’s Apartment.
He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982 which including his songs “Holding You, Loving You”, “Heart’s Desire” and “Since You’ve Been Away So Long” that became hits in Europe.
As a session musician, he appearing on albums by Kurtis Blow, Bernard Wright, Najee, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Roy Ayers, Sting, World Saxophone Quartet, Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes” and Wayman Tisdale. He wrote the composition “Live to Kick It”, which appeared on Tupac Shakur’s album R U Still Down? (Remember Me); “Dear Summer” on Memphis Bleek’s album “534” featuring artist Jay-Z, and “Holding You, Loving You” on Master P.’s album “I Got The Hook Up”.
Don Blackman died fighting cancer at age 59 on April 11, 2013.
