James Maycock
James Maycock attended the University Of East Anglia, reading History Of Art & Film Studies, before entering the wicked world of the media. As a freelance print journalist, he's written numerous feature articles for all the British broadsheets: The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times – and also for high-profile magazines: MOJO, the Guardian Weekend Magazine, the Observer Music Monthly. He's also worked for record labels and produced programmes for BBC Radio 1, 2 & 3.
In television – where James now concentrates his energies – he's worked for a number of broadcasters, including BBC TV, PBS, Channel 4 & Sky Arts, since 2003. In the last few years, he has directed & produced a number of highly acclaimed 60-minute BBC Television, History Channel & Sky Arts documentaries:
DETROIT: COMEBACK CITY (HISTORY CHANNEL USA / 2018)
This film explores the rollercoaster ride of Detroit, its transportation & cultural revolutions. It reveals the city as a place of dreams, broken dreams, but also of dreams for the future. This is viewed through the prism of the once glorious Michigan Central Station.
ROCK AND ROLL: WORSHIP (SKY ARTS: 2017) Part of a highly original 10-part series,this film goes in search of wildly different aspects of devotion & transcendence in music – from the spiritual cowboys of 1960's L.A. to New Orleans voodoo, from festival freak-outs to sanctified hip-hop.
ROCK AND ROLL: EXCESS (SKY ARTS: 2017)Part of a highly original 10-part series, this film heads out in search of the desire for decadence, breaking the rules, challenging conventions, pushing things to the limit – these are the primal constituents of rock. It was never just about musical notes.
TOM WAITS: TALES FROM A CRACKED JUKEBOX (BBC TV: 2017) A film about one of the most fascinating musicians of the last 4 decades – a bewitching afterhours trip through the surreal, moonlit world of a man who's created a unique, alternative American soundtrack all of his own.
YEHUDI MENUHIN: WHO'S YEHUDI? (BBC TV: 2016) Made for the 100th anniversary of Menuhin's birth, this film explores the 20th century's greatest violinist's amazing journey through life: from 1920's global fame as a child prodigy to his turbulent WW2 years & work as a political agitator.
MASTERS OF THE GUITAR (SKY ARTS: 2015) A film made especially for Sky Arts' major re-launch. 10 great players – from Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi to Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Thurston Moore to Wilko Johnson and Richard Hawley – reveal the guitarist that most inspired them.
NORTHERN SOUL: LIVING FOR THE WEEKEND (BBC TV: 2014) A much acclaimed film about the underground, working class club culture that exploded across the north of England in the 1970's.
DANNY BOY: THE BALLAD THAT BEWITCHED THE WORLD (BBC TV: 2013) An award-nominated film which investigated the emotional life & vast cultural influence of this famous ballad – from World War One to Elvis, from Johnny Cash to 9/11.
BOBBY WOMACK: ACROSS 110TH STREET (BBC TV: 2013) A film following this musician's rollercoaster trip through life, from the 1950's gospel highway to his glorious Indian summer sparked by a Damon Albarn-produced album.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA: THE SOUTHERN ROCK SAGA (BBC TV: 2012) An epic 1970's tale of rebel rock bands from the Deep South who transformed the region.
GERSHWIN'S SUMMERTIME (BBC TV: 2011) A film that reveals the secret, magical life of George Gershwin's 1935 classic tune up to the present day.
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN: THE CHESS RECORDS SAGA (BBC TV: 2010) A dynamic chronicle of this hugely influential Chicago rock & roll and blues label which helped changed the music world forever.
THE MOTOWN INVASION (BBC TV: 2009) An award-winning film which focused on the Motown Revue's very first, almost disastrous, 1965 UK tour as it zigzagged around the provinces.
65 articles
List of articles in the library
John Coltrane: Honk If You Love Jesus! The Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church
Report by James Maycock, MOJO, 1997
EVERY TUESDAY afternoon, Sister Deborah spreads Coltrane consciousness through the San Francisco airwaves. ...
Drop The Dread, Honky: Why White Artists Wanna Be Black
Essay by James Maycock, The Guardian, October 1997
IN 1959, JOHN Howard Griffin, a white journalist, dyed his skin black and travelled through the southern states of America. He found the experience ...
Chess Records: The Original Blues Brothers
Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, November 1997
"WOW, YOU guys are really getting it on!" exclaimed Chuck Berry, observing the Rolling Stones cut 'Down The Road Apiece', a track he'd recorded himself ...
Charlie Mingus: Charles Mingus: A Musical Misfit In Black And White
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 28 November 1997
A traumatic childhood and a dramatic life characterised the career of the bassist Charles Mingus. James Maycock looks at a documentary on a 'phenomenal musician ...
Charles Mingus: a musical misfit in black and white
Film/DVD/TV Review by James Maycock, The Independent, 28 November 1997
A traumatic childhood and a dramatic life characterised the career of the bassist Charles Mingus. James Maycock looks at a documentary on a "phenomenal musician ...
CTI Records: Coffee Table Jazz For The 1970's
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, December 1997
CREED TAYLOR was extremely shrewd at marketing jazz to those who were nervous of the genre, particularly after the discordant shreaks & squeaks made by ...
Chess Set Still Sings The Blues: Marshall Chess and Chess Records
Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 1998
JUST OVER 50 YEARS AGO, brothers Phil and Leonard Chess, two industrious Polish immigrants in Chicago, tentatively established what would become the most famous blues ...
Frank Sinatra: Nelson Algren's The Man With The Golden Arm
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Guardian, 1998
How Nelson Algren's acclaimed novel was made into Hollywood's first film about heroin. ...
Essay by James Maycock, The Guardian, January 1998
How & Why Black Rappers Exploit Racial Stereotypes (With references to historical precedents through 20th century) ...
Georgie Fame: Fame at the Flamingo: Golden years in Soho
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, 16 January 1998
Georgie Fame and his band were regular performers at a nightclub that was a catalyst for British music in the early '60s. He looks back ...
Terry Callier: Look At Me Now: The Return Of Terry Callier
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, February 1998
DEFINING THE "soul" part of soul music is a tricky issue – it's one of the bigger questions. The music's intangible qualities are often the ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Celebrating Bob Marley at Studio One
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 6 February 1998
On the 35th anniversary of Studio One ...
Miles Davis: The Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, March 1998
"YOU GET THE RIGHT GUYS to play the right things at the right time and you got a motherfucker!" recalled Miles Davis in his inimitable ...
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 17 March 1998
Thirty years ago the Vietnam war awoke the hippy generation to politics and drove them to revolt, writes James Maycock ...
Chet Baker: Talent, addiction and all that jazz
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, May 1998
James Maycock looks at the life of trumpet great Chet Baker, who died 10 years ago this week ...
Horace Andy, Massive Attack: Horace Andy: Still massive after all these years
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, 19 June 1998
He was big 30 years ago, but Horace Andy is singing sweetly to this day. ...
The Skatalites: Ska: This dance carries a health warning
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 7 July 1998
Jamaican Ska, once scorned as 'ruffian music', is still alive and causing fatalities. ...
Young Turk Who Got The Blues: Ahmet Ertegun & The 50th Anniversary Of Atlantic
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, 17 July 1998
IN HUNDREDS of photographs, Ahmet Ertegun appears anonymously beside the famous. The celebrity might be a gaunt Phil Spector, Mick Jagger grinning widely or a ...
Jah Shaka: Metro & The Birth Of The British Sound System
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, August 1998
"AMPLIFICATION AND records – if you have those 2 items, then you can go somewhere," states the man called Metro. Born with the slightly less ...
B.B. King: The Day B.B. King Went to Jail
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 11 September 1998
ON A SUBLIME autumn day in 1970, B.B. King performed for 2,117 prisoners in Cook County Jail. Against the sound of B.B. King's musicians ...
Miles Davis, Billie Holiday: Billie 4 Miles: A Kind Of Blue Love
Essay by James Maycock, The Guardian, February 1999
MILES DAVIS CONFESSED twice in his candid autobiography he fancied Billie Holiday. "She had such a sensuous mouth," he remarked, "I thought she was not ...
Johnny Clarke: Busy Doing Nothing: Johnny Clarke, the Reggae Idler
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, March 1999
THE COMPETITIVE MUSICAL CLIMATE was so intense in mid-'70s Kingston, that Jamaica's capital city was given the soubriquet "Third World Nashville". Hundreds of aspiring ...
King Tubby: "This is a journey into sound"
Retrospective by Lloyd Bradley, James Maycock, MOJO, April 1999
Sonic visionary, dancehall supremo and obsessive money-launderer, he played the sliders like Jimi played a Fender. Lloyd Bradley and James Maycock chronicle the crowning glories ...
The Rolling Stones: White Men Sing The Blues: The Rolling Stones and Black Culture
Essay by James Maycock, The Independent, 4 June 1999
A bitchy look at how the Rolling Stones’ career is excessively/artfully indebted to black American culture. ...
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, July 1999
IN PARIS, A COUPLE of weeks before his death on 15th March, 1959, Lester Young spoke about his friend, Billie Holiday. "She’s still my ...
Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 10 November 1999
In the Sixties, Nina Simone's music radically espoused black civil rights. But by the turn of the decade she had rejected politics. Why? ...
Retrospective by James Maycock, Untold, 2000
How The 2000 Movie Capitalized On The Original's Reputation ...
Jimmy Smith’s Hammond Organ Revolution
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, January 2000
BEFORE JIMMY SMITH revolutionized the archaic Hammond organ, the lethargic sound this bulky, brown instrument emitted was frequently described, like an ailing patient, as "wheezing." ...
Nikki Giovanni: Whaddya Mean You've Never Heard Of… Nikki Giovanni?
Retrospective by James Maycock, MOJO, 2001
IN THE CRAZY, HEADY DAYS of the Black Power era, Nikki Giovanni was one of the few female voices to offset the rampant machismo of ...
Jack Costanzo: And The Beat Goes On… Mr Bongo: Jack Costanzo
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, 2 February 2001
The Man Who Started The '50's Bongo Craze ...
Ice-T: Iceberg Slim: The Best-Selling Pimp Remembered By His Widow
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Pride, June 2001
"YOU SEE, pimping's big business," growled an experienced pimp to Goldie, his aspiring protégé in the classic 1970's film, The Mack. Concluding his informal lecture, the ...
Tales From The Funky Side Of Town: “Soul” and “Funk”, Then and Now
Essay by James Maycock, The Independent, June 2001
"YOU'D BE SURPRISED how time can change the meaning of a word," rasped black comedian, Redd Foxx, during a performance at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in ...
The Incredible Bongo Band: The Strange Life Of The Incredible Bongo Band
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, June 2001
THE TALE OF the Incredible Bongo Band is, aptly, an improbable one. With a highly eclectic cast that includes Bobby Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, ...
War Within War: Black Americans And The Vietnam Conflict
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Guardian, 15 September 2001
The Vietnam war saw countless numbers of America's young men – both black and white – thrown into combat. They were there to fight the ...
James Brown: Hackney Ocean, London
Live Review by James Maycock, MOJO, October 2001
After reports in this magazine (Mojo issue 88) of eccentric antics preceding a New Year's Eve concert in Las Vegas, will James Brown behave himself ...
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, MOJO, 2002
JOHNNY OTIS, the renaissance man of rhythm and blues, is somewhat ambivalent about entering his ninth decade. "I have two kinds of feelings," he concedes. ...
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Sophisticated Lady: This Is Dee Dee Bridgewater
Interview by James Maycock, Pride, 2002
"DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER is very effervescent and very energetic and very optimistic and very positive," I'm informed. "Dee Dee Bridgewater has consumed my life." ...
Mel Brown: Whaddya Mean You've Never Heard Of… Mel Brown?
Retrospective by James Maycock, MOJO, 2002
"WITH THE GUITAR outselling all other musical instruments today," declared a Down Beat editor confidently in 1967, "it's good to have Mel Brown around to ...
Flying High With The General Patton Of Pot: Smokescreen By Robert Sabbag (Canongate Books)
Book Review by James Maycock, The Independent, January 2002
ROBERT SABBAG'S Smokescreen, subtitled "A True Adventure," reads like a Boy's Own escapade. Its swashbuckling protagonist, Allen Long, blessed with a princely face and an ...
Ike Turner, Jackie Brenston: 'Rocket "88"' and the Birth of Rock & Roll
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, James Maycock, MOJO, February 2002
AND GOD SAID, Let There Be Rock'n'Roll... ...
Betty Davis: The Witty, Wicked World Of Betty Davis
Interview by James Maycock, Pride, April 2002
Intro: I think I’m the only journalist in about 20 years to have tracked down and interviewed Miles Davis’ now reclusive ex-wife who was an ...
Isaac Hayes: A Black Woodstock: Wattstax
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Guardian, 20 July 2002
Intro: This is about 1000 words longer than the version published by The Guardian. There’s much more on the concert, more quotations and more on ...
Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Kim Weston: Loud and proud: Wattstax
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, The Guardian, 20 July 2002
When Los Angeles erupted in the bloodiest racial uprising of the 1960s, the black citizens of Watts sent a message to the world, demanding that ...
The Ohio Players, Sly & the Family Stone: In Pursuit Of The Pimp Mobile
Essay by James Maycock, Nine, October 2002
A look at how black pimp culture has crossed into black popular culture, for which I interviewed Antonio Fargas. I refer to Miles Davis, the ...
Louis Prima: An Entertainer In His Prime: The Great Louis Prima
Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 16 December 2002
2003 note: I interviewed his saxophonist and arranger, Sam Butera, for an article that was published in the month of what would have seen Louis ...
James Brown: The Making Of James Brown Live At The Apollo
Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, February 2003
"ARE YOU READY for Star Time?" exclaimed MC Lucas "Fats" Gonder from the stage of Harlem’s Apollo on 24th October, 1962. The eager crowd ...
James Brown: Death Or Glory: James Brown In Vietnam
Retrospective by James Maycock, MOJO, July 2003
JUNE, 1968. Seven US Army lieutenant colonels - six Afro-Americans and one Caucasian - are collected from Tan Son Nhut, Saigon’s international airport, and ...
Isaac Hayes: Various Artists: Music From The Wattstax Festival & Film
Review by James Maycock, MOJO, November 2003
ON 20TH AUGUST, 1972, Isaac Hayes was celebrating his 30th birthday. But Ike wasn't chilling at his gilded Memphis mansion ripping into a skyscraper pile ...
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, MOJO, December 2003
IN THE LATE afternoon of 4th April, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot through the neck on the balcony of Memphis' Lorraine Motel. Pronounced dead ...
The Fania All Stars: Fania All Stars: Our Latin Thing
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004
ON 19TH JULY, 1972, the first few images flickering on the screen at the premiere of Our Latin Thing in New York’s Line 2 cinema ...
Joe Bataan: Young, Gifted And Brown
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, 2004
A ROMANTIC STREET punk, a jailbird with spirit, a champion of the blue-collar underdog – Joe Bataan is a rebel with soul. ...
James Brown: Beat The Devil: James Brown's Demons
Profile by James Maycock, Observer Music Monthly, February 2004
DAMN! LIFE WAS sweet and dandy for the Godfather of Soul in the last few years. But James Brown's slippin' and slidin' once again – ...
Bebel Gilberto: Joao And Bebel Gilberto
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Times, June 2004
IT WAS IN THE summer of ‘64, 40 years ago this month, that Joao Gilberto’s ‘A Girl From Ipanema’ was released. A huge global ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Chasing The Heron
Report and Interview by James Maycock, The Times, 16 July 2004
"I'M ADDICTED to creating," mutters a grizzled, slightly stoned Gil Scott-Heron. "I use other things from time to time." It's late afternoon on Friday 3rd ...
Betty Davis: She's Gotta Have It
Retrospective and Interview by James Maycock, MOJO, February 2005
ONE EVENING during the high summer of 1967, the fragrant Miss Mabry left her Greenwich Village apartment situated in the S&M area of Bedford Street. ...
The Fania All Stars: Rumba In The Jungle: Fania All Stars Live In Africa
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul DVD, 21 February 2005
1974 WAS A fine year for Jerry Masucci's golden boys. Following the triumphs of Our Latin Thing, the Fania All Stars broke out across the ...
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul, November 2006
Dennis Coffey: Original Old School Breaks & Heavy Guitar Soul (Vampi Soul) ...
Obituary by James Maycock, The Independent, 26 December 2006
JAMES BROWN was one of the most extraordinary Afro-Americans of the 2nd half of the 20th century. A raw, emotional singer, electric performer and tough ...
Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers: Blow Your Whistle: Original Old School Breaks & Classic Funk Bombs
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Vampi Soul Records, March 2007
JANUARY 2003. AUGUSTA, GEORGIA. A documentary crew are filming James Brown outside the house his aunt operated as a brothel in the 1940s. It was ...
Eddie Palmieri & La Perfecta: Sugar Daddy
Sleeve notes by James Maycock, Fania CD, September 2007
THE HIP DANCEFLOOR RHYTHMS OF PALMIERI'S LA PERFECTA: 1962-1967 ...
Obituary by James Maycock, The Independent, May 2011
GIL SCOTT-HERON lived a life of two distinct, very different halves – as dissimilar as night and day. Up to his mid-30s, Scott-Heron was a ...
Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, November 2011
IT'S EVERYWHERE. It's become part of the air we breathe. 'Summertime' certainly feels like it's been with us forever. One day this June, while making ...
George Gershwin: Searching for 'Summertime': Gershwin's masterpiece
Retrospective by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 19 November 2011
In some versions it's a tender lullaby, in others a siren song. Filmmaker James Maycock explores the bittersweet mysteries and colourful past of Gershwin's most ...
Happy 100th Birthday, 'Danny Boy'
Comment by James Maycock, MOJO, November 2013
'Danny Boy', the song of loss and exile that became one of humanity's great anthems, is explored in a BBC Four television documentary, Danny Boy: ...
Obituary by James Maycock, The Independent, 16 August 2018
"I JUST LOST my song!" howled Otis Redding in 1967. "That girl took it away from me!" ...
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