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“Culture, Clearly Seen.” Black Cultural Intelligence

14 flagships · 25 briefs staged (weekly from Oct 13) · 9 dossiers · 25 guides · 2,957 entities — record updated October 12, 2026
The Apollo Theater marquee, Harlem, 2010 — CultureTechLens
Research Brief

Photo: Hans Joachim Dudeck, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Research Briefs

James Brown — Live at the Apollo (1963)

CTL Thin Brief · CTL-TB-000126 · Published 2026-10-09

Thin Brief — a short evidence sketch, not a full research brief.

What makes Live at the Apollo a landmark?

Recorded in October 1962 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and released in 1963 on King Records, the album captures Brown’s relentless revue in front of a fervent crowd. SUPPORTED

Key facts

  • James Brown was the Godfather of Soul, whose career stretched from R&B shouting to funk invention. SUPPORTED
  • The album was recorded in October 1962 at the Apollo Theater in New York and released in 1963 on King Records. SUPPORTED
  • Its performances include “Try Me,” “Lost Someone,” and the extended closer “Night Train.” SUPPORTED
  • The record’s success helped make Brown a national star beyond the R&B audience. PROVISIONAL
  • It set a new standard for the live album in Black popular music. PROVISIONAL

Sources

  • AllMusic: Live at the Apollo album page
  • King Records catalog
  • Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee biography — James Brown

Evidence grades: VERIFIED — strong primary or multiple corroborating sources. SUPPORTED — credible, partly corroborated. PROVISIONAL — single source or general knowledge, uncorroborated.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, "James Brown — Live at the Apollo (1963) (CTL-TB-000126)," 2026-10-09.

Source: CultureTechLens

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Shoeshine, 47th Street, Chicago's main Negro business street, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Shoeshine, 47th Street, Chicago's main Negro business street, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.