Chocolate Genius

Chocolate Genius, Inc. is a loose collective of musicians centered around Marc Anthony Thompson, a singer-songwriter from New York City. Thompson released two albums during the 1980s under his own name, and has been compared to a wide variety of musicians, including Tom Waits, Prince, Jeff Buckley, D'Angelo, Lenny Kravitz, and Terence Trent D'Arby. He signed to V2 Records for Black Music, his 1998 debut under the name of Chocolate Genius. The album garnered a 9.0 rating from Pitchfork Media. In 2001, he released his next album, GodMusic, followed by, in 2005, a switch to Commotion Records and the release of Black Yankee Rock, produced by Craig Street. The album featured many prominent New York musicians, many of whom had appeared on his previous two records: Marc Ribot, Abe Laboriel Jr., David Stone, Glenn Patscha, Me'Shell NdegeOcello, Oren Bloedow, Yuka Honda, and the legendary Van Dyke Parks, among others. Marc Anthony Thompson has also worked extensively in scoring film and theatre productions. He won an Obie award in sound design for A Huey P. Newton Story in 1997 and has written music for Rikers High (2005), Brother to Brother (2004), Colorvision (2004) (which he hosted in the same year), American Splendor (2003), Urbania (2000), and Twin Falls Idaho (1999). His version of The Beatles' "Julia" was included on the soundtrack to the film I Am Sam. He recently completed a month-long residency at the Largo club in Los Angeles. In 2006, Marc Anthony Thompson was enrolled in the line-up for the Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour, playing acoustic guitar, providing backing vocals and sharing the lead vocals on several songs, including "Eyes on the Prize" and "When The Saints Go Marching In". In 2010, Marc Anthony Thompson released his fourth album as Chocolate Genius Incorporated, Swansongs.