Michael Cuscuna, the three-time Grammy winner, Mosaic Records co-founder, historian and archivist who produced hundreds of jazz reissues and studio sessions during his career, has died. He was 75.
Cuscuna died Saturday of cancer at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, Grammy-winning recording artist Billy Vera, a longtime friend, announced.
Cuscuna produced the 1970 album Buddy & the Juniors, featuring Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Junior Mance, for Vanguard Records, and 1972’s Give It Up, Bonnie Raitt’s lone gold album during her time at Warner Bros.
He produced reissues and studio sessions for Impulse, Atlantic, Arista, Muse, Elektra, Freedom, Novus and virtually the entire Blue Note catalog.
“Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna,” execs from the label wrote on Instagram.
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Readers of Blues & Rhythm magazine know his work in the blues field,...
Cuscuna died Saturday of cancer at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, Grammy-winning recording artist Billy Vera, a longtime friend, announced.
Cuscuna produced the 1970 album Buddy & the Juniors, featuring Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Junior Mance, for Vanguard Records, and 1972’s Give It Up, Bonnie Raitt’s lone gold album during her time at Warner Bros.
He produced reissues and studio sessions for Impulse, Atlantic, Arista, Muse, Elektra, Freedom, Novus and virtually the entire Blue Note catalog.
“Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna,” execs from the label wrote on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Blue Note Records (@bluenoterecords)
Readers of Blues & Rhythm magazine know his work in the blues field,...
- 4/22/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Until recently, the oldest entertainment program known to survive on color videotape was NBC’s An Evening with Fred Astaire, broadcast live on October 17, 1958.
But now, a rare color videotape of the Kraft Music Hall Starring Milton Berle that predates the Astaire special by nine days has been discovered. The tape will be shown at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Saturday, February 24th at 7:30 Pm in a program that is free and open to the public.
“The Berle Kraft tape is the oldest known color videotape of an entertainment program,” said Mark Quigley, the John H. Mitchell Television Curator at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. “Entertainment” is a key distinction. The oldest known color tape is of the NBC Washington studios dedication ceremony on 05-22-1958.
“With the introduction of videotape technology in the broadcast industry starting in 1956, one of...
But now, a rare color videotape of the Kraft Music Hall Starring Milton Berle that predates the Astaire special by nine days has been discovered. The tape will be shown at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Saturday, February 24th at 7:30 Pm in a program that is free and open to the public.
“The Berle Kraft tape is the oldest known color videotape of an entertainment program,” said Mark Quigley, the John H. Mitchell Television Curator at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. “Entertainment” is a key distinction. The oldest known color tape is of the NBC Washington studios dedication ceremony on 05-22-1958.
“With the introduction of videotape technology in the broadcast industry starting in 1956, one of...
- 2/9/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
The 1974 spin on westerns sees Mel Brooks pointing at the absurdity of racism and the history of human evil while always ensuring a steady stream of laughter
Though it rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as The Wild Bunch, McCabe and Mrs Miller and the wave of revisionist westerns that came out of Hollywood in the late 60s and early 70s, Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles doesn’t need any artfully hazy Vilmos Zsigmond cinematography to upend Old West mythology. True, it is a comedy where a horse gets cold-cocked, a Native American chief (one of three characters played by Brooks) speaks Yiddish and Count Basie’s orchestra makes an appearance on the plains. Yet from the opening sequence, where Chinese immigrants and recently freed Black slaves work under the white man’s whip to build a railroad, this irreverent Looney Tunes spoof of the genre takes a dimmer...
Though it rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as The Wild Bunch, McCabe and Mrs Miller and the wave of revisionist westerns that came out of Hollywood in the late 60s and early 70s, Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles doesn’t need any artfully hazy Vilmos Zsigmond cinematography to upend Old West mythology. True, it is a comedy where a horse gets cold-cocked, a Native American chief (one of three characters played by Brooks) speaks Yiddish and Count Basie’s orchestra makes an appearance on the plains. Yet from the opening sequence, where Chinese immigrants and recently freed Black slaves work under the white man’s whip to build a railroad, this irreverent Looney Tunes spoof of the genre takes a dimmer...
- 2/7/2024
- by Scott Tobias
- The Guardian - Film News
New York, NY– The Paul Taylor Dance Company’s 2023 Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, from October 31 through November 12, will include fourteen dances by five choreographers – Ulysses Dove, Amy Hall Garner, Larry Keigwin, Lauren Lovette, and Paul Taylor – and feature world premieres by Lovette, Ptdc’s Resident Choreographer, and Keigwin, Taylor Company Commissioned choreographer. Music on all programs will be performed live by Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Osl), conducted by Taylor Music Director David Lamarche and Tara Simoncic. Ticket prices for the 2023 Season start at $15 and go on sale September 13. Tickets are available at www.boxoffice.dance.
Continuing his mission to build a repertory for the 21st Century, Artistic Director Michael Novak will present four works by three of today’s leading dance makers.
· Lauren Lovette will be represented by two new works. Dreamachine, set to Michael Daugherty’s percussion suite of that name, will have its New York premiere.
Continuing his mission to build a repertory for the 21st Century, Artistic Director Michael Novak will present four works by three of today’s leading dance makers.
· Lauren Lovette will be represented by two new works. Dreamachine, set to Michael Daugherty’s percussion suite of that name, will have its New York premiere.
- 10/18/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
The 80s was a fun time for moviegoers. For a successful comedy, sometimes all you needed was a group of employees at a specific job, they butt up against whatever authority is in place, and get into hijinks. There is no better example of this than the recruits at the Police Academy. A group of misfits that are thrown together and given guns. The making of the film had its ups and downs but the whole thing ended up with a whole of laughs and creating a franchise that would spawn seven films, a TV series, and a Saturday morning cartoon. Let’s find out exactly what happened to Police Academy here on Wtf Happened To This Movie?
Producer Paul Maslansky was in the middle of production on the film The Right Stuff. They were about to film a scene on the street and had called into the...
Producer Paul Maslansky was in the middle of production on the film The Right Stuff. They were about to film a scene on the street and had called into the...
- 10/18/2023
- by Bryan Wolford
- JoBlo.com
The single features renowned musicians Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders, and Brian Blade.
04 August 2023 – Joshua Redman has released “Baltimore,” the second single to be revealed from the acclaimed saxophonist’s forthcoming Blue Note debut where are we due out September 15. One of two instrumental tracks on the album, “Baltimore” was written by the classically influenced songwriter Gabriel Kahane and is given a transcendent performance by Redman’s quartet featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade.
where are we is a musical journey across the United States of America that also marks Redman’s first-ever album with a vocalist—the dynamic young singer Gabrielle Cavassa—who is featured throughout as heard on the album’s lead single “Chicago Blues,” a mash-up of Count Basie’s “Goin’ to Chicago” with Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Redman will be touring the project across the U.S. and Europe following the album’s release.
04 August 2023 – Joshua Redman has released “Baltimore,” the second single to be revealed from the acclaimed saxophonist’s forthcoming Blue Note debut where are we due out September 15. One of two instrumental tracks on the album, “Baltimore” was written by the classically influenced songwriter Gabriel Kahane and is given a transcendent performance by Redman’s quartet featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade.
where are we is a musical journey across the United States of America that also marks Redman’s first-ever album with a vocalist—the dynamic young singer Gabrielle Cavassa—who is featured throughout as heard on the album’s lead single “Chicago Blues,” a mash-up of Count Basie’s “Goin’ to Chicago” with Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Redman will be touring the project across the U.S. and Europe following the album’s release.
- 8/5/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Tony Bennett's first record, "Because of You" was released in 1952 and it instantly codified the entertainer as one of the music world's great crooners. In 1962, his 15th record, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was certified platinum by the RIAA, but that was after he had already established himself with Count Basie and his Orchestra and as a great fan of songwriter Harold Arlen. All told, he released 61 records in his decades-long career, not including his eight albums of collaborations and duets. He sang with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Carrie Underwood, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Mariah Carey, Bono, Sting, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, and many others. Most recently, he released two collaborations with Lady Gaga in 2018 and 2021. Bennett passed away on July 21, 2023 at the age of 96. He will be deeply missed.
Naturally, a talent of Bennett's stature couldn't be ignored by Hollywood, and he would appear...
Naturally, a talent of Bennett's stature couldn't be ignored by Hollywood, and he would appear...
- 7/21/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Tony Bennett, the affable pre-rock standards crooner who came to be newly appreciated and beloved by everyone from the grunge generation to Lady Gaga, died on Friday. He was 96. Bennett’s publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone, adding that he died in his hometown of New York City.
A cause of death was not specified. But in 2016, Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and began experiencing memory loss, one of the leading symptoms of the disease (which has no known cure). Bennett’s condition,...
A cause of death was not specified. But in 2016, Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and began experiencing memory loss, one of the leading symptoms of the disease (which has no known cure). Bennett’s condition,...
- 7/21/2023
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Composer Burt Bacharach has died, aged 94.
The legendary musician was known for his orchestral pop style featured in hits including “I Say a Little Prayer”.
His publicist said the musician died on Wednesday (8 February) at his home in Los Angeles.
Bacharach died of natural causes.
The pianist was a six-time Grammy Award winner, and won three Oscars for his music in films Arthur and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
His other famous soundtracks include Michael Caine film Alfie and What’s New Pussycat.
Bacharach was a prolific composer who, alongside lyricist Hal David, wrote music artists ranging from Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield to Cilla Black and Tom Jones.
Their music was also perfromed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Carpenters.
Some of Bacharach’s most recognisable songs include “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head“ (1969), “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970) and “That’s What Friends Are For...
The legendary musician was known for his orchestral pop style featured in hits including “I Say a Little Prayer”.
His publicist said the musician died on Wednesday (8 February) at his home in Los Angeles.
Bacharach died of natural causes.
The pianist was a six-time Grammy Award winner, and won three Oscars for his music in films Arthur and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
His other famous soundtracks include Michael Caine film Alfie and What’s New Pussycat.
Bacharach was a prolific composer who, alongside lyricist Hal David, wrote music artists ranging from Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield to Cilla Black and Tom Jones.
Their music was also perfromed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Carpenters.
Some of Bacharach’s most recognisable songs include “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head“ (1969), “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970) and “That’s What Friends Are For...
- 2/9/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Music
Alan Copeland, the songwriter, Grammy-winning arranger and ultra-smooth vocalist known for his many years with The Modernaires and performances on Your Hit Parade and The Red Skelton Hour, has died. He was 96.
Copeland died Dec. 28 in an assisted living facility in Sonora, California, his friend Bob Lehmann told The Hollywood Reporter.
As recently as this fall, Copeland was still singing and playing keyboards in a quartet called Now You Hazz Jazz. “It was his dream to play in a small group until the last curtain, that’s how he termed it,” said Lehmann, the drummer.
Copeland wrote or co-wrote songs including “Make Love to Me” — Jo Stafford’s version made it to No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1954 — “Too Young to Know,” “High Society,” “This Must Be the Place, “Darling, Darling, Darling” and “While the Vesper Bells Were Ringing.”
After taking arranging lessons from Henry Mancini, he arranged vocals for...
Copeland died Dec. 28 in an assisted living facility in Sonora, California, his friend Bob Lehmann told The Hollywood Reporter.
As recently as this fall, Copeland was still singing and playing keyboards in a quartet called Now You Hazz Jazz. “It was his dream to play in a small group until the last curtain, that’s how he termed it,” said Lehmann, the drummer.
Copeland wrote or co-wrote songs including “Make Love to Me” — Jo Stafford’s version made it to No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1954 — “Too Young to Know,” “High Society,” “This Must Be the Place, “Darling, Darling, Darling” and “While the Vesper Bells Were Ringing.”
After taking arranging lessons from Henry Mancini, he arranged vocals for...
- 1/7/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Monty Norman, who helped launch the James Bond franchise by composing the character’s beloved theme music, has died at the age of 94 following a brief illness. His family confirmed the news of his death to BBC, who first broke the story.
Norman was born in London on April 4, 1928. The son of Latvian immigrants, he was forced to evacuate the city during World War II but later returned during The Blitz. After serving in the Royal Air Force, he began pursuing a career in music. Norman first worked as a performer, singing with many prominent big band music acts and eventually sharing the stage with other top comedians and musicians of his time.
In the 1950s, Norman began to transition from performing to composing. He wrote lyrics for a variety of successful West End musicals, including “Make Me an Offer” and “Expresso Bongo,” and also wrote songs for various recording...
Norman was born in London on April 4, 1928. The son of Latvian immigrants, he was forced to evacuate the city during World War II but later returned during The Blitz. After serving in the Royal Air Force, he began pursuing a career in music. Norman first worked as a performer, singing with many prominent big band music acts and eventually sharing the stage with other top comedians and musicians of his time.
In the 1950s, Norman began to transition from performing to composing. He wrote lyrics for a variety of successful West End musicals, including “Make Me an Offer” and “Expresso Bongo,” and also wrote songs for various recording...
- 7/11/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Everything about season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” was bigger, from the sets to the drama and, of course, the music.
Returning songwriters Tom Mizer and Curtis Moore were tasked with creating a pastiche of sounds, including calypso, period-appropriate pop, a Broadway tune and several striptease numbers.
The two worked with the show’s music supervisor Robin Urdang to soundtrack Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan) career pivot, trading Greenwich Village coffeehouses for a Manhattan burlesque club.
As Urdang explains: “We built upon the musical palette of the show using numerous hidden gems such as ‘Femininity’ from ‘Oh, Captain’ in the final dance sequence at the burlesque club.”
In an extension of how the show uses music, Urdang says they also created Mandarin-language versions of American standards to use in the Button Club’s jukebox, along with original songs written by Mizer and Moore for the wedding of closeted singer Shy Baldwin.
Returning songwriters Tom Mizer and Curtis Moore were tasked with creating a pastiche of sounds, including calypso, period-appropriate pop, a Broadway tune and several striptease numbers.
The two worked with the show’s music supervisor Robin Urdang to soundtrack Midge’s (Rachel Brosnahan) career pivot, trading Greenwich Village coffeehouses for a Manhattan burlesque club.
As Urdang explains: “We built upon the musical palette of the show using numerous hidden gems such as ‘Femininity’ from ‘Oh, Captain’ in the final dance sequence at the burlesque club.”
In an extension of how the show uses music, Urdang says they also created Mandarin-language versions of American standards to use in the Button Club’s jukebox, along with original songs written by Mizer and Moore for the wedding of closeted singer Shy Baldwin.
- 5/23/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Ralph Carmichael, a prolific composer and arranger of film and TV scores whose writing or arranging credits include I Love Lucy, Bonanza, My Mother the Car, the sci-fi classic The Blob and some of the most beloved and enduring Christmas recordings ever made, died Monday in Camarillo, Calif. He was 94.
His death was announced by family spokesperson Jim Pedersen. A cause was not specified.
A pioneering figure in contemporary Christian music, Carmichael began a long career in television and film in the early 1950s when he headed the music department of his alma mater, the Southern California Bible College, and his school band was featured on the local Los Angeles TV program Campus Christian Hour. The show won an Emmy Award in 1951.
Around the same time, he began writing incidental music charts for I Love Lucy, a role he’d also fill on December Bride, Bonanza and The Frankie Lane Show,...
His death was announced by family spokesperson Jim Pedersen. A cause was not specified.
A pioneering figure in contemporary Christian music, Carmichael began a long career in television and film in the early 1950s when he headed the music department of his alma mater, the Southern California Bible College, and his school band was featured on the local Los Angeles TV program Campus Christian Hour. The show won an Emmy Award in 1951.
Around the same time, he began writing incidental music charts for I Love Lucy, a role he’d also fill on December Bride, Bonanza and The Frankie Lane Show,...
- 10/20/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Beverly Noga, a longtime music publicist known for work with high-profile acts including Sonny & Cher and The Bee Gees, died from cancer on October 8, a family spokesperson confirmed to Deadline. She was 87.
Noga is said to be the first woman ever to own her own PR agency, founding Contemporary Public Relations with business partner Bobbi Cowan (niece of famed publicist Warren Cowan) in 1964. This was the company through which she repped legendary pop duo Sonny & Cher, along with Grammy-winning disco trio The Bee Gees. Additional clients included Cream, The Turtles, Three Dog Night, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Eric Burden and the Animals, Joe Cocker, Blind Faith, and the Chambers Brothers.
Noga continued to rep the Chambers Brothers after shutting down Contemporary PR, founding and running her own companies (Hebewillen Enterprises and Hebewillen Publishing) with Willie Chambers up until her death.
Noga came from a musical family. Her parents, John and Helen Noga,...
Noga is said to be the first woman ever to own her own PR agency, founding Contemporary Public Relations with business partner Bobbi Cowan (niece of famed publicist Warren Cowan) in 1964. This was the company through which she repped legendary pop duo Sonny & Cher, along with Grammy-winning disco trio The Bee Gees. Additional clients included Cream, The Turtles, Three Dog Night, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Eric Burden and the Animals, Joe Cocker, Blind Faith, and the Chambers Brothers.
Noga continued to rep the Chambers Brothers after shutting down Contemporary PR, founding and running her own companies (Hebewillen Enterprises and Hebewillen Publishing) with Willie Chambers up until her death.
Noga came from a musical family. Her parents, John and Helen Noga,...
- 10/11/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Laufey evokes Roberta Flack oldies and early Tracey Thorne on “I Wish You Love,” a swooning cover of a standard that appears on Typical of Me, the 22-year-old singer’s debut EP. Many of the tracks were written in Laufey’s dorm room while she was a student at Berklee College of Music.
“I Wish You Love” has a fascinating history — it was initially written by Charles Trenet and recorded several times in France during the 1940s before Albert Beach penned an English-language version. After the new rendition of the...
“I Wish You Love” has a fascinating history — it was initially written by Charles Trenet and recorded several times in France during the 1940s before Albert Beach penned an English-language version. After the new rendition of the...
- 4/30/2021
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
Fremantle has acquired international distribution rights to Oscar Peterson: Black and White, the feature-length documentary about the iconic jazz pianist being directed by Barry Avrich. The deal is for overseas rights excluding Canada on the film, which is in production. A fall 2021 release is planned.
The doc will center on the life and music of the prolific jazz pioneer, whose blazing-fast hands on the piano were put to use via collaborations with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. It also will dive into the racism that Peterson was forced to endure throughout his career, and his commitment to mentoring younger players.
Peterson, who died in 2007 at 82, won seven Grammys and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 1997 to honor his six-decade career.
The film hails from Avrich’s Melbar Entertainment Group, which is producing with Canada’s Bell Media.
The doc will center on the life and music of the prolific jazz pioneer, whose blazing-fast hands on the piano were put to use via collaborations with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. It also will dive into the racism that Peterson was forced to endure throughout his career, and his commitment to mentoring younger players.
Peterson, who died in 2007 at 82, won seven Grammys and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 1997 to honor his six-decade career.
The film hails from Avrich’s Melbar Entertainment Group, which is producing with Canada’s Bell Media.
- 4/9/2021
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Gary Gunas Dies: Broadway Executive Producer Of ‘The Who’s Tommy’, ‘Jekyll & Hyde’, ‘Ragtime’ Was 73
Gary Gunas, executive producer of such Broadway musicals as The Who’s Tommy, Jekyll & Hyde and Ragtime, died today of pancreatic cancer at his home in London. He was 73.
His death was announced by his husband Bill Rosenfield.
Born in Manchester, Ct, Gunas began his career Off Broadway in 1969 as an apprentice company manager for the musical Promenade. In the 1970s he shifted to Broadway productions and tours, working in the office of Marvin A. Krauss Associates as a company manager, associate Gm and eventually general manager on many shows including Godspell, American Buffalo, Beatlemania, Dancin’, Woman of the Year, Dreamgirls and Best Musical Tony winner La Cage aux Folles, as well as notable revivals of Gypsy, starring Angela Lansbury; King Richard III, starring Al Pacino; and Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman.
During that time period, Gunas also general managed stage performances by such performers as Peter Allen,...
His death was announced by his husband Bill Rosenfield.
Born in Manchester, Ct, Gunas began his career Off Broadway in 1969 as an apprentice company manager for the musical Promenade. In the 1970s he shifted to Broadway productions and tours, working in the office of Marvin A. Krauss Associates as a company manager, associate Gm and eventually general manager on many shows including Godspell, American Buffalo, Beatlemania, Dancin’, Woman of the Year, Dreamgirls and Best Musical Tony winner La Cage aux Folles, as well as notable revivals of Gypsy, starring Angela Lansbury; King Richard III, starring Al Pacino; and Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman.
During that time period, Gunas also general managed stage performances by such performers as Peter Allen,...
- 2/22/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Bruce Swedien, the celebrated audio engineer and producer who worked on records by Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Donna Summer, Duke Ellington, Paul McCartney and many more, died Tuesday at the age of 86.
Swedien’s daughter, the musician Roberta Swedien, confirmed his death on Facebook, writing, “A legend in the music industry for over 65 years and five-time Grammy winner, he was known for his work with Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and many more. He had a long life full of love, great music, big boats and a beautiful marriage. We will celebrate that life.
Swedien’s daughter, the musician Roberta Swedien, confirmed his death on Facebook, writing, “A legend in the music industry for over 65 years and five-time Grammy winner, he was known for his work with Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and many more. He had a long life full of love, great music, big boats and a beautiful marriage. We will celebrate that life.
- 11/18/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
A new Billie Holiday documentary prompts a look at the films that best capture the spirit of the jazz greats
The first thing anyone ever heard in the movies was jazz – in cinema’s first sound film, The Jazz Singer, of course, a creaky 1927 backstage drama that now only really has historical-milestone status to recommend it. (It’s on Amazon if you’re curious.) By now, happily, the cinema of jazz is a sophisticated, richly stocked subgenre, with British director James Erskine’s Billie (Barbican Cinema on demand) the latest addition.
The tumultuous life and death of Billie Holiday has long demanded a major documentary study, and Erskine’s film digs in with the advantage of a vast, hitherto unheard interview archive: candid testimonies from friends and associates such as Count Basie and Tony Bennett, recorded in the 1970s by the late journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, for a planned biography that never came to pass.
The first thing anyone ever heard in the movies was jazz – in cinema’s first sound film, The Jazz Singer, of course, a creaky 1927 backstage drama that now only really has historical-milestone status to recommend it. (It’s on Amazon if you’re curious.) By now, happily, the cinema of jazz is a sophisticated, richly stocked subgenre, with British director James Erskine’s Billie (Barbican Cinema on demand) the latest addition.
The tumultuous life and death of Billie Holiday has long demanded a major documentary study, and Erskine’s film digs in with the advantage of a vast, hitherto unheard interview archive: candid testimonies from friends and associates such as Count Basie and Tony Bennett, recorded in the 1970s by the late journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, for a planned biography that never came to pass.
- 11/14/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
New York City isn’t particularly renowned for its beauty. Wait, wait—don’t punch me. I love New York. I moved here because I grew up on Annie Hall, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Moonstruck, and All About Eve. I wanted to be in the city that never slept, feel the rush of creative energy that has inspired artists for centuries, but I didn’t consider the city a “beauty” comparable to Paris or Rome, cities with breathtaking architecture and art pouring from every structure.
The beauty of NYC is of a less-obvious kind; it grows on you. You learn to find serenity among the steel columns that support the subway, find dissonant harmony in the eclectic types of architecture that characterize major landmarks, and appreciate the softness of Central Park, a miniature forest surrounded by steel and cement.
Manfred Kirchheimer highlights precisely this kind of beauty in his poetic documentary Free Time.
The beauty of NYC is of a less-obvious kind; it grows on you. You learn to find serenity among the steel columns that support the subway, find dissonant harmony in the eclectic types of architecture that characterize major landmarks, and appreciate the softness of Central Park, a miniature forest surrounded by steel and cement.
Manfred Kirchheimer highlights precisely this kind of beauty in his poetic documentary Free Time.
- 11/12/2020
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Billie
Unreleased interviews with the jazz icon, newly restored color pictures and videos, pus conversations with other musical greats like Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus, Sylvia Syms, and Count Basie – the new documentary examines the life and cultural legacy of Billie Holiday as it’s never been before. The film was made possible by over 200 hours of footage that Linda Lipnack Kuehl captures during the Sixties for a biography of Holiday that was never completed. (November 13th)
Dune
Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction epic novel is getting another big-screen adaptation. This time,...
Unreleased interviews with the jazz icon, newly restored color pictures and videos, pus conversations with other musical greats like Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus, Sylvia Syms, and Count Basie – the new documentary examines the life and cultural legacy of Billie Holiday as it’s never been before. The film was made possible by over 200 hours of footage that Linda Lipnack Kuehl captures during the Sixties for a biography of Holiday that was never completed. (November 13th)
Dune
Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction epic novel is getting another big-screen adaptation. This time,...
- 9/12/2020
- by Natalli Amato
- Rollingstone.com
A new documentary, Billie, will delve into the life of jazz great Billie Holiday with the help of hours of never-before-heard interviews.
The project is centered around 200 hours of previously unreleased interviews that Linda Lipnack Kuehl conducted during the Sixties for a biography of Holiday that was never finished. The tapes feature conversations about Holiday with fellow legends like Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie, as well as others in Holiday’s life — from high school friends, lawyers and pimps to the federal agents who targeted and...
The project is centered around 200 hours of previously unreleased interviews that Linda Lipnack Kuehl conducted during the Sixties for a biography of Holiday that was never finished. The tapes feature conversations about Holiday with fellow legends like Tony Bennett, Charles Mingus, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie, as well as others in Holiday’s life — from high school friends, lawyers and pimps to the federal agents who targeted and...
- 9/8/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to clue us in on who is the Queen of Jazz. It’s Ella Fitzgerald, my dear Watson, Lady Ella. William Basie began to boogie-woogie piano keys at a Harlem club catering to “uptown celebrities.” After a quick stomp through Kansas City, he came back as Count Basie. There are few true royalties among jazz, ask anyone waiting for residual checks, but as Duke Ellington made clear, these two had that thing which made them swing. Eagle Rock Entertainment is dropping two documentaries celebrating these American jazz icons: Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things and Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes exclusively on digital formats on Sept. 11.
“Recently enjoying a hugely successful Virtual Cinema release, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things presents a deep, insightful look into the life of The ‘First Lady Of Song,’” according to the press statement. “Ella Fitzgerald’s journey is thoroughly explored,...
“Recently enjoying a hugely successful Virtual Cinema release, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things presents a deep, insightful look into the life of The ‘First Lady Of Song,’” according to the press statement. “Ella Fitzgerald’s journey is thoroughly explored,...
- 8/26/2020
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Annie Ross, the legendary Jazz singer who was part of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross died in the early morning hours of July 22 at her home in New York City. She was 89. Ross’ former manager, Jim Coleman, confirmed the cause of death to be emphysema and heart disease.
Her nephew Domenick Allen wrote on his Facebook page, “My Aunt, Annie Ross, passed today at 2:00est in NYC. She was a Force of Nature, both in her music and in her life. I stood onstage next to her many times, and she truly was a Powerhouse. Her Jazz/standard hit was Twisted, but she was Straight Ahead all the way…I know she’ll be swinging somewhere in the Universe…”
Born Annabelle Allan Short in 1930, in Surrey, England, Ross moved to the U.S. with her Vaudeville actor parents, John and Mary Short, when she was four. She would grow...
Her nephew Domenick Allen wrote on his Facebook page, “My Aunt, Annie Ross, passed today at 2:00est in NYC. She was a Force of Nature, both in her music and in her life. I stood onstage next to her many times, and she truly was a Powerhouse. Her Jazz/standard hit was Twisted, but she was Straight Ahead all the way…I know she’ll be swinging somewhere in the Universe…”
Born Annabelle Allan Short in 1930, in Surrey, England, Ross moved to the U.S. with her Vaudeville actor parents, John and Mary Short, when she was four. She would grow...
- 7/22/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Showtime is developing a limited series about entertainment icon and activist Lena Horne.
The series is currently titled “Blackbird: Lena Horne and America,” named for Horne’s favorite poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Jenny Lumet, Horne’s granddaughter, will co-write the first few episodes of the series with Alex Kurtzman, with both also executive producing.
The series will span 60 years of Horne’s life, from dancing at the Cotton Club when she was 16, through World War II and stardom in the MGM years, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, and her triumphant return to Broadway. It will also delve into her relationships with luminaries like Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Joe Louis, Billie Holiday, Hattie McDaniel, Ava Gardner, and Orson Welles
“Bringing my grandmother’s story to the screen required a multi-generational effort,” said Lumet. “Grandma passed her stories to my mother, who now passes them to me,...
The series is currently titled “Blackbird: Lena Horne and America,” named for Horne’s favorite poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Jenny Lumet, Horne’s granddaughter, will co-write the first few episodes of the series with Alex Kurtzman, with both also executive producing.
The series will span 60 years of Horne’s life, from dancing at the Cotton Club when she was 16, through World War II and stardom in the MGM years, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, and her triumphant return to Broadway. It will also delve into her relationships with luminaries like Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Joe Louis, Billie Holiday, Hattie McDaniel, Ava Gardner, and Orson Welles
“Bringing my grandmother’s story to the screen required a multi-generational effort,” said Lumet. “Grandma passed her stories to my mother, who now passes them to me,...
- 7/8/2020
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Showtime is developing a limited series about the life of entertainer and activist Lena Horne, with Horne’s granddaughter Jenny Lumet writing and executive producing.
Lumet will write the first few episodes with her longtime producing partner, Alex Kurtzman. The series will be produced by CBS TV Studios and Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Heather Kadin will serve as an executive producer as well.
“Bringing my grandmother’s story to the screen required a multi-generational effort,” said Lumet. “Grandma passed her stories to my mother, who now passes them to me, so I may pass them to the children of our family. Lena’s story is so intimate and at the same time, it’s the story of America – America at its most honest, most musical, most tragic and most joyous. It’s crucial now. Especially now. She was the love of my life.”
Also Read: CBS Fall Schedule: Chuck Lorre...
Lumet will write the first few episodes with her longtime producing partner, Alex Kurtzman. The series will be produced by CBS TV Studios and Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Heather Kadin will serve as an executive producer as well.
“Bringing my grandmother’s story to the screen required a multi-generational effort,” said Lumet. “Grandma passed her stories to my mother, who now passes them to me, so I may pass them to the children of our family. Lena’s story is so intimate and at the same time, it’s the story of America – America at its most honest, most musical, most tragic and most joyous. It’s crucial now. Especially now. She was the love of my life.”
Also Read: CBS Fall Schedule: Chuck Lorre...
- 7/8/2020
- by Tim Baysinger
- The Wrap
The life of entertainer and activist Lena Horne is to be turned into a limited series by Showtime with Alex Kurtzman and Horne’s granddaughter Jenny Lumet.
The ViacomCBS-backed cable network is developing Blackbird: Lena Horne and America and will tell her story from dancing at the Cotton Club when she was 16, through World War II and stardom of the MGM years, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement and her triumphant return to Broadway.
It will explore her relationships with Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Joe Louis, Billie Holiday, Hattie McDaniel, Ava Gardner and Orson Welles and look at how she navigated stardom during Jim Crow as a direct descendant of slaves and their enslavers.
The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios and Secret Hideout and Heather Kadin, who worked with Kurtzman on Star Trek: Discovery, will also exec produce alongside Lumet, who wrote Rachel Getting Married...
The ViacomCBS-backed cable network is developing Blackbird: Lena Horne and America and will tell her story from dancing at the Cotton Club when she was 16, through World War II and stardom of the MGM years, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement and her triumphant return to Broadway.
It will explore her relationships with Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Joe Louis, Billie Holiday, Hattie McDaniel, Ava Gardner and Orson Welles and look at how she navigated stardom during Jim Crow as a direct descendant of slaves and their enslavers.
The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios and Secret Hideout and Heather Kadin, who worked with Kurtzman on Star Trek: Discovery, will also exec produce alongside Lumet, who wrote Rachel Getting Married...
- 7/8/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Johnny Mandel, the prolific composer and arranger who worked with Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Barbra Streisand and more — and famously composed the theme song for M*A*S*H — has died, Variety reports. He was 94.
No specifics about Mandel’s death have been revealed. The news was shared by singer and friend Michael Feinstein on Facebook early Tuesday morning: “A dear friend and extraordinary composer-arranger and all-around brilliant talent Johnny Mandel just passed away. The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition.
No specifics about Mandel’s death have been revealed. The news was shared by singer and friend Michael Feinstein on Facebook early Tuesday morning: “A dear friend and extraordinary composer-arranger and all-around brilliant talent Johnny Mandel just passed away. The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition.
- 6/30/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Johnny Mandel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter of “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Emily” and the theme from “Mash,” has died. He was 94.
“I was so sad to learn that a hero of mine, Johnny Mandel, passed away,” wrote Michael Buble on Twitter. “He was a genius and one of my favorite writers, arrangers, and personalities. He was a beast.”
“A dear friend and extraordinary composer arranger and all-around brilliant talent, Johnny Mandel, just passed away,” wrote Michael Feinstein on Facebook. “The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition. He was truly beyond compare, and nobody could write or arrange the way he did. Lord will we miss him. Let’s celebrate him with his music! He would like that.”
Mandel was considered one of the finest arrangers of the second half of the 20th century, providing...
“I was so sad to learn that a hero of mine, Johnny Mandel, passed away,” wrote Michael Buble on Twitter. “He was a genius and one of my favorite writers, arrangers, and personalities. He was a beast.”
“A dear friend and extraordinary composer arranger and all-around brilliant talent, Johnny Mandel, just passed away,” wrote Michael Feinstein on Facebook. “The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition. He was truly beyond compare, and nobody could write or arrange the way he did. Lord will we miss him. Let’s celebrate him with his music! He would like that.”
Mandel was considered one of the finest arrangers of the second half of the 20th century, providing...
- 6/30/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
Film-maker known for his world music documentaries, in particular his Beats of the Heart series
Jeremy Marre, who has died aged 76, was a British documentary maker specialising in films about popular music of every possible kind. Widely travelled, and with eclectic taste, he had a lengthy career that included adventurous documentaries about music in Africa, the Americas, the UK and the Us, and profiles of artists such as Phil Spector, Roy Orbison, Youssou N’Dour and Count Basie.
His first major success was Roots Rock Reggae (1977), which grew out of an earlier commission on the British reggae scene for the ITV arts programme Aquarius. Deciding that he needed to go to Jamaica to fully understand the music, Marre “scraped together some money” and travelled to Kingston, filming in lawless areas of the city. Threatened by some locals who accused him of being a CIA agent, he convinced them he was English...
Jeremy Marre, who has died aged 76, was a British documentary maker specialising in films about popular music of every possible kind. Widely travelled, and with eclectic taste, he had a lengthy career that included adventurous documentaries about music in Africa, the Americas, the UK and the Us, and profiles of artists such as Phil Spector, Roy Orbison, Youssou N’Dour and Count Basie.
His first major success was Roots Rock Reggae (1977), which grew out of an earlier commission on the British reggae scene for the ITV arts programme Aquarius. Deciding that he needed to go to Jamaica to fully understand the music, Marre “scraped together some money” and travelled to Kingston, filming in lawless areas of the city. Threatened by some locals who accused him of being a CIA agent, he convinced them he was English...
- 4/2/2020
- by Robin Denselow
- The Guardian - Film News
When we talk about rock, we talk about bands: Zeppelin, the Who, the Stones. But when we talk about jazz, we tend to talk about individuals: Miles, Monk, Coltrane. On some level, that makes sense: If the song is the primary mode of rock expression, the solo is generally the way you make your mark in jazz. Whether you’re considering Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, or the colossal, now-retired Sonny Rollins, it was when they stepped out front and said their piece that they truly embodied their legendary status.
- 3/7/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Jean-Paul Gaster still remembers the moment he realized the first heavy-metal band were playing jazz.
Growing up near Washington, D.C., the drummer — who for nearly 30 years has brought a loose-limbed swagger to the rhythms of esteemed hard-rock band Clutch — would sit with his father and watch live concerts on public television. Performances by big-band jazz greats Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa made a particularly strong impression on him.
A few years later, heavier sounds came onto his radar via bands like Black Sabbath and Zz Top. At first, Gaster...
Growing up near Washington, D.C., the drummer — who for nearly 30 years has brought a loose-limbed swagger to the rhythms of esteemed hard-rock band Clutch — would sit with his father and watch live concerts on public television. Performances by big-band jazz greats Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa made a particularly strong impression on him.
A few years later, heavier sounds came onto his radar via bands like Black Sabbath and Zz Top. At first, Gaster...
- 2/12/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
In our new series, we look at eight cities where live music has exploded — from legendary hubs like New Orleans and Nashville and Chicago, to rising hot spots like Raleigh, North Carolina and Portland, Maine. The latest: Tulsa, where history, social consciousness and barroom jamming make it one of the most fun places to visit right now.
Jack White remembers the first time he stepped inside Cain’s Ballroom, a 1920s Tulsa dance hall where Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys once broadcast their weekly radio shows. “I basically almost...
Jack White remembers the first time he stepped inside Cain’s Ballroom, a 1920s Tulsa dance hall where Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys once broadcast their weekly radio shows. “I basically almost...
- 1/27/2020
- by Jonathan Bernstein
- Rollingstone.com
Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Billie, James Erskine’s documentary about the life of iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday that world premiered over Labor Day weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. A 2020 release date is in the works from the distributor, which in 2019 released Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, which was one of the year’s top-grossing documentaries.
Billie features newly unearthed interviews from those who knew Holiday best — Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie among them — and features performances restored into color for the first time. It helps paint the picture of a singer with breathtaking talent and global popularity, and whose song “Strange Fruit” exposed the realities of black life in America and earned her powerful enemies over her short, turbulent life. She died almost penniless in 1959 at age 44.
The documentary weaves her story through one of her most enamored fans,...
Billie features newly unearthed interviews from those who knew Holiday best — Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie among them — and features performances restored into color for the first time. It helps paint the picture of a singer with breathtaking talent and global popularity, and whose song “Strange Fruit” exposed the realities of black life in America and earned her powerful enemies over her short, turbulent life. She died almost penniless in 1959 at age 44.
The documentary weaves her story through one of her most enamored fans,...
- 1/16/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to Tony-winning lyricist and director Scott Wittman about Frank Sinatra's 1966 live album, 'Sinatra at the Sands.' They also discuss Bette Midler, Patti LuPone, Sammy Davis Jr, Edie Beale, Christine Ebersole, Count Basie, Barbara Cook, Dusty Springfield, Ute Lemper, and Bridget Everett. Scott talks about playing 'cocktail lounge' growing up, and how his love for live albums influenced his career in theater and cabaret. Scott has worked on a number of successful Broadway shows such as 'Hairspray,' 'Catch Me If You Can,' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' as well as the TV show 'Smash' and the movie 'Mary Poppins Returns.'...
- 12/2/2019
- by Ben Rimalower
- BroadwayWorld.com
It feels unnatural to think of New York City without the Apollo Theater, yet more than once during the production of HBO’s “The Apollo,” Roger Ross Williams’ documentary about the Harlem landmark, the doors were in danger of closing for good.
That’s just one of many stories you’ll discover watching this exhaustive compendium of archival riches and fond first-person memories by many of the audience regulars, the star-studded acts who graced its stage, and some of the hopefuls still looking to be a part of the Apollo’s history.
Throughout “The Apollo,” Williams vacillates between the theater’s past and present, thematically connecting how some things have changed while others have stayed the same. Through the testimonies of historians and academics, as well as first-hand accounts, the director traces the history of the Apollo as one of the few venues that allowed Black performers not only on...
That’s just one of many stories you’ll discover watching this exhaustive compendium of archival riches and fond first-person memories by many of the audience regulars, the star-studded acts who graced its stage, and some of the hopefuls still looking to be a part of the Apollo’s history.
Throughout “The Apollo,” Williams vacillates between the theater’s past and present, thematically connecting how some things have changed while others have stayed the same. Through the testimonies of historians and academics, as well as first-hand accounts, the director traces the history of the Apollo as one of the few venues that allowed Black performers not only on...
- 11/5/2019
- by Monica Castillo
- The Wrap
Ronnie Scott’s, an iconic British music venue dubbed the “world’s favorite jazz club,” is the subject of a new feature documentary. Kew Media Distribution has boarded sales on “Ronnie’s” (working title) and is warming up buyers at Cannes.
The club is situated in the heart of London’s Soho district. Founded by late saxophonist Ronnie Scott and Pete King, who were inspired by the vibrant post-war jazz venues in New York, it opened its doors 60 years ago, in 1959. Since then, the club has hosted the world’s greatest jazz legends, including Chet Baker, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich and Nina Simone.
Norah Jones and actor-and-musician Jeff Goldblum are among more recent performers at the club, which also attracts stars of other musical genres, such as Lady Gaga in 2015 and Prince a year earlier.
The film will tell the story of...
The club is situated in the heart of London’s Soho district. Founded by late saxophonist Ronnie Scott and Pete King, who were inspired by the vibrant post-war jazz venues in New York, it opened its doors 60 years ago, in 1959. Since then, the club has hosted the world’s greatest jazz legends, including Chet Baker, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich and Nina Simone.
Norah Jones and actor-and-musician Jeff Goldblum are among more recent performers at the club, which also attracts stars of other musical genres, such as Lady Gaga in 2015 and Prince a year earlier.
The film will tell the story of...
- 5/15/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Some landmarks symbolize the culture behind their existence; others have a hand in creating the culture itself. In Roger Ross Williams’ sincere documentary tribute “The Apollo,” Harlem’s iconic theater receives a generous overview of its role as a cultural hub for black entertainment and culture for close to 90 years. It’s a worthy salute to the theater’s role in sustaining African American performance art through periods of great turmoil, and provides a conduit for exploring how a beacon for black achievement functions from the inside out.
Having said that, “The Apollo” doesn’t work overtime to ask the most probing questions. It’s hard not to watch the movie without considering the issues it glosses over that might have given this absorbing chronicle more of an investigative flair. The non-fiction medium has a reigning king in this department: Documentary maestro Frederick Wiseman, whose cinematic deep-dives include the New York Library portrait “Ex Libris,...
Having said that, “The Apollo” doesn’t work overtime to ask the most probing questions. It’s hard not to watch the movie without considering the issues it glosses over that might have given this absorbing chronicle more of an investigative flair. The non-fiction medium has a reigning king in this department: Documentary maestro Frederick Wiseman, whose cinematic deep-dives include the New York Library portrait “Ex Libris,...
- 4/25/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Indie music outfit Concord, via its film and TV department, is partnering on James Erskine’s upcoming documentary, Billie. The film chronicles legendary singer Billie Holiday’s life story. Concord is the successor to the Billie Holiday estate which is providing access to her music and recordings. The doc, originally mooted at the Efm in 2018, will be produced by New Black Films’ Victoria Gregory and Barry Clark-Ewers and Rep Documentary’s Laure Vaysse. Concord’s Scott Pascucci and Sophia Dilley are exec producers with Altitude’s Will Clarke, Andy Mayson and Mike Runagall.
The doc is currently in post-production. Also joining is Brazilian colorization artist Marina Amaral who is working on the filmed and still images. While most of the archive images that exist of Holiday are in black and white, Amaral will use new techniques she has pioneered to update them.
Holiday was one of the greatest voices in music,...
The doc is currently in post-production. Also joining is Brazilian colorization artist Marina Amaral who is working on the filmed and still images. While most of the archive images that exist of Holiday are in black and white, Amaral will use new techniques she has pioneered to update them.
Holiday was one of the greatest voices in music,...
- 2/21/2019
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
A moment to note the recent passing of Don Grierson, who as an A+R record exec signed Celine Dion, and worked closely with The Beatles, The Jacksons, Tina Turner, Heart, Bob Seger, Gloria Estefan, and Cindy Lauper over a 50 year career. He died recently in Los Angeles at age 77. He was honored during Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Brit-born Grierson grew up in Australia and got a DJ job at 18 at a small station, where he was also Music Director. He moved to La and after working in a record store got a job as promotions manager for a small label. A job at Capitol Records followed and there he was was instrumental in promoting The Beatles’ first four Apple Records singles. The band presented Grierson with the only Golden Apple Award ever awarded by the group. The award was presented personally by George Harrison in a ceremony on...
Brit-born Grierson grew up in Australia and got a DJ job at 18 at a small station, where he was also Music Director. He moved to La and after working in a record store got a job as promotions manager for a small label. A job at Capitol Records followed and there he was was instrumental in promoting The Beatles’ first four Apple Records singles. The band presented Grierson with the only Golden Apple Award ever awarded by the group. The award was presented personally by George Harrison in a ceremony on...
- 2/13/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s standard rock-history practice not to rank the Beatles, as a live band, at the level of more obvious titans like the Who, Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Dylan once he paired with the Band. Their symbiotic relationship with the studio perhaps dulls what ought to be a clear point: When the Fab Four were invested in tearing it up live, you were gonna get torn up too, in a good way. They could cook, and to paraphrase John Lennon in the Anthology, there was no one to...
- 1/30/2019
- by Colin Fleming
- Rollingstone.com
The Recording Academy will honor artists from a wide variety of genres next spring when it hands out Lifetime Achievement Grammys at a special ceremony. It will recognize Black Sabbath, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, jazz singer Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam and Dave and Dionne Warwick, according to Variety, in Los Angeles on May 11th.
Other honorees include producer Lou Adler, artists and songwriters Ashford and Simpson and songwriter Johnny Mandel, who will all receive Trustees Awards. The late Saul Walker, who innovated microphone preamps and other recording technologies,...
Other honorees include producer Lou Adler, artists and songwriters Ashford and Simpson and songwriter Johnny Mandel, who will all receive Trustees Awards. The late Saul Walker, who innovated microphone preamps and other recording technologies,...
- 12/19/2018
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Jazz, like many other genres, has a long history with the Beatles’ songbook. Since the Sixties, artists from Count Basie to Medeski Martin & Wood have covered a wide array of Fab Four tunes. A new release, A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper, brings this concept into the present: It’s a full album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, featuring 12 contemporary jazz artists tackling the immortal LP’s 13 tracks. (Drummer Antonio Sanchez, who realized Birdman’s stunning solo-percussion score a few years back, performs both...
- 11/30/2018
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Elvis Presley is among the seven “distinguished individuals” that will receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump at a November 16th ceremony.
Yankees great Babe Ruth and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will also posthumously receive the prestigious award, “the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” the Office of the Press...
Yankees great Babe Ruth and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will also posthumously receive the prestigious award, “the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” the Office of the Press...
- 11/10/2018
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Quincy Jones has done it all. From a jazzman to a bandleader to a civil rights soldier to a producer of pop’s greatest triumphs, he’s earned his legendary status a dozen times over. Without him, Leslie Gore and Michael Jackson as we knew them wouldn’t have existed — but he also indelibly marked the careers of Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Tevin Campbell and scores more. Along the way, he’s earned the highest honors, and at 85 he’s as fiery as ever. In the new Netflix documentary Quincy,...
- 10/1/2018
- by Jason Heller
- Rollingstone.com
“At each stage in his remarkable career, he’s been the first. He’s been somebody who’s walked through that door before everybody else has. That’s given people behind him enormous confidence. And he’s done it with grace.”
Those are the words President Obama uses to describe the writer-producer-arranger-composer Quincy Jones near the end of the new documentary Quincy. Jones is one of the great musical figures of the 20th century, a restless polymath who worked across jazz, the blues, pop, funk and rap. His work always...
Those are the words President Obama uses to describe the writer-producer-arranger-composer Quincy Jones near the end of the new documentary Quincy. Jones is one of the great musical figures of the 20th century, a restless polymath who worked across jazz, the blues, pop, funk and rap. His work always...
- 9/21/2018
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
There’s a startling moment late in “Quincy,” Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks’ Netflix documentary about the octogenarian music man Quincy Jones, in which our subject takes an early tour of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History & Culture, whose imminent grand opening ceremony he’s spent the last few months planning. Stepping out of his wheelchair, Jones takes a slow ramble through the museum’s music wing, pausing to take in the glassed-off personal effects of the people he calls “all the old homies”: Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Dinah Washington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis – each and every one of them among Jones’ onetime friends and collaborators, and each and every one of them now dead. For the first time in the film, Jones appears to be at a loss for words. It’s one thing to play an indispensable role in more than half a century of musical history,...
- 9/10/2018
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
“Beatlemania is a temporary state of mind that can only be accurately described by the state of one under its influence.”
This snippet from an old news report was re-broadcast earlier this summer on SiriusXM’s “The Beatles Channel.” Once the phrase “temporary” is removed, it serves as a mission statement of sorts for this 24/7 bastion of Fab Four–focused programming. The maniacs have the wheel, and their madness is contagious.
The Beatles Channel, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, has an expansive mission. First and foremost, it hopes to...
This snippet from an old news report was re-broadcast earlier this summer on SiriusXM’s “The Beatles Channel.” Once the phrase “temporary” is removed, it serves as a mission statement of sorts for this 24/7 bastion of Fab Four–focused programming. The maniacs have the wheel, and their madness is contagious.
The Beatles Channel, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, has an expansive mission. First and foremost, it hopes to...
- 8/18/2018
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
The trappings are all there: the smattering of polite applause, the tinkling piano laying out the chord changes of a familiar tune — Erroll Garner’s “Misty,” in this case. But with the entrance of the singer, something shifts; suddenly the record isn’t jazz as usual. Aretha Franklin lands on an opening “Ooo” softly and steadily, holding the note for what from anyone else would be too long and letting it slowly expand and brighten before contracting into a perfectly even vibrato. The song’s actual first word, “Look,” goes...
- 8/17/2018
- by Natalie Weiner
- Rollingstone.com
“Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, the eruptive singer who reigned atop the pop and R&B charts in the late ’60s and early ’70s with a succession of albums and singles of unparalleled power and emotional depth, has died. She was 76.
Franklin was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and had earlier undergone surgery in December 2010. Her longtime publicist Gwendolyn Quinn reported Franklin died Thursday morning at her home in Detroit.
“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,” Quinn said in a statement. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds.”
She was the most lionized and lauded female R&B vocalist of her era. Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement honoree in...
Franklin was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and had earlier undergone surgery in December 2010. Her longtime publicist Gwendolyn Quinn reported Franklin died Thursday morning at her home in Detroit.
“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,” Quinn said in a statement. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds.”
She was the most lionized and lauded female R&B vocalist of her era. Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement honoree in...
- 8/16/2018
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
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