“I love music,” declares Rickey Minor, and it’s clear that the music director for the past two Academy Awards telecasts means it. The enthusiasm and joy he projects is infectious. He proclaims that he would “play at the opening of an envelope” and that when it comes to work, “I don’t turn down nothin’ but my collar.” He recalls once telling Quincy Jones that he loves working in music so much he would do it for free and Jones telling him, “Don’t say that.” But while he listened to Jones and insists on getting paid for his work these days, plenty of it comes his way. He’s the go-to music director for live awards shows including the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys and The Kennedy Center Honors. Why? Minor believes it’s his meticulous preparation. “Notes, notes, notes,” he says. “I’ve always got my legal pad ready to go.
- 4/26/2024
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
If everything old really is new again, the creative team behind Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood is hoping that putting forward some of the choices from past Oscar ceremonies will prove inspired this time around as well. During a virtual press conference this week with executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor, exec producers Molly McNearney (also host Jimmy Kimmel’s wife) and Katy Mullan, and music director Rickey Minor, they pointed to a few new wrinkles this time around – the most significant of which repeats a brainchild that drew raves during the first and only time it was attempted in 2009. That would be the introduction of each nominee in all four acting categories individually by a past winner.
It was done 15 years ago when Laurence Mark and Bill Condon conceived the idea of having each previous winner focus on a story involving a single...
It was done 15 years ago when Laurence Mark and Bill Condon conceived the idea of having each previous winner focus on a story involving a single...
- 3/9/2024
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Oscar producers Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan, Molly McNearney and Rob Paine, as well as music director Rickey Minor are days away from the 96th Academy Awards.
But they took time out on Wednesday afternoon to share insight into what to expect from Sunday’s ceremony. In a conversation moderated by Jacqueline Coley, Awards Editor at Rotten Tomatoes, Kapoor said this year’s theme is “human connection, emotion, inspiration and creativity.”
A major highlight that has both fans and producers excited is the news of five former winners presenting to the five nominees. The idea was inspired by Bill Condon when he produced the 81st Academy Awards. Kapoor said the team had done a deep dive into past ceremonies and that stuck with them the most. Said Kapoor, “It was this lovely storytelling and again it came down to connection. It was past winners speaking to present nominees and that lovely connection and that human interaction.
But they took time out on Wednesday afternoon to share insight into what to expect from Sunday’s ceremony. In a conversation moderated by Jacqueline Coley, Awards Editor at Rotten Tomatoes, Kapoor said this year’s theme is “human connection, emotion, inspiration and creativity.”
A major highlight that has both fans and producers excited is the news of five former winners presenting to the five nominees. The idea was inspired by Bill Condon when he produced the 81st Academy Awards. Kapoor said the team had done a deep dive into past ceremonies and that stuck with them the most. Said Kapoor, “It was this lovely storytelling and again it came down to connection. It was past winners speaking to present nominees and that lovely connection and that human interaction.
- 3/6/2024
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
She doubled for Pam Grier on Foxy Brown, dodged moving cars in The Blues Brothers and once spent an entire year in a body cast. All while fighting for the rights of other stunt performers
Jadie David’s entry into the movie business sounds like a scene from a film. It was 1971; she was 22 years old, living in Burbank, Los Angeles. She would regularly ride her horse in nearby Griffith Park. She knew most of the other riders out there, including an African American man named Bob Minor. “Bob used to ride up next to me and go: ‘Hi, how you doing?’” says David. “But I was like, ‘This guy’s flirting with me.’ I really didn’t pay much attention to him.” Minor told her he was in the movie industry and that he liked her look, and asked for her phone number. “So, I’m like, ‘This is Hollywood.
Jadie David’s entry into the movie business sounds like a scene from a film. It was 1971; she was 22 years old, living in Burbank, Los Angeles. She would regularly ride her horse in nearby Griffith Park. She knew most of the other riders out there, including an African American man named Bob Minor. “Bob used to ride up next to me and go: ‘Hi, how you doing?’” says David. “But I was like, ‘This guy’s flirting with me.’ I really didn’t pay much attention to him.” Minor told her he was in the movie industry and that he liked her look, and asked for her phone number. “So, I’m like, ‘This is Hollywood.
- 8/9/2023
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This post contains spoilers for “Deer Lady,” this week’s episode of Reservation Dogs, now streaming on Hulu.
“Just ’cause you can’t see something, don’t make it less real.”
This was something Deer Lady told Big the first time she appeared on Reservation Dogs, back in Season One’s “Come and Get Your Love.” In a flashback, the young Big (Little Big?) was auditory witness to Deer Lady massacring a pair of convenience store robbers, and wasn’t sure what to believe about what happened, nor about the...
“Just ’cause you can’t see something, don’t make it less real.”
This was something Deer Lady told Big the first time she appeared on Reservation Dogs, back in Season One’s “Come and Get Your Love.” In a flashback, the young Big (Little Big?) was auditory witness to Deer Lady massacring a pair of convenience store robbers, and wasn’t sure what to believe about what happened, nor about the...
- 8/9/2023
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
“What goes through my mind is, ‘How can I make it better?'” says music director Rickey Minor, who returned to conduct the orchestra at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12. “Not better than anyone else. It’s just the best that I can do. What is that thing that’s going to elevate it? And the first thing is to come in with how to do it musically…and then bring it to the producers and discuss what ideas I have for this year’s awards.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
This was Minor’s third time at the Oscars after directing the music in 2019 and 2020. He is a two-time Emmy winner for “Taking the Stage: African American Music and Stories that Changed America” (2017) and “The 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors” (2020).
See 2024 Oscars ceremony date revealed
“You start with a list of things that I would love to hear,...
This was Minor’s third time at the Oscars after directing the music in 2019 and 2020. He is a two-time Emmy winner for “Taking the Stage: African American Music and Stories that Changed America” (2017) and “The 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors” (2020).
See 2024 Oscars ceremony date revealed
“You start with a list of things that I would love to hear,...
- 5/1/2023
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The Stories Behind Whitney Houston’s Unreleased Gospel Songs: “She Left Healing Music for the World”
When music executive Steven Abdul Khan Brown was making his way to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, he was blown away by the beautiful sound he heard as he walked closer to the parish.
One of those voices? A teenage Whitney Houston.
“That’s scary — whoa,” he thought, recalling the moment more than 40 years later in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Why haven’t I ever been here before?”
Khan Brown, also a Newark native who had been working with Kool & the Gang and Phyllis Hyman, was encouraged to check out the talented musicians at New Hope, where Cissy Houston worked as minister of music. Khan Brown met the matriarch and a big-voiced Whitney, who blew him away as soon as she began singing.
“Lord, I’ve died and went to heaven,” Khan Brown recalls of her performance. “I thought my ears were going through something.
One of those voices? A teenage Whitney Houston.
“That’s scary — whoa,” he thought, recalling the moment more than 40 years later in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Why haven’t I ever been here before?”
Khan Brown, also a Newark native who had been working with Kool & the Gang and Phyllis Hyman, was encouraged to check out the talented musicians at New Hope, where Cissy Houston worked as minister of music. Khan Brown met the matriarch and a big-voiced Whitney, who blew him away as soon as she began singing.
“Lord, I’ve died and went to heaven,” Khan Brown recalls of her performance. “I thought my ears were going through something.
- 3/22/2023
- by Mesfin Fekadu
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Viewers won’t go wrong watching the two-hour entirety of “Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon” tonight on CBS. But if you have only about a 10-minute stretch to spare for televised non-holiday music in the days leading up to Christmas, maybe make it the closing act of this special — especially the generational handoff number that has one master, Rhiannon Giddens, movingly joining another. As Giddens and Simon perform “American Tune,” you may feel like you’ve gone off to find America, and actually kinda succeeded in that search, over the course of just one number.
Everything else about the telecast — which was filmed before a live audience at Hollywood’s Pantages back in April (see Variety‘s next-day coverage here) — feels immaculately chosen by producer Ken Ehrlich, if hardly marked by left-field surprises. There are no sops to the youth vote, except for the...
Everything else about the telecast — which was filmed before a live audience at Hollywood’s Pantages back in April (see Variety‘s next-day coverage here) — feels immaculately chosen by producer Ken Ehrlich, if hardly marked by left-field surprises. There are no sops to the youth vote, except for the...
- 12/22/2022
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
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