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ladygagataiwan · 1 year ago

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R.I.P. 東尼班奈特 Tony Bennett 享壽 96 歲

傳奇金嗓東尼班奈特 Tony Bennett 的公關週五上午正式向美聯社 (Associated Press) 證實了他的離開，Tony Bennett 在家鄉紐約過世，沒有表示具體的死亡原因，能確定的是他一直與阿茲海默症爭鬥。

沒有人比 Tony Bennett 比他自己本人對於 Tony 職業生涯，持續時間的弧度感到驚訝！

Tony Bennett 在 2006 年 80 歲生日時接受採訪說道：「我無法告訴你我對於這一切感到多麼幸運，我從來沒真正想過我的演藝事業會做這麼久，而且這比我想像的要多得多，所以我很興奮！」

2021 年 8 月在紐約無線電城音樂廳 (Radio City Music Hall) 舉辦了 2 場成功的音樂會《One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga》，在爵士二重唱搭檔「女神卡卡 Lady Gaga」的陪伴之下，結束了自己最後的演藝生涯。

他和 Lady Gaga 於 2021 年秋季發行了他們的第二張合作專輯《Love For Sale》(爵愛經典)，這張合作專輯在美國告示牌 Billboard 200 排行榜上取得第8名好成績（10月16日）

當他的人生劃下了句點，他的演藝生涯可以說是任何流行音樂歌手中最偉大，法蘭克辛納屈（Frank Sinatra）曾被譽為「業界內最好的歌手」。但 Tony Bennett 毋庸置疑擁有真正巨星般的成績，擁有 60 多張錄音室專輯和全��賣超過 5,000 萬張的唱片，在他的歌手生涯中每個十年都會出現在排行榜上。

他贏得了 19 座葛萊美獎 (GRAMMYs)，包括 2001 年終身成就獎和 2 項黃金時段艾美獎 (EMMYs)，並且是甘迺迪中心榮譽獎 (Kennedy Center Honoree) 與國家藝術基金會爵士大師獎 (National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master) 獲獎者。

Tony Bennett 擁有多項金氏世界紀錄 (Guinness World Records)：

第一項是憑藉著 2014 年與 Lady Gaga 合作的專輯《Cheek to Cheek》(爵對經典) 成為擁有美國告示牌冠軍專輯的最年長者記錄 (88 歲又 68 天)，有趣的是，他打樂自己的紀錄，他在 2011 年憑藉與 Lady Gaga、Michael Bublé 和 Mariah Carey 等當代藝術家合作的專輯《Duets II》創下的 85 歲又 66 天紀錄。

第二項 2021年與 Lady Gaga 合作的專輯《Love For Sale》(爵愛經典) 成為發行專輯最年長者記錄 (95歲又60天)

第三項 2006 年專輯《Duets: An American Classic》成為最長時間間格登上英國專輯榜 (超過39年)

第四項 2006 年專輯《Duets: An American Classic》成為登上英國專輯榜 TOP 20 最年長者 (80歲)第五項 2018 年成為原版唱片發行與同一藝術家重新錄製同單曲之間時間最長紀錄，在 1949 年他以藝名 Joe Bari 首次發行了歌曲〈Fascination Rhythm〉，並在 68 年又 342 天後與歌手 Diana Krall 發行了新版本唱片。金氏世界紀錄也發官方新聞表示，Tony Bennett 永遠是「金氏世界紀錄的傳奇人物」。

Tony Bennett 還被公認為一位畫家，受聯合國與 Kentucky Derby 委託創作的作品《中央公園 Central Park》懸掛在華盛頓特區的史密森尼美國藝術博物館 (Smithsonian American Art Museum)。聯合國難民事務高級專員於 2007 年授予他人道主義獎 (Humanitarian Award)，同年他入選國際民權星光大道 (International Civil Rights Walk of Fame)。

然而，這些榮譽只是他生命故事的一小部分。作為一名引領潮流的藝術家、教育家以及在某些方面的文化保存者，Tony Bennett 對流行音樂的影響和重要性怎麼強調都不為過。他既是《偉大的美國歌曲集》(Great American Songbook) 之下誕生的巨星，也是位代言人。他尊敬歌曲集中的作曲家們，並承諾��這部作品延續其中精神，從音樂廳到 MTV Unplugged 以及三張二重奏專輯 (Duets albums)，為這位燕尾服大師贏得了全新的追隨者。

美紐約皇后區「法蘭克辛納屈藝術學院」(Frank Sinatra School of the Arts) 的聯合創辦人 Tony Bennett 在與 Lady Gaga 一起巡演宣傳專輯《Cheek to Cheek 》時說道：

「我想向年輕人傳授柯爾波特 (Cole Porter)、喬治蓋希文 (George Gershwin)、歐文柏林 (Irving Berlin) 等，他們創作的所有偉大音樂，這是很棒的音樂，而且永遠不會過時，這些歌曲永遠不會退流行。這些音樂非常的精明，每個人、尤其是年輕人們都需要嘗試了解與欣賞。」

Tony Bennett 在多年來與他合作過的年輕藝術家中找到了許多忠誠的追隨者們，曾與他一起巡演或者合作的有：k.d. lang,、Aretha Franklin、Paul McCartney、Elton John、Billy Joel、Sting、Elvis Costello、Michael Bublé、Carrie Underwood、Mariah Carey、Diana Krall 等眾多歌手。

歌手 Sting 在談到 2006 年與 Tony Bennett 一起為收錄在專輯《Duets: An American Classic》中的歌曲《The Boulevard of Broken Hearts》錄製時說道：

「很高興能親眼見證這位大師工作的樣子，我認為 Tony Bennett 的樂句非常難以預測，而且非常有特色，當你與他唱和聲時，你必須不斷嘗試並再次猜測他的下一步。希望當我快到那個年齡的時候，也想成為這樣的人。」

與此同時，Lady Gaga 表示，Tony Bennett 對她的友誼和指導：「是我今天仍繼續唱歌的原因。」

在 Tony 生涯最後一場表演《One Last Time》演出時，Lady Gaga 告訴當時的觀眾們：「Tony Bennett 是我的朋友，他是我的音樂夥伴，他是世界上最偉大的歌手。」

Anthony Dominick "Tony" Benedetto 出生於紐約皇后區，他很早就知道自己想做什麼，而且絕對不是經營父親的雜貨店。他在 2006 年說道：「我只想持續唱歌和畫畫，這是我唯一非常熱衷的兩件事，即使是現在，這些就是我所做的一切。」

Tony Bennett 是納金高 (Nat King Cole) 和平克勞斯貝 (Bing Crosby) 的粉絲，他就讀於曼哈頓工業藝術高中，靠著在餐桌旁為顧客唱歌賺錢。在第二次世界大戰 (World War II) 期間，他在美國陸軍服役期間於軍樂隊��表演，還參加了「突出之戰役 Battle of the Bulge」並協助解放了一個集中營，之後他根據《退伍軍人法案》回到了家鄉，並在美國劇院聯隊學校學習美聲唱法。

Tony Bennett 回憶道：「我有最好的老師，而且我接受過很好的訓練。所以我知道如何管理自己，這是必須通過自律來實現的，我保養並保持著自己的聲音。我從不厭倦工作，我喜歡唱歌，喜歡娛樂人們，讓他們感到快樂，讓他們在 90 分鐘左右的時間裡忘記自己的疑難雜症，這是一個很棒的職業。」

1946 年，Tony Bennett 在皇后區與長號手泰瑞格倫 (Tyree Glenn) 一起進行了他的第一場夜總會演出。三年後，當鮑伯霍伯 Bob Hope 和珀爾貝利 Pearl Bailey 在格林威治時聽到他的演出，因此他得到了喘息的機會。Bob Hope 幫助這位初出茅廬的歌手達成了一份唱片合約，並給予了他縮寫的藝名。

Tony Bennett 與哥倫比亞唱片公司 (Columbia Records) 簽約，在製作人米奇米切爾 Mickey Mitchel 的指導下，他推出了在 50 年代的熱門歌曲，包括《Because of You》、《Rags to Riches》和翻唱漢克威廉斯 (Hank Williams) 的《Cold, Cold Heart》，這些歌曲於 1956 年登上排行榜第一名。

後者促使 Hank Williams 打電話給 Tony Bennett，開玩笑地感謝他「毀了我的歌曲」。Tony Bennett 的標誌性歌曲〈I Left My Heart in San Francisco〉於 1962 年進入排行榜前 20 名（舊金山費爾蒙特酒店為他樹立了一座雕像以紀念該市與歌曲之間的聯繫）。

但單曲和排行榜排名從來都不是一個大問題，Tony Bennett 說：「我盡量不去刻意追隨製作熱門歌曲，立即會被遺忘的熱門製作。我的標準是，這首歌會持續傳承下去嗎？它是否具有美國歌曲集的品質，使歌曲成為標竿？歌詞和音樂是否搭配得悅耳？我就是這樣錄製唱片的，我不想要熱門唱片，我想要一本熱門歌曲目錄輯，在我的一生中都不會顯得過時。」

「作曲家艾靈頓公爵 (Duke Ellington) 有句老話：問題不在於你做了什麼，而在於『做事的方式』。如果你聽到辛納屈 (Sinatra)、納金高 (Nat King Cole) 或者艾拉費茲傑拉 (Ella Fitzgerald) 唱標準曲，歌曲就會脫穎而出。它們是歌曲的最終版本，但不一定只有一種詮釋方式。」

1951 年至 1964 年間，Tony Bennett 有 20 首單曲躋身前 20 名，當時披頭四樂隊 (The Beatles) 和英國歌手進軍美國使他和他的同齡人在排行榜上排名開始靠後。儘管如此，隨著歲月的流逝，Tony Bennett 仍然很受歡迎，甚至成為了傳奇標誌性人物，無論品味和潮流如何對待他，他都會繼續錄製唱片和巡演，儘管他在 1979 年因吸食古柯鹼過量而險些喪命，這導致他的兒子丹尼班奈特 (Danny Bennett) 接任，成為他的新經紀人，並讓他的父親重回正軌。

1986 年的《The Art of Excellence》是 Tony Bennett 14 年來第一張登上 Billboard 排行榜的專輯，1994 年他與 Costello 和 Lang 一起在 MTV原音重現 (MTV Unplugged) 系列節目中登場，才讓他在另類搖滾市場上意外地搶占了先機。

多虧了這些新聽眾，專輯獲得了白金銷量，並贏得了 2 項葛萊美獎，包括令人垂涎的「年度專輯獎」，也帶來了各種機會，包括二重唱項目。

更多榮譽也隨之而來，好萊塢星光大道 (Hollywood and Vine) 上的星星、ASCAP 頒發的終身成就獎、入選長島音樂名人堂 (The Long Island Music Hall of Fame)。他曾為 11 位美國總統演出，並於 2017 年獲得美國國會圖書館蓋希文流行音樂獎 (Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Music)。

在與女神卡卡 Lady Gaga 首張合作專輯《Cheek to Cheek》(爵對經典) 登上美國告示牌專輯榜 Billboard 200 排行榜冠軍之後，他後來的專輯包括 2015 年與鋼琴家 Bill Charlap 合作的《The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern》，以及 2018 年與 Diana Krall 合作的 George Gershwin 合輯《Love is Here to Stay》。

Tony Bennett 也扶養了與第一任妻子 Patricia Beech 的兒子 Danny 和 Daegal，以及與第二任妻子 Sandra Grant 的女兒 Joanna 和Antonia。

Tony Bennett 與第三任妻子 Susan Benedetto 白頭偕老，他們共同創立了非營利組織探索藝術 (Exploring the Arts)。2021 年初 Susan Benedetto 告訴美國退休人員協會雜誌：

「唱歌對他來說就是一切所有。這已經多次拯救了他的生命。」

新聞來源 LINE TODAY Taiwan X Mr.生活扉頁：

原文來源：

#東尼班奈特 #TonyBennett #RIP

#女神卡卡 #LadyGaga #Jazz

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nelson-riddle-me-this · 3 years ago

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Bought these CD’s in New York last week

#my personal library #film score #johnny guitar #victor young #peggy lee #joan crawford #here's to life #joe williams #robert farnon #the movie song album #tony bennett #the columbia album of cole porter #cole porter #michel legrand #jazz

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stuonsongs · 3 years ago

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My Top 10 Favorite Songs of All Time - 2006 Edition

2021 Editor’s Note: I was looking through some old files and found this thing that I wrote sometime in the summer of 2006 at age 22. For all I know, it could’ve been 15 years to the day! Looking back, I’m not sure how many of these songs would still make my top 10. Don’t get me wrong, I still love all of these tunes, but I’m sure you know how it goes - You get older, you get exposed to more things, and your idea of good music expands. Anyway, I thought it might be nice to share with anyone who still uses this site. I present it in its original format without edits to my writing. I ended up writing full posts in this blog about some of these songs if you go through the archive.

Stu’s Top 10 Favorite Songs…Ever

Let’s start with some honorable mentions. These were so close, and I thought about it for so long, but they had to be left off.

Honorable Mentions

All Summer Long – The Beach Boys

All Summer Long. 1964. Capitol

This song has been described so many times as being “the perfect summer song.” When you listen to it, you can’t help but smile from the opening marimba intro, all the way through. It just screams “summer” and it hurt me to leave The Beach Boys off my top 10.

Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World

Bleed American. 2001. Grand Royal

So full of energy, so rocking, and so what would’ve been the most recent song on my list. I wanted to keep it in the top 10 just so I could have a song from the ‘00s, but it wasn’t meant to be. When the chorus kicks in, I can’t help but headbang.

Marie – Randy Newman

Good Old Boys. 1974. Reprise

Randy has said that a lot of young composers pick “Marie” as their favorite Newman song, and I can see why. The idea of a guy having to be drunk to tell his wife that he loves her is pretty funny, and throughout the whole song it’s just the beautiful melody with tons of strings, all to a tune about a guy ripping on himself as he comes home drunk to his wife.

Does He Love You? – Rilo Kiley

More Adventurous. 2004. Brute/Beaute

I guess this is newer than Bleed American, so it would’ve worked too. This is another more recent song that it killed me to leave off the list. The outro is an arrangement of the main tune with a different chord progression performed by a string quartet. Very beautiful. Also when Jenny Lewis screams “Your husband will never leave you, he will never leave you for me,” I get chills every time.

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So here it is. After a long day’s work, I’m finally finished. It actually turned out much different than I was thinking when I first started. The number one wasn’t really even in my top five when I started, but I slowly realized I loved it so much. I also left Ben Folds (Five) off this list completely, and I don’t know, I just feel the whole catalogue of Ben is so solid, none of the songs stick out to me that much. But anyways, here it is! After the break of course…

Stu’s Top 10

10.

(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave – Martha and the Vandellas

Heat Wave. 1963. Motown.

This one beat out “Bleed American” just barely. The reason being that somehow, despite being nearly 40 years older than Bleed American, it still has so much energy that it kills. Dan Bukvich once told our Jazz Arranging class that you can boil all the oldies you hear on the radio down to three categories: 1) Great Song. 2) Great Performance. 3) Great Arrangement. This song is one of the great performances. The handclaps throughout, combined with the driving baritone sax behind everything and constant snare drum action will keep anybody with blood running through their veins dancing all night long.

Bodhisattva – Steely Dan

Countdown to Ecstasy. 1973. MCA

This song is my Freebird. It’s just a basic blues progression song at its core with some minor changes at the end of the form. The real kicker that drives this song home is the three minute guitar solo in the middle that isn’t nearly as rocking as Freebird, but it is highly proficient and takes me to places that just make me want to play the song over and over again. I have no idea what this song is about, probably Buddhism, but hey, this once again proves that lyrics rarely matter and the music itself is the core.

Zanzibar – Billy Joel

52nd Street. 1978. Columbia

This song reminds me of long car rides on vacations down the west coast with my parents growing up. They used to play a tape of 52nd Street, or at least their favorite selections, constantly on these trips. I didn’t hear this song again until early in my senior year in college and remembered why I loved it so much. The song has a heavy jazz influence, displayed in the breakdown where Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard does a solo. The best part of this song though is at the end of the 4th line of each verse, Billy does this “Woah oh oh!” thing that just makes me want to sing every time. It was between this and “Miami 2017 (Lights Go Out On Broadway)” which is also a great song, but the “Woah oh oh!” is too much for ol’ Stu boy.

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – Bruce Springsteen

The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. 1973. Columbia

Early Bruce Springsteen records have something that very few other artists can ever pull off without sounding cheesy or forced. It has this undeniable sense of urgency, like the world will fall apart and life will crumble through your fingers if this one moment in time doesn’t work out the way Bruce describes it. There are so many early Springsteen songs that just set a scene of “We have to get out of this town right now girl before it kills us, no matter what any of our parents, friends, anybody has to say.” There’s a line that kinda sums it up: “Well hold on tight, stay up all night ‘cause Rosie I’m comin’ on strong. By the time we meet the morning light, I will hold you in my arms. I know a pretty little place in southern California down San Diego way. There’s a little café where they play guitars all night and all day. You can hear ‘em in the back room strummin’, so hold tight baby ‘cause don’t you know daddy’s comin’.”

I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Frank Sinatra

Songs For Swingin’ Lovers! 1956. Capitol

This song falls into the category of great arrangement. This Cole Porter classic tune was arranged for Sinatra by Nelson Riddle. The story goes that he was still copying down parts for the players while riding in the cab to the recording studio on the day of recording. After the players ran through it once with Frank, they stood up and applauded. The Baritone sax takes control here, outlining a Db6/9 chord throughout the intro. Of course, Frank’s vocal delivery is spot on and goes up and down in all the right places for the biggest emotion impact. It’s amazing how a song with no real chorus can be so good.

A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke

Ain’t That Good News. 1964. RCA Victor

This song was not even going to be on this list, but then I ran across it while scouring my collection of music and remembered how good it was. Then I listened to it and was blown away by the level of detail that went into this arrangement. Sam’s vocals soar above the mind blowingly beautiful arrangement. The lyrics to this one actually add to the tune itself, speaking of wrongdoings in the world around him, and how social change is on its way in the form of the civil rights movement. The song flows with such ease out of Cooke that one might forget the weightiness of the content, but the song’s content is just so heavy that it’s impossible to deny it.

Whatever – Oasis

Whatever EP. 1994. Creation

This song was released as a Christmas present to the U.K. from the Gallagher brothers and company. It never appeared on any full album, only being released as a single, and amazingly, it blows away anything else they’ve ever done. Think “All You Need Is Love,” but with tons of rocking energy and a snide, nonchalant attitude. The chorus speaks, “I’m free to be whatever I, whatever I choose and I’ll sing the blues if I want. I’m free to be whatever I, whatever I like, if it’s wrong or right, it’s alright.” Not exactly poetry, and the song isn’t exactly breaking any new ground either, but the song is absolutely perfect in every way, and it was going to be my #1, but perhaps the only reason it’s not at number one is because I’ve played this song so many times that at the moment, these next three are beating it, but who knows how I’ll feel in a few months. This song also pulls the same “outro performed by a string quartet” thing as “Does He Love You?” but even better. It’s so simple, but I can’t get enough of it.

Mr. Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra

Out of the Blue. 1977. Jet

This is obviously the best Beatles song that the Beatles never wrote. The staccato guitar during the verse combined with the strings present in just about every ELO song combine to make a force that is undeniably catchy and musically challenging at the same time. This is really what makes ELO so good. I didn’t discover this song till probably Nov. 2005, and it was one of the best days of my life. I didn’t want to include two songs by the same artist in my top 10, but if I did, I probably would’ve added “Turn To Stone” on this list too because it is almost as awesome as this one. It’s a shame that just like Billy Joel, most critics at the time hated ELO for being overly creative musically (they called it pretentiousness). These days we have acts that really are pretentious (see Radiohead), but everyone loves them, even critics. I’m not knocking all Radiohead, just most everything post OK Computer. Sorry, got a little sidetracked there.

Only In Dreams – Weezer

Weezer. 1994. Geffen

This has been my favorite Weezer song since about a month into me picking up Weezer’s debut album back around early 2000. It has this ostinato (a repeated motif over and over again) in the bass throughout most of the whole song, never even really resolving to the Gb major chord (excluding chorus, which never really resolves) that it wants to until the end of a 3 minute contrapuntal guitar duet when everything dies out except the bass which just retards on its own until it finally plays the single Gb we’ve all been waiting for. The song on the whole up until the guitar duet is pretty tame, but once those contrapuntal guitar lines start intertwining, my ears perk up every time. I can sing both lines at separate times upon request and when the drums finally kick back in fully at the climax of the song, I let out a sigh of relief or bang on my car wheel in exultant joy, whichever is more of an option at the time.

All Is Forgiven – Jellyfish

Spilt Milk. 1993. Charisma

I always loved this song from the first time I heard it, but I didn’t realize how much I loved it until maybe April 2006. I found out about Jellyfish first semester of college in the Fall of ’02 and heard this song, and knew it was great. The constant tom-tom driven drums, the fuzzy, almost white noise distorted guitar, and the half time bass throughout. It was great. Then in April I put it on my mp3 player for the walk to school, and then I listened to it for about two weeks straight. Seriously. It runs into the next song entitled “Russian Hill” which is almost as good, but because it’s a separate song, I couldn’t include it on the list, but in my mind, they always run together and are basically one long 9 minute song. The ending just gets more and more white noise filled until you can barely take it anymore and then it just cuts off completely into the slow acoustic intro for Russian Hill. It’s perfect in every way. I think this would fall into the category of great song. And the way the song builds up right to the middle of the song and then cuts out completely except for some very VERY faint xylophone noodling, and then busts back in with some feedback directly into guitar solo. Man I love this song.

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emerald-studies · 4 years ago

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The complex Nina Simone

“Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina’s prodigious talent as a musician was evident early on when she started playing piano by ear at the age of three. Her mother, a Methodist minister, and her father, a handyman and preacher himself, couldn’t ignore young Eunice’s God-given gift of music. Raised in the church on the straight and narrow, her parents taught her right from wrong, to carry herself with dignity, and to work hard. She played piano – but didn’t sing – in her mother’s church, displaying remarkable talent early in her life. Able to play virtually anything by ear, she was soon studying classical music with an Englishwoman named Muriel Mazzanovich, who had moved to the small southern town. It was from these humble roots that Eunice developed a lifelong love of Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert.After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, the community raised money for a scholarship for Eunice to study at Julliard in New York City before applying to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her family had already moved to the City Of Brotherly Love, but Eunice’s hopes for a career as a pioneering African American classical pianist were dashed when the school denied her admission. To the end, she herself would claim that racism was the reason she did not attend. While her original dream was unfulfilled, Eunice ended up with an incredible worldwide career as Nina Simone – almost by default.

One fateful day in 1954, looking to supplement her income, Eunice auditioned to sing at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Word spread about this new singer and pianist who was dipping into the songbooks of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and the like, transforming popular tunes of the day into a unique synthesis of jazz, blues, and classical music. Her rich, deep velvet vocal tones, combined with her mastery of the keyboard, soon attracted club goers up and down the East Coast. In order to hide the fact that she was singing in bars, Eunice’s mother would refer to the practice as “working in the fires of hell”, overnight Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone by taking the nickname “Nina” meaning “little one” in Spanish and “Simone” after the actress Simone Signoret.At the age of twenty-four, Nina came to the attention of the record industry. After submitting a demo of songs she had recorded during a performance in New Hope, Pennsylvania, she was signed by Syd Nathan, owner of the Ohio-based King Records (home to James Brown), to his Jazz imprint, Bethlehem Records. The boisterous Nathan had insisted on choosing songs for her debut set, but eventually relented and allowed Nina to delve in the repertoire she had been performing at clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. One of Nina’s stated musical influences was Billie Holiday and her inspired reading of “Porgy” (from “Porgy & Bess”) heralded the arrival of a new talent on the national scene. At the same mammoth 13 hour session in 1957, recorded in New York City, Nina also cut “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” previously recorded by Nate King Cole, Count Basie, and Woody Herman. The song was used by Chanel in a perfume commercial in Europe in the 1980’s and it became a massive hit for Nina, a British chart topper at #5, and thus a staple of her repertoire for the rest of her career.

Nina Simone’s stay with Bethlehem Records was short lived and in 1959, after moving to New York City, she was signed by Joyce Selznik, the eastern talent scout for Colpix Records, a division of Columbia Pictures. Months after the release of her debut LP for the label (1959‘s The Amazing Nina Simone), Nina was performing at her first major New York City venue, the mid-Manhattan-located Town Hall. Sensing that her live performances would capture the essential spontaneity of her artistry, Colpix opted to record her September 12, 1959 show. “You Can Have Him,” a glorious torch song previously cut by Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, was one of the highlights of the evening. The song opened with a dazzling keyboard arpeggio that would become her signature for decades. So momentous was the Town Hall performance that it inspired some of the same musicians, featuring the vocals of Nina’s only daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, to do a tribute to a sold out audience over forty five years later.As Nina’s reputation as an engaging live performer grew, it wasn’t long before she was asked to perform at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival. Accompanied on the June 30th, 1960 show by Al Schackman, a guitarist who would go on to become Nina’s longest-running musical colleague, bassist Chris White, and drummer Bobby Hamilton, the dynamic show was recorded by the Colpix. The subsequent release in 1961 of the old blues tune “Trouble In Mind” as a single gave Nina her third charted record.Her stay with Colpix resulted in some wonderful albums – nine in all – included Nina’s version of Bessie Smith’s blues classic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out.” Issued as a single in 1960, it became Nina’s second charted Pop and R&B hit and one of two Colpix tracks to achieve such a feat during her five year stint with the label. Other stand out tracks from that era were the soulful song “Cotton Eyed Joe,” the torch tune “The Other Women,” and the Norwegian folk rendition of “Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair” – all beautiful examples of Nina Simone at her storytelling best, painting a vivid picture with her skill as a lyrical interpreter. During this time with the label, Nina recorded one civil rights song, Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Brown Baby,” which was included on her fifth album for the label, At The Village Gate.“Critics started to talk about what sort of music I was playing,” writes Nina in her 1991 autobiography I Put A Spell On You, “and tried to find a neat slot to file it away in. It was difficult for them because I was playing popular songs in a classical style with a classical piano technique influenced by cocktail jazz. On top of that I included spirituals and children’s song in my performances, and those sorts of songs were automatically identified with the folk movement. So, saying what sort of music I played gave the critics problems because there was something from everything in there, but it also meant I was appreciated across the board – by jazz, folk, pop and blues fans as well as admirers of classical music.” Clearly Nina Simone was not an artist who could be easily classified.

Nina’s Colpix recordings cemented her appeal to a nightclub based U.S. audience. Once she moved to Phillips, a division of Dutch-owned Mercury Records, she was ready to expand her following globally. Her first LP for the label, 1964’s In Concert, signaled Nina’s undaunted stand for freedom and justice for all, stamping her irrevocably as a pioneer and inspirational leader in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Her own original “Mississippi Goddam” was banned throughout the South but such a response made no difference in Nina’s unyielding commitment to liberty; subsequent groundbreaking recordings for Philips like “Four Women” (recorded September 1965) and “Strange Fruit” continued to keep Nina in the forefront of the few performers willing to use music as a vehicle for social commentary and change. Such risks were seldom taken by artists during that time of such dramatic civil upheaval.For years, Nina felt there was much about the way that she made her living that was less than appealing. One gets a sense of that in the following passage from I Put A Spell on You where she explains her initial reluctance to perform material that was tied to the Civil Rights Movement.“Nightclubs were dirty, making records was dirty, popular music was dirty and to mix all that with politics seemed senseless and demeaning. And until songs like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ just burst out of me, I had musical problems as well. How can you take the memory of a man like [Civil Rights activist] Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three and a half minutes and a simple tune? That was the musical side of it I shied away from; I didn’t like ‘protest music’ because a lot of it was so simple and unimaginative it stripped the dignity away from the people it was trying to celebrate. But the Alabama church bombing and the murder of Medgar Evers stopped that argument and with ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ I realized there was no turning back.”

Nina was deeply affected by these two events. In 1962, she had befriended noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry and spoke often with her about the Civil Rights Movement. While she was moved by her conversations with Hansberry, it took the killing of Medgar Evers and the four girls in Birmingham to act as catalysts for a transformation of Nina’s career.There were many sides to Nina Simone. Among her most amazing recordings were the original and so-soulful version “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “I Put A Spell On You” (which had reached to #23 in the U.S. charts), eerily moody, unrestrained, drama to the max; “Ne Me Quitte Pas” tender, poignant, filled with melancholy; and with gospel-like fervor, the hypnotic voodoo of “See-Line Woman.” In her own unrivaled way, Nina also loved to venture into the more earthy side of life. After she signed with RCA Records in 1967 (a deal her then husband/manager Andy Stroud had negotiated), her very first recordings for the label included the saucy “Do I Move You?” and the undeniably sexual “I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl” which were from the concept album entitled Nina Sings The Blues. Backed by a stellar cast of New York CIty session musicians, the album was far and away Nina’s most down-home recording session. By this time, Nina had become central to a circle of African American playwrights, poets, and writers all centered in Harlem along with the previously mentioned Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. The outcome from one of the relationships became a highlight of the LP with the song “Backlash Blues,” a song that’s lyrics originated from the last poem Langston Hughes submitted for publication prior to his death in May, 1967 and gave to Nina.Nina’s seven years with RCA produced some remarkable recordings, ranging from two songs featured in the Broadway musical “Hair” (combined into a medley, “Ain’t Got No – I Got Life,” a #2 British hit in 1968) to a Simone-ified version of George Harrison’s “Here Comes The Sun,” which remained in Nina’s repertoire all the way through to her final performance in 2002. Along the way at RCA, songs penned by Bob Dylan (“Just Like A Woman”), the brothers Gibb (“To Love Somebody”), and Tina Turner (“Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter”) took pride of place alongside Nina’s own anthem of empowerment, the classic “To Be Young, Gifted, & Black,” a song written in memory of Nina’s good friend Lorraine Hansberry. The title of the song coming from a play Hansberry had been working on just prior to her death.After Nina left RCA, she spent a good deal of the 1970’s and early 1980’s living in Liberia, Barbados, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland and The Netherlands. In 1978, for the first time since she left RCA, Nina was convinced by U.S. jazz veteran Creed Taylor to make an album for his CTI label. This would be her first new studio album in six years and she recorded it in Belgium with strings and background vocals cut in New York City. With the kind of “clean” sound that was a hallmark of CTI recordings, the Nina Simone album that emerged was simply brilliant. Nina herself would later claimed that she ”hated” the record but many fans strongly disagreed. With an eighteen piece string section conducted by David Mathews (known for his arrangements on James Brown’s records), the results were spectacular. The title track, Randy Newman’s evocative “Baltimore,” was an inspired Nina Simone choice. It had a beautifully constructed reggae-like beat and used some of the finest musicians producer Creed Taylor could find including Nina’s guitarist and music director, Al Schackman.

Aside from 1982’s Fodder On My Wings that Nina recorded for Carrere Records, two albums she made of the independent VPI label in Hollywood (Nina’s Back and Live And Kickin’) in 1985, and a 1987 Live At Vine Street set recorded for Verve, Nina Simone did not make another full length album until Elektra A&R executive Michael Alago persuaded her to record again. After much wining and dining, Nina finally signed on the dotted line. Elektra tapped producer Andre Fischer, noted conductor Jeremy Lubbock, and a trio of respected musicians to provide the suitable environment for this highly personal reading of “A Single Woman,” which became the centerpiece and title track for Nina Simone’s final full length album.With two marriages behind her in 1993 she settled in Carry-le-Rout, near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She would continue to tour through the 1990’s and became very much ‘the single woman’ she sang about on her last label recording. She rarely traveled without an entourage, but if you were fortunate enough to get to know the woman behind the music you could glimpse the solitary soul that understood the pain of being misunderstood. It was one of Nina’s many abilities to comprehend the bittersweet qualities of life and then parlay them into a song that made her such an enduring and fascinating person.

In her autobiography, Nina Simone writes that her function as an artist is “…to make people feel on a deep level. It’s difficult to describe because it’s not something you can analyze; to get near what it’s about you have to play it. And when you’ve caught it, when you’ve got the audience hooked, you always know because it’s like electricity hanging in the air.” It was that very electricity that made her such an important artist to so many and it will be that electricity that continues to turn on new people all over the world for years to come.Nina Simone died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rout, Bouches-du-Rhone on April 21, 2003. Her funeral service was attended by Miriam Makeba, Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message, “You were the greatest and I love you”.” (source)

Watch “What Happened Miss Simone?”

#blm #blacklivesmatter #nina simone #black musicians #black artists #black royalty

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vinyl-problemchen · 4 years ago

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Record #025: A Little Night Music - 1973 Original Broadway Cast Recording

(07/05/2020)

Hahahhh, I had more than two months of listened-to records lined up (that is: I took pictures of them on the day I listened to them) to log on here but... yknow what, that’s too much, so I decided to start a-new (anew?) and try to log them within 2 days of listening so I don’t forget everything about them and click through the tracks on youtube to figure out which one I probably liked best when I listened to the album.

So with the Oscar Peterson Plays Cole Porter post dated late April, we jump to... today! Half the year has gone by, I listened to a lot of records during lockdown and will start work again soon, so I guess it’s gonna be less records to log and maybe I will stick to that 2 day rule.

Anyway, today I played one of my all-time favourite records and musical scores in general, the OBC of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music... yeah, it might just be his best show all-in-all, with a book to match the score and from what I’ve heard and seen, great direction from Hal Prince on the original production.

I do love the Sondheim cast recordings Columbia put out, produced by Goddard Lieberson (who has his issues as a producer, but... damn, he just made so many of the classic cast recordings....) They just sound so good and are the ultimate in cast recordings to me. So I love the score, the orchestrations by Tunick are among his best (I will say this about every score orchestrated by Tunick), the cast is amazing (has there ever been an Anne that matched Victoria Mallory???), the Rosenkavalier-quote in “A Weekend in the Country” is amazing and I miss it on all recordings that dropped it (sorry, Steve, it’s a great choice, even if you dont like it)... yeah. A great ~45 minutes to spend.

Favourite Track: Ughhhhhhghghghgh so many are so great... but yeah, B3 “A Weekend in the Country” - and a special shoutout to the “Finale (Reprise: Send In The Clowns) And Night Waltz” which is still the most satisfying climax and conclusion to any cast recording (even if it might not be the exact way it happens in the show, I think?)

#a little night music #stephen sondheim #cast recordings #1970s #broadway #my record collection #record diary

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projazznet · 5 years ago

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Miles Davis ‎– ‘Round About Midnight (Full Album)

‘Round About Midnight is an album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis that was released by Columbia in March 1957.

Track listing:

01. “‘Round Midnight” (Monk, Hanighen, Cootie Williams) 5:58 02. “Ah-Leu-Cha” (Charlie Parker) 5:53 03. “All of You” (Cole Porter) 7:03 04. “Bye Bye Blackbird” (Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson) 7:57 05. “Tadd’s Delight” (Tadd Dameron) 4:29 06. “Dear Old Stockholm” (traditional; arranged by Stan Getz) 7:52

Personnel:

Miles Davis – trumpet John Coltrane – tenor saxophone Red Garland – piano Paul Chambers – double bass Philly Joe Jones – drums

#jazz #MilesDavis #JohnColtrane #trumpet #jazzlegend

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newcountryradio · 3 years ago

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New country #1101 (660) van 29 november 2021 (wk 48) tussen 19.00 -22.00 op Smelne fm

Album van de week *Willie Nelson *Willie Nelson & family * Legacy Recordings

1. Chris Stapleton Tennessee Whiskey *Mercury

2. Jason Aldean A Little More Summertime *capitol nashville

3. Walker Hayes -- AA *monument

4. Luke Combs Doin’ This *river house /Columbia

5. Adele /Chris Stapleton Easy On Me *Columbia

6. Cole Swindell/Lainey Wilson--Never Say Never *warner bros

7. Dustin Lynch/ Mackenzie Porter-- Thinking Bout’You-- *broken bow #3

8. Jason Aldean/Carrie Underwood --If I Didn’t Love You *capitol nashville #2

9. Luke Combs Cold as You *capitol nashville #1

10 Willie Nelson & family--- Heaven And Hell --Legacy Recordings

11. Willie Nelson & family--- I Saw The Light --Legacy Recordings

12. Silver Lining Go Out Nowhere *Die With Your Boots On Records

13. Kenny Rogers Lady capitol

14. Merle Haggard Daddy Frank (the guitar man) *mca nashvuille

15.Mac Leaphart That Train *mac leaphart *favoriet

16. Shania Twain You’re Still The One *mercury

17. Shania Twain w/B. White---From This Moment On --- *mercury

18. Scotty McCreery --- How Ya Doin’ Up There ---*triple tigers *sofi

19. Alison Krauss/Robert Plant- The Price Of Love -- *warner music

20. Neal Casal --- Day In The Sun * Zoo / Volcano Records

21. Hayes Carll --- Beautiful Thing *dualtone

22. Willie Nelson & family Family Bible *Legacy Recordings

23. Willie Nelson & family In The Garden *Legacy Recordings

24. Cody Jinks ---- All It Cost Me Was Everything ��*late august

25. Jason Aldean --- That’s What Tequila Does *capitol nashville

26. Taylor Swift ---- All Too Well *republic records

27. Wade Bowen --- When Loves Comes Around -- *Bowen Sounds

28. Mitchell Kersley -- Home On The Highway *Mitchell Kersley Music

29. Re: Various Forever Country *Cma compilation

30. Zephaniah Ohora & the 18 Wheelers—This Highway--*last roundup rec *trucksong

31. Jason Isbell -- All I Do Is Drive --- *Big Machine

32. Chris Stapleton -- Parachute -- *mercury

33. John Randal -- Streets Of Dallas -- *lonesome vinyl*juweeltje

34. Billy Strings -- Love and Regret --*new rounder

35. Marcus King & Eric Krasno--No One Above You --*royal potato family/bertus

36. Tyler Childers --Play Me A Hank Song --*hickman holler records* (3 in 1)

37. Mark Chesnutt w/G Jones--Talking To Hank *geffen (3 in 1

38. Alison Krauss/Robert Plant- My Heart Would Know *rounder (3 in 1)

39. Willie Nelson & family All Things Must Pass *Legacy Recordings

40. Willie Nelson & family Why Me *Legacy Recordings

41. Billy Bray Band Allnighter *pro4music

42. Ramblin Boots Lonesome Goodbye *rambling records

43. Ben Steneker Some Days * sky/telstar

44. Brooks & Dunn Brand New Man *arista

45. Joshua Ray Walker See You next Time *state fair records

Adres Bauke van der vliet Samensteller/ presentator New Country Barten 30 8447 BS Heerenveen ([email protected])

#maandagavond smelne's country avond #playlist New Country

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blackkudos · 6 years ago

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Vivian Green

Vivian Sakiyyah Green (born May 22, 1979) is an American R&B singer-songwriter and pianist.

Early life

Green was born May 22, 1979 in the East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, and took an interest in singing, playing the piano, and songwriting at a very young age. At the age of thirteen, she became a member of a female quintet called Younique. She is a graduate of what is now Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice.

Green has credit for writing "Dear God" by Boyz II Men, from their 1997 album Evolution. Green received her big break at the age of nineteen when she became a backup singer for Jill Scott, who took her on an international tour. She signed to Columbia Records in November 2002.

Career

2001-2003: A Love Story

In 2002, Green released her debut album, A Love Story, which featured the number-one dance single "Emotional Rollercoaster". In the meantime, Green made a cameo appearance in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely singing a cover version of Porter's 1930 song "Love for Sale", which made the film's soundtrack album. She also played Brenda Holloway in an episode of the first season of NBC's drama series American Dreams, entitled "The Carpetbaggers" (originally aired on April 6, 2003), performing a rendition of Holloway's 1964 hit "Every Little Bit Hurts".

2004-2006: Vivian

In 2005, she appeared on Cyndi Lauper's The Body Acoustic album on the tracks "I'll Be Your River" and "Sisters of Avalon".

During the spring of 2005, three years after the release of her debut album, Green released her second studio album Vivian. It featured the lead single "Gotta Go Gotta Leave (Tired)", which peaked at #24 on the R&B chart and #1 on the dance charts The song also charted #1 on the Hot Adult Airplay. The track known as "I Like It (But I Don't Need It)" followed up as the album's second single. The song followed up the previous single's success by also reaching #1 on the dance charts.

2007-2011: Beautiful

In 2007, Green appeared on Guru's album Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4: The Hip-Hop Jazz Messenger: Back to the Future on the track "Fine and Free". While performing at a gig in support of her second album, Green announced that she is currently recording her third full-length album on Koch Records. In April 2009, she signed a 3-album deal with E1 Music with the first album under the deal set to be released in Summer 2009. Her third album titled Beautiful was released April 6, 2010. The songs explore the ins and outs of love from a variety of perspectives, from the youthful romanticism of "Somewhere" to the playful insight of "So Good" and "Better Man" to the hard-won intensity of "Masterpiece" and "Beautiful."

In contrast to her first two albums, which were recorded in a variety of studios with multiple producers, Vivian approached the recording of Beautiful in a more intimate, organic manner. With the exception of "Save Me," which she cut with Jason Farmer (Keyshia Cole, Wyclef Jean, Rihanna) in the producer's seat, Vivian recorded the entire album with Grammy-nominated producer Anthony Bell, a longtime friend and collaborator who made key production contributions to her first two albums, and whose extensive resume also includes work with Jazmine Sullivan, Jewel, Musiq, Raheem DeVaughn and Jill Scott.

In 2011, she collaborated with Phoe Notes for a winter single titled "Missing You". It was released digitally on December 9. Phoe Notes and Green shot a video for the track on December 16. Additionally, she recorded the track "Keep On Going" for the Good Times - London and "Let It Burn" for the Birds Eye Riddim compilations.

2012-present: The Green Room and Vivid

In 2012, her single, "Oh Freedom" for the Soundtrack For A Revolution was released on January 3, 2012. Later in the year, she did a couple of collaborations which included "Love" (w/Zion) for the album Legacy, "La La Means I Love You" (w/Bob Baldwin) for the album Betcha By Golly Wow: The Songs Of Thom Bell, and "Still Here" (w/Brian Culbertson) for the album Dreams.

On August 7, 2012, Green released "Anything Out There" the lead single from her fourth album The Green Room. The album was released on October 9, 2012.

In 2013, she undertook a few festivals and concerts in addition to TV appearances on BET and Centric's music series.

In 2014, she became the first artist signed to rapper/producer Kwamé's record label, Make Noise Recordings. Vivid, her fifth studio album was distributed via Caroline Records. The first single released from the album was "Get Right Back to My Baby".

Personal life

Between her first and second albums, she took a three-year hiatus. In 2004, she gave birth to her son Jordan. Vivian is now a full-time advocate for special needs children, publicly speaking about her experiences.

Wikipedia

#Vivian Green #05-22

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kevindurkiin · 6 years ago

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Request – Reup

Michel Legrand – Big Band plays Richard Rodgers (1962)

Michel Legrand – Plays for Dancers (1965)

Michel Legrand – Paris Jazz Piano 1960 (2010)

Michel Legrand – The Happy Ending (1969)

Michel Legrand – Happy Radio Days (1998)

Michel Legrand – The Warm Shade Of Memory (1995)

Michel Legrand – Paris Was Made for Lovers (1997)

Michel Legrand, Maurice Andre – Les Moulins de mon Coeur (2003)

Michel Legrand – Brilliant Love Sounds (1974)

Michel Legrand – Michel Plays Legrand (1993)

Michel Legrand – The Columbia Album Of Cole Porter (1957)

Michel Legrand – Grand Collection (2004)

Request – Reup published first on https://soundwizreview.tumblr.com/

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gyrlversion · 5 years ago

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Ariana, Taylor, Billie, And Lil Nas X Lead Your 2019 VMA Nominations

She’s got the biggest selling album of the year, and now Ariana Grande continues her hot streak by co-leading the pack of nominees for the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards!

Grande has racked up a whopping 10 (!) nominations, including Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop, Best Direction, and Best Cinematography, all for her cameo-packed, rom-com-inspired “thank u, next” video. Joining her at the top of the list is fellow pop titan Taylor Swift, who also boasts 10 nods, split between her whimsical “ME!” and “You Need to Calm Down” visuals. In the list announced Tuesday (July 23), VMA newbies Billie Eilish grabbed nine nods and Lil Nas X trails close behind with eight. Eilish also joins Grande in the illustrious Artist of the Year category, alongside Cardi B, Halsey, Jonas Brothers, and Shawn Mendes.

Meanwhile, the mother-of-them-all category — Video of the Year — is predictably packed. Grande’s “thank u, next” is up against Eilish’s “bad guy,” Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road (Remix),” Jonas Brothers’s “Sucker,” and 21 Savage and J. Cole‘s “a lot.”

This year’s show also sees the introduction of a brand new prize: Best K-pop. BTS scored a nom for their Halsey-featuring smash “Boy With Luv,” and the rest of the category is filled with more of the genre’s biggest stars: Blackpink, Monsta X, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NCT 127, and EXO.

We’ll find out who wins when the 2019 VMAs touch down at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on Monday, August 26. See the full list of nominees below and get voting now — your faves need you!

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

21 Savage ft. J. Cole – “a lot” – Epic Records

Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy” – Darkroom/Interscope Records

Ariana Grande – “thank u, next” – Republic Records

Jonas Brothers – “Sucker” – Republic Records

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Cardi B – Atlantic Records

Billie Eilish – Darkroom/Interscope Records

Ariana Grande – Republic Records

Halsey – Astralwerks/Capitol Records

Jonas Brothers – Republic Records

Shawn Mendes– Island Records

SONG OF THE YEAR

Drake – “In My Feelings” – Young Money/Cash Money/Republic Records

Ariana Grande – “thank u, next” – Republic Records

Jonas Brothers – “Sucker” – Republic Records

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – “Shallow” – Interscope Records

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records

BEST NEW ARTIST, presented by Taco Bell®

Ava Max – Atlantic Records

Billie Eilish – Darkroom/Interscope Records

H.E.R. – MBK/RCA Records

Lil Nas X – Columbia Records

Lizzo – Atlantic Records

ROSALÍA – Columbia Records

BEST COLLABORATION

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – “Shallow” – Interscope Records

Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records

Taylor Swift ft. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco – “ME!” – Republic Records

Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber – “I Don’t Care” – Atlantic Records

BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv” – Columbia Records

PUSH ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Bazzi – Atlantic Records

CNCO – RCA Records

Billie Eilish – Darkroom/Interscope Records

H.E.R. – MBK/RCA Records

Lauv – LAUV/AWAL

Lizzo – Atlantic Records

BEST POP

5 Seconds of Summer – “Easier” – Interscope Records

Cardi B & Bruno Mars – “Please Me” – Atlantic Records

Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy” – Darkroom/Interscope Records

Ariana Grande – “thank u, next” – Republic Records

Jonas Brothers – “Sucker” – Republic Records

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records

Khalid – “Talk” – RCA Records

BEST HIP HOP

2 Chainz ft. Ariana Grande – “Rule the World” – 2 Chainz Ps/Def Jam

21 Savage ft. J. Cole – “a lot” – Epic Records

Cardi B – “Money” – Atlantic Records

DJ Khaled ft. Nipsey Hussle & John Legend – “Higher” – We The Best/Epic Records

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records

Travis Scott ft. Drake – “SICKO MODE” – Epic Records/Grand Hustle/Cactus Jack

BEST R&B

Anderson .Paak ft. Smokey Robinson – “Make It Better” – Aftermath Ent/12 Tone Music

Childish Gambino – “Feels Like Summer” – RCA Records

H.E.R. ft. Bryson Tiller – “Could’ve Been” – MBK/RCA Records

Alicia Keys – “Raise A Man” – RCA Records

Ella Mai – “Trip” – 10 Summers/Interscope Records

Normani ft. 6lack – “Waves” – Keep Cool/RCA Records

BEST K-POP

BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv” – Columbia Records

BLACKPINK – “Kill This Love” – YG Entertainment/Interscope Records

Monsta X ft. French Montana – “Who Do You Love” – Epic Records

TOMORROW X TOGETHER – “Cat & Dog” – Republic Records

NCT 127 – “Regular” – SM Entertainment

EXO – “Tempo” – SM Entertainment

BEST LATIN

Anuel AA, Karol G – “Secreto” – Universal Music Latino

Bad Bunny ft. Drake – “MIA” – OVO Sound/Warner Bros. Records

benny blanco, Tainy, Selena Gomez, J Balvin – “I Can’t Get Enough” – NEON16/Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope Records

Daddy Yankee ft. Snow – “Con Calma” – Universal Music Latin Entertainment

Maluma – “Mala Mía” – Sony Music US Latin

ROSALÍA & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura” – Columbia Records

BEST DANCE

The Chainsmokers ft. Bebe Rexha – “Call You Mine” – Disruptor/Columbia Records

Clean Bandit ft. Demi Lovato – “Solo” – Big Beat/Atlantic Records

DJ Snake ft. Selena Gomez, Ozuna & Cardi B – “Taki Taki” – DJ Snake Music Productions Ltd/Geffen

David Guetta, Bebe Rexha & J Balvin – “Say My Name” – Big Beat/Atlantic Records

Marshmello & Bastille – “Happier” – Capitol Records

Silk City & Dua Lipa – “Electricity” – Columbia Records

BEST ROCK

The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It” – Dirty Hit/Interscope Records

Fall Out Boy – “Bishops Knife Trick” – Island Records

Imagine Dragons – “Natural” – KIDinaKORNER/Interscope Records

Lenny Kravitz – “Low” – BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd.

Panic! At The Disco – “High Hopes” – Elektra Music Group

twenty one pilots – “My Blood” – Elektra Music Group

VIDEO FOR GOOD

Halsey – “Nightmare” – Astralwerks/Capitol Records

The Killers – “Land of the Free” – Island

Jamie N Commons, Skylar Grey ft. Gallant – “Runaway Train” – Interscope Records

John Legend – “Preach” – Columbia Records

Lil Dicky – “Earth” – Dirty Burd, Inc./Commission/BMG

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records

BEST DIRECTION

Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy” – Darkroom/Interscope Records – Directed by Dave Meyers

FKA twigs – “Cellophane” – Young Turks – Directed by Andrew Thomas Huang

Ariana Grande – “thank you, next” – Republic Records – Directed by Hannah Lux Davis

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records – Directed by Calmatic

LSD ft. Labrinth, Sia, Diplo – “No New Friends” – Columbia Records – Directed by Dano Cerny

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records – Directed by Drew Kirsch & Taylor Swift

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Billie Eilish – “when the party’s over” – Darkroom/Interscope Records – Visual Effects by Ryan Ross, Andres Jaramillo

FKA twigs – “Cellophane” – Young Turks – Visual Effects by Matt Chandler, Fabio Zaveti for Analog

Ariana Grande – “God is a Woman” – Republic Records – Visual Effects by Fabrice Lagayette, Kristina Prilukova & Rebecca Rice for Mathematic

DJ Khaled ft. SZA – “Just Us” – We The Best/Epic Records – Visual Effects by Sergii Mashevskyi

LSD ft. Labrinth, Sia, Diplo – “No New Friends” – Columbia Records – Visual Effects by Ethan Chancer

Taylor Swift ft. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco – “ME!” – Republic Records – Visual Effects by Loris Paillier & Lucas Salton for BUF VFX

BEST EDITING

Anderson .Paak ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Tints” – Aftermath Ent/12 Tone Music – Editing by Elias Talbot

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Record – Editing by Calmatic

Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy” – Darkroom/Interscope Records – Editing by Billie Eilish

Ariana Grande – “7 Rings” – Republic Records – Editing by Hannah Lux Davis & Taylor Walsh

Solange – “Almeda” – Columbia Records – Editing by Solange Knowles, Vinnie Hobbs, Jonathon Proctor

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records – Editing by Jarrett Fijal

BEST ART DIRECTION

BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv” – Columbia Records – Art Direction by JinSil Park, BoNa Kim (MU:E)

Ariana Grande – “7 Rings” – Republic Records – Art Direction by John Richoux

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – Columbia Records – Art Direction by Itaru Dela Vegas

Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records – Art Direction by Tatiana Van Sauter

Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down” – Republic Records – Art Direction by Brittany Porter

Kanye West and Lil’ Pump ft. Adele Givens – “I Love It” – Warner Records & Def Jam Music Group – Art Direction by Tino Schaedler

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

FKA twigs – “Cellophane” – Young Turks – Choreography by Kelly Yvonne

ROSALÍA & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura” – Columbia Records – Choreography by Charm La’Donna

LSD ft. Labrinth, Sia, Diplo – “No New Friends” – Columbia Records – Choreography by Ryan Heffington

Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records – Choreography by Calvit Hodge, Sara Biv

Solange – “Almeda” – Columbia Records – Choreography by Maya Taylor, Solange Knowles

BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv” – Columbia Records – Choreography by Rie Hata

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Anderson .Paak ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Tints” – Aftermath Ent/12 Tone Music – Cinematography by Elias Talbot

Billie Eilish – “hostage” – Darkroom/Interscope Records – Cinematography by Pau Castejon

Ariana Grande – “thank you, next” – Republic Records – Cinematography by Christopher Probst

Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Señorita” – Island Records – Cinematography by Scott Cunningham

Solange – “Almeda” – Columbia Records – Cinematography by Chayse Irvin, Ryan Marie Helfant, Justin Hamilton

Taylor Swift ft. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco – “ME!” – Republic Records – Cinematography by Starr Whitesides

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pardontheglueman · 7 years ago

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Frank Sinatra and the Great American Songbook

Between 1900 and, let’s say for argument’s sake, 1960, hundreds upon hundreds of American songsmiths worked away like bees in a dive (a speakeasy on Union Square’s Tin Pan Alley, or a dimly lit gin joint off Broadway, perhaps?) to craft and co-author a magnificent honeypot of sweetly-scented, pungently sad popular tunes, creating, in the whole haphazard process, a brand new and wonderfully vibrant American art form: The Great American Songbook. Sung by everyone from Fred Astaire and Judy Garland to Ella Fitzgerald and the peerless Frank Sinatra, the songbook would come to dominate America’s airwaves, breathe new life into old Broadway shows and, with the advent of talking pictures, satisfy a seemingly unstoppable craze for star-studded Hollywood musicals. These poets of Tin Pan Alley; Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and Dorothy Fields to shortlist just a few of the legendary composers and lyricists who graced the industry, first chronicled and celebrated the Jazz Age, then consoled and cheered a nation coping with the tragedy of the Great Depression and the unimaginable trauma of the Second World War, before a dynamic double whammy of television and rock ‘n’ roll gave the trailblazing tunesmiths a permanent kiss-off that they never even suspected was coming.

Many of the songs they wrote, though, have happily survived the rock, glam, disco, punk, rap, grunge and grime eras with their effervescent reputations largely intact. Songs like (and I could have chosen two or three hundred others that you would immediately recognise), “Summertime”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “One for My Baby”, “Blue Moon” and “That Old Black Magic” still float around in the ether as ever-present as they ever were.

The knock against these tunes, the reason that they are sometimes thought to be ‘old hat’, has always been due to the supposedly impersonal nature of the songs themselves. Admittedly, there were thousands of songs churned out by hired tunesmiths and wordsmiths during the fifty or so years in which they reigned supreme. And, of course, there was a mass production line cranking out songs for sale, and there were plenty of marriages of convenience, too, between composers and lyricists with nothing more in common other than an eye for the main chance and a working knowledge of the laws of supply and demand such as they operated in Tinseltown. There were novelty songs and sentimental ballads aplenty too, tossed off by the moon/June rhyming merchants, but was that really any different to the production lines at Motown, where Whitfield and Strong, Holland-Dozier-Holland and a certain Smokey Robinson penned chartbusters around the clock, or life in the Brill Building where Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Carole King and Neil Sedaka squatted in their tiny cubicles hatching out classic tune after classic tune?

Sarah Vaughan singing the Harry Warren / Al Dubin classic “September in the Rain”.

It would be sacrilege to discuss the Great American Songbook without doffing our collective caps to the finest interpreter in the annals of American popular song, one Francis Albert Sinatra; A.K.A “The Voice”, “ Swoonatra”, “The Sultan of Swoon”, “Ol Blue Eyes” and “The Chairman of the Board”.

Before we can speak of the artist, however, we have to clear the decks by examining the man and the myth. We all have an image of Sinatra stored somewhere in the back of our minds, or stuffed down the cul-de-sacs of our broken hearts, whether it’s the Rat Pack Romeo, the Vegas showman, the Presidents’ pal, the Mafioso-made film star, the painfully thin young pup idolised by screeching ‘bobbysoxers’, or even, the old-timer so in love with the art of singing that he kept on reversing his endless retirements to the point of craziness; having first announced his retirement in 1971, “The Chairman of the Board” eventually drew business to a close on the 25th of February 1995, with a six-song set at the climax of his own golf tournament in California.

There is, however, another Sinatra who is rather less well known these days - the radical supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programme and the life-long campaigner for racial equality; the Musician’s Union in Hollywood had been segregated until Sinatra hired the black flautist Buddy Colette to play in his band (read Martin Smith’s When Ol’ Blue Eyes Was a Red for the full picture of Sinatra the agitator!). Even more important, at least when it comes to a consideration of Sinatra’s work at Capitol (1953-1962), was the precise state of mind of the singer as he walked into the studio to record his ‘comeback’ album for the label, the mellow song cycle Song’s for Young Lovers. So let’s take the A-Train all the way down memory lane until we reach 1954.

Sinatra, it is worth recalling now, was all washed up when he signed his beggars can’t be choosers contract with EMI subsidiary Capitol. In 1950 MGM had unceremoniously scrapped his movie contract and then, even more humiliatingly, Columbia records pulled the plug on him too. His divorce from childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato, an ill-tempered and headline-grabbing marriage to actress Ava Gardner, his scandalous links to the Mafia, and his history of left-wing activism all combined in a perfect storm to sink an apparently indestructible career. Here is a taste of the treatment routinely meted out to the singer, from a 1948 pamphlet entitled Red Betrayal of Youth –

“Of late this young red punk has been touring the country swooning bobbysoxers with his baritone voice while he tells their parents how to vote… any intelligent person ought to be able to see how “Red Frankie”, with his gentle purring voice is swooning the youth of America into the arms of atheistic Communism”.

It wasn’t, thankfully, to be the end of the lonesome road for Sinatra quite yet. There is one very good reason for that – he was the best goddamn singer in the business! Songwriter Gene Lees summed it up succinctly enough in his book Singers and the Song; “the body of excellent songs that had come into existence in the United States at last found a singer worthy of them. He was the best singer we had ever heard. He was one of the best singers in history. And we knew it. He was our poet laureate”.

What had originally set Sinatra apart from rival crooners was his technical mastery of the microphone. Electrical recording had transformed the art of popular singing (Bing Crosby latched on to its potential first and the technique he employed can be boiled down to a simple rule of not over singing and always remembering that less is more!) Furthermore, Sinatra’s voice control, his impeccable phrasing and his unchallengeable reputation for interpretation of a lyric made him the go-to guy for any self-respecting songwriter in America. Nobody, but nobody, sang the Great American Songbook like Sinatra. Here’s Sinatra on how his dedication to his craft found practical expression -

“I was fascinated by {violinist} Jascha Heifetz, who could make a change of his bow in phrase and get to the end of the bow and continue without a perceptible missing beat in the motion. I thought if that could be done on an instrument… why not do it with the human voice? It was very tough to do it. It took a lot of calisthenics and physical work to get the bellows - the breathing apparatus built up”.

Sinatra later fleshed out his theory in an interview given to Life magazine in 1965, recalling how closely he had studied big-band leader Tommy Dorsey’s trombone playing,

“He would take a musical phrase and play it all the way through seemingly without breathing for eight, ten, maybe sixteen bars. How in the hell did he do it? I used to sit behind him on the bandstand and watch, trying to see him sneak a breath, but I never saw the bellows move in his back. His jacket didn’t even move. I used to edge my chair to the side a little and peek around to watch him… I discovered he had a ‘sneak’ pinhole in the corner of his mouth – not an actual pinhole, but a tiny place where he was breathing [this was something Pop Dorsey had taught him]. In the middle of the phrase, while the tone was still being carried through the trombone…[he’d] take a quick breath and play another four bars with that breath. Why couldn’t a singer do that, too?… It was my idea to make my voice work in the same way as a trombone or violin - not sounding like them, but ‘playing’ the voice like those instruments.”

Mastering that vocal technique, recognising the difference in tone and projection that he was now required to adopt in the studio, much like an actor re-tuning his performance to allow for the difference between stage and screen acting, enabled Sinatra to phrase more for the meaning of a lyric which, in turn, allowed him to give expression to the underlying subtext of each song. More important, then, than the physical and technical improvements that Sinatra made to his singing, was his unique ability to wring the very last drop of meaning from a lyric which, on the surface, had no direct connection to the singer. Here again, though, Sinatra was light years ahead of the competition, using his own troubled personal life to go deeper into the sorrow of a song than any other popular entertainer of his time. While Sinatra was no method actor on the silver screen, (he was impatient in the film studio in a way he never was in the recording studio), the intensity of his work here suggests that he may have applied the Stanislavski system to reveal the fundamental truth of a lyric. Riding my luck and sticking with the movie industry metaphor (sort of), I can safely say that hearing Sinatra deliver a lyric by Jimmy Mercer or Cole Porter is like listening to Olivier reciting a soliloquy from Richard III or Hamlet.

The emotional intensity that permeated virtually each and every track on a Sinatra ballad collection during his Capitol years, speaks to the fact that the man cannot be separated from his music. That Sinatra was a life-long manic-depressive who had made multiple suicide attempts isn’t particularly well known today, but even a cursory audit of the themes that run through heartsick albums like In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (1955), Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (1958) and No One Cares (1959), would have been enough to suggest to the listener that art might be imitating life here. The album titles, say it all for goodness sake!

Nelson Riddle pays his own tribute to Tommy Dorsey!

Of the albums listed above, classics one and all, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (a record that spent 120 weeks on the Billboard chart, where it peaked at number 1), is so beautiful and unremittingly melancholy that it gets into territory that very few albums have ever explored. At the time of its recording, Sinatra and Gardner’s divorce had just been finalised while arranger/conductor Nelson Riddle was also coming to terms with a double bereavement. Sinatra, as usual, was set on only choosing material that conveyed a unity of mood – in this particular case one of nihilist despair.

Opening with “Only the Lonely” (music by Jimmy Van Heusen, words by Sammy Cahn) the devastating track that lent its name to, and set the tone for, Sinatra’s first post-Gardner project has a lyric worth quoting in full –

Each place I go only the lonely go Some little small cafe The songs I know only the lonely know Each melody recalls a love that used to be The dreams I dream only the lonely dream Of lips as warm as May That hopeless scheme only the lonely scheme That soon somewhere you’ll find the one that used to care And you’ll recall each fun time Those picnics at the beach when love was new It well could be the one time A hopeless little dream like that comes true If you find love hang on to each caress And never let love go For when it’s gone you’ll know the loneliness The heartbreak only the lonely know

Listen, below, for the Pinteresque pause before Sinatra sings the last word of the second line and for the saddest piano of motifs as it ripples through the song. Sinatra had tried to kill himself on more than occasion after a bust-up with Gardner, once in the apartment of a songwriting pal, indeed the composer of this very song. There is no doubt at all where Sinatra’s head and heart were as he delivered a truly great reading of this oh so blue and broken-hearted ballad.

After the sublime “Angel Eyes”, a song Sinatra kept going back to again and again in live performance, comes a personal favourite of mine, “What’s New”. We’ve all been in the singer’s shoes as he runs across an old flame and has to bravely disguise the fact that he is still carrying a torch for the woman who will be the (lost) love of his life (even Phil Oakey had a stab at this tragic scenario on The Human League’s sweetest song, “Louise”). Here, Johnny Burke’s lyric has a great pay off with Sinatra crooning “Of course you couldn’t know / I haven’t changed, I still love you so”. Blue, blue bliss!

“Willow Weep for Me”, a jazz standard by Ann Ronnell that had already been recorded by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Sarah Vaughan in the preceding two years has a tender line where a lovelorn Sinatra beseeches the wind to “Murmur to the night to hide its starry light”, so the singer can cry his heart out in darkness. The dream team of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer donate “Blues in the Night” to the cause. Sinatra and Riddle decide to give it the Grand Guignol treatment, with the singer crazily imitating a train’s lonesome whistle sounding out across the darkness. Altogether, now, “A whoooee, a whoooee!!!”

The title alone will tell you all you need to know about “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears out to Dry”, except the Sammy Cahn lyric is so cleverly contrived it deserves laying out in black and white -

The torch I carry is handsome It’s worth its heartache in ransom And when that twilight steals I know how the lady in the harbor feels When I want rain, I get sunny weather I’m just as blue, blue as the sky Since love has gone, can’t get myself together Guess I’ll hang my tears out to dry

Friends ask me out, but I tell them I’m busy I must get a new alibi I stay at home, and ask myself: “Where is she?” Guess I’ll hang my tears out to dry Dry little teardrops, my little teardrops Hanging on a string of dreams Fly little memories, my little memories Remind her of our crazy schemes Yes somebody said, just forget about her So, I gave that treatment a try And strangely enough, I got along without her Then one day she passed me right by - oh well I guess I’ll hang my tears out to dry

There is a real satisfaction to be had in wallowing in that kind of self-pity!

The all-time great pairing of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart

The Richard Rogers / Lorenz Hart song “Spring is Here” is a simply exquisite number. An overworked adjective, admittedly, but no other single word will do the heavy lifting when it comes to one-word descriptions that can sum up this, the most gently gloomy ballad imaginable. This is the kind of tune, stuffed full of romantic yearning, that the Great American Songbook stands or falls by. For starters, it has a lyric by Lorenz Hart (who, quite possibly, was the greatest lyricist to work in the genre), and it can boast a chorus of almost unbearable, unknowable heartbreak. If this song isn’t for you, then neither is the Great American Songbook!

Once there was a thing called spring, When the world was writing verses like yours and mine. All the lads and girls would sing, When we sat at little tables and drank May wine. Now April, May, and June are sadly out of tune, life has stuck a pin in the balloon.

Spring is here! Why doesn’t my heart go dancing? Spring is here! Why isn’t the waltz entrancing? No desire, no ambition leads me, maybe it’s because nobody needs me? Spring is here! Why doesn’t the breeze delight me? Stars appear! Why doesn’t the night invite me? Maybe it’s because nobody loves me, spring is here, I hear!

It reads well enough, but Sinatra actually dispenses with the prologue (something he rarely did) and cuts straight to the chase of the chorus. The killer line is ‘Maybe it’s because nobody needs me?’ You can hear it coming, alright, but when Sinatra actually sings it, you feel your crestfallen heart is about ready to cave in.

The insuperable “One for My Baby”

The closing number “One for My Baby” is, quite possibly, the genuine Sinatra signature song (granted there are two dozen or more to choose from!). It’s the song that defines him as a saloon singer, anyhow - a morose drunk, down on his luck and suckered by love, spilling his heavy heart out to the listening millions. Or, as Lees dramatically puts it, “’One for My Baby’ is the finest piece of musical acting Sinatra has ever turned in. He has never sounded closer to the end of his rope”. The only disappointment here, and what a crushing disappointment it is, is that Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” was axed from the album, Sinatra apparently feeling he hadn’t quite got a hold of the song. In an essay from his book This Will End in Tears, Adam Brent Houghtaling describes the song as “Easily among the most emotionally complex standards in the Great American Songbook”. Here’s the work in progress that Sinatra nixed (he never attempted the song again!)

You can file this noir album alongside Joy Division’s Closer, Richard Buckley’s Bloomed and just about anything Hank Williams put his name too! Interestingly, the fact that Sinatra alternated the release of these tortured masterpieces with a succession of bold, brassy extravaganzas like Songs for Swinging Lovers (1956) and Come Fly with Me (1958), that served to showcase the larger-than-life, happy-go-lucky side of New Jersey’s finest, only adds credence to claims that the singer was suffering from an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder that might partly explain the star’s penchant for violent outbursts, such as the time he smashed his car radio to bits after he accidentally tuned into a station playing The Doors “Light my Fire” (Sinatra loses a chunk of Brownie points with his hatred of rock ‘n’ roll), or the occasion he took a knife to a Norman Rockwell painting hanging on the wall of Jimmy Van Heusen’s apartment. Talk about mood swings!!!!!

So how is the Great American Songbook doing right now? Well, it’s doing prettttty good as Larry David might say. Barely a theatre season goes by without a Broadway revival of one classic show or another (including Pal Joey in 2008, Guys and Dolls in 2009, Brigadoon in 2010, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2011, Porgy and Bess in 2012, On the Town in 2014 and The King and I in 2015). With Carousel set to open in 2018, the trend looks set to continue. Furthermore, a company touring the Gershwin / Porter / Berlin songbooks will probably be appearing in a provincial theatre near you sometime very soon. As for that great nemesis of the show tune, rock ’n’ roll, its poster child Bob Dylan is in his seventies now and has just completed his third straight album of (and we can be generous, here, and call them interpretations rather than covers) tunes lifted straight from the pages of the Great American Songbook. Well, did you evah!