The News Review:
- Blues In The Schools
- I killed a man then I learnt the blues
- Hear jazz on the beach in Sanya
- Leiber and Stoller: They are music and they write the songs.
- The Chronicle In Education’s Lesson For The Week/042307
- Profile: Sherman Alexie
- Not the ‘Best’ lavigne best album – Entertainment – Gazette.com
Blues In The Schools
WTAP-TV – Apr 23, 2007
“They’ve either seen B. King on television” Jackson noted “or seen the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese “blue box” song. So they have a sense of the music.
I killed a man then I learnt the blues
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 23, 2007
Getting to hear genuine blues performed in 2007 however proved a thankless task. I heard ropey versions of Sweet Home Chicago booming from every bar but the “real deal” proved more elusive. My trip began to feel like an exercise in chasing ghosts until I found myself chasing a shady figure named T-Model Ford. Every musician and club owner I talked to agreed: this colourful octogenarian is the only truly authentic Mississippi bluesman still in action. I eventually stumbled upon him in his hometown of Greenville Mississippi on a day when the state was erecting a blue plaque-style cultural heritage monument on Nelson Street – once the hub of that town’s black nightlife now all but dead… I worked all my life out in the woods drivin’ mules choppin’ cotton pullin’ corn. I never seen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. I’d just hear the music on the street and stop to listen at it. I liked that sound. Incredibly Ford would not get to pursue that sound himself until his 58th birthday when his fifth wife bought him his first guitar. “She asked me did I see her present in there on the bed” he remembered. “She said I was shopping today and I run across that git-tar and amplifier pretty cheap so I bought it for you.
Hear jazz on the beach in Sanya
æ°åç’ – Apr 23, 2007
” His band all well-known musicians in Beijing will perform their famous soothing melodies. The Rhythm Dogs is regarded by many as the best blues band in China with extensive performing experience at many pubs and clubs in Beijing. Their diversified music includes blues funk soul R&B Latin modern jazz rock and classical pop. Jungle Cats shows that music no matter where it starts has no boundaries. The band was founded by Chinese drummer Mico Liu and American composer-vocalist Jessica Meider. The band has scratched out the boundaries of music and mixed together. “Nowadays the definition of composition is becoming broad enough to fuse styles and elements from other music genres” says Liu.
Leiber and Stoller: They are music and they write the songs.
Free with registration – Knight Ridder/Tribune – AccessMyLibrary.com – Apr 23, 2007
Authors of such R&B greats as “Hound Dog” “Jailhouse Rock” “Yakity Yak” “Kansas City” and Peggy Lee’s “Is that All There Is?” Leiber and Stoller have worked together 57 years. The secret to their success they say is “arguments. ” “This is the oldest running argument in the history of the music business” says Leiber the lyricist seated next to his partner here. “ut of that has come work that is probably better than it would’ve been without the arguments even though some of them have been brutal” adds Stoller the composer of the duo. Some of the most brutal days were their years at Atlantic Records when they worked for Ahmet Ertegun serving as the nation’s first independent producers who not only wrote the music and lyrics but oversaw every facet of the production. PBS will examine that creative period when it offers “Atlantic Records: the House that Ahmet Built” on “American Masters” airing May 2 (check local listings). Leiber was still in high.
The Chronicle In Education’s Lesson For The Week/042307
Houston Chronicle – Apr 23, 2007
Beginning in the 1930s electric guitars gave musicians new power to make and shake songs like never before. Today they are a vital part of country blues jazz rock and other genres. During this lesson you will journey into the history of electric guitars. You will also learn a little about music notation and how that translates into guitar playing… Today they are a vital part of country blues jazz rock and other genres. During this lesson you will journey into the history of electric guitars. You will also learn a little about music notation and how that translates into guitar playing.
Profile: Sherman Alexie
guardian.co.uk – Apr 23, 2007
Photo: APIn Reservation Blues the first novel by the native American writer Sherman Alexie one of the main characters explains that “when any Indian shows the slightest hint of talent in any direction the rest of the tribe starts expecting Jesus”. While the rest of the tribe on the Spokane reservation in Washington state may have had slightly more modest expectations they can hardly have anticipated that the talented if somewhat sickly and eccentric Alexie child would become a bestselling novelist fellowship-winning poet prize-winning short-story writer stand-up comedian recorded songwriter and independent film director by the time he was 35. Alexie has achieved all that and more even becoming surely the first native American ever to have been physically embraced by a serving president of the United States (Bill Clinton) and told “Sherman – you’re fucking funny!” He has been hailed as the “Richard Wright of the American Indians” denounced as being “septic with unappeasable anger” by Time magazine and become the joint winner in 2001 with Richard Ford of the Malamud short story prize. Granta and the New Yorker have both placed him on lists of best young American writers. The son of a Coeur d’Alene native American father and a Spokane native American mother Alexie was born hydrocephalic and was not expected to survive a brain operation in infancy… Neither was ever interested in selling positive images as far as I know. ” Within the native American world Alexie inspires both great affection and resentful dismay with critics objecting to his unflattering portrayal of native American society. Musician Jim Boyd the 46-year-old winner of last year’s Nammy (the native American music award) for his CD AlterNatives met Alexie 10 years ago at a folk festival and has collaborated with him since. “People know exactly what he stands for and they either love him or hate him for it” says Boyd. “n the reservation we have our little secrets. Sherman has gone against that and sometimes the truth hurts. A lot of things he writes about just weren’t out there before.
Not the ‘Best’ lavigne best album – Entertainment – Gazette.com
Colorado Springs Gazette – Apr 23, 2007
Margo Timmins wraps her hypnotic voice around the songs written by her brother Michael Timmins. They’ve never been afraid to tackle emotionally sensitive material and they do it again here with songs that are at times both dark and uplifting. “Cutting Board Blues” is a classic blues number looking at a mother’s frustration with her children. And don’t let the children’s choir on “My nly Guarantee” distract you: Just be sure to listen to what the guarantee is. It’s sure to catch even the most devoted fan off guard. SCTT BAUER THE ASSCIATED PRESS “Rhinestoned” Pam Tillis Even at the height of her fame in the 1990s Pam Tillis consistently chose provocative and substantial songs that challenged country music’s tendency to play it safe. If anything her latest album suggests she’s grown even better at drawing on the genre’s traditional strengths (good songwriting tight but propulsive musicianship) and moving them forward with modern-day themes and contemporary production… And don’t let the children’s choir on “My nly Guarantee” distract you: Just be sure to listen to what the guarantee is. It’s sure to catch even the most devoted fan off guard. SCTT BAUER THE ASSCIATED PRESS “Rhinestoned” Pam Tillis Even at the height of her fame in the 1990s Pam Tillis consistently chose provocative and substantial songs that challenged country music’s tendency to play it safe. If anything her latest album suggests she’s grown even better at drawing on the genre’s traditional strengths (good songwriting tight but propulsive musicianship) and moving them forward with modern-day themes and contemporary production. n “Rhinestoned” she applies familiar traits — humor wisdom and nerve — to songs about relationships and aging that wink at human foibles and elevate such enduring values as forgiveness compassion and faith. Songs like “Train Without a Whistle” and “Crazy By Myself” are rambunctious tales from the point of view of women who know all about charming reckless heartbreakers and have learned their lessons. The album’s high point comes with “Someone Somewhere Tonight” a sweeping epic about life in all its glory and pain that could only reach its potential through a voice this experienced sensitive and wide-ranging.