The News Review:
- Alvin Ailey to treat Beijing dance lovers
- Bill Monroe | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
- More than 40000 party at Monterey Jazz Festival’s 50th birthday
- Roger Miller | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
- Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade
Alvin Ailey to treat Beijing dance lovers
央è§åé – Sep 25, 2007
The dancers will also perform their renowned baptismal piece “Revelation”. The troupe was founded by dancer Alvin Ailey in 1958. Blues music and the theme of purification gave the troupe its unique character. Artists from the Alvin Alley Dance Theater will perform in Beijing’s Tianqiao Theater on the nights of ctober 26th and 27th.
Bill Monroe | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
MTV.com – Sep 25, 2007
Beginning with his Blue Grass Boys in the ’40s Monroe defined a hard-edged style of country that emphasized instrumental virtuosity close vocal harmonies and a fast driving tempo. The musical genre took its name from the Blue Grass Boys and Monroe’s music forever has defined the sound of classical bluegrass — a five-piece acoustic string band playing precisely and rapidly switching solos and singing in a plaintive high lonesome voice. Not only did he invent the very sound of the music Monroe was the mentor for several generations of musicians. ver the years Monroe’s band hosted all of the major bluegrass artists of the ’50s and ’60s including Flatt & Scruggs Reno & Smiley Vassar Clements Carter Stanley and Mac Wiseman. Though the lineup of the Blue Grass Boys changed over the years Monroe always remained devoted to bluegrass in its purest form. Monroe was born into a musical family. His father had been known around their hometown of Rosine KY as a step-dancer while his mother played a variety of instruments and sang… Following the death of his parents while he was a pre-adolescent Monroe went to live with his Uncle Pen. Soon he was playing in his uncle’s band at local dances playing guitar instead of mandolin. During this time Monroe met a local blues guitarist called Arnold Shultz who became a major influence on the budding musician. When Monroe turned 18 he moved to East Chicago IN where his brothers Birch and Charlie were working at an oil refinery. Monroe also got a job at the Sinclair oil refinery and began playing with his brothers in a country string band at night. Within a few years they performed on the Barn Dance on WLS Chicago which led to the brothers’ appearance in a square dance revue called the WLS Jamboree in 1932. The Monroes continued to perform at night but Birch left the band in 1934.
More than 40000 party at Monterey Jazz Festival’s 50th birthday
San Francisco Chronicle – Sep 25, 2007
as they have annually since the mid-1970s. What is it about this festival that keeps them coming back? “Good friends good music good times” said banker Ross Beaton. “I love being exposed to all the different styles of music. Apparently so does civil rights leader Julian Bond spotted strolling through the arena during Saturday afternoon’s blues show featuring James Hunter the tis Taylor Band and a roaring performance by rock band Los Lobos making their Monterey debut. Bond said he came to last year’s festival and “had such a great time we decided to come back. Those who couldn’t get arena seats heard a bounty of good music at the smaller venues even if they had to stand in line for an hour to get in. n Friday night the great guitarist Jim Hall a melodist who says more with a few notes than others can with a thousand improvised beautiful duets with pianist Geoff Keezer in the Nightclub… “Don’t come lobby for my vote then leave me on the roof” he said to the crowd’s approval. Wilson the venerable 89-year-old bandleader arranger and composer who wrote commissioned pieces for the festivals 20th and 40th birthdays led his blasting big band in a pleasing performance of his 50th anniversary commission “Monterey Moods. ” The main theme was woven through Latin ballad blues and jazz waltz sections. Monterey is a place for romance and love said the wiry Wilson a kinetic little man with a great mane of white hair bushy mustache and eyebrows. “It’s for the husbands and wives the boyfriends and girlfriends. The boyfriends and boyfriends. The girlfriends and girlfriends.
Roger Miller | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
MTV.com – Sep 25, 2007
After writing hits for a number of artists in the ’50s Miller racked up a number of hits during the ’60s which became not only country classics but popular classics as well. Miller was born in Fort Worth TX but raised in the small town of Erick K by his aunt and uncle following the death of his father and his mother’s debilitating sickness. Initially he was attracted to music by hearing country over the radio as well as by his brother-in-law Sheb Wooley. By the time he was ten he earned enough money picking cotton to buy himself a guitar. At the age of 11 Wooley gave him a fiddle and encouraged him to pursue a performing career. Miller completed the eighth grade and left school to become a ranch hand and rodeo rider. Throughout his adolescence he played music in addition to working the ranch… Instead of playing music he became a fireman in Amarillo TX. The abandonment of performing was short-lived however — within a few months he became the drummer for Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys. In 1958 Price recorded Miller’s “Invitation to the Blues” and it went to number three. It was soon followed by three other successful versions of his songs — Young’s “That’s the Way I Feel” and Ernest Tubb’s “Half a Mind” both went Top Ten while Jim Reeves had a number one hit with “Billy Bayou. ” That same year Jones recorded “Tall Tall Trees” and “Nothing Can Stop My Love” which he had written with Miller; neither of the songs were hits. The following year Reeves had a hit with another one of Miller’s songs “Home. Since his songwriting career was flourishing Miller decided it was again time to try to become a performing artist as well.
Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade
PopMatters – Sep 25, 2007
Clearly looking for that New York sound Earle passed on using his long-time backing band the Dukes in lieu of drum loops on a number of these songs. For the most part the simple drum loops match up nicely. “Tennessee Blues” kicks off the album with a bouncing acoustic guitar over a drum machine as Earle talks again like he did 21 years ago about leaving Guitar Town. Although now when he sings “Goodbye Guitar Town” it’s pretty clear he’s intent on not going back. The Steve Earle listeners are exposed to on this album isn’t content necessarily but he’s not talking too much about ramblin’… At the end of the song he brings in a whole slew of back-up singers and altogether they sing the chorus and it becomes this great convergence of solidarity and utter frustration. Neither Earle nor any of his peers are going to ever lay their hammer down and it is that knowledge floating around in the back of the track that makes it all the more powerful and a definitive high point on the record. It’d certainly be interesting to hear some of these songs with a live band behind him and maybe that’ll happen on tour but drum loop questions aside Earle has come at us with another solid album that further cements his place in modern music as one of the great songwriters still swingin’ his hammer.