The News Review:
- Charlie Rich | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
- A blues memory lane with Honeyboy Edwards
- Black history events mark last week of month
- This ‘Porgy and Bess’ Puts The Songs in the Spotlight
- (Island Def Jam)
Charlie Rich | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones |…
MTV.com – Feb 25, 2008
Air Force in the early ’50s. While he was stationed in klahoma he formed a group called the Velvetones which played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée Margaret Ann on lead vocals. Rich left the military in 1956 and he began performing clubs around the Memphis area playing both jazz and R&B; he also began writing his own material. Rich managed to land a job as a session musician for Judd Records which was owned by Judd Phillips the brother of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. Around this time saxophonist and Sun recording artist Bill Justis heard Rich play at the Sharecropper Club and asked the pianist to write arrangements for him. Sam saw Rich perform with Justis at a club gig and asked him to record some demos at Sun Studios… Sherrill helped Rich refashion himself as a Nashville-based smooth middle-of-the-road balladeer. At first the singles were only moderately successful — “Set Me Free” and “Raggedy Ann” charted in the mid-40s in 1968 — but persistence paid off in the summer of 1972 when “I Take It on Home” rocketed to number six. “I Take It on Home” set the stage for Rich’s big breakthrough into the mainstream 1973′s Behind Closed Doors album. The title track from the record became a number one hit early in 1973 crossing over into the Top 20 on the pop charts. Following the success of “Behind Closed Doors” RCA re-released “Tomorrow Night” which reached the Top 30 but it was “The Most Beautiful Girl” the proper follow-up to his first number one single that established him as a star. “The Most Beautiful Girl” spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and two weeks at the top of the pop charts. Behind Closed Doors won three awards from the Country Music Association that year: Best Male Vocalist Album of the Year and Single of the Year for the title track.
A blues memory lane with Honeyboy Edwards
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Feb 25, 2008
It’s pretty amazing to think that even on some of the oldest trracks here — say from ’75 — Edwards was about 70 years old a musical blues museum with the key word being “musical. ” This is the sound of Delta blues filtered through the blue streets of Chicago. “Roamin’ and Ramblin’” reaches deep into David “Honeyboy” Edwards’ fertile Delta roots for music that tells the timeless story of the blues. Edwards and his music are national treasures; a living history lesson. And you can dance to it. HoneyBoy the official BluesDogn a more personal note the BlueNotes World Headquarters has acquired its very own canine companion.
Black history events mark last week of month
Desert Dispatch – Feb 25, 2008
The event is sponsored by the college’s Humanities department. Performance will re-enact excerpts of speeches from Barack bama and from Phyllis Wheatley’s poem “n Being Brought from Africa to America. ”The event will feature live jazz and blues music as well as vocal performances said BCC spokeswoman Maureen Stokes. She said the series of lectures and presentations is designed to celebrate diversity at the college. “It’s for people to be aware of the contributions African-Americans have made to this country” she said. “It gives them a better perspective and better awareness of history. ”When: Noon on ThursdayWhere: Interim Performing Arts CenterEvent at the Barstow Branch LibraryWhat: “Present your favorite African-American hero.
This ‘Porgy and Bess’ Puts The Songs in the Spotlight
Washington Post – Feb 25, 2008
The beauties of Gershwin’s music which melds jazz blues and spirituals with operatic arias and recitatives have in recent years pushed the racial controversy into the background. And it was Gershwin’s music alone that captivated the audience in a National Philharmonic concert performance of "Porgy and Bess" at Strathmore Music Center on Saturday night. It was peculiar in the extreme to hear a tale of life in the rundown part of steamy summer.
(Island Def Jam)
New York Times – Feb 25, 2008
Jackson would rather keep going burrowing deeper into the weird world she has created. KELEFA SANNEHLIZZ WRIGHT“The rchard”(Verve Forecast)More longing more melancholy and more songs of her own make “The rchard” Lizz Wright’s best album. There was never any doubt about her lustrous voice with its gospel and blues roots its jazzy suppleness its languid timing and its rich empathy. But it has taken time for her to find the right songs and settings. Wright was pulled between pop and jazz on her overly slick 2003 debut album “Salt. ” For her 2005 album “Dreaming Wide Awake” she drew on the New York City scene that mingles songwriters and jazz musicians working with the producer Craig Street (who has made albums with… “The rchard” is an album of songs in search of love and few of them find anything that looks like happily ever after. The music is unhurried and the instrumentation discreet making Ms. Wright’s entreaties more intimate. Wright wrote half of the album’s songs together.