The News Review:
- Lapping Up a Major Victory And Luxuries at New Stadium
- Music Review | rnette Coleman
- How obscurity helped restore Ma Rainey’s home
- Lee Morgan | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones | MTV
- ‘Troubadour’ (MCA Nashville)
Lapping Up a Major Victory And Luxuries at New Stadium
Washington Post – Mar 31, 2008
She and her husband Jerry rested on leather seats in the President’s Club listening to live blues music as the stands filled. utside the park one protester carried a "Boo Bush" sign.
Music Review | rnette Coleman
New York Times – Mar 31, 2008
n some level this wasn’t unusual. The blues have always been a bedrock presence in Mr. Coleman’s music however avant-garde his reputation. His momentous half-century career has even delved meaningfully into funk via his band Prime Time. But here he was working in a bebop mode bracketing his solo flights with tight concise themes. The blues accent felt like a thoughtful restriction a way of grounding the abstract thrust of the performance.
How obscurity helped restore Ma Rainey’s home
International Herald Tribune – Mar 31, 2008
Martin a white trial lawyer elected with a large part of the city's black vote said he was motivated in part by a sense of racial equity. “You could always promote white tourism” he said “but when it came to something black people were like 'Why would you do that?' ” But skepticism about the project Dawkins said was not limited to white residents. Many black people thought of the blues as the devil's music she said adding “We did dog-and-pony shows about Ma Rainey for years and we just could not pick the momentum up. ” Restoration money was slow in coming even after the Postal Service issued a Ma Rainey stamp in 1994 and B. King played a benefit concert for the project in 1997. Finally a federal “Save America's Treasures” grant for $149000 was approved.
Lee Morgan | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones | MTV
MTV.com – Mar 31, 2008
His playing was always emotionally charged regardless of the specific mood: cocky and exuberant on up-tempo groovers blistering on bop-oriented technical showcases sweet and sensitive on ballads. In his early days as a teen prodigy Morgan was a busy soloist with a taste for long graceful lines and honed his personal style while serving an apprenticeship in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. As his original compositions began to take in elements of blues and R&B he made greater use of space and developed an infectiously funky rhythmic sense. He also found ways to mimic human vocal inflections by stuttering slurring his articulations and employing half-valved sound effects. Toward the end of his career Morgan was increasingly moving into modal music and free bop hinting at the avant-garde but remaining grounded in tradition. He had already overcome a severe drug addiction but sadly he would not live to continue his musical growth; he was shot to death by his common-law wife in 1972. Edward Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia on July 10 1938… As his original compositions began to take in elements of blues and R&B he made greater use of space and developed an infectiously funky rhythmic sense. He also found ways to mimic human vocal inflections by stuttering slurring his articulations and employing half-valved sound effects. Toward the end of his career Morgan was increasingly moving into modal music and free bop hinting at the avant-garde but remaining grounded in tradition. He had already overcome a severe drug addiction but sadly he would not live to continue his musical growth; he was shot to death by his common-law wife in 1972. Edward Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia on July 10 1938. He grew up a jazz lover and his sister apparently gave him his first trumpet at age 14. He took private lessons developing rapidly and continued his studies at Mastbaum High School.
‘Troubadour’ (MCA Nashville)
New York Times – Mar 31, 2008
Strait 55 is the genial pious faithful casually virile Texan whose music leans toward old-fashioned honky-tonk but doesn’t rule out other possibilities. With a voice full of classic country slides and breaks he often sings about loyalty and attachment: to a woman he loves or to a woman who left him that he can’t forget. Stability counts both in the songs he chooses and in his career. Strait gets more au courant than usual on “Troubadour… Happily the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out none of its grit has been glossed. The collaboration originally began when Danger Mouse drafted the Black Keys to write songs for an Ike Turner album a project that folded after Mr. Turner’s death last year. Signing on later as their record producer Danger Mouse nudged the duo ever so slightly from their comfort zone.