The News Review:
- Lonnie Johnson’s ‘fiery music’ has a new life
- Lonnie Johnson’s ‘fiery music’ has a new life
- Mr. Collins is Cool
- The Hush Sound | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones…
- DJ Quik | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones | MTV
- Paul Simon’s appeal as a worldly outsider
Lonnie Johnson’s ‘fiery music’ has a new life
Malaysia Star – Apr 1, 2008
“I honestly do not think there was anyone else who crossed the line between being an idiomatic blues musician who was able to master the vocabulary of jazz like Lonnie Johnson did” says Aaron Luis Levinson the Grammy-winning Philadelphia producer who helmed Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson. “He was a unique figure in that he was able to live in two different worlds. Here’s a guy who was playing rural blues music in the 1920s who also played in the Duke Ellington rchestra. ” Born in the Crescent City in 1899 Johnson was a sophisticated musician who learned violin before picking up a guitar. He had reason though to sing the blues: In 1917 his parents and 10 of his 11 siblings – one piano-playing brother survived – died in the influenza epidemic. “With no one at home I came north with Louis Armstrong to make my living as a musician” Johnson told David B. Bitten in the liner notes to the 1960 Prestige Records LP Blues by Lonnie Johnson.
Lonnie Johnson’s ‘fiery music’ has a new life
PopMatters – Apr 1, 2008
“I honestly do not think there was anyone else who crossed the line between being an idiomatic blues musician who was able to master the vocabulary of jazz like Lonnie Johnson did” says Aaron Luis Levinson the Grammy-winning Philadelphia producer who helmed “Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson” (3 stars). “He was a unique figure in that he was able to live in two different worlds. Here’s a guy who was playing rural blues music in the 1920s who also played in the Duke Ellington rchestra. ”Born in the Crescent City in 1899 Johnson was a sophisticated musician who learned violin before picking up a guitar. He had reason though to sing the blues: In 1917 his parents and 10 of his 11 siblings – one piano-playing brother survived – died in the influenza epidemic. “With no one at home I came north with Louis Armstrong to make my living as a musician” Johnson told David B. Bitten in the liner notes to the 1960 Prestige Records LP “Blues by Lonnie Johnson.
Mr. Collins is Cool
Providence Journal – Apr 1, 2008
Some students hadn’t played an instrument since fourth grade when the district strapped for cash dropped art and music programs in middle school. Another young man however has been playing the drums for 13 years; in fact he plays keyboard and drums every Sunday at his father’s church. “If they had an all-music school” said the drummer 16-year-old Derrick Jones “I’d be in it. ”Collins led the group through a short blues riff in the G chord. “Hold on a minute” said Collins wearing his trademark sweater printed with a musical score. “Let the piano players have a solo on the D chord. ”Collins reminds visitors that this is the first time these teenagers have played together as a group.
The Hush Sound | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones…
MTV.com – Apr 1, 2008
Their sophomore effort Like Vines appeared in June 2006 expanding upon the band’s sweetly melodic piano-tinkering pop and paving the way for tour dates alongside. The Hush Sound retreated to North Hollywood at the end of 2007 to work on a third studio album and Goodbye Blues arrived the following spring. ~ Corey Apar All Music Guide.
DJ Quik | Music Artist | Videos News Photos & Ringtones | MTV
MTV.com – Apr 1, 2008
When his fifth album Balance & ptions (2000) failed to show a substantial improvement in sales he was dropped by Arista (which had taken over Profile). His next album Under tha Influence (2002) distributed by Universal failed to resurrect his commercial standing. Again without a major-label deal DJ Quik proceeded to form his own label Mad Science Recordings via which he released Trauma (2005) and Greatest Hits Live at the House of Blues (2006) and also in 2005 re-released Under tha Influence. In addition to his solo career DJ Quik kept busy as a producer beginning in 1991 on the debut albums by 2nd II None (2nd II None) and Hi-C (Skanless). In subsequent years he contributed productions to albums by AMG (Bitch Betta Have My Money 1992) Penthouse Players Clique (Paid the Cost 1992) Tony! Toni! Tone! (House of Music 1996)… Again without a major-label deal DJ Quik proceeded to form his own label Mad Science Recordings via which he released Trauma (2005) and Greatest Hits Live at the House of Blues (2006) and also in 2005 re-released Under tha Influence. In addition to his solo career DJ Quik kept busy as a producer beginning in 1991 on the debut albums by 2nd II None (2nd II None) and Hi-C (Skanless). In subsequent years he contributed productions to albums by AMG (Bitch Betta Have My Money 1992) Penthouse Players Clique (Paid the Cost 1992) Tony! Toni! Tone! (House of Music 1996).
Paul Simon’s appeal as a worldly outsider
International Herald Tribune – Apr 1, 2008
The chorus of “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)” grew dated along with its slang and songs like “Bleecker Street” and “For Emily Wherever I May Find Her” are painfully precious. Simon had to find a looser more colloquial voice and he did at times on Simon and Garfunkel's later albums and decisively on his 1972 album “Paul Simon” with irresistible but not quite explicable songs like “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard. ” “Paul Simon” – which included a song recorded with reggae musicians in Jamaica (“Mother and Child Reunion”) before many Westerners were aware of reggae and one with the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli in Paris (“Hobo's Blues”) – was also a harbinger of Simon's worldwide musical itinerary. Actually “Paul Simon” wasn't his first batch of travel souvenirs. He lived in England in 1964 and played the folk-club circuit there picking up traditional songs and learning from musicians like the singer Martin Carthy and the guitarist Davy Graham. (Simon played Graham's instrumental “Anji” on Simon and Garfunkel's 1966 album “Sounds of Silence… ) Simon scrupulously shared credit and royalties with his collaborators and introduced his worldwide audience to South African music – in retrospect an undeniable boon. “Graceland” sold millions of copies and won Grammy Awards but it also stoked arguments about international cultural relations. Was Simon a colonialist expropriating the precious resources of the Third World for his own advantage (shared royalties aside)? Was he adding something to his South African sources by placing his own words and his small voice in the foreground or just diluting African music for uninformed pop tastes? Would listeners accept Simon's songs as South African music and look no further dismissing an entire culture once his album was off the radio? Was he just a tourist bringing back musical knickknacks torn free of context? Those arguments can seem quaint now that music cruises the Internet and countless songs are built by cut-and-paste. The decades proved Simon's instincts were right. Just as he had used English folk songs doo-wop and gospel he used African music – and later the Brazilian music that fueled “The Rhythm of the Saints” in 1990 – but by no means used it up. The sounds he drew on were more durable than that. And his African collaborators like Ladysmith Black Mambazo found new eager listeners for their own material worldwide.