Music Artists

Posts Tagged ‘Sound’

he classic musical, The Sound of Music, is showing at the London Palladium through February 28, 2009. Summer Strallen plays the role of Maria, singing such songs as The Sound of Music and My Favorite Things. Beginning in July, The Sound of Music will go on tour in the UK with Connie Fisher playing Maria. After The Sound of Music has finished its run, the London Palladium will be gearing up for the performance of Sister Act. The musical version of Sister Act is based on the movie, which starred Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris, a Reno singer who witnesses a crime and is placed in the witness protection program. The police place her in a convent in the guise of a nun, and Deloris proceeds to revolutionize the convent’s choir program. Whoopi Goldberg will be producing the show, but she will not play the lead. The London Palladium has an interesting history. It began as a wooden building called the Corinthian Bazaar, which had a strange attraction – a house for birds. After the Corinthian Bazaar closed, it was rebuilt and used to host a circus, and later an ice skating rink, which operated for ten years. After the ice skating rink closed down, the building was redesigned by Frank Matcham. Beginning in 1945, Val Parnell began booking a number of big name acts. Some of the performers who were booked at the Palladium during this time were Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis, Jr. In 1955, the London Palladium became the venue for a variety show that was broadcast live each week. The show was called Sunday Night at the London Palladium and ran until 1967. The Palladium hosted another variety show in the late 1980’s. This show was called Live from the Palladium. Recent shows at the Palladium include Sinatra at the London Palladium in 2006, Scrooge: The Musical in 2005 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 2002. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been the London Palladium’s most successful production. It ran for three and a half years. Some people claim that the London Palladium is haunted by a woman wearing a crinoline dress. She is said to appear on the Palladium’s Crimson Staircase, usually when the theatre is nearly empty and the only people around are members of the staff. The theatre seats 2,286 people and is air conditioned. There are three levels of seating at the Palladium: stalls, Royal Circle and Upper Circle. The stalls offer good views, except for the last six rows, and the view is also good from the Royal Circle. The view from the Upper Circle is lessened due to the height. In rows A and B it may be necessary to lean to see over the handrail. However, these seats are priced lower accordingly. The London Palladium is located on Argyll Street, near Oxford Street and Soho. The stage door is located on Great Marlborough Street.
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“The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time (although some may vote for Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday). Blessed with a beautiful voice and a wide range, Fitzgerald could outswing anyone, was a brilliant scat singer, and had near-perfect elocution; one could always understand the words she sang. The one fault was that, since she always sounded so happy to be singing, Fitzgerald did not always dig below the surface of the lyrics she interpreted and she even made a downbeat song such as “Love for Sale” sound joyous. However, when one evaluates her career on a whole, there is simply no one else in her class.One could never guess from her singing that Ella Fitzgerald ’s early days were as grim as Billie Holiday’s. Growing up in poverty, Fitzgerald was literally homeless for the year before she got her big break. In 1934, she appeared at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, winning an amateur contest by singing “Judy” in the style of her idol, Connee Boswell. After a short stint with Tiny Bradshaw, Fitzgerald was brought to the attention of Chick Webb by Benny Carter (who was in the audience at the Apollo). Webb, who was not impressed by the 17-year-old’s appearance, was reluctantly persuaded to let her sing with his orchestra on a one-nighter. She went over well and soon the drummer recognized her commercial potential. Starting in 1935, Fitzgerald began recording with Webb’s Orchestra, and by 1937 over half of the band’s selections featured her voice. “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” became a huge hit in 1938 and “Undecided” soon followed. During this era, Fitzgerald was essentially a pop/swing singer who was best on ballads while her medium-tempo performances were generally juvenile novelties. She already had a beautiful voice but did not improvise or scat much; that would develop later.On June 16, 1939, Chick Webb died. It was decided that Fitzgerald would front the orchestra even though she had little to do with the repertoire or hiring or firing the musicians. She retained her popularity and when she broke up the band in 1941 and went solo; it was not long before her Decca recordings contained more than their share of hits. She was teamed with the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and the Delta Rhythm Boys for some best-sellers, and in 1946 began working regularly for Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic. Granz became her manager although it would be nearly a decade before he could get her on his label. A major change occurred in Fitzgerald’s singing around this period. She toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, adopted bop as part of her style, and started including exciting scat-filled romps in her set. Her recordings of “Lady Be Good,” “How High the Moon,” and “Flying Home” during 1945-1947 became popular and her stature as a major jazz singer rose as a result. For a time (December 10, 1947-August 28, 1953) she was married to bassist Ray Brown and used his trio as a backup group. Fitzgerald’s series of duets with pianist Ellis Larkins in 1950 (a 1954 encore with Larkins was a successful follow-up) found her interpreting George Gershwin songs, predating her upcoming Songbooks series.After appearing in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues in 1955, Fitzgerald signed with Norman Granz’s Verve label and over the next few years she would record extensive Songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer. Although (with the exception of the Ellington sets) those were not her most jazz-oriented projects (Fitzgerald stuck mostly to the melody and was generally accompanied by string orchestras), the prestigious projects did a great deal to uplift her stature. At the peak of her powers around 1960, Fitzgerald’s hilarious live version of “Mack the Knife” (in which she forgot the words and made up her own) from Ella in Berlin is a classic and virtually all of her Verve recordings are worth getting.Fitzgerald’s Capitol and Reprise recordings of 1967-1970 are not on the same level as she attempted to “update” her singing by including pop songs such as “Sunny” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” sounding quite silly in the process. But Fitzgerald’s later years were saved by Norman Granz’s decision to form a new label, Pablo. Starting with a Santa Monica Civic concert in 1972 that is climaxed by Fitzgerald’s incredible version of “C Jam Blues” (in which she trades off with and “battles” five classic jazzmen), Fitzgerald was showcased in jazz settings throughout the 1970s with the likes of Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass, among others. Her voice began to fade during this era and by the 1980s her decline due to age was quite noticeable. Troubles with her eyes and heart knocked her out of action for periods of time, although her increasingly rare appearances found Fitzgerald still retaining her sense of swing and joyful style. By 1994, Ella Fitzgerald was in retirement and she passed away two years later, but she remains a household name and scores of her recordings are easily available on CD. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
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Say Anything is the pop-punk brainchild of singer/songwriter Max Bemis, who founded the band while its initial members were still attending high school in Los Angeles. Although the lineup has featured rotating cast of characters throughout its existence, Bemis remains at the band’s core, spinning tales of insecurity and frustation with help from longtime drummer Coby Linder. Say Anything first appeared with two self-released and self-produced EPs — Junior Varsity! and Menorah/Majora, the latter being released online — and a full-length album, 2003’s Baseball. These releases saw the band leaning toward the emo rock/pop-punk formula made popular by bands like blink-182 and Saves the Day. Bemis soon grew tired of the genre and revamped his band’s sound for …Is a Real Boy, their debut on Doghouse Records in 2004. A self-described punk rock musical, the album was fittingly produced by Tim O’Heir (Dinosaur Jr., the All-American Rejects) and Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), with Bemis playing nearly every instrument on the record. Bemis’ bipolar disorder proved to be increasingly disruptive, however, plaguing both the recording of the album and its aftermath. Struggled with crippling stress, the singer suffered a nervous breakdown that ultimately led Say Anything to drop off two tours in 2005, including an opening slot with the band’s idols, Saves the Day. Despite the setback, the band signed with J Records that same year and reissued …Is a Real Boy in February 2006. The re-release boasted two discs, pairing the original record with a bonus EP containing demos, re-recordings of previous songs, and sessions from a never-released AIDS benefit record. A national headlining tour followed the reissue, and the single “Alive with the Glory of Love” found some success on radio and the MTV networks. Momentum continued to build as the band toured into 2007, eventually pairing with Saves the Day for a second attempt at touring. The effort was successful this time around, and Say Anything released a two-disc concept album, In Defense of the Genre, that October. ~ Corey Apar & Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
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Leslie Feist (born February 13, 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia) is a canadian singer. She performs as a solo artist under the name Feist and also as a member of Broken Social Scene.

Raised in Regina and Calgary, Feist got her start in music as the lead vocalist for a punk band called Placebo (not the more famous British band Placebo), who won a local Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded the opening slot at a Ramones concert. After five years of touring, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from voice damage. She moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1998 and took up guitar; by 1999, she was the guitarist for By Divine Right. She also released her debut solo album, Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down), that year. The album was financed by a grant from the Canadian government.

In 2000, Feist moved in as a roommate with Peaches and Gonzales, and appeared as a guest vocalist on The Teaches of Peaches and Presidential Suite. She then joined the recording sessions for Broken Social Scene’s albums Feel Good Lost and You Forgot It in People.

Feist then moved to Paris, and while in Europe, she collaborated with Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience as a guest vocalist on their album Riot on an Empty Street. Feist recorded her second solo album, Let It Die, in Paris in 2002 and 2003. That album, a combination of jazz and bossa nova was hailed as one of the best Canadian pop albums of 2004 and got her two Juno Awards (The Canadian equivalent of the Grammys). This album also helped her to gain a significant international audience.
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If you’re looking for the all-time number one purveyor of mainstream romantic soul, Smokey Robinson may well be the man, in the face of some towering competition. With the Miracles in the 1960s, he paced dozens of tuneful Motown hits with his beautiful high tenor. As a solo performer from the 1970s onward, he was one of the staples of urban contemporary music. But his singing gifts, as notable as they are, comprise only one of his hats: he’s also one of pop’s best and most prolific songwriters. As a songwriter and producer, he was the most important musical component to Motown’s early success, not only on the hits by the Miracles, but for numerous other acts as well (especially Mary Wells and the Temptations). Robinson first crossed paths with Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., in the late ’50s in Detroit. In retrospect, this may have been the most important meeting in both men’s lives. Robinson needed a mentor and an outlet for his budding talents as a singer and songwriter; the ambitious Gordy needed someone with multi-faceted musical vision. Gordy encouraged and polished Robinson’s songwriting in particular in the early days, in which the Miracles were one of many acts bridging the doo wop and early soul eras. Before solidifying their relationship with the embryonic Motown operation, the Miracles issued a few singles on the End and Chess labels, the most successful of which was “Got a Job.” There was no national action for the Miracles until “Shop Around” in late 1960. Gordy withdrew the original single in favor of a faster, more fully produced version of the song; it made number two, doing much not only to establish the Miracles, but to establish the Motown label itself. The song also heralded many of the important elements of the Motown sound, with its gospel-ish interplay between lead and backup vocals, its rhythmic groove, and its blend of R&B and pop. While Robinson is most often thought of as a romantic balladeer, the Miracles were also capable of grinding out some excellent uptempo party tunes, particularly in their early days. “Mickey’s Monkey” (which the group gave an athletically electrifying performance of in the 1964 T.A.M.I. Show movie), a 1963 Top Ten hit, is the most famous of these; there was also “Going to a Go-Go” and smaller hits like “I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying.” The 1962 Top Ten hit “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” however, was the key cut in forming Robinson’s romantic persona, with its pleading, soaring vocals, exquisite melody, and carefully crafted lyrics. Bob Dylan was impressed enough by Robinson’s facility for imaginative wordplay to dub him “America’s greatest living poet” (a phrase which has possibly become the most quoted example of one rock giant praising another). Surveying Robinson’s achievements during the 1960s, one wonders if the man ever slept. While the Miracles were never Motown’s biggest act at any given time, they were one of its very most consistent, entering the Top 40 25 times over the course of the decade. “I Second That Emotion,” “The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” and “Baby, Baby Don’t Cry” were some of their biggest singles, and usually represented Motown at its most sophisticated and urbane. Robinson also was extremely active at Motown as a songwriter and producer for other acts. The number one singles “My Guy” (Mary Wells) and “My Girl” (Temptations) were each Robinson songs and productions (the latter with fellow Miracle Ronnie White), and Robinson also did some excellent work with the Marvelettes and Marvin Gaye. He also toured with the Miracles, and started a family with the Miracles’ female singer, Claudette Rogers, whom he married in 1964. Rogers stopped touring with the group in the mid-’60s, although she continued to sing on their records. Starting in 1967, the billing on Miracles releases was changed to Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, presaging Robinson’s solo career. The group continued to spin out hits until the early ’70s, however, getting their only number one in 1970 with the upbeat “The Tears of a Clown” (which had actually been recorded back in 1966). Robinson left the group to go on his own in 1972; the Miracles continued without him with limited success, although they had a number one hit in 1976 with “Love Machine, Pt. 1.” Robinson had been made a vice president at Motown near the beginning of his career in 1961. He recorded frequently as a solo artist for Motown in the ’70s and ’80s, in a considerably mellower vein than his Miracles work, in keeping with the general shift of Motown and soul toward urban contemporary. Robinson, in fact, provided that genre with one of its catch phrases with the title of his 1975 album, A Quiet Storm. “Cruisin’” (1979) and “Being with You” (1981) were his biggest solo hits, although artistically and commercially his solo era wasn’t nearly as successful as his music with the Miracles. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
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