Saturday, May 29, 2010
5/31 - Happy Memorial Day From Gregg Hunter
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sunday May 23rd
The critical acclaim composer Jimmy Webb has received during his more than forty years of success is as remarkable as the accomplishments they honor: Webb is the only artist to ever receive Grammy awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration, he is a member of the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and, according to BMI, his “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” has been the third most performed song in the last fifty years, with “Up, Up and Away” on the same list in the top thirty. Webb’s, “Wichita Lineman” has been listed in MOJO Magazine’s worldwide survey of the best one hundred singles of all time in the top fifty, and was singled out in the Oct/Nov 2001 issue of Blender as “The Greatest Song Ever.” Even singer/songwriter James Taylor was nominated for a Grammy this past year for "Best Male Pop Vocal" for his rendition of the song. The National Academy of Songwriters also named Jimmy as 1993’s recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award, although TIME Magazine was early to acknowledge Jimmy Webb’s range and proficiency back in 1968 when it referred to his astonishing string of hits, and commented on “Webb’s gift for strong, varied rhythms, inventive structures, and rich, sometimes surprising harmonies.” In 1999 Jimmy was inducted by actor Michael Douglas into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame as one of the State’s most celebrated sons, he was inducted onto the Board of Directors for The Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in early 2000, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for ASCAP.
Though best known for the instant classics he provided for such artists as Glen Campbell (“By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Where’s The Playground, Susie”), Richard Harris (“MacArthur Park,” “Didn’t We”), the Fifth Dimension (“Up, Up and Away,” “This Is Your Life”), The Brooklyn Bridge (“Worst That Could Happen”), Art Garfunkel (“All I Know”), Linda Ronstadt (“Easy For You To Say”), Joe Cocker (“The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress”) and so on, Jimmy Webb continues to write songs that are as carefully crafted and magical as the earlier ones. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson hit #1 in the late eighties with another Webb standard, “The Highwayman,” a ballad which won him yet another Grammy for Best Country Song of the Year, and a CMA Award for Single Of The Year. Linda Ronstadt, who has recorded a multitude of his songs throughout her recording career, included four of his efforts on her double platinum album, “Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.” With a discography that reads like a “Who’s Who” in the music world, Webb’s songs continue to grace a multitude of major recording artists’ albums, from Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, to Urge Overkill, Reba McEntire, and Shawn Colvin.
Having five top ten hits within a 20-month period, Jimmy Webb concluded the 1960’s with an international name that was bandied around on the musical air currents as a “new genius.” Webb began the Seventies intent on launching his own performing career, releasing six albums in eleven years, including Words And Music (1970), And So: On (1971), Land’s End (1974), El Mirage (1977), and Angel Heart (1982), while writing hits for other recording stars. Throughout the years, he continued to hone his performance skills, and earned distinguished reviews and praise following his appearances in top cabaret venues (The Algonquin’s famed Oak Room in New York, NY’s “Feinstein’s at The Regency,” San Francisco’s “Fairmont Hotel,” Melbourne’s “Continental,” “The National Hall” in Dublin, London’s, “Ronnie Scott's,” and “The Cafe Royal”) as he presented material which encompassed a new maturity and sophistication for his first album in over a decade. Suspending Disbelief, (1993) produced by Linda Ronstadt and George Massenburg, received enormous critical acclaim, and led New York Times critic Stephen Holden to state that this album, “may very well be the songwriter’s perfect moment.” His recording effort, Ten Easy Pieces, (Guardian-EMI)—which won rave reviews—is a collection of the songwriter’s hits as he performs them the way they were originally written, and his solo recording, "Twilight of the Renegades," (Sanctuary) was released in 2005. In 2007 Webb released his first live CD, "Live And At Large," which is available through cdBaby and he is currently working on an album with his sons, "The Webb Brothers," as well as beginning preparation for a new Webb solo effort. Webb was also one of the few artists asked to perform in 1995 at Carnegie Hall’s “Celebration of American Music” honoring Frank Sinatra, and, at Billy Joel’s personal request, one of several artists (including Marvin Hamlisch and Garth Brooks) who performed for Congress in 1997 as Joel was presented with ASCAP’s Founder’s Award. Jimmy Webb’s recent tours (Australia/Japan 2000, The U.K. Tours '05, and Australia and New Zealand, 2005) were sell-outs. His New York performances – one along with legendary songwriter Paul Williams— earned the distinguished headline of “A Bright, Soaring Delivery For Wild Romantic Fantasies” from the esteemed New York Times. His three, 2007 performances at New York's famed, "The Cutting Room," were complete sellouts, and he continued to use the venue as his "New York home" throughout 2008.
Over the years Jimmy Webb has also added his inimitable genius to a number of film and television projects. Beginning his scoring career in 1968, he wrote the title song and a midsummer hit (“Montage”) for the James Garner-Debbie Reynolds comedy, “How Sweet It Is!,” followed by an adventurous score for the 1971 classic Western, “Doc.” In 1973 he demonstrated his wit and musical breadth with a score for the provocative “Naked Ape,” followed by his music for “Voices,” in 1979. Webb provided a dazzling score for the highly successful animated film, “The Last Unicorn,” Germany’s second-highest grossing film in 1982, which also included his title song, “That’s All I’ve Got To Say,” later recorded by Art Garfunkel. That success was followed by the score for Cannon Film’s Vietnam sage, “The Hanoi Hilton.” Although he rarely collaborates, Webb and Carly Simon wrote the title track of her album, Film Noir and completed “A Dream Worth Keeping,” with Alan Silvestri for Twentieth Century’s 1992 release, “Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest,” recorded by Sheena Easton. His solo effort, “Christmas Will Return” was included in Disney’s smash hit, The Santa Clause, with Tim Allen. Jimmy Webb continues in his reign as one of the few masters of American music, leading one reviewer to comment, “There is something of a return to 1930’s glamour in Webb’s work, a suggestion of the great era of lush film scoring when velvet-sounding violins appeared seemingly out of nowhere and emotion erupted from the music itself.”
Webb’s earlier television projects included the theme music and songs for specials with Ringo Starr, Olivia Newton-John, and Amy Grant, in addition to providing the theme songs and music for RollingStone Magazine’s Tenth Anniversary Special. He has also scored for Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories,” Shelley Duvall’s “Faerie Tale Theatre,” MGM Television’s “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers,” and the television series “E/R.” Columbia Records released a Jimmy Webb cantata, “The Animals’ Christmas,” featuring Amy Grant, Art Garfunkel, and the London Symphony Orchestra, with songs from the album featured on Grant’s Christmas Special in 1986. Webb also scored the 1991 premiere episode of HBO’s “Tales From The Crypt,” as well as another episode of ’Tales for the 1992 season. Webb was also commissioned by Oklahoma Events to compose a 16 minute piece celebrating the State's Centennial, and "Centennial Suite" made its debut in 2007 with the Oklahoma Philharmonic.
Clarifying himself as a romanticist, Webb’s use of vivid imagery simultaneously captures and involves his listeners’ emotions, which should come as no surprise to the songwriter who states, “I like words. I like the way they clash around together and bang up against each other, especially in songs.” In a progression of his celebrated talent as a lyricist, Webb continued in the 1990’s furthering his enormous range of interests by completing a best-selling book, Tunesmith: Inside The Art of Songwriting, a Hyperion ‘98 release. Released in soft-cover in the fall of ’99, “Tunesmith” is still considered by many to be the “Bible of songwriting.” Warner’s, United Kingdom, released Archive (1993), featuring twenty tracks from earlier Webb recordings and PolyGram U.K. released Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain, (1998) a compilation of the greatest Webb covers in January, 1998. Raven Records released a combination CD of the Richard Harris/Jimmy Webb recordings from A Tramp Shining and The Yard Went On Forever in their Richard Harris: The Webb Sessions. Jimmy also co-produced Carly Simon’s Film Noir album and contributed his vocals, orchestration and piano skills to the project which was filmed for an AMC documentary (which premiered in September of ’97). Rhino also released a 5-CD boxed set (limited edition) called "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress," which was an instant sell-out, and Warner, U.K. followed with "Archive & Live," a 2-CD set in 2005. Webb also co-produced Carly Simon's latest CD, "This Kind of Love," for Starbuck's "Hear Music (2008).Jimmy's recording efforts with Glen Campbell have been reissued and extended on a Raven-import album entitled Reunited (2000), and his week-long performances with Glen at New York’s “Feinstein’s At The Regency” in June 2005 were sold out. In September of this year (2009) Jimmy and Glen will reteam with the Nashville Symphony for three nights of concerts in a special series.
Jimmy Webb's accomplishments as a composer, arranger, and producer demonstrate beyond question that he remains as important and vital a cultural figure today as he was over thirty years ago. Embraced by his peers, Webb has influenced and affected some of the finest musical talents of our time. Frank Sinatra declared “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” as “the greatest torch song ever written,” and said he enjoyed singing Jimmy Webb tunes because “he has been blessed with the emotions and artistic talent of the great lyricists.” The late Sammy Cahn commented, “I think one of the real, real geniuses is Jimmy Webb. His “MacArthur Park” is a major piece of work, major. I’d almost compare it to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in size and scope.” Michael Feinstein, who recorded Webb’s “Time Enough For Love,” for his 1993 album, Forever, and included another Webb track (“Wasn’t There A Moment”) on his Such Sweet Sorrow, says he’s “interested in the work of the great masters from any era, and certainly, Jimmy Webb is a master of this era, of today.” Feinstein also recorded an “all-Webb” album for 2002 and premiered the track, “These Are All Mine” at Carnegie Hall with Jimmy as his special guest in April, ’01. Billy Joel credits Jimmy as a major influence on his own foray into the music business. “When I was starting out as a songwriter,” says Joel, “I looked to Jimmy Webb as one of the most innovative and musically proficient songwriters of our generation.” His songs transcend their precedent-setting critical and commercial acclaim to achieve the level of true classics – a permanent part of the American musical landscape, the soundtrack of an era. In his book about songwriting, Webb states, “the paramount joy of the craft is that, however simply it is begun, it can take the songwriter on a lifelong voyage across many distant and wondrous musical seas.” For Jimmy Webb, that’s a spectacular series of events indeed.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
4/25 - Joey Fatone
Joey Fatone: Long before the mega-popular boy band *NSYNC put his winsome mug on hordes of magazine covers, Brooklyn-born Joey Fatone had music on his mind. While still in high school, the cheerful baritone and three pals formed The Big Guys, an a cappella group that once serenaded Miss Florida on the TV series Teen Talk. He met future band mate Chris Kirkpatrick while performing in Universal Studios Florida’s "Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue.” The two theme-park performers linked up with handsome crooners J.C. Chavez and Justin Timberlake, and soon enough their 1998 self-titled debut was paving the way for them to become one of the biggest-selling and record-smashing music acts of its time. In the years since the group’s final 2002 tour, Fatone has done anything but rest on his laurels. He’s transferred his talents to the silver screen, appearing in the 2002 hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the acclaimed 2003 film The Cooler. He debuted on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent, and later stretched his vocal chords as a lead in a revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Most recently, he’s reacquainted himself with a new generation of cooing fans, cha-chaing his way into a second-place finish on 2007 edition of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. His success on the dance floor led NBC to hire the personable songster as the host for their karaoke game show Singing Bee. Off-screen, his personal life has been equally blessed. He married his high-school sweetheart, Kelly Baldwin, in 2004; their daughter Brianna served as flower girl.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The first manifestation of the group was established during 1969 in New York city, with Tim Hauser, Erin Dickins, Marty Nelson, Gene Pistilli, and Pat Rosalia. They contracted with Capitol Records, recorded several tracks, and during 1971 issued their only album with this line-up, Jukin'. The album was later reissued in the UK by EMI's Music for Pleasure under the title The Manhattan Transfer and Gene Pistilli. This team endured only until 1971. The current group was founded during 1972 by Tim Hauser and singers Alan Paul, Janis Siegel, and Laurel Massé. Performances at Max's Kansas City, Trude Heller’s and Reno Sweeney with Herb Abramson's A-1 Sound engineer Jim Reeves in New York City soon developed for them a cult fan base, and it was at the latter venue that Ahmet Ertegün, founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, saw them and offered a recording contract which resulted in the release, during 1975, of this team's first album, The Manhattan Transfer. The album included the group’s first successful single, the gospel tune "Operator". In 1978, Laurel Massé was injured badly by an auto accident and was replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. The team has remained the same since then.Their next recording, Extensions, earned The Manhattan Transfer their second US popular music success: "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone", written by Alan Paul and Jay Graydon as a tribute to the 1960s’ CBS television series created by Rod Serling. Their journey into JAZZ began with the album Extensions... featured a cover of Weather Report's "Birdland", with lyrics by Jon Hendricks, the piece that has become The Manhattan Transfer's signature tune. One of the most popular jazz recordings of 1980, "Birdland" brought The Transfer its first Grammy award (Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental), and the award for Best Arrangement For Voices.
During 1981, The Manhattan Transfer made music history by becoming the first group to win Grammy awards for both popular and jazz categories in the same year. "Boy from New York City" (a cover of the 1965 success by The Ad Libs), which scored in the top 10 on the popular charts, won them the award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and "Until I Met You (Corner Pocket)" earned them a Grammy for Best Jazz Performance, Duo or Group. Both of these songs appeared on the group's fifth album, Mecca for Moderns. During 1982, the group won another Grammy, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group, for its rendition of the classic ode-to-the-road, "Route 66". The song was on the soundtrack to the Burt Reynolds film Sharky's Machine
During September 1983 the team produced the album Bodies and Souls, with an urban-contemporary style which resulted in two R&B-chart singles — the #2 "Spice of Life" (also #40 on the pop chart) and the ballad "Mystery" (#80 R&B, #102 Pop). Despite its disappointing chart performance, "Mystery" — with powerful lead vocals by Siegel — has become one of the group's best-loved songs. Hauser has called it the group's biggest turntable (radio airplay) success. Anita Baker covered it on her "breakout" album, Rapture.
The Manhattan Transfer's next set, Vocalese (1985) was a great critical success[citation needed]. Vocalese received twelve Grammy nominations — at the time making it second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller as the most nominated single album ever. The Transfer won in two categories: Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group, and Best Arrangement for Voices. This was followed by a live recording of many of these songs titled Live. This concert was also released on VHS and DVD.
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. By that time, it had become known for mixing jazz, big band, and popular music styles. The group's 30-plus year history and success has lead them into this new millenium with worldwide sales in the millions, Grammy Awards by the dozens, and veterans of sold-out World Tours.
Their newest CD, "The Chick Corea Songbook" was released in September 2009. This release features Chick Corea's most recognizable material with an appearance by Chick Corea himself on Free Samba. Other notable musicians on this recording are Airto, Scott Kinsey, Gary Novack, Steve Hass, Alex Acuna, Jimmy Earl, John Benitez, and Christian McBride.
Crawford is an accomplished musician from a musical family, as well as an actor and former child star, having appeared in over 200 television shows, 15 movies, and 13 plays. Crawford now performs with his own vintage dance band featuring authentic orchestrations from the first half of the 20th century. He has garnered an enthusiastic following in Southern California for concerts, dances, private parties and provides authentic period music for film and special events. Friday, April 2, 2010
4/4 - Happy Easter from Gregg Hunter
Saturday, March 20, 2010
3/28 - Stephanie Powers
Stefanie Powers - Hallmark's "Meet My Mom" Hallmark Channel Saturday, May 8Synopsis: It takes a strong heart to be an army wife, and whether she likes it or not, has what it takes. Lori Loughlin stars with two-time Emmy nominee and five-time Golden Globe nominee Stefanie Powers in MEET MY MOM, a Hallmark hannel in HD Original Movie premiering Saturday, May 8 (9p.m. ET/PT, 8C). Actress Stefanie Powers, whose charming and thoughtful real-life personality may most closely resemble stunning renaissance woman Jennifer Hart, the character she portrayed on the hit television series "Hart to Hart", has combined a natural curiosity and passion for knowledge, world travel and diverse cultures into both an award-winning acting career and an equally active life of heartfelt philanthropic work. The cornerstone of that work is the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, a public charity dedicated to the preservation of wild animals, which Stefanie helped to found in honor of the late actor and for which she serves as president. The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, which currently serves 10,000 students a year, is located near the Mt. Kenya Safari Club and the Mt. Kenya Game Ranch started by Holden in the late 1950's before conservation became a popular issue. "The Foundation is an extremely large commitment," Stefanie admits, "but it's not something I entered into without understanding the full impact of the obligation. It's a lifelong commitment that sometimes monopolizes one hundred percent of my time". What's perhaps staggering for most of us who would find either acting or extensive social work each full-time occupations in themselves is that Stefanie's life only begins there. She makes the term well-rounded a severe understatement. To begin, she runs her own production company, which always has several projects brewing. Her acting credits include 27 feature films, such as "Experiment in Terror", "The Interns", "McClintock!", "Die Die My Darling", "Love Has Many Faces", "Stagecoach" and "The Man Inside" and the television series "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.", "The Feather and Father Gang" and, of course, "Hart to Hart". Her many mini-series include "Washington: Behind Closed Doors", "Deceptions", "Mistral's Daughter", "At Mother's Request", "Burden of Proof" and "Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun", which she also produced. She has also appeared on stage in many musical productions, such as "Oliver", "Annie Get Your Gun", "My Fair Lady" and, most recently, "Matador" at the Queen's Theatre in London. Also, in London's West End, she was reunited with Robert Wagner in the play "Love Letters" for a 4-week run followed by tours of the play in many U.S. cities and Canada, and the "Hart to Hart" pair recreated their weekly series by doing 5 2-hour movies for the NBC-TV and three for the Family Channel, an her latest project is on the Hallmark Channel in HD on May 8 - "Meet My Mom".
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Sunday March 7, 2010
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