Sunday, 24 August 2008

Avril's "Sexy" Show Gets Scrapped

If Malaysian officials' logical system holds, Avril Lavigne is sexier than Gwen Stefani and the Pussycat Dolls and only as potentially morally corrupting as Beyonc�.


The Canadian faux-punkette has become the up-to-the-minute Western toss off star to face trouble in the Asian land as she was uninvited from acting a planned Kuala Lumpur gig. The Muslim-majority country's Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry canceled the depict today amid growing protests and claims the singer was, quite simply, "likewise sexy."


While that, of course, is altogether subjective, the timing of the planned gig�just deuce days before the nation's Independence Day on Aug. 29�was non and, per a aged ministry prescribed, was the real reason for the cancellation.



























"It is not well-timed," Shukran Ibrahim told the Associated Press. "It's non in the spirit of our National Day. If we go ahead with the concert, it is contrary to what we are preparing for."


Another unknown ministry official told Reuters that the concert was indeed off, but non for right, adding that the date had simply been postponed and not scrapped all together.


"We did not reject the concert," the official said. "We asked them to find oneself another date as the original date is so close to the Independence Day. That's the only reason."


Not according to the headlines.


Earlier this week, officials with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party's youth wing vocalized their objections to the show, careless of its timing, locution Lavigne was "considered to a fault sexy" for them: "We don't want our people, our teenagers, influenced by their performance."


As it happens, Lavigne is not the first to fall fouled of the strict standards imposed on female singers in the country.


Last twelvemonth, Beyonc� pulled the plug on her own planned Kuala Lumpur gig amid similar complaints, but blasted her relocating the evidence to Indonesia on goose egg more than a "programming conflict." Just months earlier, Stefani was allowed to perform only after agreeing to get into less telling costumes, while the promoters of a 2006 Pussycat Dolls show up were fined because of the group's "sexually revelatory routines."










More information

Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson   
Artist: Smokey Robinson

   Genre(s): 
R&B: Soul
   Other
   



Discography:


Timeless Love   
 Timeless Love

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 13


Songs That Inspired The Motown 25th Anniversary Television Special   
 Songs That Inspired The Motown 25th Anniversary Television Special

   Year: 1983   
Tracks: 10


The Best Of Smokie   
 The Best Of Smokie

   Year:    
Tracks: 1




If you're looking for for the all-time number one purveyor of





Introspective

Friday, 27 June 2008

Winehouse stays in hospital for more tests

British soul singer Amy Winehouse has remained in hospital for more tests after fainting at home and being rushed to a clinic by her father, a spokesman said.

"She's staying there for the time being," the spokesman said. "They are still not quite sure what happened and the tests were inconclusive."

The 24-year-old singer and songwriter, who has publicly battled drug problems and whose personal life has attracted widespread media attention, will stay at the private clinic for further tests, he added.

Winehouse, who won five Grammy Awards in February and enjoyed commercial success with her album Back to Black, put her touring commitments on hold last year amid reports she had been hospitalised for severe exhaustion.

She also entered a rehabilitation clinic in January.

Winehouse is expected to perform as planned at a Nelson Mandela birthday concert in London's Hyde Park on June 27.

Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, pleaded guilty this month to beating up a bartender and conspiring to pervert the course of justice by trying to pay him not to testify.





See Also

Thursday, 19 June 2008

Woody Herman

Woody Herman   
Artist: Woody Herman

   Genre(s): 
Jazz
   Blues
   



Discography:


Woody's Winners   
 Woody's Winners

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 8


Jazz Masters 54   
 Jazz Masters 54

   Year: 1962   
Tracks: 13


Collection (Boogie Woogie)   
 Collection (Boogie Woogie)

   Year:    
Tracks: 4




A fine swing clarinetist, an altoist whose sound was influenced by Johnny Hodges, a beneficial soprano saxophonist, and a peppy blues vocaliser, Woody Herman's greatest signification to jazz was as the loss leader of a long line of large bands. He always bucked up young talent and, more than practically any bandleader from the swing eRA, unbroken his repertoire quite modern. Although Herman was always stuck playacting a few of his older hits (he played "Four-spot Brothers" and "Early Autumn" nightly for nearly 40 days), he a great deal preferable to flirt and create new music.


Woody Herman began playacting as a child, tattle in music hall. He started playing sax when he was 11, and four-spot age by and by he was a professional musician. He picked up early live playacting with the swelled bands of Tom Gerun, Harry Sosnik, and Gus Arnheim, and then in 1934, he linked the Isham Jones orchestra. He recorded oft with Jones, and when the veteran bandleader decided to break up his orchestra in 1936, Herman formed one of his have out of the remaining lens nucleus. The great majority of the early Herman recordings feature film the bandleader as a lay singer, just it was the instrumentals that caught on, leading to his group organism known as "the Band That Plays the Blues." Woody Herman's topic "At the Woodchopper's Ball" became his start murder (1939). Herman's former group was in reality a minor outfit with a Dixieland feel to many of the looser pieces and fine vocals contributed by Mary Ann McCall, in increase to Herman. They recorded selfsame oftentimes for Decca, and for a period had the female trumpeter/singer Billie Rogers as one of its principal attractions.


By 1943, the Woody Herman Orchestra was beginning to assume its first steps into becoming the Herd (later renamed the First Herd). Herman had recorded an advanced Dizzy Gillespie system ("Down Under") the twelvemonth in front, and during 1943, Herman's band became influenced by Duke Ellington; in fact, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster made client appearances on some recordings. It was a gradual process, just by the closing of 1944, Woody Herman had what was fundamentally a brand new orchestra. It was a wild, good time band with screaming ensembles (propelled by first base herald Pete Candoli), major soloists in trombonist Bill Harris and tenorman Flip Phillips, and a beat section pushed by bassist/cheerleader Chubby Jackson and drummer Dave Tough. In 1945 (with new trumpeters in Sonny Berman and Conte Candoli), the First Herd was considered the most exciting new bad band in malarky. Several of the arrangements of Ralph Burns and Neal Hefti ar considered classics, and such Herman favorites entered the book as "Orchard apple tree Honey," "Caldonia," "Northwestern United States Passage," "Bijou" (Harris' memorable if case feature), and the round the bend "Your Father's Mustache." Even Igor Stravinsky was impressed, and he wrote "Sable Concerto" for the orchestra to do in 1946. Unfortunately, kinsperson troubles caused Woody Herman to break up the swelled band at the tiptop of its success in late 1946; it was the simply one of his orchestras to really throw much money. Herman recorded a second in the lag, and then, by mid-1947, had a new orchestra, the Second Herd, which was besides soon known as the Four Brothers band. With the 3 cool-toned tenors of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Steward (wHO a class later was replaced by Al Cohn) and baritonist Serge Chaloff forming the nucleus, this orchestra had a different sound than its more extrovert predecessor, merely it could also sire excitement of its own. Trumpeter/arranger Shorty Rogers and eventually Bill Harris returned from the in the first place outfit, and with Mary Ann McCall endorse as a singer, the grouping had a neat deal of potential. But, despite such popular numbers pool as Jimmy Giuffre's "Quaternity Brothers," "The Goof and I," and "Former Autumn" (the latter ballad made Getz into a star), the isthmus struggled financially. Before its burst in 1949, such other musicians as Gene Ammons, Lou Levy, Oscar Pettiford, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne made crucial contributions.


Next up for Woody Herman was the Third Herd, which was similar to the Second except that it by and large played at danceable tempos and was a piece more conservative. Herman unbroken that stria together during much of 1950-1956, even having his have Mars judge for a period; Conte Candoli, Al Cohn, Dave McKenna, Phil Urso, Don Fagerquist, Carl Fontana, Dick Hafer, Bill Perkins, Nat Pierce, Dick Collins, and Richie Kamuca were among the many sidemen. After some ephemeral small groups (including a sextette with Nat Adderley and Charlie Byrd), Herman's New Thundering Herd was a hit at the 1959 Monterey Jazz Festival. He was able to star a big band successfully throughout the sixties, featuring such soloists as high-note trumpeter Bill Chase, trombonist Phil Wilson, the reliable Nat Pierce, and the exciting tenor of Sal Nistico. Always clear to newer styles, Woody Herman's bop-ish unit gradually became more than rock-oriented as he utilized his young sidemen's arrangements, a great deal of flow pop tunes (starting in 1968 with an album coroneted Light My Fire). Not all of his albums from this era worked, but one invariably admired Herman's open-minded position. As one of exclusively tetrad surviving jazz-oriented bandleaders from the swing era (along with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Stan Kenton) world Health Organization was silent touring the populace with a freehanded band, Herman welcomed such fresh natural endowment in the seventies as Greg Herbert, Andy Laverne, Joe Beck, Alan Broadbent, and Frank Tiberi. He as well recorded with Chick Corea, had a reunion with Flip Phillips, and storied his fortieth day of remembrance as a leader with a illustrious 1976 Carnegie Hall concert.


Woodsy Herman returned to accentuation straight-ahead jazz by the recent '70s. By then, he was organism hounded by the IRS ascribable to an incompetent director from the sixties not paid thousands of dollars of taxes out of the sidemen's salaries. Herman, world Health Organization might very well have interpreted it easy, was forced to keep on touring and working always into his old eld. He managed to place on a cheerful face to the public, celebrating his fiftieth anniversary as a bandleader in 1986. However, his health was starting to neglect, and he bit by bit delegated most of his duties to Frank Tiberi before his death in 1987. Tiberi continued to star a Woody Herman Orchestra on a part-time basis but it never had the opportunity to record. Fortunately, Herman was well attested end-to-end all phases of his career, and his major contributions are still greatly comprehended.





Johnny Cash - Cash Honoured With New Country Car

Friday, 13 June 2008

Champion

Champion   
Artist: Champion

   Genre(s): 
Other
   



Discography:


Promises Kept   
 Promises Kept

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 12




 






Saturday, 7 June 2008

Celebrity Watch: Julia Roberts on David Letterman show

Julia Roberts entering the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City for the recording of 'The Late Show with David Letterman' on Thursday, June 5, 2008. Photo Credit: Janet Mayer / PR Photos

June 5, 2008 () - Julia Roberts appeared for the taping of the 'The Late Show with David Letterman' in New York, Thursday, June 5, casually attired in blue jeans, white top and white jacket. She threw in some style with an extra long scarf knotted around her neck.

The 40-year-old Oscar winning actress, not known to be paparazzi friendly, managed a fleeting smile and a hand wave as she entered the Ed Sullivan Theatre for recording the show.

On the show there was a lively banter between Dave and Julia.

Dave asked Julia about her cinematographer husband Danny Moder, who she met on the set of The Mexican in 2000, and inquired whether Danny helped her out with household chores. Julia asserted he did and said Danny was a great husband.

Julia Roberts entering the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City for the recording of 'The Late Show with David Letterman' on Thursday, June 5, 2008. Photo Credit: Janet Mayer / PR Photos

Dave then asked her if they had an occasional spat. "I mean everybody has a tiff," Dave baited her.

"No! We don't. We don't really�That is a boring answer, but we don't really," Julia responded.

She then teased Dave back.

"Yes�but when we have kissed on the show."

"You and I?" interjected a surprised Dave.

"Yes," Julia responded, "Sometimes there is a little reluctance. How was the show? How is Dave?"

"He gets what is coming to him now," Dave mocking threatened.

Julia and Danny wed on July 4, 2002. They have three children: 3-year-old fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus "Finn" Walter, and nearly one year old son Henry Daniel Moder.



Monday, 26 May 2008

Alanis Morissette plans fall U.S. tour

DETROIT (Billboard) - With her new album, "Flavors of Entanglement," due out June 10, Alanis Morissette is planning an intense spate of road work that will include headlining dates in North America this fall.


"I would believe a North American tour would start mid-September," the Canadian singer-songwriter said during a teleconference with reporters on Thursday (May 8). "We'll be going back and forth from Europe to America probably three times throughout the summer, doing our own shows and probably some festivals as well."


Promotional dates are being scheduled for the Maverick/Reprise release, and Morissette starts her tour proper on May 31 at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal. Her European run also includes festival shows in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Romania, Turkey, France, Belgium, Hungary and the U.K. No specific North American shows have been announced yet.


Morissette said she and her band would be starting rehearsals Friday (May 9) to break in two new members as well as the "Flavors of Entanglement" material.


"I do know we'll be playing quite a bit of the songs from this new record and songs from the last 13 years," she said. "And any time there are new bandmates that are integrated into the band, it infuses and it imbues the songs ... with a new energy, so that's exciting."


Also upcoming for Morissette is her first lead role in a film. "Radio Free Albemuth" is an adaptation of the 1976 Phillip K. Dick novel in which her character, Sylvia, believes she's receiving messages from a satellite ordering her "to infiltrate the music industry ... and have a band record a song that has subliminal messages to overthrow the government. When I heard that story, my curiosity was piqued."


No release date has yet been set for the feature. Morissette is "very proud" of the footage she has seen so far but said that playing the lead was "terrifying. ... That's important for me, to do things I'm terrified of."


Reuters/Billboard