JIM STEINMAN: a proper ´popera´ star

Steinman had an unerring ability to successfully cannibalise his own failures. The solitary album by Pandora’s Box didn’t even warrant a US release, which enabled him to subsequently uproot its single, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, and present it to Céline Dion, who turned it into a multi-platinum 1996 single.

TARASCA

it took us through hundreds of thousands of years from cold caves to central heating, from agriculture to industry to fishing to society and civilisation.

THAT´S WHAT I´D CALL SIXTIES MUSIC

Tina Benitez Eves, writing in American Songwriter, said ´Carole King was born a songwriter,´

JAZZ CALL OUT FOR VOLUNTEERS

We have received a jazz listings sheet for the month of April and 2023 and it looks as though April has turned into the Helena Kay month !

READERS´  WRITINGS

Sidetracks And Detours are always delighted to receive recommendations from readers of stories and artists they feel we should address. Peter Pearson has suggested we look at some satelite subjects around Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. peter and i are good friends but I must have somehow misled him into thinking we have a staff here about the size of Sky News, Don´t worry though Peter, our researchers are already out there, sifting for gold. Thanks, seriously, this will be good fun

STARS ON THE WATER

I am in fact aware of a strange contradiction in my attitude to all this discussion of what is best, what is favourite and who wrote what. My view on all this might be best summed up by something Hugh Moffatt (I think) once said to me in an interview, that ´we must intend what we write for live years of travel´, and when we have done so , according to Roland Barthesian theory, the author ´dies´ and the song belongs instead to the people.

DUKE ELLINGTON and the notes the world was not yet ready

subtitled The Notes The World Was Not Ready For, illuminates the historical significance of the compositions that helped create a paradigm shift in American music, race relations and culture. It is an engrossing story of "mysterious callings" that led Ellington to choose Randall Keith Horton as his assistant composer, conductor and pianist in 1973, and the author's serendipitous connection to Horton.

a year of MANCHESTER FESTIVALS

19th-28th May 2023 will see Manchester Jazz Festival take place at venues and sites across Manchester, including weekday gigs at St Ann’s Church, nightly gigs at Matt & Phreds, events at Forsyth Music Shop and at The Yard with partners NQ Jazz, and close with an extended weekend-long party at Band on the Wall. In fact according to today´s headline on their web site, MANCHESTER JAZZ FESTIVAL WILL BRING ‘THE SOUND OF SURPRISE’ TO THE CITY IN MAY.

FINAL CURTAIN CALL AT COLISEUM

´Another hole has been blasted in the fabric of arts and culture´, Steve Cooke wrote..´The loss of the Coliseum will be mourned not only in its immediate environment but across the whole creative arts community.

CONTEMPORARY & TRADITIONAL AS ONE

Those folkies who believed the past is another country could never get along with those in the other half of the folk clubs who believed that tradition must be preserved at all costs by repelling all boarders (or borders).