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SMOKEY BLUE´S AWAY

Still, though, I can hear in my head a lyrical line that accompanies the New World Symphony Opus 9 music  but the voice I hear is not mine (its in tune) and nor is it the voice of Colin Lever, my Lendanear song-writing partner, so I´m pretty damned certain we didn´t write it. Who did, though?
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LINDA RONSTADT and the country rock scene

Tumbling Dice is my favourite track by The Rolling Stones and the decision to cover that 1972 hit was a stroke of genius for Ronstadt. Again, a woman shaking up the status quo with a groovy, provocative song was ground-breaking and became a tent pole of her catalogue.

PAYING TRIBUTE WHILE RECEIVING

I’d tell him, okay, Wayne, “you're the bird.” So he'd go out in the studio, put his horn in his mouth, and the first lick that came out of him was so like a bird. It was amazing. Then his hand was in the air waving for “one more take,” and I said, “no way. I'll punch you in, but I won't start over.” So I punched him in and I left the first lick that he played on the record. It was magnificent. He was just kind of unconscious when he played it, but it was so bird-like and so unusual. He was a beautiful musician. He will be sorely missed.
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BRAY-KING NEWS OF JENNY´S NEXT ALBUM

I enjoy watching all kinds of awards and have learned so much about life, music and creativity from meeting some of the great performers, their stories and lives can be very sad but also inspiring.  I think the awards encourage me to be an individual, true to myself and my art. My own ambition is to be there for my family while continuing to write, perform and share music to the very best of my ability. 

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 !

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.

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.