Etiketter

søndag den 26. februar 2012

Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams know the score for the telecast -- they wrote it


(LA Times) The two had only one rule when writing the music for the awards show: Try anything. And they did, drawing from Zimmer's evocative film scores and Williams' beat-driven sound art.

The first time Hans Zimmer made Pharrell Williams' head spin was in 2005, when the former was composing the score for the Ron Howard blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code." Williams, half of the lauded hip-hop production duo the Neptunes and a third of the experimental rock group N.E.R.D., had heard through a mutual friend, music-supervisor Kathy Nelson, that he and Zimmer (one of Hollywood's most in-demand composers, with Oscar- and Grammy-winning credits including "The Lion King" and "The Dark Knight") were fans of concept-based composing styles.

"The Fibonacci sequence figured heavily in the movie, and Hans was inspired by it to compose a piece that played exactly the same way backwards as it did forwards," Williams said. "When I heard that, I thought, 'This is a guy I can be friends with.'"

That friendship has turned into an unexpected collaboration on one of the globe's biggest stages — this weekend's Academy Awards. In a basement recording studio at Capitol Records the weekend before the Oscars, the composers were rehearsing dozens of pieces of new music they'd written for Sunday's telecast, drawing from Zimmer's rangy, evocative film scores and Williams' minimalist, beat-driven sound art.

This year's Oscars ceremony pays relatively little attention to music (this year's original song category has only two entries, from "The Muppets" and "Rio," and bucking tradition, neither will be performed live). The high-profile duo of Williams and Zimmer, however, may give music fans more reason to pay attention to the show.

Zimmer and Williams first collaborated on 2010's Steve Carell-voiced animated comedy "Despicable Me," where Williams produced four original solo songs and several other character-sung pieces, with Zimmer as co-producer.

For the Oscars' commission, which involved composing for interludes and walk-ons and arranging segments of the five nominees for best film score, they had only one real rule — try everything. "We went crazy. We wrote new music for everything," Zimmer said during a lunch break between rehearsals in the Capitol studio. "Some people had told us that the Oscars score is all about repeating everything. But that's just not how we're built."

Zimmer and Williams kept mum on many of the score's specifics, though Zimmer did promise that "you might see some odd faces in the orchestra."

"There will be a few surprises — it's diverse and international in the way that only musicians can be," he added.

A walk through the orchestra's rehearsal room showed a huge array of instruments being used, from traditional brass and woodwinds to electronic drum triggers, rock instruments and a wide variety of synthesizers.

The composers would seem to come from vastly different schools of arranging. The Neptunes were behind hits for Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, with tracks built on airtight drum loops and avant-garde synth samples. Zimmer is an inspired film-score mercenary who can conjure epic sentiment or creeping, slinky dread depending on the job.

But the two have more in common than a cursory career overview might suggest. Williams started his music career as an orchestra drummer in high school, and Zimmer's first break came when he produced the Buggles' hit "Video Killed the Radio Star"; its video was the first ever played on MTV.

In the Capitol rehearsal room, where Williams was dressed in a leather jacket and skull-painted high-tops, the famously effusive Zimmer humbly said he had provided only a basic framework to a composition and passed it off to Williams. "My role was minor, more of a safety net," he said. "Pharrell knows everything and has just impeccable taste."

In a year where chaos seemed to reign in planning the telecast (the production changed hosts and producers months before the ceremony), the adventurous composing team might be one of the night's more reliable elements. The job is like few others in composing, where an arranger must carefully attend to the pure functionality needed for a long broadcast to a mainstream TV audience, while staying charismatic and representative of its composers' idiosyncratic personalities.

Even Williams, one of the most reliable and revolutionary hit makers in pop music, had to use the language of superheroes to describe the scope of what they'd written. "Hans really is Professor X, and his company Remote Control Productions is his Xavier School," Williams said, evoking the team of mutants in the "X-Men" comic series. "From my perspective, I got a university education from him."

onsdag den 22. februar 2012

UMG guarantees Citi EMI $1.9bn price tag even if regulators block deal

UMG has guaranteed Citigroup the $1.9 billion price tag for EMI Music, even if regulators stop the company’s acquisition from happening altogether.

That’s according to The New York Post, which says that, if Citi is forced to sell EMI Music to another party because the proposed deal with Universal falls through, UMG will make up the difference if a new deal brought a lower price.

Such a provision would suggest a great degree of confidence on UMG’s part that the deal with Citigroup will be completed but, as The Post points out, it is already facing stiff opposition from sectors of the music industry.

US regulators have started talks with interested parties about the deal. Helen Smith, executive chairman of Impala, a Brussels-based association representing independents, told The Post, “We think it’s unlikely, that the regulatory authorities can justify taking a decision other than an outright no.”

At the time the deal was struck, Beggars Group’s Martin Mills spoke to Music Week and labeled the move ‘corporate arrogance,’ saying it is “bad news for everyone in the art and business of music,” a sentiment he repeated to the MPG Awards last Thursday after picking up the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.

Universal, which sees $158 million in synergistic savings, has agreed to sell $657 million in non-core assets to gain antitrust approval for the EMI deal.

lørdag den 11. februar 2012

Whitney Houston Dies at 48


Whitney Houston who reigned as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48. Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.


At around 8:50 pm (EST), less than half an hour after the news broke, CNN reported that Whitney Houston's bodyguard, Ray, found Houston dead at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel prior to a party honoring music executive, Clive Davis.


On the eve of the Grammy Awards, Recording Academy president Neil Portnoy released a statement calling Houston "one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time… Her powerful voice graced many memorable and award-winning songs. A light has been dimmed in our music community today, and we extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, fans and all who have been touched by her beautiful voice."


At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."


She had the perfect voice and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.


She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey. who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.


But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.


"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.


It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.


She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.




Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan. Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.


"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."


"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.


Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," ''You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."


The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."


Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.


"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."


Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.


But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.

"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."


It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.


In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.


It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.


She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."


But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."


In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.


Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.


She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.


Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.


Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.


A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

onsdag den 8. februar 2012

‘Soul Train’ Creator Don Cornelius Dies in Suicide

The 'Soul Train' creator is credited with bringing urban culture and R&B music into the homes of millions. He was 75

Don Cornelius, creator of the syndicated hit dance show “Soul Train” committed suicide in his Encino, Calif. home, the Associated Press confirmed Wednesday morning.

A family member arrived at Cornelius’ house at about 4 a.m. and found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, authorities said. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. He was 75.




In 1970, Cornelius, a Chicago disc jockey and radio reporter, debuted “Soul Train” an R&B-themed, youth-oriented dance show on WCIU and moved it to syndication the next year with stations in several cities picking it up. When the show moved to Los Angeles, it became a national, then international hit. The show ran in syndication for 35 years before it went off the air in 2006.
Cornelius ended his run as host of the show in 1993, but remained its executive producer, allowing a series of younger guest hosts to be in front of the camera. The Soul Train brand expanded as it had become more popular, including the Soul Train Music Awards, which honored R&B, jazz and gospel performers, and the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, focusing on female artists.News of Cornelius death sent shockwaves through the entertainment community as “Soul Train” was seen as not just a television show, but as a cultural cornerstone. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business,” music producer and impresario Quincy Jones told the AP. “Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train,’ that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched. My heart goes out to Don’s family and loved ones.”

Magic Johnson, who serves as chairman of Soul Train Holdings, which now owns the show, called Cornelius “a pioneer, an innovator and a trailblazer” in a statement issued by the company.

“Every Saturday morning I looked forward to watching Soul Train, as did millions of other people. Soul Train taught the world how to dance! Don’s contribution to us all is immeasurable. He will truly be missed. I thank him for trusting me with his Soul Train brand and I will carry on his legacy through it,” Johnson said.

Cornelius, according to TMZ.com, underwent a bitter divorce in 2009 and told a Los Angeles judge that he was experiencing “significant health issues,” and wanted to “finalize this divorce” before he died.

The Los Angeles Times said there was no sign of foul play at the scene of Cornelius’ death, but are investigating. He told the paper in a 2010 interview that plans were being made for a biographical “Soul Train” movie.

“We’ve been in discussions with several people about getting a movie off the ground. It wouldn’t be the ‘Soul Train’ dance show, it would be more of a biographical look at the project,” he said.

fredag den 3. februar 2012

R. Kelly Releases New Soulful Single 'Share My Love'

R Kelly delights his fans when he releases a fresh material titled "Share My Love". The R&B singer seduces music lovers through its soulful disco production and its cheeky lyrics, which include such lines as "Let's do what we were born to do/ Populate!/ Let's get together/ Populate!"

"Share My Love" is a first taste from Kelly's new album, which is expected to come out later this year. He hinted about doing a reminiscent to the 1960/70's disco as saying in an interview last year, "I'm thinking of going back to the Shaft [1971] days next year and just see what it's like to bring that back to R&B."

"It's interesting because when I was a kid I used to watch, like, Back to the Future [1985], where the man would call 'Marty!' and they would jump in the little car and go back to the future. And I always said, 'Man, that's how I want to be able to travel with my gift.' So it's funny that I just sit here now, and I feel like I can get in my musical time machine and just travel anywhere I want."

"And when I get there, I can take some of those elements and bring them back to these days, and it's authentic. It's almost like I feel like it's unfair, but it's not, you know? I didn't give myself this gift, so I must be meant to do something with it," he concluded.