(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
LE
NEWSLETTER
December 20, 2007
Happy Holidays Everyone! I wish you and yours all the happiness, prosperity and peace your hand and hearts can
hold! Take the time to get some rest and relaxation too! Thank you
to all for your ongoing support.
Check out the pics from one of the best nights of Canadian talent ever -
the Monday Night VIP Jam reunion at
Revival! See PHOTO GALLERY.
The Gospel Christmas Project is coming on Saturday night - have you
picked up the CD and bought your tickets yet?
For those that enjoy a fun and
entertaining vibe like dinner and a full show, check out the Ebony and Ivory New Years Eve Gala at 6 Degrees! And don't forget about
New Years Eve at Harlem with Chef Anthony Mair - Call for reservations!
::
Ebony and Ivory New Years Eve Gala
The New Years Eve Gala of the year - The Ebony and
Ivory NYE Gala. Steppin Out Series!
Dinner tickets are $70 which includes DINNER (chicken, goat, rice
and peas, roti, white rice, salad), DESSERT (assorted cakes)and a SHOW
featuring Dwayne Morgan and Jay Martin, Trixx and Teedra
Moses backed by her live band. Party music by Skimpy, Trixx and
Presto.
Lastly at 2:00 am, we will serve Breakfast – yes, Breakfast!
We are topping it off with an early bird deal that includes a night’s stay
at the Roe Hampton Best Western on New Years Eve for $300 and
includes two all inclusive New Years Eve Gala tickets, a hotel room and parking
(with in and out privileges).
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2007
EBONY AND IVORY NEW YEARS EVE GALA
6 Degrees
2335 Yonge St. (just north of Eglinton)
7:00 pm – Dinner; $70 - All inclusive Dinner, Show , Dance, Breakfast
9:00 pm – Show; $50 - Show, Dance, and Breakfast
Info line is 416 949 2766
www.JayMartin.tv;
www.upfromtheroots.ca
Two Shows, One CD - The Gospel Christmas Project – December 21
(Ottawa) and December 22, 2007 (Toronto)
Source: Andrew Craig
You’re invited to the Christmas musical events of 2007: the Gospel Christmas Project, live at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre and Toronto’s Massey
Hall! Audiences are calling this show “fabulous”, “amazing”,
“thrilling beyond expectation”, “music to God's ears” and “a wonderfully joyful
spiritual evening”.
“The Gospel Christmas Project - LIVE!” is two hours of the world’s greatest
Christmas carols, in all-stunning new arrangements made by musician, producer
and broadcaster Andrew Craig. The songs are rendered by some of our country’s greatest voices:
Jackie Richardson, Canada’s
Queen of Jazz and
Blues,
Alana Bridgewater, “Killer Queen”
in the Mirvish production of “We Will Rock You”
Kellylee Evans, 2007 Canadian
Smooth Jazz Female Vocalist of the Year
Chris Lowe, a tremendous new
voice recently-emerged from the Gospel community
and the Juno-award-winning Sharon Riley and
Faith Chorale
“The Gospel Christmas Project” is already a wildly-popular radio
show, a Gemini-nominated TV special, and a brand-new CD, called “The Gospel Christmas Project”, available
in all major retail outlets right now, and on ITunes as of December 4.
“The Gospel Christmas Project” was originally performed in
And the next night (December 22) The Gospel Christmas Project makes its
Visit the website: www.gospelxmasproject.com
Purchase CD at
Celebrate New Year’s Eve at
Harlem
Carl Cassell and Anthony Mair invite you for dinner at Harlem this
New Year's
Eve. Master Chef Anthony
Mair (formerly of Mardis Gras) will be preparing a four
course Soulful Feast for you and your loved ones. Enjoy the
relaxed atmosphere in Harlem's art-filled dining room, then
go upstairs to the Renaissance Room for some bubbly and get your
party on in 2008. It will be a night to remember. Two seatings are available:
6:30pm and 9:00pm.
As an aside, Chef Mair will be featuring new, soulful, tasteful and mind-blowing items
to his Soul Food Menu weekly!
Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Harlem (67 Richmond St.
E. - Church and Richmond) celebrates the joy of Toronto's cultural diversity
and the art of entertaining. It is a rebirth of creativity in Food, Art, Music,
and Cocktails.
To make a reservations please call 416-368-1920.
Monday, December 31
NEW YEARS SOULFUL EVE
Harlem Restaurant
67 Richmond St. E. (Church and Richmond)
Two seatings are available: 6:30pm and 9:00pm
Reservations: 416-368-1920
www.harlemrestaurant.com
::TOP STORIES::
New Tax Breaks To Boost Local Film, TV Industry
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Bruce Demara, Entertainment Reporter
(December 18, 2007) Toronto's film
and television industry is
getting a boost just when it needs it the most.
With threats from a higher Canadian dollar and increased competition, industry
insiders say Queen's Park's new tax breaks are a welcome indication that the
provincial government is waking up to the importance of the industry to the
Ontario economy.
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced in his economic statement last
week that the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit – which benefits domestic
producers – would increase from 30 to 35 per cent, and the Ontario Production
Services Tax Credit – which benefits foreign production – would rise from 18 to
25 per cent.
Acting Toronto film commissioner Peter Finestone said the tax credit boost is
"absolutely fantastic news" for the city, where about $500 million is
spent annually in domestic productions alone. It will help it compete against
other provinces that have been luring away jobs in recent years.
"We're not slow to blame or criticize when we're not happy with what they
(government) do. So it's a delight to be able to say that they got this one
right," said Karl Pruner, president of the Toronto chapter of the Alliance
of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.
"It sends a very clear message to all of our foreign producers that the
government is listening and that they are taking the industry very seriously.
That is a comfort because ... the film and television industry is a very, very
significant part of the Ontario economy," he added.
The Canadian dollar's rise to $1.10 (U.S.) earlier this year – before settling
in at around par – sent "a big scare" throughout the film and
television industry, Pruner said.
The move comes just in time for FilmPort, a massive new film studio complex on
the Toronto waterfront set to open March 31, said president Ken Ferguson.
"It couldn't have come at a better time for us," said Ferguson,
noting U.S. studios make critical decisions about film production in January
and February.
Veteran movie producer Don Carmody also called the beefed-up tax credits a
"good thing."
"It shows foresight on the part of the provincial government to realize
with the high Canadian dollar and the enhanced competition from virtually every
U.S. state ... for this business that they had to do something," said
Carmody, who spearheaded bringing production of 2002 Oscar-winner Chicago to
Toronto.
Projects like FilmPort "need all the help that they can get and to get
them established is going to take some doing," Carmody said.
At the same time, Carmody noted, the federal government still has in place a
policy, known in the film industry as "the grind," which in effect
reduces the federal tax credit when provincial governments increase theirs.
"It's great of the McGuinty government and it's unfortunate of the Harper
government that one hand giveth and the other hand taketh away," Carmody
said.
"This is all something we've been after the feds to drop for years."
ole Writers Busier Than Santa's Elves
Source: ole
They may be just around the corner, but judging by all the
activity, the last thing ole songwriters are thinking about are
holidays.
ole's Derek Brin, Ben Dunk,
Mladen, Tebey, Willie Mack and David Kopatz have all been busy criss-crossing the globe, writing for numerous
album, studio and TV projects, and generally filling the world with as much
great music as is humanly possible.
As 2007 draws to a close, here's a round-up of what's going on where:
Derek Brin
Among the busiest of our tunesmiths is ole's Derek Brin. Not only is his
calendar full, writing and producing with the likes of Miami-born rapper and
BET 106 & Park Hall Of Famer Jin and Canadian R&B sensation
George, but Brin has several other projects either scheduled for release or
currently on the air.
Front and center is his current run with the 13 episodes of CanWest Television's
Da Kink In My Hair, a program which Brin composed a dozen songs for and
one that is currently airing Prime Time on Sundays.
Also pending is the North American release of Malaysian/Australian singer
Che'Nelle's debut Virgin album Things Happen For A Reason, which has
already charted internationally. Brin worked on a couple of tracks on the
album, including the Che'Nelle co-write "Club Jumpin" and receives a
shout-out from the singer on "I'm In Love With The D.J."
If that isn't enough, the man whose previous writing credits include Jaheim,
Robyn and Keshia Chanté recently took time out to schmooze and network at the Billboard
R&B Hip-Hop Conference Awards in Atlanta.
Ben Dunk
With the momentum generated by his sync activity on
MTV's The Hills ("Girls Don't Cry," co-written
with J.C. Smith and John Crown and recorded by Cadence Grace), Ben Dunk decided
to explore the U.K. scene and has relocated to Dublin, Ireland.
ole's Dunk eventually plans to move to the U.S., but while he's awaiting
Visa approval, is taking writing appointments and working with Danny De Matos
(Crush, Metroland) in London.
Mladen
After producing and co-writing the debut effort from Oshawa rockers Lower Back
Tatti, recent ole signing Mladen has moved to Los Angeles to concentrate
his efforts on securing the band a deal and following up major label interest.
But not without a little fun first: Vegas, anyone?
Tebey
Another recent ole signing, Nashville's Tebey has been straddling both
the country and pop fences with his international talent and jumping on a lot
of planes to satisfy the demand for his gift.
After landing the track "Radio" on the platinum Big & Rich album Between
Raising Hell and Amazing Grace, Tebey joined the duo in Las Vegas for a
catch-up.
He spent part of December writing in Los Angeles, and will be heading back to
Sweden early in the New Year to collaborate some more in that country as well.
Meanwhile, "Shiver" -- a song he co-wrote with Shawn Desman -- has
been licensed twice for two episodes of renegadepress.com.
Willie Mack
Speaking of the holidays, here's an invitation to watch
Willie Mack's latest effort, in a duet with Jason McCoy called
"I Wanna Be Your Santa Claus." (Click on link). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MHOSzkB-AU
Not only is that song receiving radio (and video) airplay, but ole's
Mack is also finding great success with the two Top 30 hits from his Headlights
& Tailpipes album, "Gonna Get Me A Cadillac" and "Don't
Waste Your Pretty."
As Jason McCoy once declared, "Whenever you're writing with Willie, you
just block out a good five minutes, and he'll write a song for you while you
watch."
And Willie Mack's prolific nature continues: coming up, he has a track,
"Entertaining Angels" on the new Mark Wills album Familiar
Stranger -- out in February and co-written by ole's Steve Mandile --
and is currently enjoying a Top 20 Canadian country hit with Jason Blaine's
"Flirtin' With Me."
David Kopatz
ole admin client David Kopatz continues to infiltrate the Los Angeles
pop scene.
After enjoying some success with a track on High School Musical star
Corbin Bleu's debut album Another Side called "Roll With You,"
Kopatz is currently working with teen sensation Jordan Pruitt and Interscope
tween buzz act Clique Girlz.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg: You should see the projects we have
planned for 2008!
Toronto Film Critic Found Dead
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Sandra Martin
(December 18, 2007) John Harkness, the film critic for NOW
Magazine since its beginning on Sept. 10, 1981, was found dead in his home in Toronto
on Tuesday, according to Michael Hollet, the tabloid's editor and publisher.
Mr. Harkness, who was 53 had been suffering from high cholesterol. “He had
never missed a deadline in 26 years,” Mr. Hollet said Tuesday afternoon, “so we
sent somebody to his house when his copy didn't arrive.” That is when they
found his body and called the police.
Born in Montreal in 1954, Mr. Harkness grew up in Halifax and Sarnia. He earned
a degree in English literature from Carleton University in Ottawa before doing
graduate work in Cinema Studies at Columbia University in New York City, where
he studied under critic Andrew Sarris.
“John Harkness was simply the best film critic in Canada over the last 26
years,” said Mr. Hollet in a press release. “He has been an essential element
of NOW magazine's success and his unique vision and bravery and art in
expressing it inspired all of us at NOW to strive.”
Mr. Harkness also wrote for Sight And Sound, Take One, and the Cinematheque
Ontario program and spent several years as a trade reporter for Screen
International and Cinema Canada. His book on the Oscars, The Academy Awards
Handbook, is currently in its eighth edition.
Obituary: Dan Fogelberg, 56
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com - Reuters
(December 16, 2007) LOS ANGELES — Singer-songwriter Dan
Fogelberg, famed for the soaring vocals and elegant instrumentation of
tunes such as "Longer" and "A Love Like This," died on
Sunday, three years after being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He was
56.
Fogelberg, a native of Peoria, Ill., broke into the music industry in the early
1970s, at a time when it was embracing introspective songwriting, or "soft
rock," by such acts as the Eagles and America.
Fogelberg, who distinguished himself with his angelic vocals and lyrics that
celebrated beauty and romance, hit his commercial and creative peak in 1981
with "The Innocent Age," which yielded three top-10 singles,
"Hard to Say," "Same Old Lang Syne" and "Leader of the
Band."
His most recent release, "Full Circle," came out in 2003. The
following year, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate
cancer, and urged men over the age of 50 to get tested for the disease.
::MUSIC NEWS::
I hate Celine! ... Or do I?
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Carl Wilson
(December 15, 2007) From the start of her superstardom, Celine
Dion's music had struck me as bland monotony raised to a pitch of
obnoxious bombast - R&B with the sex and slyness surgically removed, French
chanson severed from its wit and soul - and her repertoire as Oprah
Winfrey - approved chicken soup for the consumerist soul, a never-ending
crescendo of personal affirmation deaf to social conflict and context. In
celebrity terms, she was another dull Canadian goody-goody. She could barely
muster up a decent personal scandal, aside from the pre-existing squick-out of
her marriage to the twice-her-age Svengali who began managing her when she was
12.
As far as I knew, I had never even met anybody who liked Celine Dion. Certainly
not many other music critics.
But they were certainly out there. Dion has sold nearly 200 million albums, not
counting the Titanic soundtrack. She has five recordings in the
Recording Industry Association of America's list of the Top 100 albums by
sales, making her the 23rd-best-selling pop act of all time. Globally she is
the most successful French-language singer ever and could be the bestselling
female singer. For four years her legions have tithed their salaries to fly to
Las Vegas for her nightly revue, A New Day, in the custom-built
Colosseum theatre at Caesars Palace , which wraps up at the end of 2007. She is
beloved by people from Idaho to Iraq , who trade news and debate favourites on
Internet message boards like any other group of fans. They cook, work out and
date to her music, and when weightier events come, her songs are there, for
first dances at weddings and processions at funerals.
When the singer herself is asked if her critics bother her, she answers as she
did to Elle magazine in a 2007 interview: "We've been sold out for four
years. The audience is my answer."
Which doesn't mean you have to admire her. Unless maybe it does. Certainly a
generation of pop critics that's been determined to swear off elitist bias does
seem called to account for the immense international popularity of someone
we've designated so devoid of appeal.
Those who find Dion tacky, gauche, kitschy or, as they say in Quebec , kétaine
- must be overlooking something, maybe beginning with why we have those sorts
of labels. If "guilty pleasures" in pop music are out of date,
perhaps the time has come to conceive of a guilty displeasure.
Musical subcultures exist because our guts tell us certain kinds of music are
for certain kinds of people. We are attracted to a song's beat, its edge, its
warmth, its idiosyncrasy, the singer's je ne sais quoi; we check out the
music our friends or cultural guides commend. But it's hard not to notice how
those processes reflect and contribute to self-definition, how often persona
and musical taste happen to jibe. It's most blatant in the identity war that is
high school, but music never stops being a badge of recognition. And in the
offhand rhetoric of dismissal - "teenybopper pap," "only hippies
like that band," "sounds like music for date rapists" - we bar
the doors of the clubs we don't want to claim us as members. Psychoanalysis
would say our aversions can tell us more than our conscious desires about what
we are, unwillingly, drawn to. What unpleasant truths might we learn from
looking closer at our musical fears and loathings, at what we consider
"bad taste"?
And so I had set out on an experiment: It has to do with social affinities and rancours
and what art and its appreciation can do to mediate or exacerbate them.
Primarily, though, the question is whether anyone's tastes stand on solid
ground, starting with mine: If I immersed myself in her music, talked to her
fans, researched her influences, the sensibility she expressed - while also
studying what scientists, philosophers and other thinkers have to tell us about
the origins of artistic taste - perhaps I could find the Dionysian within, my
inner Celine Dion fan. And what then?
Either way, where better to look than Las Vegas ? So about halfway through the
process, I set out on a field trip. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
What I hadn't counted on was Vegas. It was my first visit. I stupidly came
alone. If there is a laboratory demonstration of the antagonism between
economic and cultural capital, it is Las Vegas , a city of such pure
commercialism that money is its entertainment, interrupted occasionally by a
show. Nowhere else is it so palpable that art can be simply the green kid
stepping in to give a brief break to the main greenback attraction. Alcohol and
sex, too, are reduced to lubricants for or after-effects of finance. In this
non-stop carnival of social inversion, only money is purely beautiful, in
Immanuel Kant's sense of being an end in itself. Vegas's fabled love of the
ersatz, like its mini Eiffel Tower , is money giddily blaspheming culture's
sacred icons.
All of which, in the abstract, seems kind of healthy. But in the flesh it
depressed the hell out of me. I am averse to gambling. I am entirely too shy to
hire prostitutes. In Sin City that leaves a solitary man at loose ends. I
wandered in a haze through the gold towers and black pyramids, dancing water
fountains, seizure-inducing signage and replicas of landmarks from cities where
I'd rather have been, before slouching back to my room each night with a fifth
of bourbon to watch pay-per-view. Muttering witticisms to myself got tired
fast. I was a stray member of the cultural-capital tribe deported to a gaudy
prison colony run by a phalanx of showgirls who held hourly re-education
sessions to hammer me into feeling insignificant and micro-penised. In my
shrivelled condition, the notion of interviewing people at Caesars seemed as
absurd as some peasant dropping in on Versailles in the 1680s to demand the
courtiers' opinions of Louis XIV.
And so, a dismal failure at overstepping my own boundaries, I stepped passively
into line to make my grudging pilgrimage, to throw myself to the Colosseum's
3-D, full-colour, computer-animated lions.
In the preshow of A New Day, the stage appears to be overhung by a
mammoth gilded picture frame, within which is a real-time, live-video
projection of us, the audience. As show time nears, the camera zooms in on
selected spectators, creating a serial comic pantomime in which we get to catch
people catch themselves being caught on camera and flinch in embarrassment or
mug for our amusement. First it's three girls in J'ADORE DION T-shirts; then
two low-key parents with their daughter (Dad is reading a book and never even
notices his 15 seconds); then an impressively tanked pair, the guy's shirt
half-unbuttoned and the woman with huge silicon boobs; last, a couple still
wearing their wedding outfits.
And at that, the frame, which is merely a computer-generated illusion on North
America's largest indoor LED screen, expands and shatters into a thousand
shards of glassy light, which all spin tinkling through the air and converge
... on Celine herself, revealed poised atop a sweeping red staircase.
I hardly needed to see the rest of the show. It was a perfect figure of music
calling forth, representing, breaking and remaking identities. Celine was
offering to reflect us back to ourselves, with all our endearing foibles but
larger, fancier, better. She put an 18th-century golden frame around us, the
ultimate in egalitarian bling, then shattered our collective self to draw the
fragments into her own body, itself little but a container for her voice, its
own kind of exquisite antique.
Yet the frame was long out of fashion - no elite connoisseur or curator would
fix it to a contemporary picture. And this, I thought, in my cut-price balcony
seat, is why Celine winds up mocked, because her efforts at class and taste
always go wrong. With her synthesized strings and genuine pearls and her
opera-crossover attempts, she aspires to the highbrow culture of a half-century
ago. She doesn't pass the retina scan: The real elites now are busy affecting
muttonchops and trucker caps and reading about teen pop in The New Yorker.
But the fact is, A New Day, which I'd been dreading as I boarded the
plane, was the most fun I had the whole trip. Celine was gawky and funny and,
compared to most of Vegas, human-scale. I liked it best when she came
downstage, out of the knot of dancers and numbingly literal CGI projections
that illustrated every song, to chat a bit stiffly and accept flowers. It was
easy then to see that she was Canadian, and we could be un-American and uncool
together, along with the tiny Filipino mom who sat beside me whispering,
"Wow. Oh wow," and occasionally weeping behind the sunglasses that
she wore, sitting in the dark, the whole show.
Her oversized shades reminded me of Phil Spector and the lost Celine recordings
he produced, and I started to get sucked in by the music, too. The songs of
devotion - If You Asked Me To or Because You Loved Me - began to
probe at the open sore of my own recent marital separation, and even coaxed a
few tears.
For a few moments, I got it. Of course, then Celine would do something
unforgivable, like a duet with an enormous projection of the head of the late
Frank Sinatra. Still, I could see the point of her in Vegas, land of
ejaculating slot machines and flows of global capital through artificial
rivers: As she exclaimed in her infamous Larry King Show interview about
poor New Orleans looters, Let them touch those things! And I could answer, Yes,
touch me, Celine.
But when I had escaped from Vegastraz, back home in Toronto with her CDs, I
couldn't find the feeling again.
Adapted by the author from Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of
Taste by Carl Wilson, published by Continuum International, $13.95 © Carl
Wilson
SCENES FROM A LIFE
1. Halfway through what would be a two-year hiatus from her singing career,
Dion gave birth to her and René Angélil's only child, René-Charles, on July 25,
2001. His baptism was broadcast live throughout Canada .
2. Dion at the 1998 Academy Awards, wearing a replica of the blue diamond that
figured in the hit movie Titanic. Dion's album Let's Talk About Love was
released on the same day in 1997 as the soundtrack of the blockbuster motion
picture, Titanic. Both albums featured the movie's hit theme song, My
Heart Will Go On, which won the Oscar for best original song. It was the
second Dion song to win an Academy Award: The title track for the animated
Disney movie Beauty and the Beast won best original song in 1992.
3. Dion belts out God Bless America at the start of Super Bowl XXXVII at
San Diego 's Qualcomm Stadium on Jan. 26, 2003. Two months later, Dion began a
four-year commitment to appear five nights a week at the Colosseum at Caesars
Palace in Las Vegas , a 4,000-seat arena designed for her 90-minute show, A
New Day.
4. Dion salutes following a performance for hundreds of Air Canada employees
during an unveiling of the newly restructured airline in a hangar at Toronto 's
Pearson Airport in 2004. Air Canada hired Dion as spokesperson following the
airline's emergence from bankruptcy.
5. Dion receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan. 6, 2004.
6. Dion renewed her vows with husband René Angélil in 2000, in a $1.5-million
Las Vegas extravaganza that included camels, six Berber tents, jugglers and
musicians. The couple was married on Dec. 17, 1994, at Notre Dame Basilica in
Montreal .
Iconic True North Label Gets New Owner
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Greg
Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(December 19, 2007) True North Records, the independent
Canadian record label that grew from a phone booth on Yorkville Ave. to a
powerhouse in domestic and international markets, has a new owner.
"I've been in the music business for 43 years and in the recording
business for 38, and there's only so much time left to make changes in my life
that I can dictate," Bernie Finkelstein, 63, the company founder and Canadian music industry icon, said
yesterday.
He confirmed that True North – with a catalogue of some 300 albums, including
classics by Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, Rough Trade, Stephen Fearing,
Rheostatics, Colin Linden, Lynn Miles, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and David
Wiffen – will be taken over by Mississauga-based independent Linus
Entertainment.
There's also financial backing from Ottawa radio station owner Harvey Glatt and
a private investor, Mike Pilon from Courtice, Ont.
Linus CEO Geoff Kulawick, a former artist and repertoire manager at EMI/Virgin,
will operate the two companies as separate entities, said Finkelstein, who
underwent heart bypass surgery two years ago.
Financial details of the deal are confidential, but music industry insiders put
the value of True North's catalogue and assets at between $2.5 million and $4
million.
Finkelstein will stay on as True North chair and adviser, and retains the
publishing administration rights to Cockburn's songs.
A recipient of the Order of Canada and inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of
Fame, Finkelstein will continue to manage Cockburn, Fearing, and the rock bands
Hunter Valentine and The Golden Dogs. He will also remain chair of VideoFACT,
the government-financed organization that funds videos for Canadian music
artists.
Finkelstein's plans also include writing a memoir of the Canadian music
industry.
Linus, in operation since 2001, has a catalogue of about 50 Canadian artists,
including an exclusive contract with jazz chanteuse/songwriter Sophie Milman
and licensed recordings by Gordon Lightfoot, Downchild, Ron Sexsmith and Ashley
MacIsaac. The new company will honour all existing True North contracts,
Kulawick said.
"This is the biggest deal of my life, Bernie is a creative and energetic
businessman and has always been a mentor to me."
Miley Cyrus's Feel Good ACC Performance
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(December 16, 2007) Miley Cyrus may cater to the tween
market, but
she's not exactly slinging popcorn pop.
The 15-year-old Disney Channel TV star brought her "Best of Both
Worlds" tour to a capacity crowd at the Air Canada Centre yesterday
afternoon.
Whether performing as herself, or as alter ego Hannah Montana from the Emmy
Award-nominated TV show of the same name, the Nashville native delivered
high-calibre techno pop and rock with wholesome messages and dance appeal.
The 4 p.m. show opened with the Jonas Brothers.
"This is a rock 'n' roll show, am I correct?" inquired Joe Jonas, one
of three floppy-haired singing siblings decked out in skinny ties and tight
pants. And there was certainly nothing subpar about their performance, in spite
of the 5-year-olds singing along.
Then came Cyrus, in blonde wig as Hannah Montana, lowered to the stage from a
catwalk above, to sing songs popularized on the TV series, including,
"Rock Star," "Old Blue Jeans" and Nobody's Perfect."
She performed the latter half of the 90-minute set as Miley – brunette topped
and slightly more mature in style for tunes from her debut album, such as
"G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)" and "East Northumberland High,"
which she explained was named for the Toronto school she attended while living
here when her dad, country singing star Billy Ray Cyrus, was filming a TV show.
The raspy-voiced Miley is a spunky, poised performer – not perfect, but with a
truckload of talent and personality in the vein of past Disney stars made good
such as Hilary Duff and Justin Timberlake.
For now, Miley's still growing; she was breathless towards the end of show, had
a tendency to say "you guys" a lot, and revealed bottom teeth in need
of braces.
But that "regularness" is a big part of her appeal.
"It's fun, it's harmless, the kids love it," said marketing executive
Walter Levitt, who brought his three children aged 5, 8, 10. "It's all we
listen to in the car and they know every word."
While Levitt scored free tickets through work, Dennis and Kristin Reintjes
shelled out $270 for seats for themselves and children Connor, 5, and Caitlin,
8, as well as $60 on souvenirs.
"We go to so few events and the kids have never been to anything like
this," said automotive plant manager Dennis.
Both he and his wife laud Cyrus's TV show.
"I remember watching Family Ties. (Hannah Montana) is the
only show the whole family can watch together."
Teacher Kristin added: "She has really good messages of self-esteem for
kids."
The concert attracted a few older kids as well, like 19-year-old Quinn Le, who
was thrilled with the $175 tickets her boyfriend bought online yesterday
morning as an early Christmas present.
Janet's Giving 'Feedback'
Source: Think Tank Marketing, www.thinktankmktg.com
(December 17, 2007) International megastar Janet
Jackson, who
has sold over 100 million albums worldwide and is the newest signing to the
Island Def Jam Music Group, has completed her first new single for the label
with hitmaking producer Rodney Jerkins. "Feedback" will
impact across-the-board at all radio formats on January 7. DISCIPLINE,
Janet Jackson's new album - and the 10th studio album of her career - is
scheduled to arrive in stores on February 26th. In addition to
Rodney Jerkins, the new album brings together an A-list of guest producers,
including Jermaine Dupri, Ne-Yo, Stargate, Tricky Stewart, and
The-Dream. DISCIPLINE was executive produced by Antonio
"L.A." Reid, Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group. Click the link
below to listen to "Feedback" and then give us YOUR feedback on
it:
http://www0.eurweb.com/printable.cfm?id=39325
In a class all by herself, 5-time Grammy Award-winning and Oscar-
nominated Janet Jackson is currently starring in Why Did I Get Married?,
the smash hit movie by Tyler Perry, which opened #1 at the box office.
This is the third motion picture of Janet's career, and her third to open at
#1, following the success of Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), and her
leading title role in John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993).
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Lupe Fiasco Announces Birth Of 'The Cool'
Source: Sydney Margetson, (National), 212.707.2262, sydney.margetson@atlanticrecords.com;
Kelly McWilliam, (Regional), 818.238.6835, Kelly.mcwilliam@atlanticrecords.com
(December 17, 2007) NEW YORK, NY - 1st & 15th/Atlantic recording
artist Lupe Fiasco has announced next week's
release of his hugely anticipated second album, "LUPE FIASCO'S THE
COOL."
Highlighted by the smash single/video, "Superstar (Feat. Matthew Santos),"
the collection arrives in stores and online on Tuesday, December 18th.
"LUPE FIASCO'S THE COOL" sees the critically acclaimed rapper -- who
just last week received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Urban
Alternative Performance," honouring his hit single, "Daydreamin'
(Feat. Jill Scott)" -- following up on last year's breakthrough debut,
"LUPE FIASCO'S FOOD & LIQUOR," by kicking and pushing against the
boundaries of modern hip-hop.
Loosely structured as a multi-character concept album detailing the
"damaging influences and corrupt allure" of post-millennial Urban
America, the set features such special guests as the one-and-only Snoop Dogg,
with diverse and inventive production from Soundtrakk, UNKLE, Chris & Drop,
and Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump.
MTV's "The Leak" (www.mtv.com/music/the_leak/)
is currently streaming "LUPE FIASCO'S THE COOL" in its entirety,
continuing through to the album's December 18th release. The Chicago-based MC
has been all over MTV and its affiliated channels in recent weeks, including a
show-stopping performance with Stump at the recent mtvU Woodie Awards
extravaganza. "Superstar" -- directed by the great Hype Williams --
is currently scoring play at MTV, MTV2, mtvU, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, and VH1 Soul.
In addition, Lupe will be the subject of a January instalment of MTV's "52
Bands," a special feature segment that highlights one new artist per week,
throughout the year. The MC recently visited BET's "106 & Park"
to introduce the "Superstar" video, with additional upcoming TV
appearances slated for BET's "Rap City" and Fuse's "The
Sauce." In addition, Lupe will be the featured MAX Tour Stories artist
through mid January. Airplay will be in high rotation on Cinemax on Demand (www.cinemax.com/maxtourstories/).
Unquestionably among hip-hop's most electrifying and active live performers,
Lupe will celebrate the new album's release with a concert appearance at New
York's The Fillmore at Irving Plaza on Tuesday, December 18th. He will then
head west for a special "MySpace Presents The Release" concert,
slated for December 27th at Honolulu, Hawaii's Pipeline Café -- Lupe's
first-ever Hawaiian live date. A full-scale US tour will follow in the New
Year, kicking off on January 11th at The Showbox in Seattle, with dates
continuing through late March (see itinerary below). What's more, Lupe's recent
hometown show at Chicago's House of Blues will be featured on AOL Music (www.aolmusic.com) beginning on Monday,
December 17th.
One of MySpace's top 10 current artists, Lupe is a major online presence, with
future plans including the December 18th relaunch of his own LupeFiasco.com
(featuring a wide range of interactive features such as "THE COOLest"
video game). Other upcoming cyber-highlights include a dedicated
Artist-of-the-Week section on SOHH.com, a feature on Fliptrack.com (where users
can create their own unique photo slideshows to the sounds of
"Superstar"), and the first-ever Imeem.com artist site takeover
(including a skateboard design contest judged by Lupe himself). In addition,
Lupe's YouTube channel -- located at www.youtube.com/lupefiasco
-- has logged over one million plays, with videos including
"Superstar" and the banging street anthem, "Dumb It Down."
On the international front, Lupe is making a global impact with his new single,
"Superstar." Recently, the single has been added to Radio 1 B List,
Capital playlist, GCAP Music Control playlist (32 Stations), Galaxy C List and
1Xtra B List in the UK. "Superstar" is also making waves in
Australia, being named the Single of the week on Daily Tele and Album of the
week on JJJ. Additionally, "Superstar" is #9 most added to radio
overall and #15 on the alternative airplay chart in Australia. Lupe currently
graces the cover of Australia's December/January issue of The Mag.
An array of high-profile mobile initiatives are also in effect, including early
drops of "LUPE FIASCO'S THE COOL" on Verizon and Sprint, as well as
feature slots in all major off-deck and on-deck ringtone stores. A special
Boost program -- featuring a can't-miss-it standup of Lupe -- will hit over
8,000 retailers in mid-January.
Furthermore, Lupe kicks off his album release with a hometown celebration on
December 20th. The Chicago In Store will be held at "The Bassment"
where Lupe will be signing his new album for fans.
Finally, Lupe can be seen in an assortment of current and forthcoming national
publications, including Entertainment Weekly, XXL, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Spin,
Blender, and Fader, with additional features and album reviews to follow.
Lupe Fiasco has quickly established himself as among the most compelling and creative
artists of the era, offering a rare combination of complex, thought-provoking
lyricism coupled with sure-fire beats. The MC first made himself known with his
featured appearance on Kanye West's hit single, "Touch The Sky,"
followed by the anthemic hit single, "Kick, Push." As a result,
"LUPE FIASCO'S FOOD & LIQUOR" debuted on Billboard's "Top
Rap Albums" chart at #1 upon its September 2006 release, while also
entering the Billboard 200 at #8.
The 25-year-old rapper soon proved to be the year's biggest hip-hop
breakthrough, garnering a trio of 2006 Grammy Award nominations, including
"Best Rap Album," "Best Rap Song," and "Best Rap Solo
Performance." Other honours include his being named one of Rolling Stone's
"10 Artists To Watch 2006" as well as GQ's 2006 "Breakout Man of
the Year," not to mention an array of nominations from the BET Hip Hop
Awards, the NAACP Image Awards, the mtvU Woodie Awards, and the Soul Train
Music Awards.
Among Lupe's biggest fans are hip-hop's best and brightest stars, including
Jay-Z, who told Blender that "I love Lupe. He's a genius writer."
What's more, the legendary Rakim -- without question one of rap's all-time
greatest talents -- recently named Lupe as his favourite current MC, explaining
that "there's still a lot of artists and a lot of songs out there that's
good for you and still sound like that real hip-hop. The positive rap doesn't
get as much coverage as the negative rap, but people (like Lupe Fiasco) are
trying to get back around to the lyrical stuff." In addition, Kanye West
recently announced that if he had a to form a Super group, "Lupe Fiasco
would be one of the members."
For more information, please visit www.myspace.com/lupefiasco
or www.lupefiasco.com.
Critics hail Spice Girls' U.K. Comeback
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Reuters
(December 16, 2007) LONDON — Nearly a decade after their last
British concert, the Spice Girls made a triumphant return home with a sell-out performance that
critics hailed as the return of "girl power."
Most reviewers agreed that the group managed to recreate the excitement of
their 1990s heyday at the first date of the U.K. leg of their reunion world
tour.
"Spice One Girls -- Band even better this time round," screamed the
banner headline in Sunday's News of the World.
"(They) gave the show of the century -- bigger, bolder, brasher and, yes,
more brilliant," said the paper's Rav Singh.
The group were one of the most popular acts of the 1990s, selling 55 million
albums worldwide under their slogan "girl power."
They began their current comeback world tour in Canada .
"Girl power is back. The show was fantastic," said the Sunday
Mirror's reviewer June Sarpong under the headline "Gold Spice", with
a picture of the quintet in dazzling gold costumes.
Saturday's concert came less than a week after Led Zeppelin played at the same
arena in east London .
"If you thought Robert Plant's banshee wail was loud, you should have
heard the screeching that 20,000 hardcore Spice Girls fans made when their
idols returned to the stage," said the Sunday Telegraph's James
Delingpole.
The Sunday Express said "Girl Power takes over U.K. again", while the
Observer said they were "better than ever" with performances of hits
such as "Spice Up Your Life" and "Wannabe".
However, not everyone was convinced by the return of Victoria "Posh
Spice" Beckham, Melanie "Sporty" Chisholm, Geri
"Ginger" Halliwell, Melanie "Scary" Brown and Emma
"Baby" Bunton.
The Independent on Sunday said the sound quality was terrible and the singing
slapdash, although the audience didn't seem to care.
"It may have been fake on stage, done for sound business reasons, but for
many in the crowd it looked real," said the paper's Cole Moreton.
"Posh and the others should have been the ones paying the fans."
House Of Wax Produces Hot Bed Of Talent In St. Lucia
Excerpt
from www.eurweb.com -
December 13, 2007) *The
island of St Lucia is now going through a
musical renaissance with hit tracks emerging from one particular group of
performers who all work with producer Sherwinn “Dupes” Brice of The House of
Wax studio. Rhythm and blues singer Shayne Ross, dancehall artiste Cherry
L and rapper Kayo have been making strides working with producer
Brice.
Davina Lee, film and television producer/director is the studio’s resident
video director and she has released unplugged performances from the performers.
Shayne Ross released a music video for his popular song Take You Home. The
video, directed by Lee has been airing on television channels including BETJ,
Tempo and Caribvision. Ross later followed up with the single Bad Girl which is
still in heavy rotation.
On the heels of Ross’s release, another singer in Brice’s camp, Cherry L, came
through with the track Friday which highlights the exciting party atmosphere of
any Friday night anywhere in the world. A recent addition, to the House of Wax,
rapper Kayo is getting ready to release the track Cheers.
In a recent interview published in the November/December issue of SHE Caribbean
magazine, Brice said that the music industry in St Lucia is now at an
important stage and poised to take off. “The industry is now at a place I never
thought I would see. It is finally at a point where the flower is getting ready
to bloom. It’s going to blow up and a select few are about to blaze a path that
will change the music industry forever,” said Brice.
Brice says that his inspiration comes from life and the relationships that he
has. He admitted that a lot of his early music was inspired by his wife, Genele
Brice, who is the cause of a lot of the sweet music that he produces. Brice’s ultimate
goal in life is to “make my mark and to know that I was responsible for some of
the best music the world has and will ever hear.”
Booker T. Jones Tells Why He Re-Recorded It Just In Time For The
Holidays
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com
- Brad Wheeler
(December 14, 2007) The world is wonderful, more than ever, which is
why I was recently puzzled by something written in these pages. Ninalee Allen
Craig, known as Jinx Allen in 1951, was interviewed about her featured role in
Ruth Orkin's famous photograph, the one where Craig was captured walking down a
Florence street past a group of leering Italian men. Then an American tourist
in her mid-twenties, Craig didn't feel threatened by the ogling men. She said
she hoped the photograph would inspire young women to travel, but that these
days they would need to be more careful. “Our world is much, much uglier
today,” she judged.
Is it, really? Was post-Second World War Europe so beautiful? Are things so bad
today?
Of course not, but the perception that present days are worse days is nothing
new. At any time in history, the grass was greener several decades prior, when
nobody needed to lock their doors and you could buy a dollar with a nickel! It
was 40 years ago that songwriters Bob Thiele and George David Weiss composed
the classic What a Wonderful World, a hummable
tune for the froggy-voiced, hankie-dabbing trumpeter Louis Armstrong. Against
the backdrop of race riots and the Vietnam War, the balmy song was hopeful for
the future, with lines about blooming trees and babies learning. Thiele once
said the song was about “how good things really could be.”
Over the years, the song has become a holiday standard, its cheerful optimism
and placid melody suitable for the season, though it has nothing to do with
Christmas itself. Now, four decades after its original release, What a
Wonderful World has been rerecorded and released as a digital single by the
Anti-record label, performed by alt-folk chanteuse Jolie Holland and soul-music
legend Booker T. Jones.
In their hands, it's less a pop song than was Armstrong's version. Holland 's
vocals are supple and curvy, loitering along a pseudo-jazz chord structure
until the mood turns more soulful, finally ending with the singer's carefree
whistling. As for the song's conceit, Jones believes it's as relevant as ever.
“It is a wonderful world,” the Hammond B-3 veteran says, “it absolutely is. You
can't judge by newspaper headlines, because print publications are geared to
sell copies. Sensationalism sells.”
Jones was the leader of the Memphis-based Booker T. & the MGs, which backed
such singers as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Carla Thomas in the 1960s, and
scored instrumental hits themselves ( Green Onion, Hip Hug-Her).
He remembers the riotous era when the song was written, and believes the
lyrical optimism has been realized. “There's forward progress,” he says, from
his home north of San Francisco , “in terms of numbers, in terms of the
temperament of the human heart.”
We pay attention to all the new Christmas albums every year, but what's
memorable about seasonal music are the singles; the albums, in large part, are
marketing. Radio stations convert their play lists to the holiday pop classics,
in all their different forms: the smooth (Bing Crosby's White Christmas,
Gene Autry's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Burl Ives's A Holly
Jolly Christmas, Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song), the rock
(Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town), the retro (Bobby
Helms's Jingle Bell Rock, Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around the Christmas
Tree), the uplifting (John Lennon's Happy Xmas, Band Aid's Do
They Know it's Christmas?), and the novel (Elmo & Patsy's Grandma
Got Run Over by a Reindeer and, my personal favourite, those barking dogs
doing Jingle Bells).
Though it was a hit in England upon its 1967 release, What a Wonderful World
flopped in the United States . It took time, and placement in the soundtrack of
1987's Good Morning, Vietnam , before the song became popular.
Holland's and Jones's version likely won't be a hit right away either, but
there's time. As for the world's condition, Jones sees better days – and better
people. Of the cozy line about seeing friends shaking hands, saying “How do you
do?” when what they're really saying is “I love you,” Jones agrees.
“For every one person that's doing something untoward, you've got 500 or a
thousand people who are trying to help somebody,” he says. “That's been my
experience. That's what the ratio is. That's the way the world is.”
Chalk It Up To Growing Pains?
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Brad Wheeler
Growing Pains
Mary J. Blige
Geffen/Universal
**½
(December 18, 2007) While Rihanna sang in the rain, the Queen of
Hip-Hop Soul worked through the pain. The biggest song on Mary J. Blige's eighth album is
the one that isn't on it - the hit Umbrella, apparently written for the
storm-attracting singer, but recorded by the slinky young Barbadian instead.
Hoo! How's that sitting with Blige, anyway? Well, if we believe the
surround-sound chorus of the album's lithe and lively first single, she's
"fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, oooh!, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine,
fine" with it. Moreover, Just Fine reveals exactly where the Grammy
collector is these days in general.
"No time for negative vibes, 'cause I'm winning," affirms Blige, who
nimbly sings a tune co-written by Tricky Stewart and the Dream, the duo
responsible for Umbrella. "And I'm a still wear[ing] a smile if it's
raining."
Over her career, it has been a matter of no pain/no gain for a stunningly
successful artist who has translated her drama into a 15-year chart-topping
run. The thing is, there's not much crisis to Growing Pains, a smooth
album of light R&B and healing neo-soul, with a wiser singer offering trite
avowals as an alternative to cathartic oversinging. Good that it's working for
Blige and Dr. Phil, but it might not be everybody's cup of chicken soup.
Things are strong initially, with the robust go-girl rally Work That
("hold your head high") and the zesty hip-hopping Grown Woman,
where a mature and sexually capable Blige fulfills rapper Ludacris.
But after Just Fine, things settle into a relaxed groove, with a slew of
producers generating middling results. Blige, hormonal and embraceable on
Feel Like a Woman, turns blandly reassuring on the limp Stay Down,
produced by Bryan Michael Cox. (I do like the track's shout out to George and
Weezie from The Jeffersons, though.)
Nothing else, besides Talk to Me, is all that interesting and even that
tune sports couples-therapy clichés like "love is a process." The
conciliatory Come to Me (Peace) is a Maroon 5 knockoff.
Maybe because it rhymes with pain, or maybe because she digs the drizzly
metaphor, the disc is drenched, with "rain" dropping in lyrically (on
the undercooked Smoke and elsewhere) and sonically (on the title track's
dripping effect).
Hey, who knows, perhaps Blige intended to build a whole album around a missing
song. If that's the case, it all makes sense. You never can find an Umbrella
when it's pouring out.
Grammy slam
Her new disc Growing Pains was released too late in the year for a 2007
award, but Mary J. Blige managed to grab three just-announced Grammy
nominations nevertheless, including recognition for her single (Just Fine),
as well as duets with Chaka Khan (Disrespectful) and Aretha Franklin (Never
Gonna Break Faith, co-written and co-produced by Bryan Adams). Last year,
Blige won three of her eight Grammy nominations. B.W.
Keith Sweat Says It's 'Just Me'
Source: rhino.media@rhino.com;
courtney@cbgpr.com
(December 19, 2007) LOS ANGELES -- Atco Records,
an imprint of
Rhino Entertainment, announces the March 18 release of JUST ME, the first
new studio album from R&B legend Keith Sweat since his 2002 Rebirth set.
The original "new jack" hitmaker, who celebrated 20 years as a chart
artist at the end of 2007, produced and cowrote most of the material on his
latest project which features guest artists Keyshia Cole, and Athena Cage
(Keith's duet partner on the million-selling 1996 hit
"Nobody").
The Harlem-born singer/songwriter and producer says he called his new
album JUST ME "because I'm giving the people what they expect from me. You
hear other artists out here who make the mistake of trying to be trendy.
They really try to keep up. I know people want to hear Keith Sweat. I'm
conscious of the people who have followed me the whole time, since day
one. I remember that I have a fan base and I'm very careful to give the
people what they expect from me."
The first single from the set is the sexy jam "Suga Suga Suga,"
featuring Paisley Bettis. Standout cuts include the hypnotic
"Somebody," which showcases Sweat singing falsetto for the first
time; the future classic "Love You Better," a truly memorable duet
between Keith and hitmaker Keyshia Cole; and "Just Wanna Sex You," a
hit-the-spot cut that Keith says is on the album "to remind people of what
I've done and what I'm about musically."
Sweat, who first broke through as a leader in the "new jack" of the
late '80s with the #1 single "I Want Her" reunites with producer
Teddy Riley, with whom he worked on his multiplatinum debut album, for the
track "The Floor"; former Kut Klose vocalist Athena Cage joins Sweat
for a new duet, “Butterscotch."
Producers for the album also include The Ambassadorz, and Roy Battle; Sweat
executive-produced the CD, his first Atco release.
Since 1988, the multi-faceted artist has sold over 15 million
albums worldwide, racking up six #1 R&B hit singles, with close to 30
chart entries, three multiplatinum, three platinum and two gold albums,
including Rhino
