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LE NEWSLETTER

March 8, 2007

Again, apologies for the 'less than formatted properly' newsletter last week.  Everything is running smoothly this week - thank goodness!  Look for a little recap of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta in next week's edition! 

Today is International Women’s Day - celebrate the women in your life!

More hot scoop featuring Robin Thicke again this week with an interview with the soulful hottie too!  Check out both below with some special scoop mentioned below. 

And don't forget to vote for DK Ibomeka as Best Male Vocalist for the National Jazz Awards.  Check out this opportunity to vote for DK Ibomeka!

::UNIVERSAL SCOOP::

The Evolution of Robin Thicke

Source:  Universal Music Canada

**SPECIAL NOTICE** Until Sunday, March 18th, this CD will be available at HMV for only $7.99!!

‘The Evolution of Robin Thicke’ is the second solo album from the critically acclaimed, Grammy award winning songwriter and producer of records for such artists as Usher, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson and Christina Aguilera. With a voice of purity, passion and soulfulness, Robin brings to life the stories and emotions of the last two years of his life. This album tells tales of love, loss, temptation, redemption and finding hope against all odds. Right now, Robin's record is PLATINUM as well as the hottest record in the US!  Thicke was born to actress and vocalist Gloria Loring and Canadian entertainer Alan Thicke (best known for his role on the sitcom Growing Pains).

'The Evolution of Robin Thicke' is produced by the Neptunes and includes the #1 hit "Lost Without U".

'THE EVOLUTION OF ROBIN THICKE' is In Stores & Online Now!

::OPPORTUNITY::

DK Ibomeka Earns Another Jazz Nomination

Source:  Wynchwood Productions

Awards season continues, with another nomination for DK Ibomeka.

We were excited to last week to let you know about DK Ibomeka being nominated as best male vocalist in the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards - now DK has another nomination under his belt. DK is now nominated as Best Male Vocalist in the National Jazz Awards. DK Ibomeka is the only singer to be nominated for both of these awards!

We are asking for your support on this, so please vote for DK Ibomeka as Best Male Vocalist in the National Jazz Awards (Please vote even if you have voted for DK in the Smooth Jazz Awards - this is new and different competition!)

You can place your vote HERE!!

You can listen to audio clips of DK by visiting the links below (taken from his CD "Love Stories):

Dedicated To You (a MOJO Magazine playlist pick!)
Sugar In My Bowl
Interview
I'll Be Anybody

And here are a links to DK Ibomeka videos on YouTube (recoded LIVE in Hamburg Germany, November 2006):

Fine & Mellow
I Was Made To Love Her
I Put A Spell On You
Dedicated To You


Background:

Jazz, Soul and Blues vocal sensation DK Ibomeka has been nominated as best male vocalist for the 2007 edition of the National Jazz Awards. This nomination comes at the end of a banner twelve months for DK, who saw the release of his critically acclaimed debut CD "Love Stories" in Canada and Europe in 2006. The disc gained strong airplay  across the country on Jazz  radio and drew an accolade from the UK's influential MOJO magazine, which choose his rendition of the classic ballad "Dedicated to You" for their December Playlist ("The cream spills over on this version of a Billy Eckstein-Sarah Vaughn duet by a Canuck jazz/R+B singer with Nigerian roots. Find it").  DK Ibomeka has also been nominated as Best Male Vocalist in the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards -  making him the only vocalist to be nominated for this honour by both awards programs.

DK Ibomeka completed his first European Tour in November 2006 and is in midst of his first Canadian tour, having opened for Colin James' Little Big band to enthusiastic audiences in central Canada in early February. DK is currently headlining a series of club dates in Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary -  with more dates to announced soon (concert dates, music clips, videos and more can be found at dkibomeka.com)

To vote for DK Ibomeka as  Male Vocalist of the year in the National Jazz Awards please visit to the Awards web site at www.nationaljazzawards.com. Please place your vote now, as voting closes on March 25.

::EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW::

Interview with Robin Thicke

Robin’s bio says it best - The Evolution of Robin Thicke is an imaginative and heart-felt album that you cannot help but be moved by bob your head to and smile throughout.  This CD is one of real music, good musicianship and hard-to-find talent – that special quality.  This hard-working artist – that we will call ‘Canadian’ due to his gene pool of being Allan Thicke’s son - talks about his music, the industry and his dad.

Your CD is so great and sincerely, I’m afraid that I don’t get to say that often.  Every track offers some new measure of emotion and the lyrics just grab you too.  Very smoky, sexy and fun.  What’s been the highlight around this project for you?

To be honest, every day there seems to be a new highlight.  Just seeing my name in USA Today, one of the top played songs in the country and getting offers from People Magazine, 50 Most Beautiful People … I mean it’s just overwhelming considering that months ago, I was just still wondering if people would ever get to hear the music.  I’ve always loved my music and believed in my music, but I didn’t believe necessarily that people would ever get to hear it. 

I had a gut feeling that if I could get it to people, I knew there’s got to be an audience.  It doesn’t even have to be huge, but there’s gotta be some people out there that want to hear this music. 

What are your thoughts about the music industry and what’s been the biggest challenge?

You know what?  Probably to my strengths and my weakness, I put too much of the pressure on myself.  When it didn’t work, I just said that the music wasn’t good enough.  I didn’t blame it on the business; I didn’t blame it on radio.  I said that I can do better.  I think that’s a good way to think of things, as long as you don’t hurt yourself, as long as you don’t bring pain upon yourself.  But what it did make me do is that it made me work harder.  It made me give more to my music as opposed to my ego saying, ‘I can just throw anything out there.  I’m so good - whatever I do will be great.’ 

I kept trying harder to connect with people as opposed to trying to be cooler than them.

Who are some of your influences – not just musically but anyone’s who’s made their mark for you?

I’ll start with the artists, the main couple of artists obviously would be Bob Marley, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder because they were not only incredible musicians but they spoke of righteousness and equality and hope and peace.  Also, my friend, Andre Harrell who started Uptown Records and then became a mentor to me, really opened me up to a whole other world.  My wife is really the biggest influence on my life because she has taught me compassion and she taught me understanding.  I was cocky kid and she taught me to think about other people and put myself in other people’s shoes and I think that there’s nothing in this world like compassion. 

What pieces of advice would you give to a young artist that wants to enter the business?

Go on American Idol!!  It’s the only place to get developed.  Where else would you get to get in front of an audience two times a week and have to sing – be shoved out there.  They’re going to tell you that your hair’s not good enough, it’s what we all go through.  You can’t get that kind of training anywhere anymore and I would tell people, go out for American Idol and if not, send your music to everybody, sing for everybody and do it because you love it – not because you want to be a celebrity.

The problem with what is going on right now is that everyone just wants to be a celebrity and it’s all because they want to be loved.  But they don’t actually love the work of doing it.  I love to sing.  I love to perform.  I love to make music.  I was doing for 12 hours a day when no one was listening.  So, imagine when people are actually listening, how much I’m going to enjoy it.  You have to love making it and you have to do the work. 

If you could work with any artist, living or past, who would it be?

I’d have to say to get into a room with John Lennon would be pretty special and Marvin Gaye.  Marvin, in my opinion, has the voice of God.  I think if God could sing, I think he would have Marvin Gaye’s voice.

So, what’s in your iPod player right now?

I have an iPod and I’ve never used it. 

What do you want people to remember you by?

I think that he was about, and it sounds corny and you’ve heard it before, but that he was just about love.  And that he was trying to show that we are all one in the same and that we should be celebrating each other’s differences as opposed to ‘tolerating’ them.  I hate the word ‘tolerance’ – it doesn’t make sense to me.  You tolerate evil, you tolerate children sometimes but you don’t tolerate differences.  I think that we should appreciate and love people for their differences and I just want people to open their hearts and minds and believe in magic.

I think that religion and sarcasm [have added to that].  When you’re a kid, you believe anything is possible.  You believe you can do anything and then you’re told as the years go by, that no no no, you can’t do anything and that’s not right and that’s wrong and ugly and that’s not cool.  I think that we should believe that magic is possible. 

Do you know any Canadian artists? 

I think that Nelly Furtado is Canadian.  I don’t know her personally.  Deborah Cox is Canadian – Tamia – another beautiful lady. 

We’ve always claimed your dad (Allan Thicke) as Canadian – do you feel at home here at all? 

He is Canadian to the bone!  I haven’t been in a room that I wasn’t uncomfortable in a long time.  I think you start to come to peace with yourself and when you’re at peace with yourself, you can kind of just flow.  My dad is the quintessential Canadian!  My dad and my uncle both moved to LA – and so my joke is that the Canadian dream is to move to America!  (I was joking though!) 

He has so much pride and so much love for his country.  Every opportunity he’ll point out the Canadians to me.  Steve Nash?  Canadian.  Martin Short?  Canadian.  In any given conversation, he’ll point out Canadians.


I was sincerely blessed to get this interview with soon-to-be mega superstar!  Thanks to the folks at Universal Music – Steve Nightingale and Joanna Griffiths for their generosity in setting it up! 

::TOP STORIES::

Canadian Artists Gather for Two-Day Music Festival at JunoFest

Source:  CARAS

(February 28, 2007) – Saskatoon, SK -The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) is pleased to announce the exciting and highly anticipated events slated for Juno Weekend during March 30 – April 1, 2007, in Saskatchewan.  Today’s announcement included some of the artists and venues participating in this year’s JunoFest, a two-day music celebration and showcase of Canadian talent featuring established artists, indie acts as well as some JUNO Award nominees.   Presented by Yahoo! Music Canada, JunoFest will take place in 15 venues across Saskatoon showcasing more than 100 local and national artists on Friday, March 30^th and Saturday, March 31^st, each night from 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. (CT).   “JunoFest is an electrifying experience for music lovers of all genres,” says Melanie Berry, CARAS President. “It’s an incredible platform that showcases Canadian talent from across the country along with regional acts, all within the canvas of Saskatoon’s vibrant music and club culture.”   Some of the hometown talent participating in this year’s JunoFest include Saskatchewan natives:

Carrie Catherine
David J. Taylor
Eileen Laverty
Five Star Homeless
Ghosts of Modern Man
Jason Plumb and the Willing
JJ Voss
Joël Fafard (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Jordan Cook
Josh Palmer
Junior Pantherz
Kim Fontaine
Lions in the Street
Little Miss Higgins
MoBadAss
Poverty Plainsmen
Shuyler Jansen
Sylvie
The Cracker Cats
The Huxxtabulls
Theresa Sokyrka
These Hands
Tim Vaughn
Wheatmonkeys
Wide Mouth Mason
Wyatt

Canadian artists from across the country that will be rocking audiences during JunoFest include:

African Guitar Summit (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Alonzo
Barney Bentall (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
David Usher
Dearly Beloved
DJ Champion (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Elizabeth Shepherd Trio (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Faber Drive
Humble (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Idle Sons (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
In-Flight Safety (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Jets Overhead (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Jim Byrnes (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Kellylee Evans (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Lennie Gallant (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Luke Doucet
Malajube (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Marianas Trench
Mr. Something Something (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
NLX
Novillero
NQ Arbuckle
Patrick Watson (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Rich London (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Richard Underhill (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Rita Chiarelli
Sass Jordan
Shout Out Out Out Out (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Steve Dawson (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
Trinity Chris (2007 JUNO Award nominee)
You Say Party, We Say Die

More JunoFest announcements will be made in the upcoming weeks as additional artists join the line-up. Patrons must be 19 years of age and older to attend.   JunoFest wristbands are $25 and will go on sale Saturday, March 3 at 10 a.m. (CT) at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.ca or by calling 306-938-7800. JunoFest wristbands offer priority entry and are subject to capacity.  Single tickets will be available at the door March 30 and March 31 for $10 at participating JunoFest venues.

2007 JunoFest Venues

Amigos
Broadway Theatre
Buds on Broadway
Louis Pub
Lydia’s Pub
Ryly’s Canadian Bar & Grill
The Bassment
The Long Branch
The Odeon Events Centre
The Pat
The Refinery
The Roxy on Broadway
The Spadina Freehouse
Vangelis Tavern
Walkers Nightclub

“Yahoo! Music Canada is about linking users to their favourite artists and songs - that is what makes us one of the leading online music destinations in Canada,” said Kerry Munro, General Manager, Yahoo! Canada. “Sponsoring JunoFest is our way of connecting with independent musicians across the nation and helps to create awareness amongst fans and stars on the rise.”   JunoFest is presented by Yahoo! Music Canada in association with CTV, Planet S, Prairie Dog, C95, News Talk 650 & Rock 102, The Star Phoenix, CJWW, Hot 93 and Magic 98.3.   Venue sponsors for JunoFest include Doritos, Exclaim! Magazine and XM Satellite Radio.   For more information on JunoFest visit www.junofest.ca.  For information on more Juno Weekend events, visit www.junoawards.ca

About CARAS:

The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/L'academie canadienne des arts et des sciences de l'enregistrement (CARAS) is a not-for-profit organization created to preserve and enhance the Canadian music and recording industries and to contribute toward higher artistic and industry standards. The main focus of CARAS is the exploration and development of opportunities to showcase and promote Canadian artists and music through television vehicles such as the JUNO Awards.  For more information on the 36^th annual JUNO Awards, visit www.junoawards.ca.  For information on the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), visit www.carasonline.ca. The 2007 JUNO Awards will air live on Sunday, April 1 on CTV from the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon, SK.

About Yahoo! Music Canada:
Yahoo! Music Canada (http://music.yahoo.ca), offers users comprehensive music-related content, features and information. Yahoo! Music Canada provides a wide selection of streaming audio, an extensive collection of music videos, Internet radio, exclusive artist features and music news covering all genres of music to Yahoo! Canada visitors.

Web Links:
JUNO Awards: www.junoawards.ca
JunoFest: www.junofest.ca
CARAS: www.carasonline.ca
Yahoo! Music Canada: http://music.yahoo.ca

Rap Music Faces Alarming Sales Decline

Source: Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Associated Press

(March 1, 2007) NEW YORK — Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit. The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society. Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading website Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently “asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now.” The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album Hip-Hop is Dead. It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 per cent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans last year, 50 per cent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society. Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap, but says it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book I Am Hip-Hop partly to create something positive about rap for young children, including her four-year-old daughter.

“I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me,” says Duncan-Smith, 33. “I can't listen to that nonsense.... I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood any more and ghetto revivals.... I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?” Hip-hop also seems to be increasingly blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls. Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last week's NBA All-Star Game was blamed on hip-hoppers. “(NBA Commissioner) David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize,” columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, wrote on AOL. While rap has been in essence pop music for years, and most rap consumers are white, some worry that the black community is suffering from hip-hop — from the way America perceives blacks to the attitudes and images being adopted by black youth. But the rapper David Banner derides the growing criticism as blacks joining America's attack on young black men who are only reflecting the crushing problems within their communities. Besides, he says, that's the kind of music America wants to hear. “Look at the music that gets us popular — Like a Pimp, Dope Boy Fresh,' he says, naming two of his hits.

“What makes it so difficult is to know that we need to be doing other things. But the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can bring certain things to the light,” he says. “They want (black artists) to shuck and jive, but they don't want us to tell the real story because they're connected to it.” Criticism of hip-hop is certainly nothing new — it's as much a part of the culture as the beats and rhymes. Among the early accusations were that rap wasn't true music, its lyrics were too raw, its street message too polarizing. But they rarely came from the youthful audience itself, which was enraptured with genre that defined them as none other could. “As people within the hip-hop generation get older, I think the criticism is increasing,” says author Bakari Kitwana, who is currently part of a lecture tour titled “Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?” “There was a more of a tendency when we were younger to be more defensive of it,” he adds. During her '90s crusade against rap's habit of degrading women, the late black activist C. Dolores Tucker certainly had few allies within the hip-hop community, or even among young black women. Backed by folks like conservative Republican William Bennett, Tucker was vilified within rap circles. In retrospect, “many of us weren't listening,” says Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, a professor at Vanderbilt University and author of the new book Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women. “She was onto something, but most of us said, 'They're not calling me a bitch, they're not talking about me, they're talking about THOSE women.' But then it became clear that, you know what? Those women can be any women.” One rap fan, Bryan Hunt, made the searing documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which debuted on PBS this month. Hunt addresses the biggest criticisms of rap, from its treatment of women to the glorification of the gangsta lifestyle that has become the default posture for many of today's most popular rappers. “I love hip-hop,” Hunt, 36, says in the documentary. “I sometimes feel bad for criticizing hip-hop, but I want to get us men to take a look at ourselves.” Even dances that may seem innocuous are not above the fray. Last summer, as the Chicken Noodle Soup song and accompanying dance became a sensation, Baltimore Sun pop critic Rashod D. Ollison mused that the dance — demonstrated in the video by young people stomping wildly from side to side — was part of the growing minstrelization of rap music.

“The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning 'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged 'bucks,”' he wrote. And then there's the criminal aspect that has long been a part of rap. In the '70s, groups may have rapped about drug dealing and street violence, but rap stars weren't the embodiment of criminals themselves. Today, the most popular and successful rappers boast about who has murdered more foes and rhyme about dealing drugs as breezily as other artists sing about love. Creekmur says music labels have overfed the public on gangsta rap, obscuring artists who represent more positive and varied aspects of black life, like Talib Kweli, Common and Lupe Fiasco. “It boils down to a complete lack of balance, and whenever there's a complete lack of balance people are going to reject it, whether it's positive or negative,” Creekmur says. Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell any more. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made — like Cadillac on 22s, about staying way from street life — in favour of songs like Like a Pimp. “The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner,” he says. “I wish America would just be honest. America is sick.... America loves violence and sex.”

Canadian Film Producer Robert Lantos And His U.S. Partner Are Buying A Stake In Blueprint

Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com - Gayle Macdonald

(Feb. 28, 2007) Canadian film producer Robert Lantos has teamed up with U.S. studio veteran Jeff Sagansky, investing millions to buy a minority stake in Blueprint Entertainment, a boutique TV-production shop with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver. The company would not disclose the size of the cash injection in Blueprint, which has produced shows such as Kenny vs Spenny, the sex-and-snow drama Whistler and, most recently, 'Til Death Do Us Part, a bizarre noir comedy (Court TV, Global) hosted by John Waters, about married couples who start out blissful and end up knocking each other off. The fledgling company, which does $100-million (U.S.) worth of production a year, almost entirely in Canada, was founded five years ago by John Morayniss and Noreen Halpern, two of Lantos's former employees at Alliance (a company Lantos sold to Michael MacMillan at Atlantis in 1998). Morayniss, who is based in Los Angeles, explains that the multimillion-dollar investment is key for Blueprint to expand its production slate (it hopes to double it to $200-million within the next 12 to 18 months) and enable the company to get into distribution.  “This investment in Blueprint is strategically significant for the company's future growth, and it validates the efforts we've made to make Blueprint the thriving independent studio it is today,” says Morayniss, 45. “With this equity infusion, coupled with the extensive experience of Robert and Jeff, we intend to move to the next level very quickly by substantially expanding into new arenas and doing what we've always done but on a much larger scale.”

In an interview from his office in New York, Sagansky said he decided to buy a stake in Blueprint because, “the timing was right,” he liked the people, and he trusts Lantos's judgment. “When Robert headed Alliance, I was at CBS. And we were the first U.S. network to put on a Canadian-themed show, which was Due South [written by Oscar-winner Paul Haggis],” adds Sagansky, who over the course of his career has been chief executive of Paxson Communications, co-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, president of CBS and president of Tri-Star Pictures. He is also a lead investor in entertainment companies including Peach Arch Entertainment, Contentfilm and Winchester Capital, as well as the chairman of Elm Tree Gaming. “It's time to build another great independent,” says Sagansky. “And I think with so much consolidation in the TV business over the last decade, the time is right to have a freewheeling, less corporate structure. I also think the networks are at a point where they understand they can't be competitive by only buying within their in-house production arms. They've got to spread the net, and if there's an independent out there with financial resources and creative know-how to provide top quality programming — the networks will bite.” Lantos, who was reached in Los Angeles, says he and Sagansky “have been looking for something to be partners on for a while. “John [Morayniss] approached me to be a partner in Blueprint, which I decided to do regardless. But the opportunity dovetailed with stuff that Jeff was interested in. We both like the business and creative strategy of Blueprint, which is unique in the TV production world today.” Asked to explain Blueprint's business model, Lantos says it's akin to the production philosophy on which his former company, Alliance, was built back in the 1980s.

“The strategy is simple: to design TV shows that from the ground floor are genuinely Canadian — populated with Canadian writers, directors and actors, so they benefit from [Canadian-government-backed] funding. We retain ownership of the programs, whose first sale is to a network in the U.S. In the States, they perceive these shows as being domestic, so they are able to be sold for a much higher price than any imported programming.” Lantos adds that was the same strategy that Alliance adopted for the sale of the cop drama Night Heat in 1984, which was bought by CBS, but was written and directed by Canadians, and shot in Toronto. “The next part of the philosophy is shows can be made, for the most part, without a deficit, which means the rest of the world becomes the profit centre,” adds Lantos, who produced the Oscar-nominated film Being Julia (with Annette Bening) and is now working on two feature films, Eastern Promises and Fugitive Pieces. To date, CTV's Whistler, now in the middle of its second season, is Blueprint's biggest-budget TV drama. It's also launching a new series soon called The Best Years for Global and the N network.  Blueprint employs 20 people in its three offices. With the deal, Morayniss assumes the role of chairman and chief executive, while Halpern will now serve as president, overseeing development and production.

"Introducing Joss Stone" Out On March 20, 2007

Source:  EMI Music Canada

(March 6, 2007) British soul singer and songwriter Joss Stone will release her third album, Introducing Joss Stone, on Tuesday, March 20, 2007. An electrifying mix of warm vintage soul, ’70s-style R&B, Motown girl-group harmonies, and hip-hop grooves, the album is the one that Joss describes as “truly me. That’s why I’m calling it Introducing Joss Stone,” she says. “These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist.” Knowing she wanted to write the album alone, Joss decamped to Barbados in April to come up with lyrics. She stayed for several months before flying to the Bahamas to hook up with her main musical collaborator and producer Raphael Saadiq (known for his work with D’Angelo, The Roots, and Macy Gray). “Raphael [who plays bass on the album] is the most incredible musician I’ve ever met in my whole life,” Joss says. “Musically, I feel like he reads my mind. I’ll give him a look and he’ll know exactly what I want.”  Joss and Raphael spent two months recording at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, and then mixed it at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City.  The album also features guest vocal appearances by the rapper Common on “Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do Now,” and reclusive Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, who lends a rap to the languid Fugees-inspired track “Music.”  Starting her 2007 in Toronto rehearsing with her impressive band, Joss thrilled some fans and industry folks with a special impromptu and intimate show before she left town.  The concert was filmed in HD by SMSN and will be webcast at www.sympatico.ca beginning on March 14.  She also graced the Cover of Flare Magazine in February and will be featured in the April issue of Chatelaine Magazine.

In 2003, at the ripe-old age of 16, Joss released The Soul Sessions, an album of covers of old soul tracks and hit the road for a year.  Then she recorded Mind, Body & Soul, her first album of original material. Joss was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2005, including Best New Artist, and performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with Melissa Etheridge at the ceremony.  Over the course of her career, Joss has also appeared onstage with James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Mavis Staples, Donna Summer, Smokey Robinson, Rob Thomas, John Mayer, and John Legend. She performed for more than 200,000 people at the 2005 Live 8 concert in London and most recently wowed the crowd with her rendition of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” at the UK Music Hall of Fame Awards in November.  Now 19 years old, Joss Stone has sold over 7.5 million albums worldwide.   Look out for Canadian Tour Dates coming soon!

::MUSIC NEWS::

Rihanna's 'Break It Off' Now A Digital Single

Source: Amina Elshahawi, ThinkTank Marketing, amina@thinktankmktg.com, http://www.thinktankmktg.com

(March 2, 2007) *If nothing else, it has been an eventful and eye opening year for Barbados born songstress Rihanna. In addition to recording one of the most popular singles of 2005, the hypnotic "Pon De Replay" (which bass bumped out of more car windows while igniting a slew of barbeques last summer), she won over the masses with her charming Bajan persona. "So much has happened in my life, I feel like I've grown five years in a year," she gushes. No doubt, by the time Def Jam Records released Rihanna's debut album Music of the Sun, it was obvious that this young woman was more than a one-hit wonder. With a work ethic reminiscent of Motown sisters back in the day when soul reigned supreme, Rihanna traveled throughout the world. 2005 saw Rihanna rocking the mic on tour with Gwen Stefani, making crowds sweat in Japan, posing for magazine covers in Los Angeles and shooting her first film role for Bring It On Yet Again. This was a long way from the quiet life she led in Barbados in the parish of St. Michael. Robyn Rihanna Fenty has come through her musical initiation process unscathed. And now she is poised for everything that 2006 may hold as she readies to do it again with her sophomore release A Girl Like Me. "I grew up so much this past year. I had no choice. To pursue my dreams, and with their support, I left my entire family in Barbados to move to the States. It was a little scary to have no friends or family and all of a sudden step into a recording studio," recalled Rihanna.  "2005 taught me the dedication and responsibility it takes to make this dream a reality. Waking up at 5:00 am to start rehearsals, the training, the schoolwork, interviews, video shoots, going all day; it always seemed glamorous but it is real work. My love for music and singing will never change but the rose coloured glasses are no longer so rosy."

"Many times over the past year, I didn't have anyone my age with me. When recording this album, I wanted it to seem like I was having a personal conversation with girls my age," says the eighteen-year-old singer. "People think, because we're young, we aren't complex, but that's not true. We deal with life and love and broken hearts in the same way a woman a few years older might. My goal on A Girl Like Me was to find songs that express the many things young women want to say, but might not know how." Dropping from the harmonic heavens to the groovalistic dance floor, Rihanna has returned with another single that will have listeners begging the d.j. to play it one more time. Produced by Jason Rotem, the sizzling "S.O.S." is bringing the summer heat early this year. With its hypnotic beat and enticing melody, "S.O.S." utilizes the electro-funk of Soft Cell's '80s classic "Tainted Love" to create a soulful anthem of young love. "I got excited when I first heard this track and three days later, it was recorded," Rihanna says. Turning heads with its rebel sound, "S.O.S." has been used as the theme song for their NIKE latest women's line, which can be viewed on NikeWomen.com. "Making that commercial was yet another new experience," she says. "It took six days to shoot, but working with choreographer Jamie King (Madonna and Shakira) was amazing." Focusing on progressing as an artist, Rihanna has recorded a compelling track of heartbreak called "Unfaithful." Penned by her label-mate Ne-Yo and Stargate, the song documents the tragic decay of a relationship when another person starts cheating.

Yet, in this instance, it is the girl who has strayed. "On a lot of records, men talk about cheating as though it's all a game. For me, 'Unfaithful' is not just about stepping out on your man, but the pain that it causes both parties." Perhaps the most surprising track is the rock meets island vibe of "Kisses Don't Lie." Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, the principles of her production company, SRP, used a mixture of Caribbean elements, electric guitar and a mesmerizing bassline." Coming from Barbados, I really hadn't heard that much rock music," Rihanna confesses. "Touring with Gwen changed my perspective. So, when I was discussing this project with L.A. Reid, Chairman of Island Def Jam Records, I made sure to say I want to experiment with some rock."  During the recording of A Girl Like Me, Rihanna 'jet setted' down to Jamaica to record with Sean Paul on the yardie duet "Break It Off." Smiling, Rihanna explains, "I have so much respect and love for Sean Paul. He took me to visit the Bob Marley Museum before going into the studio, which was an amazing experience. When we finally got to the studio, I felt as though Marley's spirit was in the room with us." With A Girl Like Me, the beautiful singer proves that her breakthrough was no fluke. After selling 1 million copies worldwide of her debut Music Of The Sun, once again, the summer belongs to Rihanna.

Path To Optimism Is Paved With Pain

Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com - Brad Wheeler

(March 1, 2007) The outlook is not so bad for the often-lamenting Lucinda Williams. The alt-country Queen of Heartbreak (some call her) has broken from the male mistreaters of her past and is set to be married. She has a new album out, West, which consistently receives positive reviews. A tour is ready to roll; the 54-year-old's profile has never been higher. At the moment, though, Williams is bummed out. Speaking from her home in Los Angeles, she flips through a copy of Uncut, a British music magazine which wrote mediocre things about the new record. “He describes the album as drab and morose,” Williams says, looking over a feature review for which she was interviewed. “He was nice on the phone, and he said he was a fan,” she continues, in an exasperated, craggy drawl. “He even offered me a complimentary subscription to the magazine.” Maybe it was the circulation guy who called? Anyway, the review supposes that her audience wouldn't take to the bluesy, textured alt-rock tone of the album — that they will miss the Southern rock of previous records Car Wheels on a Gravel Road or Essence. “Obviously,” comes Williams's rebuttal, “he's underestimating my fans.” What has Williams more worried than the album's three-out-of-five-star rating is the reviewer's failure to pick up on the record's optimism.

Citing a pair of songs about her late mother ( Mama You Sweet and Fancy Funeral), Williams explains the material's forward thrust: “The pain from my mother's death is never going to go away,” she says. “You just learn how to deal with it — it's learning to live. These are all positive songs, you know.” Positive — more in the muffled spirit of “this too shall pass” than “zip-a-dee-do-da.” The hopefulness can be found more easily when the album is seen as a whole, keying in on the post-breakup Learning How to Live and the trippy Rescue, where Williams comes to the realization that a lover is not a fixer — that he can't take away her pain, and that all he can do is “tie some ribbons in your hair / And show you that he'll always care.” By the album-closing title track, a longing Williams is braced by more realistic expectations — “who knows what the future holds?” The song (a willowy ballad in the attitude of Willie Nelson) feels more like a beginning, with an invitation that offers no promises, but at least a chance. “The songs represent my journey,” says Williams, an unguarded songwriter. “It's a desire to move on and not get stuck, and basically learn from all the heartbreak and pain.” Williams is not the only gal maverick moving on these days. Fellow non-conformists Rickie Lee Jones and Jesse Sykes have just released intriguing records, and the chronically combustible Courtney Love has one coming as well, possibly in March. Love, the widow of rock legend Kurt Cobain, apparently began writing songs for her second solo album (tentatively titled How Dirty Girls Get Clean) while in a drug-rehabilitation facility. Recorded with the help of Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan and song-doctor and producer Linda Perry, Love's record is the subject of considerable speculation, including a gushing dispatch from Fox News entertainment reporter Roger Friedman. After listening to an advance copy, Friedman described the album as a “masterpiece,” comparable to Marianne Faithfull's Broken English, Patti Smith's Horses and the Eagles' Hotel California.

Anything from the mercurial Rickie Lee Jones would be difficult to predict, but her latest ( The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard) could not have been foreseen. Originally conceived as a music and spoken-word reading of The Words (a book which translates the Bible into modern, everyday text), the project morphed when Jones improvised a song instead of reading her part. An odd duck whose career has dived and surfaced repeatedly since her jazzy-pop breakthrough in 1979 ( Chuck E's in Love), Jones rises again with Sermon, which, with its Velvet Underground vibe, could be thought of as her first rock record. Despite a considerably longer title ( Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul), the album from Sykes and her Seattle-based band the Sweet Hereafter is closest in theme to Williams's West. A visual artist-turned-singer-songwriter, Sykes embodies the moody styles of Grace Slick, Crazy Horse and Karen Dalton, while whispering on human fragilities and life's journey as an end. Sykes's record is a melancholic listen, as is West. On West, the raw emotion of Unsuffer Me (about spiritual redemption) abuts Everything Has Changed, where Williams, as she so often has in the past, loses her joy. Even Come On, a rugged kiss-off song intended to be funny, comes off as ferocious and wicked. It's nothing new for Williams, a woman of sorrow who has changed the locks on her doors many times. If reviewers dwell on her shadowy themes, it's because she has done the same. “I've dealt with this,” she says, “ever since I've been showing my songs to the world. People said that my songs were way too dark when I wrote Pineola and Sweet Old World — they were quoting my songs back then.” The thing is, there was a chance to show a brighter side of Williams on the album, but it didn't come together. Williams had newer, rosier songs — written after she met her fiancé — that didn't make it onto the record.

Now, Williams regrets the choice not to release them. “I'm starting to get a little concerned,” she confides, worrying that the album isn't telling the full story. “I was so excited about the new songs, which was like the next chapter.” Time and money were running short though, and there wasn't room on the album for songs like Tears of Joy, a “gloriously beautiful love song,” or Knowing, a “really positive song” that was briefly considered as the album's title track. Question, then: What does Williams know now that she didn't know before, and would she still be able to write with the cathartic confession for which she's celebrated? “Absolutely,” she says, before adding an expletive between “abso” and “lutely” for emphasis. “That ain't going nowhere. I mean, that's what Rescue is about. Nobody can save you from that kind of pain.”

Andrew Rodriguez Has High Hopes For Third CD, But There Is More To Come

Excerpt from www.thestar.ca - Ben Rayner, Pop Music Critic

(March 01, 2007)  He's the farthest thing from a hard-luck case, but Andrew Rodriguez deserves better. Although renowned amongst fellow Canadian musicians as a gifted multi-instrumentalist and a pop songwriter par excellence, the amiable Toronto (via Montreal) tunesmith has been hounded by the "underappreciated" label for more than a decade, championed by a small circle of insiders yet terminally denied the wider public acknowledgement that everyone seems to agree he deserves. Twice as the leader of Bodega, he made acclaimed indie albums that promised the start of something bigger but never quite made it into all the right hands they should have.  The first, 1997's spaced-out but melodically astute Bring Yourself Up, was picked up for international release the next year by London Records, only to fall through the cracks when the record company was swallowed up in a mega-merger with Universal Music. The next, 2001's self-released Without a Plan, marked such an evolution in Rodriguez's increasingly poised pop aesthetic that hugely sought-after uber-producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, the Delgados, Mogwai) agreed to take on the project, but the disc couldn't find an audience beyond a loyal cabal of cultists and critics. "To be honest with you, Without a Plan was a bit of a punch in the stomach," says Rodriguez. "I put a lot of work into the record and all my lifeblood and all my money and I toured as much as I could, and it ended up that I had a bit of a struggle with that record. Not a lot of support. "It's just one of those things. Everything can't catch on. I'm not holding anybody responsible. I think it was a great record, but who knows? Was it not getting it released properly? Not having advertising? That's what my folks think. It mystifies me a little but it's not the sort of thing you can complain about all the time. I feel like I'm very blessed in many ways, so I'm certainly not gonna let that colour my mood. I have a good life."

True enough. Although it's taken five years for Rodriguez to release his first "solo" record, the breezy and blissed-out Here Comes the Light – just out on local indie Baudelaire Records – that time wasn't spent contemplating revenge on the music industry. He joined the loopy dance outfit Dirty 30, a lark he describes as "the complete, polar opposite of what I do." He briefly brought three-part male harmonies back to pop with out-of-town chums Jason Kent (Soft Canyon) and Jason Ball (Hopeful Monster) in the Wilderness. And he was drafted by metal-lovin' Montreal pal Melissa Auf Der Maur to play guitar and keyboards in her touring band for a spell after her first album was released in 2004. Rodriguez eventually bowed out of that gig ("my first big rock tour with catering and everything") after playing to thousands-strong crowds across Europe while opening for A Perfect Circle, though, because he had nearly three albums' worth of his own songs waiting at home.  In fact, so much material was amassed and "fully recorded" for Here Comes the Light – a lovingly layered, harmony-soaked slice of vaguely '70s-styled soft rock – that Rodriguez swears up and down there won't be such a long wait for his next record. "I don't know what made me do that – I just did – but I have another record ready. All I have to do is mix it and I'll be able to get that out, so there'll be less of a gap," he says. "It's really been a long time, actually. I don't know how time goes so fast. But that's something I've got a grip on now. I have so many songs and so many ideas and so much energy geared towards recording now that I can't see myself putting out anything less than an album a year for the rest of my life. And someone can hold me to that." The retirement of the Bodega name is more a cosmetic touch than anything, since Rodriguez was the only constant and principal artistic force through the band's numerous lineups. "It was just time for a change," he says. "I just felt like I was at a crossroads in my life and I felt this was the time to do it. Trust me, it wasn't an easy decision. Bodega was a name that I spent years building up and I was nervous about shedding it. I still am, in a sense. But one must carry on and do what one's instincts tell you and my intuition just said `Try it.' "In my mind, it's not something that's dead or gone. It's just a new thing."

k-os' Atlantis: Hymns For Disco

Source:  Capitol/Virgin - EMI Music Canada

This week k-os' Atlantis: Hymns for Disco hit the U.S. Top Digital Albums Chart at #28 and the U.S. Top Current Albums Chart at #152.  Currently on tour with Gym Class Heroes in the U.S. and fresh off his Letterman appearance; k-os is scheduled to appear on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 12.  Critical acclaim south of the border continues to pour in, including quotes such as:

“...as warm and expansive a hip-hop record as you’ll hear all year” – Rolling Stone
“B+: an exhilarating listen” – Entertainment Weekly

“k-os dominates every genre he tackles, making creative “chaos” coherent and as catchy and unstoppable as pop.” – NY Daily News

“...give him props for mostly imagining where hip-hop might go in the future rather than recycling its past.” – Alternative Press

“...its collaborations push boundaries with eclectic nerve.” – Spin

"Leave it to a Canadian to take an American art form to a whole new atmospheric level." - Washington Times

“A party starter that will immediately please old school aficionados.” – The Source

"With his ambitious production methods and progressive lyrical styling, k-os is helping to change the way hip-hop is made." – Remix

“...ambition, wicked grooves and more hooks than you might expect.” – Billboard

k-os returns to Canada for the JUNO Awards in Saskatoon on April 1 where he will perform.  He is nominated for five JUNO Awards, tied with Nelly Furtado and Billy Talent for the most nominations.  He is up for Single of the Year "Sunday Morning," Pop Album of the Year "Atlantis: Hymns for Disco," Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year and Video of the Year "ElectriK HeaT: The Seekwill."  In 2005, k-os dominated the JUNO Awards winning all three awards he was nominated for - Single of the Year "Crabbuckit," Rap Recording of the Year "Joyful Rebellion" and Video of the Year "B-Boy Stance."


Atlantis: Hymns for Disco has just come out in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, South Africa and Mexico; with an Australian release date set for March 24.  European tour dates for May will be announced soon.  Following these, k-os will spend his summer on the road with the Vans Warped Tour which kicks off at the end of June and includes four Canadian dates in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
In only a few short months, the critically acclaimed Atlantis: Hymns for Disco has surpassed Platinum in Canada and has two hit songs "Sunday Morning" and "FlyPaper" all over the radio and video charts!  "Flypaper" is still Top 30 at CHR Radio and Top 40 at Hot AC Radio in Canada, while "Sunday Morning" is still Top 40 at Modern Rock Radio and the video is Top 5 on the MuchMusic Chart and Top 10 on the MuchMoreMusic Chart.  "Born To Run" has just gone to Rock Radio in Canada so listen up for that fierce track!

Jamie Out-Foxxes Himself

Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com - Brad Wheeler

Jamie Foxx
At the Hummingbird Centre
In Toronto on Sunday

(Mar. 6-07) Tall of ego and short of material, Jamie Foxx half-wowed 'em at the Hummingbird. He sang (too much), impersonated (not enough) and did ribald stand-up comedy. As for his abilities, grant the performer this much: He's a better comic than R. Kelly, and a better R&B crooner than Dave Chappelle. Of course, Foxx is better known as an actor than anything else -- and a winning one at that. How successful? Let Foxx say himself, as he did so shamelessly: "Hi, I'm Jamie Foxx, Oscar winner." Oscar is king and many other things, but the little golden man doesn't sing, dance or tell jokes, so Foxx would need to work a little. He did have some help. An opening comic named Speedy was quick to the punch, roasting late-to-their-seats ticket-holders with no mercy. A turkey shoot was what it was.


And then came the headliner, bounding into view in a red leather jacket and a shirt with a giant "JF" monogram. Billed as a night of music and comedy, the Grammy-nominated Foxx integrated both from the get-go, punctuating a series of jokes on hip hop's sway within black society with DJ-ed bursts of Jim Jones's hit We Fly High, "the ghetto national anthem." Wishing to establish his street-level credentials, Foxx insisted often that although he was an awarded Hollywood celebrity, he was "ghetto too." To demonstrate differing tastes in music, Foxx offered a dead-on Mick Jagger stage-crossing rooster strut. Hold on -- Mick Jagger? Not so original, hasn't been for a while. Things got better with an R-rated trip down celebrity row, with O.J. Simpson, Michael Richards and Paris Hilton as the easy targets. Loved the bits on Britney Spears's hillbilly vagina and Prince's permed chest hair. Foxx, a star of television's In Living Color in the nineties, showed little inventiveness, however. No longer does he dream up Bill Cosby as a gangsta; he has no honed "routine" as such, counting on his own charisma and an energetic comedic rhythm instead. His passions -- sex and himself -- were relied upon. "Everybody thinks I hit Oprah," Foxx said on speculation that he had bedded the billionaire Winfrey. "If I were to hit Oprah, she'd have a brand-new episode of her favourite things."

Foxx used an intermission to change into his suave bedroom-soul persona, an act -- his chart-topping 2005 album Unpredictable notwithstanding -- not played entirely straight up. Erotic dancers were involved, and the song's lyrics, salacious as to be silly, undermined. As such, Foxx the singer never fully distanced himself from Foxx the comedian. The best tunes happened when Foxx appeared in the role that made him cocky, the title character of 2004's Ray, singing Ray Charles numbers.  Appearing in a blue lamé tuxedo, black glasses and bow tie, Foxx and his 10-piece band rolled through a couple of the soul legend's songs before ending in Kanye West's hip-hop hit Gold Digger. Foxx's impersonation is uncanny, to the point where some observers questioned his Oscar win, wondering if mimicry had won out over acting. By rolling out the Charles character as a parlour trick, Foxx doesn't dissuade those critics. Ironically, he diminishes the accomplishment in which he takes so much pride.

Unsung Hero Of Ballet

Excerpt from www.thestar.com - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic

(March 06, 2007) A weak late-afternoon sun filters into the empty dance studio as 14-year-old Janelle Timmermans plays Bach and Poulenc at the grand piano. It's nearly 5:30 p.m. Friday, but the hallways at the National Ballet School on Jarvis St. are still abuzz. A small crowd gathers outside the door. When the music stops, three girls Janelle's age gush. "I wish I could play like you," says one. "I wish I could dance like you," replies Janelle humbly. Here's a curious paradox: the dancer can't live without the pianist, but the pianist isn't recognized until he or she is playing on their own. Welcome to the world of the ballet accompanist, a great, forgotten piano career with its own special challenges. "It's an underrated profession," says National Ballet School principal pianist Marina Surgan. She has been toiling away at the school's keyboards since 1978. For Surgan and 12 others at the school, this is a full-time job. For most other ballet accompanists, it's one of several part-time gigs that help put food on the table. But the demands are no less strict. "It is an art to be a good ballet accompanist," says Surgan. You have to have a good memory, you have to know and understand the arcane world of classical ballet and its French terminology, "and you have to be able to improvise." "You have to know the dancers' physical abilities, you have to watch," she continues. "My music gives them strength."

When she first played for dancers as a student in Moscow, Surgan didn't know what to do. "I had to learn the hard way." This is one of the reasons that the National Ballet School now offers its week-long Musicians' Mentoring Program during the midwinter months. The other is to raise professional pianists' awareness of ballet accompaniment as a career option. At 14, Janelle is the youngest person to have been accepted into the six-year-old program that caters to pianists of all ages. With mother Liz as chaperone, the resident of St. Thomas, Ont., spent a week immersed in the classical ballet universe. Janelle's mentor was full-time accompanist Chris Wingrove. Janelle had one-on-one sessions with him and sat in on the six hours of classes he plays for every day. She even had a chance to sit at the keyboard during three student-teacher classes. Besides her age, Janelle is unusual in that she takes ballet lessons as part of her multi-arts education (she also studies voice and cello). Both Wingrove and Surgan say that Janelle's dance background is a substantial advantage. "What takes many people years, Janelle picked up in four days," says Wingrove. He is referring to the specific steps and movements that all students of classical ballet must learn. There are six positions of the feet, five positions of the arms and eight positions of the body. Then there are many individual steps, all with French names like tombé, chassé, frappé and glissade. The instructor calls each out by name and the dancers learn to respond by instinct – with the piano player's help. "They don't have to count the music, because it's there for them," says Surgan.

In most cases, the teachers do give the accompanist fair warning. During one two-hour class led by former National Ballet principal dancer Glenn Gilmour, Wingrove follows a handwritten plan that reads like secret code, with entries such as: "Tendus  4/4 4 + ||: 32 + 16 + 8 :|| play 4 groups." Janelle admits that, "When I dance, I don't think about music. It's just there." But things will be different when she goes back home: "Now I know." She says her week-long experience "opens a lot of doors to help decide what I may want to do later on." Janelle's other big revelation last week was realizing that she was able to improvise: the ballet accompanist's essential classroom tool. (For performance rehearsals, everyone follows a specific piece of music.) As the dancers stretch and warm up, the pianist makes up music that delivers a particular tempo, rhythm and mood appropriate for each dance step. There is no time to think. "It has to be instant," says Surgan, "You can't stop the class." Like most people who learn classical piano, Janelle hadn't been asked to improvise before. But she was willing to try. "I was able to hear the music in my head," she says. "But I couldn't get it to sound that way on the piano. Then, on Thursday, something clicked."

Canadian Music Week Kicks Off With Ear To Change

Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Cassandra Szklarski, Canadian Press

(March 07, 2007) When Canada's longest-running music conference began 25 years ago, it was the major labels that formed the backbone of the industry shmoozfest known as Canadian Music Week. Today, those industry giants are reeling from layoffs and declining sales, and the future is anything but certain, says CMW president Neill Dixon. He predicts the next big music frontier will be mobile networking, pointing to an increased demand for souped-up cellphones that serve as multi-function gadgets for people on the go. "It'll become your iPod regardless of whether you have an iPod or iPhone or whatever you're going to have, they'll all be the same thing," Dixon says. "Eventually we'll be able to have massive storage and be able to download and do all that. To me, it's pretty natural that that's where things are heading in a big way, in a fast way." A mobile phone conference in Barcelona last month heard that many of today's devices are too cumbersome to fully capitalize on the public's voracious appetite for mobile music. Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. told the 3GSM conference that demand is poised for explosive growth, noting that excitement surrounding Apple's upcoming iPhone has "raised the bar" for handset makers.

Predicting just where the music industry is headed has become increasingly difficult, says Dixon. Ongoing leaps in technology mean dramatic shifts in the landscape occur over a matter of months, he says, noting that today's biggest stories in social online networking were barely on the horizon at last year's conference. "Last year, MySpace and YouTube weren't even mentioned. They were ... sort of just there," he says. "Now they're commonplace. There's nobody on the planet that doesn't know what they are. "All that stuff's changing, changing, changing. The one thing about this is now it's changing literally every six months now, or less. I find it really exciting because there's always new stuff to talk about." Digital innovations will be a big part of this year's conference, set to include roughly 300 speakers and welcome nearly 600 bands to 42 venues over four nights. Nettwerk honcho and digital music visionary Terry McBride will deliver the keynote address on Thursday. The festival kicks off tonight with the Independent Music Awards, an annual celebration of the best independent artists. Hot bands set to perform include Neverending White Lights, DJ Champion, Wolfmother, Cadence Weapon and The Stills. Seminal art-rock band Rough Trade will be inducted into the Indie Music Hall of Fame. Dixon says that for the first time, the show will be syndicated in parts of the country on SUN TV and broadcast on XM Satellite Radio nationally. Celebrated producer and songwriter David Foster will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame tomorrow.  Also celebrating 25 years is the private non-profit organization FACTOR, the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records, which provides financial assistance to the Canadian independent recording industry.

Soaring With Groban

Excerpt from www.thestar.com - John Terauds, Entertainment Reporter, Review

(March 07, 2007) If anyone could be said to have a room the size of the Air Canada Centre in the palm of his hand, it was young pop crooner Josh Groban, during his second visit to Toronto on Monday.  An all-ages crowd cheered his arrival following opening singer Angélique Kidjo, who had warmed up the arena with her world-inspired vibe. The 26-year-old Los Angeles boy opened with his hit single "You Are Loved," from Awake. He used the full width of the stage to reach as many fans as possible with his boyish charm. Centre stage, in an ovoid pod backed by a striped screen on which a steady stream of images and colours were projected, sat a made-in-Toronto orchestra of strings and brass, with Groban's touring veterans at the core on guitar and percussion. The audience was part of the overall light show. From a perch high above the regular seats, the near-capacity crowd was turned into a giant kaleidoscope. But the true star was Groban, all tumbling curls and manly stubble, dressed initially in a casual jacket, grey T-shirt and jeans. Awake has been a smash on the charts, and Groban liberally mined its 13 tracks. With the help of a synth keyboard and his core band, he even managed a faithful rendering of "Lullaby" and "Weeping," which he recorded with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

We already knew that Groban can sing and that he can sing while playing the piano. But, last night, he also sang "In Her Eyes" as he made an entrance into the stands two levels up, descending to the stage while shaking hands with audience members the whole way. In a further show of how comfortable he has become in the spotlight, he also managed to sing the Stephen Sondheim song "Nothing's Gonna Harm You" from the Broadway show Sweeney Todd while signing autographs from the edge of the stage. This guy knows how to work a room. The only number of the evening that didn't fly high was a duet with Kidjo. The song, "A Woman in Somalia," was meant to remind us of the hardships faced by millions of north Africans.  Kidjo, a veteran performer, has a great voice and plenty of charisma, but the song let this duo down. With lyrics like "She is in a world she didn't choose / and it hurts like brand new shoes," it's surprising this song made it past the Grade 5 poetry police. Groban wasn't afraid to reach back to his first, self-titled album.  When he sings in a foreign language, it's usually Italian but, last night, he also chose one French song, "Hymne à l'amour," that had been made famous by Édith Piaf six decades ago. And, to close, he made sure that he left not a single dry female eye in the place, by singing something that has become a pop anthem, "You Raise Me Up." By the time the concert ended, people's spirits could not have been higher.

Chuck D Still Won't Buy The Hype

Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com - Guy Dixon

(March 3, 2007) The weight of the world used to bear down on rap, back in the late 1980s when Chuck D rhymed about his Uzi weighing a ton, with the irony that used to define hip hop, and sidekick Flavor Flav would make it plain for those who still didn't get it by admonishing "don't believe the hype." It was a different time back then. While poking holes in political correctness, Public Enemy used to attract the kind of controversy and commentary from political pundits unheard of with today's commercialized rap. At worst, anti-Jewish remarks reportedly made by group member Professor Griff put Chuck into damage control. Guest member and activist Sister Souljah's comments after the 1992 Los Angeles riots that if blacks kill blacks every day, why not turn the table on whites, also became major news and sparked a retort from then presidential candidate Bill Clinton, apparently helping his campaign. But the point was that it created dialogue, always in the context of the need for black America to finally have more say, its diversity of views to be heard and for that message to be pressed on the world. It was the era when Chuck dubbed rap "the black CNN." Yet it's amazing to wonder whether Public Enemy could even exist if it started out in post-9/11 America. "Thank God we were able to get passports when we did," said Chuck (née Carlton Douglas Ridenhour and now 46) over his cellphone. The cackle and intermittent reception added a fittingly clandestine touch. "I don't know. If Public Enemy came out now, we might not be able to get passports, because we might be considered a threat to homeland security."

You can tell when Chuck is joking. He lets out a low-level "huh." He wasn't joking this time. After more than two decades in the rap game and embarking on the group's 57th tour, Public Enemy remains one of life's great consistencies. And the iconic group is back on the fringe, having gone without an exclusive record deal with a major label for eight years. Instead, it has been releasing its new material on Chuck's independent Slam Jamz label. Chuck wouldn't want it any other way, and he'll be bringing that message to the Canadian Music Week conference in Toronto with a keynote speech next Saturday, a day after the group performs in town. "The beautiful thing about hip hop when I was coming up was that it was it against the world. I dealt with it because I like to go against the odds," he said. Even today, "alternative, independent music has a scene, and it's held as being a great parallel industry to the mainstream. But when it comes to black music, it's the mainstream or not at all." When Public Enemy first got signed to Def Jam in the 1980s, Chuck was leery, considering the music business a step back from his graphic-design aspirations at the time, even though he had been involved in the hip-hop scene for years. So it's predictable that Chuck is still leery, disparaging the black-myth-as-commodity in music today. Of course, hip hop has always been about flaunting success. But it has become so codified and commercialized that the music can seem only about the lucre. "If it was an automatic, lucrative thing, I would have probably raged and rebelled against that. If it's not automatically lucrative to all, what good is it -- if it actually doesn't help the listener as much as the participant [i.e. the performer]? The original premise was to get involved in something that everybody seemed totally against and making it strong."

There's six years of journal entries by Chuck on this topic on http://www.publicenemy.com, a body of writing (along with books he co-wrote, Fight the Power and Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary) tailor-made for a sociology class syllabus. One journal entry in particular from Jan. 28, 2005, addresses Flavor Flav's dalliances with reality TV, specifically the embarrassing Surreal Life and spinoff series Strange Love, which depicted his relationship with Swedish Amazon Brigitte Nielsen. (Flav has since continued on with The Bachelor rip-off and self-deprecating Flavor of Love.) Chuck publicly criticized and even apologized on behalf of Public Enemy for the trivialization of family life in Strange Love, although as Chuck saw it, Flav was exploited by the show's creators. And since then, Chuck has had to reel Flav in, even if he remains a loose cannon. "What you see is what you get, man. Whatever you think he is, based on what you've seen and what you've heard, he is," Chuck said. So they are getting along? "We have no other choice but to get along. We're brothers and I'm the one in charge, and I make everybody get along. It's a simple fact. It's not really a democracy. There has to be some kind of leadership that says, hey, if we're going to do it, let's do it." As with Griff's remarks, it was yet another unintended controversy that needed to be quelled. "I look back on it as a stepping stone. I also look back in retrospect and say, well damn, with all this anti-black stuff [i.e. negative stereotypes] that's coming out, you've seen less noise about that. It's almost like the thug hustler, the drug dealer has been endorsed for the sake of having big businesses doing what they gotta do," Chuck said. "It's interesting that at a particular point with Public Enemy, we raised dialogue. And dialogue hasn't been raised in this art form since," he added. "With Griff, I think, it just splintered into a bad road, because [Griff's interview from which his remarks were taken] started off talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think people were kind of offended that we had the audacity as rappers, who were supposed to be just dumb black guys, to even raise this discussion. And I think a lot of animosity came out of that. "I learned from then to be the guy in charge, to be able to take the diplomatic road in any conflict that we head towards," Chuck said.

He also made a key point that controversy can occur when outsiders don't understand rap culture and its unspoken contexts. "If you don't really follow it and you wait for it to hit you, it's going to hit you from some controversial crime blotter, so to speak. And that's going to always get the biggest piece of news, because [people] haven't been keeping up.” Hearing Chuck explain this is like hearing the man back in the late 1980s. And that's partly the reason why Public Enemy has gone from being unequivocally rap's most important group with the release of the seminal 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions (To Hold Us Back) to falling so far out of fashion in the 1990s that it was tolerated, at best, like an overearnest older brother. This particularly came with Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic, which marked hip hop's 180-degree turn away from Public Enemy's characteristic clutter, or even with the jazz minimalism of A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory the previous year. Yet even for those who barely paid attention after the group's height, there were always signs of greatness from the guitar-groove-funeral-march of the 1994 single Give It Up to the protest-inspired title track of 1998's He Got Game. And if there was ever a time to rediscover Public Enemy, it's now -- especially, Chuck would add, that pioneer rappers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five will be the first rap group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month. "It's like a fly in the buttermilk now. It's like, damn, now the whole buttermilk has to go," he said. Run DMC should be following soon. And why not Public Enemy? "It's like you bring one in, then here come the rest." As Chuck gets older, though, he'll say one or two remarks seemingly uncharacteristic of the Chuck D 20 years ago, such as when he makes the comparison of Public Enemy as the Rolling Stones of rap or even professes that he cares about accolades from the larger music community. Yet, as he explained, "I like to be judged by total rock-'n'-roll standards, as opposed to being evaluated based on rap, hip hop, and what we think of rap right now." It just proves that you can't understand, until you hear the man.

The best of CMW

Some 500 music acts swarm over 37 downtown venues next week, starting with Wednesday's Independent Music Awards (headlined by the Stills) at the Docks. What gets you into the best shows? One wristband and a handy guide to the top showcases, as chosen by music writers Robert Everett-Green and Brad Wheeler.

Vincent Van Go Go. (Thur., 2:45 a.m., Rivoli). The Danes seem to love CMW, and always send something unexpected. Vincent Van Go Go offers a funky Nordic take on Brazilian beats that could be just the thing for the end of a long club crawl. If you can't stay up that late on a weeknight, check out Toronto band the Cliks at 11 for some conscious, fun-loving, grrl-positive rock.

Mother Mother (Fri., 8 p.m., Horseshoe). The Vancouver pop group shows that even a three-month winter cloud cover can't dispel the good cheer of a clever band that knows how to have fun. Mother Mother's debut disc abounds in good tunes and witty changes of tone. Stick around after their early set for music by Peter Elkas, You Say Party! We Say Die! and Cadence Weapon.

The High Dials (Fri., 11 p.m., Silver Dollar). If television commercials are the new radio, the Montreal psychedelic popsters top the charts with their chipper Rogers-ad "c'mon c'mon" song.

Young Galaxy and Apostle of Hustle (Fri., 11 p.m. and midnight, El Mocambo). Andrew Whiteman's slow-burning Apostle band puts some live hustle into songs from his new sophomore disc at midnight, preceded by the spacious, layered compositions of Montreal's Young Galaxy.

Ox (Sat., 11 p.m., Silver Dollar). High jinks and high energy come from the Sunparlour Players, the Barmitzvah Brothers and the United Steel Workers of Montreal, but be sure to check out the impervious Ox, who slow things down with road-weary indie rock and alt-country.

Pawa Up First (Sat., midnight, Sneaky Dee's). It's wide-screen time at Dee's, as the atmospheric instrumental quartet from Montreal makes its last stop before flying down to Austin in pursuit of fame and fortune at SXSW. .

Jenn Grant (Sat., 1 a.m., Horseshoe). Dreamer, the addictive single by this unclassifiable young chanteuse from Halifax, proves that she owes us a full-length record, and soon. You might as well shorten the wait by catching her set at the 'Shoe, where she will doubtless air some of the songs from what could be the debut album of the year. .

Wristbands ($35 at Ticketmaster) get you into all of the shows, though some of the showcases have only limited room for pass-holders. More info: http://www.cmw.net

MUSIC TIDBITS

EMI, Sony Lay Off Staff In Canada

Excerpt from www.thestar.ca - Thulasi Srikanthan, Staff Reporter

(March 01, 2007) Music industry giant EMI has laid off an undisclosed number of Canadian staff as it confronts trimming $200 million as part of restructuring.  There have also been widespread layoffs at Sony BMG Music Canada's Toronto headquarters, but the company is tight-lipped about the size of the cutbacks and the reasons for it. Affected staff are not talking.  Company spokespeople refused comment yesterday about the future of its Toronto headquarters and whether more layoffs are coming.  But at EMI, a spokesperson said many of the layoffs stem from the company's decision to no longer manufacture and distribute compact discs.  Instead, it will outsource that work to an unnamed third party. Senior management changes and reduction to overhead are also part of the cuts.  Despite the cutbacks, EMI plans to increase its digital expertise and capabilities, said Jeanne Meyer, senior vice-president of corporate communications for EMI North America.  In the last decade, the music business has been extremely volatile, Meyer noted, and has been particularly affected by piracy and the growth of illegal file-sharing services.  But while illegal downloading continues to be a concern and the CD business has declined, downloadable digital formats are growing rapidly, she said.  BMG remains committed to maintaining its artist and repertoire activities, Meyer said, and will continue to find and develop new talent from Canada.

Ludacris Foundation Receives Award

Excerpt from www.eurweb.com

(March 2, 2007) *National Runaway Switchboard (NRS), the federally-designated national communication system for homeless and runaway youth, has chosen rapper Ludacris and his foundation to receive its 2007 Spirit of Youth Award. The NRS lauded the Ludacris Foundation for its work and dedication in helping America’s youth, particularly through the sentiment offered in his latest single, “Runaway Love.” The duet with Mary J. Blige tells various stories of kids who are driven to leave home due to hopelessness and despair.   "Since the release of 'Runaway Love,' Ludacris and The Foundation's commitment to helping runaway youth and letting people know about the help they can receive by calling 1-800-RUNAWAY has only increased," said NRS executive director Maureen Blaha.  Since Ludacris joined forces with NRS in late 2006, the organization has experienced a 17 percent increase in calls, and a spike in traffic on its Web site, http://www.1800runaway.org.   The announcement from NRS comes as Ludacris and his family deal with the passing of his father, Wayne Bridges, in an Atlanta hospital on Sunday.

Rough Trade Getting Due As Canadian Innovators

Source: Canadian Press

(March 03, 2007) When Canada's sexually charged band Rough Trade brought its gender-bending, punk-inspired sound to the charts more than 25 years ago, its lewd and crude lyrics were banned from radio, recalls singer Carole Pope. Now the band's seminal CD Weapons (1983) is being re-released and the subversive group is being honoured as pioneers in indie music.  Pope says there's no doubt Toronto's bold club scene featuring her and Kevan Staples opened doors for unconventional artists today. "We definitely did (open doors) because there weren't that many strong women out there," Pope says by phone from her home in Los Angeles. "People don't even know about that scene or really how influential Toronto was ... That whole '70s, '80s scene was Toronto, New York and London." Pope, a husky-voiced lesbian once known as the "raunch queen" for her explicit lyrics, and her androgynous partner Staples burst onto the club scene in the '70s with outrageously titled songs such as "I'm Getting Dry H---ped in the Hall" and "Lipstick on Your D--stick." Their antics drew a crowd of outcasts and artists that included Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Alice Cooper and Elton John, and in the early '80s, the group found mainstream success with synth-driven hits "High School Confidential" and "All Touch." "There was such a ready audience for it," Pope recalls of the band's brash sexual politics. "People were really hungry for something different and we always had a sense of humour about it, about everything we did." Pope says it's gratifying to now be considered one of the Canadian music industry's early innovators, and is flattered the band will be inducted into Canadian Music Week's Indies Hall of Fame at an evening showcase Wednesday. On the whole, current popular music is disappointing, she says. "Mostly, I think everything is regurgitated now," says Pope. "A lot of music, I've heard it before. Two or three times."

Strait Leads Country Music Nominees

Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Associated Press

(March 05, 2007) NASHVILLE, Tenn. – George Strait led the nominees announced Monday for the Academy of Country Music Awards with eight nominations, including entertainer of the year and top male vocalist. Vocal duo Brooks & Dunn got seven nominations and Rascal Flatts had six. The announcement was made at the Country Music Hall of Fame and aired live on CBS' "The Early Show." The nominees were introduced by Kenny Chesney – the reigning ACM entertainer of the year – and the duo Sugarland. "Whenever you get nominated, it's a reflection of a lot of people's hard work," Chesney said. Carrie Underwood received five nominations and Big & Rich got four. The 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards will be presented May 15 in Las Vegas. Strait also was nominated as artist and producer for the album ``It Just Comes Natural" and the single "Give it Away," which also was nominated for song of the year. Brooks & Dunn were honoured in the entertainer of the year and the top vocal duo categories, and their "Hillbilly Deluxe" was nominated for album of the year. Rascal Flatts got nominations for entertainer of the year, top vocal group, best album for "Me and My Gang" and best single for ``What Hurts the Most."

::FILM NEWS::