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LE NEWSLETTER

June 26, 2008

Welcome to summer!  Think that's it's here to stay!  I swear! 

Happy Canada Day - falls on a Tuesday this year but hope that you find yourself near a BBQ and good friends - celebrate safely please.

Well, it's Pride Week again here in Toronto and if you celebrate it, again please do so wisely.  And watch out for all those downtown street closures.

Lots of great Canadian news below mixed with lots of global entertainment news! 

Scroll down and find out what interests you - take your time and take a walk into your weekly entertainment news!

::TOP STORIES::

Comedian George Carlin Dies

Source: www.globeandmail.com - Dean Goodman, Reuters

(June 23, 2008) LOS ANGELES — Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

The Grammy-winning Carlin remained an active presence on the comedy circuit. Carlin performed in Las Vegas earlier this month and was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in November.

His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species.

"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a 2001 interview.

Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that he looked forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a "heavenly CNN."

"The world is a big theatre-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he said. "Tune in and watch the human adventure."

Carlin wrote three best-selling books, won four Grammy Awards, recorded 22 comedy albums, headlined 14 HBO television specials, and hosted hundreds of variety shows. One was the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, when he was high on cocaine.

Drug addiction plagued him for much of his life, beginning with marijuana experimentation as a teen, graduating to cocaine in the 1970s, and then to prescription painkillers and wine. During the cocaine years, Carlin ignored his finances and ended up owing about $3-million in back taxes. In 2004, he entered a Los Angeles rehab clinic for his alcohol and Vicodin abuse.

George Dennis Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, in New York City, where he was raised with an older brother by their single mother. He fondly recalled that the nuns at his school tolerated his early comedic inclinations.

After a brief, troubled stint in the U.S. Air Force, he started honing his comic act, developing such characters as Al Sleet, a "hippie-dippie weatherman."

Carlin told Playboy that his sensibilities developed in the 1950s, "when comedy stopped being safe ... (and) became about saying no to authority." He cited such influences as Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory and Bob Newhart.

He also dabbled in movies and television, recently voicing a hippie Volkswagen bus named Fillmore in the Pixar cartoon Cars.

Carlin is survived by his second wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; and brother Patrick. His first wife, Brenda, died of cancer in 1997.

Germany Scores Late To Advance To Euro Final

Source: www.thestar.com - Sandy Cohen, The Associated Press

(June 25, 2008)  BASEL, Switzerland–Philipp Lahm ended Turkey's storybook run in the European Championship on Wednesday with a late goal in a 3-2 semifinal victory that kept Germany on target for a record fourth title.

In a wild finish that many people around the world did not see because the international TV feed went out, Lahm finished off the surprising Turks off a give-and-go with Thomas Hitzlsperger in the 90th minute. Lahm cut in from the left, set up a passing one-two, collected the ball and shot it past Rustu Recber to unleash the joy of some 20,000 German fans at St. Jakob Park.

With two goals in the final five minutes, the match could have gone either way, but after three stunning comeback victories in a row for Turkey, it was Germany's day.

First, Semih Senturk kept Turkey in the game with an 86th-minute equalizer, beating Jens Lehmann at the near post.

Ugur Boral gave Turkey the lead in the 22nd, but Bastian Schweinsteiger equalized in the 26th. Miroslav Klose then scored in the 79th off a feed from Lahm to put the Germans ahead, setting up the thrilling finish.

Late in the match, a protester carry a banner with the word ``Tibet" on it ran onto the field and was subdued by security officers. Earlier, two players – Simon Rolfes of Germany and Ayhan Akman – need to have their foreheads stapled by trainers to stop bloody wounds. Neither of them finished the game.

Germany, which won Euros in 1972, 1980 and 1996, will play the winner of Thursday's Spain-Russia semifinal in Vienna, Austria. Sunday's final game also will be in Vienna.

For Turkey, it was the end of a tremendous tournament, its best since making the World Cup semi-finals six years ago.

Turkey dominated most of the match despite four suspensions and five injuries, proving its run of extraordinary rallies was no fluke. With a fully fit team, Germany struggled – but advanced to the final for the sixth time.

ESPN cut back to its studio analysts during the outages and showed video of spectators watching at a FanFest in Basel.

Germany's ZDF television wound up using a Swiss feed to televise the latter portions of the match after having to do a radio-style play-by-play when the picture went out. A violent thunderstorm that hit Vienna, where the TV broadcast center is located, was blamed.

2008 BET Awards In The Books

Source: www.eurweb.com

(June 25, 2008) *The BET Awards went down Tuesday night and Kanye West went home with two prizes.

West was named best male hip-hop artist and shared a second BET prize with R&B singer T-Pain for their collaboration on the hit single "Good Life."

"This man, T-Pain, is a genius," said West of T-Pain. "I'm one of the kings in this game right now, so my opinion counts."

"I appreciate it everybody," T-Pain responded. "Three years ago, I couldn't even get a ticket to get up in here." T-Pain entered the show with the most nominations, five in all.

The only other multiple winner was the hip-hop duo UGK, which now only consists of Bernard "Bun B" Freeman as his partner, Chad "Pimp C" Butler, died last year from sleep apnea.

The three hour show, broadcast from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, gave out 15 prizes in music, acting and sports

Alicia Keys, who shared the stage with three leading female groups from the 1990s -- TLC, En Vogue and Sisters with Voices -- for a medley of R&B music, also won best female R&B artist, and offered a heartfelt endorsement to Obama, who would be the first African-American elected to the nation's highest office.

"Together we can do anything -- Obama, y'all!" she enthused.

Speaking of Obama, BET's Stephen Hill said they had been hoping Obama would attend the event.

"We would've loved it if he would've stopped by," he said.

Meanwhile, perhaps the evening's most awaited moment was when veteran soul man Al Green, recipient of a lifetime achievement award, got the audience in the on its feet singing, and dancing, to his classic 1970s smash hit "Let's Stay Together."

However, backstage in the press room, Green didn't think his performance went that well.

"I'm sorry I didn't sing as well as I should because I got scared. I was nervous," he said. Green, 62, earlier this month hit the top 10 of the U.S. pop chart with his first album in three years, "Lay It Down."

The prize for best female hip-hop performer went to Missy Elliott, who has not had an album out since 2005 but has a new CD set for release in August.

The Dream was named best new artist, and the viewers' choice award, determined by an online vote of fans, went to Lil Wayne and his single "Lollipop," featuring Static.

The best and actress awards went to Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, neither of whom attended. Neither did Kobe Bryant, who won best male athlete

Here's a list of this year's BET Awards nominees and *winners:

Best Female R&B Artist
* Alicia Keys
Mary J. Blige
Mariah Carey
Keyshia Cole
Rihanna

Gaston Back As Jays Manager

Source: www.thestar.com - The Associated Press

(June 20, 2008) PITTSBURGH–The reeling Toronto Blue Jays fired manager John Gibbons on Friday and replaced him with former manager Cito Gaston, the man who led the team to its only two World Series titles.

The move comes amid a spirit-breaking stretch of 13 losses in 17 games that has buried them in the AL East basement with a 35-39 record.

Gibbons is the third manager fired this week, after Willie Randolph (Mets) and John McLaren (Seattle).

The Jays also fired coaches Marty Pevey, Ernie Whitt and Gary Denbo.

The 64-year-old Gaston becomes the Blue Jays’ first two-time manager. He previously managed the team from 1989 to 1997, leading the team to World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.

Gaston, who has been special assistant to the president and CEO, had a 681-635 record as manager during his earlier stint. Joining his staff will be first-base coach Dwayne Murphy, third-base coach Nick Leyva and hitting coach Gene Tenace.

Gibbons entered the season on perilous ground, with his $650,000 (figures U.S.), one-year contract due to expire at the end of the year. He found himself in hot water after an 11-17 April but the Blue Jays got back on track, and then some, during a 20-10 May.

Then three hard-to-swallow losses at the beginning of June — a 4-3 loss June 1 at Anaheim on a blown B.J. Ryan save; a 9-8 defeat June 5 at Yankee Stadium on Jason Giambi’s walkoff homer off an 0-2 Ryan pitch; and a 6-5 loss June 6 at home to Baltimore when the bullpen blew a 4-0 lead in the eighth — killed their mojo and it’s been a struggle for them ever since.

The main problem is that the team’s offensive woes from 2007 have extended into this year and the burden of again carrying the team is beginning to cause fissures in the pitching staff.

The question now is whether the change can ignite the team, and if not, whether further changes are in the offing.

General manager J.P. Ricciardi has repeatedly said Gibbons should not be a scapegoat for the team’s troubles but ultimately had to make him one with his team unable to emerge from its slide.

The decision was not an easy one for Ricciardi, who roomed with Gibbons when both were prospects in the New York Mets system during the early 1980s and have been friends since.

Gibbons pushed the cause of some players to employ a more aggressive style of ball, giving more runners the green light to steal bases, sacrificing to move runners over and using the hit-and-run more often.

But the line-up isn’t delivering timely, big hits and the losses piled up because of it.

Gibbons, a laid-back, back-slapping Texan who could lay down the law when necessary, was a players’ manager who mostly tried to stay out of his team’s way.

He was routinely criticized by fans, who vented their frustration at an easy target.

Since taking over from the fired Carlos Tosca on an interim basis Aug. 8, 2004, Gibbons compiled a 270-266 (plus this season) record. Only his replacement Gaston (683-636) and Bobby Cox (355-292) have had longer tenures than him in franchise history.

Fans will most likely remember Gibbons for a pair of incidents with Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly during the 2006 season.

Gibbons challenged Hillenbrand to a fight in the clubhouse after the disgruntled infielder left mutinous scribbles on a clubhouse whiteboard last July. In August, Gibbons and Lilly had a physical altercation in the dugout tunnel following an argument on the mound.

Neither incident seemed to harm him much in the eyes of his players, with both ace Roy Halladay and centre-fielder Vernon Wells offering crucial endorsements of him at the time.

The Blue Jays’ best season under Gibbons was 2006, when they finished second in the AL East at 87-75.

They stumbled backwards last season, falling back to third at 83-79, amid a slew of injuries to Ryan, Wells, Troy Glaus, Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Reed Johnson and Gregg Zaun.

Gibbons received little credit for keeping that team on the rails and above .500 despite the injuries, while incorporating youngsters Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Jeremy Accardo, Casey Janssen and Jesse Litsch to the team.

On May 29 he won his 300th career game as a manager, a 12-0 thumping of Oakland, and appeared headed to better things.

Now he’s out of work.

Gaston becomes the fourth Blue Jays manager in seven years under Ricciardi. Tosca replaced the fired Buck Martinez, whom Ricciardi inherited from former GM Gord Ash, midway through the 2002 season.

Toronto's Laugh Resort Comedy Club Closes This Week

Source: www.thestar.com - Raju Mudhar, Entertainment Reporter

(June 22, 2008) Did you hear the one about the comedy club closing down?

It's no joke: after 18 years the Laugh Resort is hosting its final shows next Saturday. Located in the Holiday Inn on King St., the hotel has been bought by the Hyatt chain, which is renovating the entire facility. Now it's time for the basement floor where the club is located to begin its makeover.

"At the moment, we're saying that we're closing until we find a new location, but we've been looking for a new location for the past four or five months... and haven't found something that makes sense. So we are still looking, but there is nothing imminent in terms of our return," says Jim Vanderberg, owner of the club.

He's heard the chain plans to put an upscale restaurant in the space. Originally, it was assumed that the club would survive until the end of the summer, but then the renovation permits came through and now the club has to vacate the space next weekend. Vanderberg had booked acts until the end of the summer, when he hoped to hold a farewell send off. Now it's not going to happen.

"The reality is we don't expect the city to pour out. Most people who come to club are just going out for the night and want to see a show. So we'll put on a show, and those of us who'll be around will have a drink and say it's been fun," says Vanderberg.

The Laugh Resort was initially located next to the Old Firehall, which was at that time occupied by Second City. A much larger space, Laugh Resort used to book acts like Ray Romano, Adam Sandler and Ellen Degeneres. In 2000, it moved to the Holiday Inn location. The club allowed independent comics to perform, as opposed to places like Yuk Yuk's that want exclusive deals with comedians.

Without the Laugh Resort, independent comedians' main alternative to the four Yuk Yuk's GTA locations is Absolute Comedy at Yonge and Eglinton.

Vanderberg says rents downtown have risen so much that having a club that's only open a few nights a week doesn't seem feasible.

That said, he's not sure whether this will truly be the last laugh.

"Who knows? I've got a bit of a vision to find a bigger space and start doing some of those shows that seem to only happen when Just For Laughs pulls into town for a few days, once a year," he says. "Whether we open in some other fashion or let it go, it's been fun."

::TRAVEL NEWS::

Hype Meets Reality In Aitutaki

Source: www.thestar.com - Linda Barnard, Toronto Star

(March 06, 2008) AITUTAKI, COOK ISLANDS–"Okay, let's go."

This is what passes for a boarding announcement in the one-room airport on the island of Aitutaki, a semi-atoll that sits in the southern Cook Islands group like an island of brilliant turquoise in the midst of the cobalt blue Pacific.

It's truly another world here, a place where the village of Arutanga on the main hook-shaped island boasts all of three shops (differentiated by their exterior paint jobs as the green, yellow and brown stores) and a couple of stop signs.

Like a string of pearls, three volcanic islands and a dozen motus – small, mostly uninhabited palm-filled islets rimmed with white sand – are captured in a triangle-shaped lagoon of such aquamarine clarity, we're told sailors used to watch on the horizon for a green reflection on the undersides of clouds as a pointer to Aitutaki's gem-coloured waters.

Called paradise in all the travel literature and on various websites, Aitutaki is one of those rare times when hype meets reality.

The fact Aitutaki comes with its own romantic past seems to heighten its appeal.

Lt. William Bligh was the first European to discover it just after leaving Tahiti in 1789. In true colonial fashion, he let the natives come to him and never actually touched land. Less than three weeks later, his crew aboard The Bounty mutinied.

One of the motus, Akaiami, was a landing site for the TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Ltd.) Coral Route flying boats in the late 1940s and 1950s, where movie stars such as Marlon Brando and John Wayne were advised to pack a bathing suit in their hand luggage so they could paddle in the crystal water while the plane refuelled.

More recently, Aitutaki was home to a season of Survivor, where a corner of the lagoon and two motus were declared off-limits to tourists during the three months of filming.

Luckily, I faced no such restrictions on my day trip here.

About a 45-minute flight north from Rarotonga by turboprop, our small plane lands on an airstrip built by Kiwi and American soldiers during World War II as an outpost to protect the South Pacific. Today it has been upgraded and serves regular commercial flights.

I've opted for a day trip from Rarotonga, while others on board have suitcases and are there for several days or more.

Accommodation on Aitutaki is limited in numbers but varied in style and runs from beach huts to high-priced luxury resorts. Without much to do beyond fishing, exploring the exceptional diving and snorkelling, or lazing in the lagoon, it's decidedly a couples' destination. (Golfers will want to try the funny little nine-hole course by the airport where a round costs less than $8 Canadian, if only to say they've done it.)

Our guide for the day, James Turu, has flown over with us from his home in Rarotonga.

He keeps up a steady patter as a bus takes us around the island ring road, stopping for a spell in the main village so we can explore.

He tells us there are no dogs on the island – something about them once being blamed for spreading leprosy – but there are plenty of small striped cats and lots of land crabs that come out to perch stupidly in the road after it rains to be scooped up and taken home for supper.

Turu points to a clearing at the side of the road.

"This is where you can drink bush beer with locals," he says of the intense moonshine they brew here from various fruits. For a "donation" of less than $4 Canadian, "you can drink all night," he tells us.

But we're not after road crabs or a drinking session, but rather a daylong cruise on a flat-bottomed catamaran boat kitted out to look like a Polynesian ceremonial vessel.

As we chug out into the lagoon, which measures 42 kilometres around, we can see right down in the clear depths to colourful fish, coral and giant clams. Someone remarks it's like a giant aquarium. We'll see everything up close when the boat stops at a coral bed and we slip into the seductively warm water to explore with the snorkel gear provided on board.

Occasionally, we see the deep blue of the water outside the lagoon and white surf pounding on the coral reef at the rim, a strange sight that reminds you you're sailing in a pool within a vast ocean.

First stop is the islet of Moturakau, used as both the Survivor tribal camp and a location for the British reality TV series Shipwrecked. Looking like a place where Gilligan would feel at home, its only inhabitants are the ubiquitous Cook Islands wild chickens and roosters – which seem to be everywhere – and for 30 minutes or so, a dozen tourists.

The boat slides almost to the beach and we hop into ankle-deep water and wade ashore. It's easy to wander off alone and have a feeling of almost total isolation in paradise and indulge in some Robinson Crusoe-inspired daydreaming until Turu blows the conch shell to signal the boat's departure.

Next up, a stop at Tapuatae (One Foot Island), where the post office and bar share the counter in a thatched-roof hut.

The sole employee makes it clear that only one kind of business can be done at each end. No ordering a beer with your postage.

For about $1.50, you can get a foot-shaped One Foot Island stamp on your passport.

Sure, it's hokey. And you can bet we did it.

A walk around the island's perimeter in the crystal water revealed a postmaster's cottage and a thirsty cat who was delighted to share the contents of my water bottle from a shell on the porch, a couple of roosters, some land crabs and nothing else but blue-green water, arcing palms and brilliant-coloured fish. We were able to walk out in the knee-deep water to a sandbar across the inlet and then swam and lazed in the clear water until the conch blew again.

The boat captain doubled as cook as we pulled away from shore, firing up a gas barbecue and grilling chunks of fresh broadbill (swordfish) marinated in soy sauce and spices.

The table was laid with salads, bread, mango and pawpaw (papaya), chunks of fresh coconut, taro and banana pudding.

Before we ate, Turu stood in the middle of the boat and prayed, something you get used to quickly in this part of the world, where religion plays a primary role.

After lunch Tumu, the captain, and a couple of workers on board picked up guitars and a drum and serenaded us with Maori songs in rich harmony.

They showed us how to break into coconuts and we shared the creamy meat. Silver fish jumped from the lagoon in great arcs.

We stared out into the water and motus as if to burn the images into our minds, scenes to be replayed once we were back in the real world and had left paradise behind.

Linda Barnard is the Star's movies editor.

::MUSIC NEWS::

Al Green Proves `The Reverend Still Got It'

Source: www.thestar.com - Ashante Infantry Pop & Jazz Critic

(June 20, 2008) His shirtless album cover poses are well behind him, but Al Green is still seductive.

"Some people been wondering if the Reverend still got it," the legendary performer acknowledged near the end of his 75-minute set at the Sony Centre last night.

The answer is a resounding "Oh, hell yeah!"

From his mesmerizing falsetto, to jerky dance moves, campy take on his iconic soul self and Eartha Kitt purrs, the 62-year-old Arkansas native, who handed out more than two dozen roses to female fans, is a bubbly, accessible entertainer.

He wasn't so much sexy, this pudgy Gatorade-sipping version, but romanced with candour and charisma.

At this TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival preview concert he delivered many of his `70s hits – "Let's Get Married," "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?," "Tired of Being Alone" and "Love and Happiness" – as well as the title track from his new disc Lay It Down, and a medley of Sam Cooke, The Temptations and Otis Redding classics.

Backed by a youthful 12 piece band (including daughter Deborah Green on backing vocals) and two dancers, the singer gave the blend of soul, gospel, blues and rock 'n' roll a spontaneous air, though he was clearly working from a set list.

He took the stage in a dark suit and sunglasses, later doffed to offer wide-eyed proof that "ain't nobody up here high."

In an interview with the Star a day earlier he discussed the correlation between his dual roles and entertainer and religious leader. After being born again, Green founded the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976 and still preaches every Sunday that he's in town.

"There are a lot of lonely people in the world, a lot of people with somebody who are still lonely and we're trying to carry this message of love and happiness," he said, holding fort in a downtown hotel conference room.

"The pulpit is my abundant life; singing on stage is my life, that's why I've been doing it since I was 19, 20. And I can't choose between my songs, which one I like best, because they're like my kids, I love them all."

At the concert he told the near-capacity crowd that he came to "preach everybody happy."

They returned his ministrations by dancing in the aisles, shouting out dozens of "I love you's" and waiting 10 minutes for the encore that never came.

Good to see he can still leave them wanting more.

Carly Simon: ‘We're Going Through A Hard Time Now'

Source: www.globeandmail.com - Simon Houpt

(June 20, 2008) NEW YORK — Carly Simon won't leave the stage. She's been singing for almost an hour and a half now, moving gamely through former hits – Anticipation, You're So Vain, etc. – for an invitation-only crowd of fans at Joe's Pub, the East Village cabaret space.

Here to launch her new album, This Kind of Love, which is being released by the Starbucks label Hear Music, it has been a evening of nostalgic indulgence and cozy familiarities: At one point, Simon introduced her 31-year-old son, Ben, who sings and plays backup guitar, by saying, “I'm his mother, James Taylor is his father, though James doesn't always connect the dots,” and everyone laughed as if they were old friends.

But set times at Joe's Pub are strictly regulated, and a few minutes ago some people evidently felt it was time for her to wrap up. Simon's voice is patchy and her eight-piece band seems under-rehearsed; all night she's been muttering to herself, complaining about having broken her last good guitar-playing fingernail, and about trying to “find balance.”

Before we continue with the story, let's pause for a moment to dwell on the notion of finding balance, for that may be the central goal – and the most elusive one – of Simon's life. For almost 63 years now (her birthday is Wednesday) she has careened from one extreme state to another, from one man to another, from ecstatic independence to pathological neediness. Perhaps it is merely Freudian: She never received the approval she sought from her father, who died when she was only 15 years old; James Taylor didn't think much of her musical talent. She is an emotional tornado: get too close, and you can't help but be pulled into the vortex.

Which may have been partly why, as the performers wobble through the title song of her new album, a few of the wait staff here at the club – younger than the average Simon fan by a good decade or two – begin subtly mocking the band, clapping derisively and mimicking their intense folk-rock faces.

And as Simon wraps up a clunky version of her Oscar-winning anthem Let the River Run, from the 1988 movie Working Girl, the house lights rise and the staff starts to clear the tables.

Simon is oblivious to the cue – maybe she doesn't even notice the lights from behind her sunglasses. So as the warmth in the fans' bellies begins to chill (the feeling is inchoate but coalescing: Are they all overstaying their welcome?) the band lurches through The Last Samba, a slow song from the new album. After which Carly Simon is happy to leave the stage, to applause, on her own terms.

A few days later she is sitting in the far corner of a dressing room uptown, backstage after a TV show, wearing sunglasses and luxuriating in the dark: the only illumination comes from the bare bulbs of the vanity mirror across the room. As a few band members depart for a week on the road by themselves – they will meet up in Los Angeles for another TV appearance – she exhorts a couple of them to take care of Ben. Then, finally, as silence descends on the room, she welcomes me with a slight smile and removes her sunglasses.

A notoriously anxious performer and an almost hermit-like public figure, Simon would prefer to be at home on Martha's Vineyard, tending her garden, than back here in her hometown. “So many of the people you see walking down the street with just stony faces, who have tunnel vision, who don't look at another person and don't give a person any good energy,” she complains. But she has come in to discuss This Kind of Love, her first album of all original material since The Bedroom Tapes eight years ago, which she recorded while recovering from breast cancer. And the first order of business is to distance herself from her 2005 album of standards, which sold well but received mediocre reviews.

“ Moonlight Serenade was produced by Richard Perry and very much controlled by him,” she begins. “He did most of the tracks in Los Angeles and then I was kind of the ‘lady singer' who put the voice over the tracks in New York, and I didn't contribute much to the production.”

The sense of being wronged comes up often in conversation with Simon. Her father, Richard Simon, was a co-founder of the publishing giant Simon & Schuster, but he was done in by “a rather evil accountant,” who, she says, undervalued the company and arranged for his ouster. Recently, Simon herself co-operated with the journalist Sheila Weller for Girls Like Us, the new bestselling portrait of Simon, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell, but she has come to regret it.

“A bunch of people have actually come forward to me to say, ‘You know, I never said that, Sheila put that in the wrong terms,' ” Simon says. “So it's hard to know exactly what's true and what's not true. I know that Sheila did make some errors, which I spotted immediately, and I was surprised there aren't more fact-checkers at Simon & Schuster. I'm sure my father would have wanted more fact-checkers.”

Simon remains sharply insecure about her reputation as an artist, but she is self-aware enough to occasionally spoof herself: She shouts self-mockingly that, except for a trio of songs on the new album, one each written by Ben, her daughter Sally, and her friend Jimmy Webb, “all the other lyrics are mine! mine! mine!”

This Kind of Love originated after she was given a copy of the greatest hits album of the Tropicalismo singer Caetano Veloso. Brazilian music had been common in her parents' house as she was growing up; in fact, she says that it was after being swept away by the music in the 1959 film Black Orpheus that she resolved to find a way to spend her life making music. But she'd never heard of either Veloso or Jorge Ben until last year.

As she began planning the new album, she'd hoped to record a duet with Veloso, but when that didn't work out, she says, she just decided to rip off his music. “I expect a call from him any day,” she jokes. “From his lawyers. I've lifted so many of his ideas. So if that's the only way I can meet him, that's the way I'll meet him. Even if it's in court, I want to meet this man. I really love him.”

In turning back to the sound that permeated her own upbringing, Simon toggles between spirited little love songs and a handful of tunes that expose her emotional ravenousness. After the death of a friend a few years ago, she endured a bout with depression that ended with her in hospital, and today she is still rail thin. (She looks, with her hair nearly covering her eyes, like a skeletal sheepdog.) She has so much to give, she says; the need emanating off of her is terrifying.

The album was written as a way of grappling with what she calls the “parallel existences,” of being a new grandmother, even as she can still recall with exquisite clarity what it was like to be pregnant, to be nursing for the first time. “My kids are older now and yet the emotions are so much the same,” she says.

“I remember the first time that we were sitting around the dining room table, Ben and Sally were about, respectively, eight and 11, and Sally told Ben a secret and I felt sooooo left out. I said, ‘What did you say?' They said, ‘It's a secret.' ‘Why are you telling secrets from me?!' And I just couldn't get used to the fact that they had this autonomy that I wasn't expecting.”

Simon has lately been able to hold back more and let her children grow as artists with only minimal guidance. But it's a challenge. “It used to be that Ben would take my advice, or that he would not want it but he would eventually realize that I had something to say and that maybe I was right, and maybe he could use my advice. Now, I don't have that card, and he's just so talented, and so good, and really has his own voice. I feel quite intimidated to give him suggestions, much like it was – or it is – with Sally, and much like it used to be with James.”

Simon's relationship with Sally is rockier. Until recently, the two kids each lived in cottages on Simon's 40-acre expanse out on Martha's Vineyard, but a few months ago Sally and her husband moved to Cambridge with their son, who was born last fall. You can hear the strain in the relationship in the new song Hold Out Your Heart, in which Simon sings: “Oh my girl what have you done? / Is it something we can't even talk about? / Did you silence me, remove me from your faith? … Did you make me all but a stranger to your love?”

“It's a very tender relationship, and we're going through a hard time now,” Simon says. “I have not seen my grandson more than a handful of times. He's adorable, and I'm sure absolutely great, and I hope to get to know him soon.” She pauses, and as an awkward silence spreads through the room, I try to lighten the mood by changing the subject. But she's not finished. “I was looking forward very much to being a grandmother, and I had cribs and cradles and everything all decked out.” She stares at the floor.

Perhaps she and Sally are simply too similar. “My friend calls me ‘pathologically empathetic,' ” she says. “I notice that my daughter's like this too. I cannot leave a dying insect. You know, I have to either get its wings into proper condition to fly off again by itself … or I have to give it a peaceful death.”

Gould's Passion For His Piano

Source: www.thestar.com - John Terauds, Classical Music Critic

(June 21, 2008) It's hard to believe a 9-foot-long black object weighing 1 1/2 tons can sit in the spotlight at centre stage and not get noticed.

We all know a concert grand piano when we see one, but the attention is always on the person playing it.

Those of us sitting in the audience, or listening to the CD, may take the instrument for granted, but it can make or break an artist's performance. Especially in the case of Canadian piano legend Glenn Gould, who died in 1982.

His lifelong quest to find and then obsessively maintain the right piano has all the qualities of a passionate love affair.

It's rich grist for American journalist Katie Hafner, who has turned this less-well-known side of Gould's artistic life into a book: A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (McClelland & Stewart).

Hafner has shaped mountains of research and recollection – on Gould as well as the people and pianos in his life – into a tale that bristles with anecdotes and insights about a Canadian whose name is recognized around the world.

"We know so much about Gould, but we know so little about his piano," says Hafner of the Steinway grand the pianist discovered in the wings of the Eaton Auditorium in 1960 that became his constant recording and concert companion.

Gould demanded the piano travel with him to concert halls as well as recording studios in New York and Toronto.

It was a dream relationship, until movers accidentally dropped the piano during a move. Neither the Steinway factory nor Gould's personal piano technician, Vern Edquist, could fix the damage.

Edquist, one of the city's top piano technicians before retiring a number of years ago, tuned for Liberace, Victor Borge and a planeload of classical greats. But no one was like Gould in their demands.

"He had this thing about not wanting to expend any extra energy," says Edquist as he tries to describe the lightning response the pianist wanted.

As one of the by-products of Edquist's adjustments, some hammers would hit strings all by themselves when not called for. "Glenn called these `hiccups,'" says Hafner. They can be heard on some recordings, yet Gould, who was so finicky about so many details, never seemed to mind the extra notes.

It's one of many contradictions about the man and the artist. Edquist quotes Winston Churchill's description of Russia to explain his former boss: "a mystery wrapped in an enigma."

There's nothing more compelling to most journalists than trying to clear up mysteries. Hafner, who has been reintroducing herself to piano lessons, was at a piano camp in Bennington, Vt., five years ago, when a fellow camper began talking about Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. One person led to another and, soon, the idea for a book about his relationship with pianos began taking shape.

Although Hafner never met the pianist, all her reading, research and conversation with people who knew and worked with Gould have given him the dimensions of a living being. "I feel like I know him now," Hafner declares.

Does she like him? "Oh, absolutely. How could you not like all those quirks?" she exclaims.

Gould's magnetic personality continues to draw new fans, like Hafner. "His career seems to have had a second life," says Edquist, who says working with Hafner opened an avalanche of memories.

Hafner may have succeeded in humanizing Gould's piano, but she also adds fresh perspectives on Gould's other romantic relationship, with Cornelia Foss.

As Edquist reminds us, "he called himself the last Puritan," but, as we now know, he had a long affair with the wife of American composer and conductor Lukas Foss. Hafner's research includes conversations with Cornelia, which emphasize the gulf in Gould's life between the romantic relationship he would have liked to have, and the fragmented, messy one his nature and career ultimately afforded.

Hafner discovered Gould recorded some late solo-piano pieces by Brahms in direct response to the emotions associated with his affair with Foss. "This made me hear the music in a new way," Hafner says. "Now, knowing that they were a direct expression of how he felt about Cornelia, I think this is the most beautiful interpretation of those pieces I have ever heard."

Her work on A Romance on Three Legs inspired her so much that Hafner bought the 80-CD box set of all of Gould's Columbia recordings last fall. "I listened to it as a chronology – of his life and his experiences with the piano," the author explains. "Everything I heard now meant so much more, because I was following the piano as well."

Konshens Is Red Hot With Winner

Source: www.eurweb.com –  By Kevin Jackson

(June 19, 2008) Newcomer Konshens seems to have hit the right notes with the single Winner. Recorded late last year, the song has become a sort of an underground hit, making its way onto various mix tapes and drumming up solid rotation in the dancehall.  

‘Winner is a song that I wrote shortly after the birth of my daughter.  It was an expression of the mood that I was in and the bills were piling up and I just didn’t see a way out’, Konshens said in an interview earlier this week.

Though not surprised at the response that the song has gotten, Konshens who has steadily built up a fan base among the innercity, said he wanted a song that everyone could relate to. ‘I basically did a song that everyone can relate to. I guess it pushed the right buttons and people are now reacting to it’, said Konshens.

Born Garfield Spence, Konshens is from the Sherlock area of Duhaney Park.  A former student of the Excelsior High School, he graduated with eight CXC subjects. 

Konshens made his entry into the musical field in 2005 when he and his older brother Delus formed the duo Souljah. They got their big break in Japan after recording the hit single Pon Di Corner on the Guilty rhythm from Cash Flow Records. The song figured on various reggae charts in Japan and earned the duo a performance in the Asian territory. Later on the album Sons of Jah earned them a successful four week tour in various cities of Japan. 

Currently signed to the Natural Bridge stables, Konshens has been churning out singles one after the other. Among his most recent efforts are Music, Warriors (troop rhythm), Don’t Waste Your Talent, and Rasta Imposter (Young Veterans label).

Asked what he brings to the table as an artiste, Konshens said ‘I bring realness. I don’t see myself as a big artiste. I am expressing things that people tend to overlook’.

The video for the song Winner which was directed by Winston Mayhew, was released a week ago. The clip is quite entertaining and it is obvious that some amount of thought and coordination went into the making of the video.  Good camera movements, nice colouring, effective wardrobe, and interesting storyline make this video stand out as one of the best videos shot locally so far this year.

Red Holloway Tells The X-Rated Story Behind The Song `Music For Making Love'

Source: www.thestar.com - Ashante Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic

(June 21, 2008) There's an adage that good lawyers never elicit testimony that surprises them; something about adequate research and detailed preparation of witnesses. While good journalism depends on the opposite, you generally know what to expect.

Take my recent interview with sax dean Red Holloway, who participates in an Alto Summit at the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival tomorrow. Also adept on tenor and R&B, the Arkansas-born, Chicago-bred player is not a marquee name, but a respected instrumentalist who worked with the likes of Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and B.B. King in a career-spanning six decades.

When I get Holloway on the phone from his Cambria, Calif., home, we go down the usual path: coming up in jazz's '40s to '60s heyday, what to expect from tomorrow's four-sax front line with Donald Harrison, Greg Osby and Bobby Watson, keeping his chops honed, the early influence of a church pianist mother, his 2007 disc Something Old, Something New, etc.

Chatty Holloway exudes the mirth that defines his playing and occasional blues singing. I decide to have a little fun and ask the 81-year-old about the inspiration for a particularly seductive original on Something Old, figuring on some general platitudes about a late wife or current sweetie.

This is how it went:

Q. "Music For Making Love," that's such a deliberate title. Tell me about composing that tune.

A. Did you listen to the music?

Q. I did. It's hot.

A. Well, that's why I wrote it. Well, actually, I wrote some music for a porno album.

Q. You did? When?

A. That's why (the album title) says Something Old. That was back in probably the '80s.

Q. I've never heard of this: a jazz musician making music for a porno film.

A. I do this for a living, not as a hobby. Whatever they say they want, then I sit down and try and figure out ... I don't know if you look at porno or not ... probably ... maybe? You don't have to commit yourself.

Q. I'm not committing.

A. Nevertheless, the music they write – "Dunh! Dunh! Dunh!" – (it's) like you're running somewhere. How can you make love with all that noise and screaming guitars? I think it should be something that's beautiful, so that's why I wrote that music.

Q. So was this song ever contributed to one of those films?

A. It was contributed to an album. I just found out that someone has been trying to put it to a movie and they haven't consulted me about any royalties or nothing. People will steal your stuff, so if they don't have to pay you they won't. I have to tell you, this was done in a studio. It was done live. I had to get an idea of what to write for this.

Q. So you watched the film?

A. No, this was live, this was no film.

Q. While they're making the film?

A. Let me explain.

Q. Please.

A. This young lady had just got out of jail and this fellow – we have a friend who had a recording studio, so we did this late at night – we let them have all they want to drink, all they want to eat, and paid each one of them $1,000. And after they got into the love-making, we just had some plain, soft sweet music playing. Then after the "aahs" and the "oohs" and the "ooos," that gave me an idea of what to write.

So what I did – we already got all these sounds on the tape – then I wrote this music. In fact, I have a copy of the whole LP.

Q. That's hilarious. Did it pay well?

A. Oh, yeah. I got $12,000 for that.



I wondered why the three times married father of six needed a live visual to score sex, but I wasn't going to ask.

We rapped some more after that: about Holloway's collaborations with organist Jack McDuff, George Benson and singer Etta James; his failed 2004 Cambria mayoral bid; and the strawberry red hair that garnered a lifelong nickname in elementary school, but it was all, well ... anti-climactic.

After The Divas Left, Jazz Fest Picked Up

Source: www.globeandmail.com - J.D. Considine

(June 23, 2008) 'Diva" is a word that gets tossed around all too lightly these days.

Implying both adulation and approbation, it refers to those female singing stars whose sense of drama is personal and permanent, and who insist on star treatment whether on stage or off. Divas can be thrilling, but they can also be a pain, and it was more of the latter than the former when Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love and Merry Clayton jointly headlined at the Toronto Jazz Festival on Saturday.

Granted, each has seen better days. Spector, whose sultry croon powered the Ronnettes' 1963 smash Be My Baby, last saw the Top-40 in 1986, when she made a cameo appearance on Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight. Love, who sang lead on the Crystals' early-1960s hits (He's a Rebel, Da Doo Ron Ron), is probably better known now for having played Danny Glover's wife in the Lethal Weapon films. And Clayton, who made her name sparring with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, landed her last hit in 1988, through the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

Nonetheless, they offered the full diva treatment, arriving late, singing only a few songs, and haranguing the crowd whenever the response was insufficiently adulatory. Moreover, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement that no more than one diva could occupy the stage (or, for that matter, Nathan Phillips Square) at a time, which meant that the Lincolns, who served as the divas' backing band, wound up doing a couple numbers between each set.

Given that Spector and Clayton did just three songs each (Love generously offered four), the audience were left with precious little meat and a whole lot of filler. Spector was the saddest of the three, as her famously wide vibrato has become an outright wobble, and she no longer seemed capable of handling the melodic challenge of Walking In the Rain. Clayton, who scolded the crowd for "sitting like a bump on a log," changed Gimme Shelter's refrain from "rape, murder" to "oh, children," but otherwise did little to make the song hers (although, in fairness, the Lincolns' overly busy groove didn't help).

Only Love left an overall positive impression, and that was largely because she went beyond her own hits to close her set with an impassioned rendition of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come. Clearly, you don't have to live in the past to sing old songs.

Then again, we didn't need Darlene Love to remind us of that lesson, because blues guitarist John Hammond Jr. spent the opening set breathing new life into old blues. Working with a crack three-piece band (including boogie-woogie master Bruce Katz on piano), Hammond's set was a masterful balancing act between tradition and immediacy, bringing such snap to decades-old blues like Muddy Waters' I Be's Troubled that they sounded almost new.

Folding yesterday into today is the real work of traditionalists, and it would be hard to imagine a more inspiring example than the performance offered by Dr. John with the Wild Magnolias at Nathan Phillips Square Friday.

Dr. John has mined the classic strains of Creole New Orleans for decades, and has always preferred keeping the party going to preserving the music in amber. But his current album, City That Care Forgot, takes a somewhat different attitude, using a funky update of the old grooves to address the anger and frustration of post-Katrina New Orleans. He devoted most of his set Friday to songs from the album, and while neither the angry Promises, Promises nor the mournful My People Need a Second Line got quite as enthusiastic a response as his 1973 hit Right Place, Wrong Time, they remained profoundly moving.

Although the Dr. John concert was prefaced by an official opening ceremony, the Nathan Phillips jazz tent had been baptized earlier Friday with a performance by Gary Morgan and PanAmericana!, a remarkable ensemble that combines rhythmic ideas drawn from Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with big band writing in the Count Basie tradition.

For this Toronto show, the New York-based bandleader recruited a number of the city's finest players, who delivered polished performances of the rhythmically complex Moragatu (featuring a wonderfully sinuous solo by saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff) and the densely voiced Refractions. Morgan is a regular visitor to these parts, and his Friday afternoon set doubtless left many jazz fans eager for his return.

Special to The Globe and Mail

John Hammond Jr. plays the Vancouver International Jazz Festival June 26.

Ne-Yo, Keyshia Cole At Reggae Sumfest

Source: www.eurweb.com

(June 23, 2008) *Ne-Yo and Keyshia Cole will headline this year’s international night on Friday, July 18 for the 16th staging of Reggae Sumfest, set to take place at Catherine Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica, July 13-19.  The festival showcases the best of Dancehall and Reggae music, as well as top R&B/Hip Hop performers, and each year attracts in excess of 30,000 patrons to the tourist capital of Montego Bay.  “The Jamaica Tourist Board is again pleased to lend its support to Reggae Sumfest, one of Jamaica’s premiere music events, which has sought to showcase the island’s musical genius while promoting Montego Bay and Jamaica as a vacation destination," said Basil Smith, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism. Prices are $15 for July 13; $29 for July 17; and $50 for July 18 and 19. Tickets can be purchased online at www.islandstubs.com. For travel packages and additional information on Reggae Sumfest, visit www.reggaesumfest.com. The Festival Schedule is listed below:

Sunday, July 13
• The opening Beach Party for the festival will feature the two sound systems Classique and Danger Zone.

Thursday, July 17
• Fans will enjoy performances from Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, I Octane, Elephant Man, Lady Saw, Vybz Kartel, Demarco, Anthony B, Wayne Marshall, Macka Diamond, Ninja Man, Voice Mail, Shane O, Assasin, Busy Signal, Spice, Serani, Harry Todler, Erup and Munga.

Friday, July 18
• Featured performers include Jah Cure, Courtney John, Richie Spice, Queen Ifrica, and Pressure.

Saturday, July 19
• The festival’s curtains come down with a number of Jamaican artists with international acclaim, including Beres Hammond, John Holt, Brick & Lace, Tarrus Riley and Etana.

What Happens If Jazz, Classical And Barenaked Ladies Collide?

Source: www.globeandmail.com - J.D. Considine

(June 20, 2008) It's difficult to imagine a more vivid example of musical fusion than the ensemble camped out in a third-floor rehearsal room at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. In addition to violin, cello and piano - the components of a classical piano trio - there is also double bass, saxophone and guitar, the makings of a small jazz combo. And facing the six, from the other side of the semi-circle, is Barenaked Ladies vocalist Steven Page, holding a microphone but singing without assistance, the way a tenor in recital would.

This is a rehearsal for Art of Time's season finale, Songbook 2, which will feature Page singing songs by Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Jane Siberry and others, as well as a performance of the Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 1 by Steven Sitarsky and Art of Time musical director Andrew Burashko. The program is not a "pops" concert, but instead a serious effort by serious musicians who just happen to hail from a variety of disciplines.

"A lot of the point of view is simply about who the ensemble is, bringing people from different disciplines into one place," Page says during a lunch break. "Even the songwriters come from different places. So the point of the show, really, is to create a meeting place for disparate writers and performers."

The concept is simple enough. Burashko invites a singer to choose a group of songs, which are then arranged for the six-piece chamber ensemble. Between the writing, the playing and the singing, the Art of Time performance hopes to blur whatever lines exist between classical and pop, jazz and art song, or any other genre that might get swept into the mix.

"Letting Steven and the other singers choose the songs was incredibly important," Burashko explains. "If they have a strong emotional connection to the song, they wouldn't be thrown by anything in the arrangement."

Burashko and company have billed the program, which takes place Friday and Saturday at the Enwave Theatre in Toronto's Harbourfront, as Songbook 2, but it's actually the Art of Time's third experiment with the format.

"First we did it with a jazz singer named Melissa Stylianou, and we did jazz standards," Burashko says. "But it was exactly the same concept, which was getting a bunch of people with totally disparate sensibilities, and giving them carte blanche to arrange songs without robbing them of their nature.

"We did it last year with Sarah Slean, which worked like a dream, and we just recorded that. So the idea is an old one. Working with Steven is a new thing."

Working with classical musicians isn't exactly new for Page. "I sang chorally all the way through high school and even university, and I was in the Mendelssohn Youth Choir in Toronto," he says. "I just loved everything about it, the social aspect, feeling the noise come out of your body - all of the things that made me want to be a singer."

"I took it seriously, but it was never something I considered pursuing as a career," he adds. "I sort of fell into pop music, and since then, I've only had bits and pieces of opportunities to do serious singing. This last year, I hosted the Black and White Gala for the NAC Opera, and got to Nessun Dorma with Michael Schade and Russell Braun." He laughs. "That's my version of air guitaring."

For Songbook 2, Page is getting to sing "12 songs I've always wanted to sing," but in arrangements that go well beyond anything he or the songwriters might have imagined. Take, for example, For We Are the King of the Boudoir, which was written by Stephin Merritt for his band the Magnetic Fields. The song itself is a bit of a burlesque in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta style, but the arrangement (by Cameron Wilson) takes a sharp left turn with an instrumental section that plunges the tune into densely modern harmonic territory.

"I asked [Wilson] to write an interlude, because the song itself is what, a minute and a half long?" Burashko says. "And part of the beauty of this concept is that you're always taking a chance, because it's important to give the people the freedom to do what they want, so that they feel fulfilled."

Page adds, "I like performing it, because it's nice to know I'm enabling someone to have all the freedom they wish in doing an arrangement. It's like they're part of the band at that point."

Speaking of the band, what of Page's other outfit? "We're always working - doing one-offs or benefits or this, that, and the other thing," he says. "Plus we're always writing, so we think we're busy. But people stop me on the street and say, 'You guys still together?' It's like - oh my god, we gotta do something here!"

Fortunately, the Ladies have big plans for the coming year. "This is the 20th anniversary of the group, so we're going to do an album in the fall, have it out in the spring and do a fairly intensive tour to celebrate," he says.

In the meantime, he hopes that BNL fans who don't normally attend chamber concerts might be curious enough to check out the Art of Time program. "Part of what we're doing here is just getting people into the concert who may not normally come," Page says. "I know there are lots of classical music fans who think, let's not cross these two things because it's cheesy. But I think the cheesiest thing the classical world does is pander to the most banal mainstream taste."

And there's nothing banal or mainstream on the schedule for Art of Time's Songbook 2.

Songbook 2 will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow at the Enwave Theatre at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. For tickets, call 416-973-4000, or go to http://www.artoftimeensemble.com.

Mike Stern Lets His Guitar Do The Talking

Source: www.thestar.com - Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist

(June 25, 2008) Mike Stern has a curriculum vitae that's the envy of every musician who dreams of a life in jazz.

The 55-year-old guitarist's creative associations with jazz legends Miles Davis, Billy Cobham and Jaco Pastorius, among countless others, provide jaw-dropping evidence of constant musical renewal, mercurial versatility, fertile imagination and dogged persistence.

For all that, Stern – who performs in a guitar-heavy triple-header Friday at the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival with John Scofield and John Abercrombie – is a plainspoken and down-to-earth conversationalist. He's humble about his successes (four Grammy nominations and numerous jazz/instrumental awards) and eager to improve what fans and critics see as a firm and comprehensive grip on his instrument and his milieu.

"I don't know s--t," the Boston-born, Washington D.C.-raised Stern said in a recent phone interview from Tokyo. "The more I learn, the more I need to learn. I'm still learning from guys I've been playing with for years and from others I meet on the road."

In that number are American fusionists the Yellowjackets, with whom Stern recorded the critically acclaimed album Lifecycle.

"They've been together, with different personnel, for 30 years and have developed a solid band sound," Stern said. "When I sat in, it was a natural fit. We just did a show together in Minneapolis and though my priority is still my own band (he's currently working with bassist Chris Minh Doky and drummer Lionel Cordew), I'm looking forward to touring Europe with the Yellowjackets in July."

That Europeans and Canadians are more appreciative of his music – a distinctive amalgamation of bebop-infused jazz, hard rock guitar textures, and country, blues and world-music elements – than audiences in the U.S., comes down to education funding and the financial burden of America's military adventures, Stern believes.

"There's not a lot of support for the arts and arts education in America right now," he said.

"More and more is going to the military, and what really worries me is that there's less and less outrage.

"It's just a general observation, but that seems not to be the case in Europe, where they take their culture seriously, or Canada. I recently taught some sessions at Humber College in Toronto and it was as good a music school as Berklee – lots of interest, lots of support.

"Maybe things will get better in America after the elections. We don't have four more years to waste."

Time wasted is anathema to Stern. He did enough of that living large – with the help of alcohol and drugs – back in the day