Music & Musicians
75 posts found
-
Ringo Starr Gets the Museum Treatment: A new exhibition featuring artifacts from the drummer's life and career opens at the Grammy Museum
Saturday, June 15, 2013 “Life is weird,” said Ringo Starr, who will turn 74 this July, at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles for the launch of “Ringo: Peace & Love” — the first major exhibit ever dedicated to a drummer and the first time Ringo has shared memorabilia from his private collection. Calling Ringo, “the most significant drummer in the history of rock and roll,” Grammy Museum executive director Bob Santelli said the exhibit was in keeping with the… -
Don Was' Excellent Adventure: On his new gig as president of Blue Note Records and his old job as Rolling Stones collaborator
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 PURPLECLOVER.com Don Was, the multi-Grammy award-winning producer, a close collaborator of the Rolling Stones whose band Was/Not Was still plays the occasional gig; and who last year became president of legendary Jazz label Blue Note Records, is easy to spot in a crowd, or a police lineup for that matter, because he’s the tall guy with the dreadlocks wearing the hat and shades and the flipflops. I’ve known Don for more than a decade (our wives… -
The Price for Dylan Going Electric
Bob Dylan playing the guitar. Image Courtesy of The Estate of David Gahr/Getty Images The guitar stood on a stand in a small conference room in corporate offices in Beverly Hills. A black Fender Stratocaster with a white body plate, a few nicks to its side, it looked simple, basic, uncomplicated. Yet the story that brings this particular musical instrument to auction at Christies in New York on Dec. 6 has put an estimated value on it of $300,000 to… -
Lou Adler: Low Key, Lucky and Very Cool
From left: Herb Alpert in the studio with Lou Adler in 1970. Photo courtesy of Herb Alpert Presents About a mile north of Duke’s in Malibu, a right turn takes you up to a bluff with its own driveway, which leads to a large parking lot. There, on the day I visited, a tour bus was parked in front of a modest ranch house, alongside several other cars, none of them too fancy. The front door was open, and I… -
Q&A with Noa, Israel's Superstar Singer-Songwriter and Peace Activist
Noa Achinoam Nini, the Israeli singer-songwriter known to all simply as Noa, will perform on June 18 at American Jewish University as part of the new Geller Festival of the Arts. Born in Tel Aviv in 1969, Noa moved to New York as a child and lived there with her family until she returned to Israel at 16. After her military service as part of an entertainment unit, Noa went on to Israel’s Rimon music school, where she met… -
Rita Rocks her Persian Roots
Pop singer Rita will perforn in concert on Nov. 1 at UCLA. On Nov. 1, Israel’s most popular and enduring pop icon, Rita Yahan-Farouz, known the world over simply as Rita, will appear at UCLA’s Royce Hall, along with a special band assembled for this tour. She will perform songs from throughout her career, in Hebrew, as well as songs from “My Joys” (HaSmachot Shelanu), her most recent hit album, which includes lyrics in Farsi. Middle Eastern flavor and gypsy… -
A Musical Portrait of LA
“Elvis Whispers Softly,” 1956, from “Who Shot Rock & Roll?” Photograph © Alfred Wertheimer, The Wertheimer Collection The recent regional extravaganza known as Pacific Standard Time (PST), a six-month, far-ranging agglomeration of Southern California exhibitions, installations and performances, began with a series of shows that made a very convincing argument for the importance of art created in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1980. The role Los Angeles has played in shaping American culture (and, conversely, the role culture has played… -
Bell Rings it in
Violinist Joshua Bell. Photo by Timothy White Recently I sat down with violinist Joshua Bell to talk about being a classical music performer in the 21st century and a star in the age of iPods and auto-tuned performances. Bell, who will perform July 15 at the Hollywood Bowl, talked about how technology can enhance the concert experience, what makes for a great performer and his deepening connection to Israel. Now 42, Bell has been playing violin since he was 5.… -
Bagels, Bongos and Josh Kun
If USC professor Josh Kun had his way, the Jewish people might not be known as "the People of the Book" but rather "the People of the Record." "Bagels and Bongos," Irving Fields Trio, Decca, 1959 Courtesy of Josh Kun and Roger Bennett "Jews on Vinyl," curated by Kun and Roger Bennett, of the Charles and Andrea Bronfman Foundation, is the new exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, where you can seat yourself on a midcentury-modern couch and tap your… -
The Kraft of Movie Music
"If there's music in a movie," said Robert Kraft, president of Fox Music, "whether on screen, or underscore, or someone is playing guitar in a scene, I'm involved." That includes the decisions concerning music at every level. "How it's paid for, is it creatively appropriate to the film, is it legal, is it focused on selling more movie tickets if it can be ... basically every musical aspect of a film at Fox is my responsibility," he said. Kraft is… -
The Grammy Museum: The Culture We Keep
The Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, the Venus de Milo, Van Gogh's "Starry Night," Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," Pete Seeger's banjo, the handwritten lyrics to Grandmaster Flash's "The Message." You might wonder what all these cultural artifacts have in common. But as of Dec. 6, they can all be seen in museums -- the last two items just went on view at the new Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. I place them together because they underline the question that… -
Wild about Diamond
David Wild wants you to know that he is an unabashed Neil Diamond fan. So much so that he has written a book titled, "He Is ... I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond" (Da Capo Press) that is less biography, according to Wild, than "tribute album." Being a Diamond fan (dare we call him a Diamond head?) is as much a part of Wild as, well ... being Jewish. Wild grew up in Tenafly,…