I don't want to be a pop star. . . well. . . maybe I do . . . maybe I STILL do. . .
. . . well, mayBE I AM ENVIOUS!! I ALWAYS DID WANT TO BECOME A POP STAR!!!
Who didn't? Didn't You!!???
Well, let's be real. I am who I am, 55 years old, married with three grown children, employed full-time (in a field OTHER than music), a homeowner, taxpayer, American citizen, community member, concerned citizen of planet earth in 2013. I suffer no delusions. Although I would love to achieve some modicum*
*mod·i·cum
/ˈmädikəm/
Noun
A small quantity of a particular thing, esp. something considered desirable or valuable.
Synonyms
trace
of success with my original music, I am nothing but realistic about what my music is, how big a market that it may have, and just how lucrative that modicum could be.
But why does it still trouble me, (to the point of jealousy??? . . . not absolutely, honestly or truly to that point) but still, there's a twinge when I see (especially when I hear) some adolescent (particularly male, yet not exclusively) heartthrob pouting into the camera like a doe in the headlights and belting out inane lyrics to a technologically perfect yet emotionally vapid dance beat that's been perfectly produced to to the point of boredom. . .
. . . DAMN. . . I wish I could have been a Pop Star!
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(from wikipedia.com)
". . . George Duke attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley before earning a bachelor's degree in trombone and composition with a minor in contrabass, from the San Francisco Conservatory in 1967. Playing initially with friends from garages to local clubs, Duke quickly eased his way into session work, which refined his abilities and expanded his approach to music. (He later earned his Masters Degree in composition from San Francisco State University. His website mentions a short stint teaching a course on Jazz And American Culture at Merritt Junior College in Oakland). Beginning in 1967 Duke experimented further with jazz fusion, playing and recording with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, as well as performing with the Don Ellis Orchestra, and Cannonball Adderley's band, while he acquainted himself with the avantgarde musician Frank Zappa. Duke appeared on a number of Frank Zappa's albums in the early and mid-1970s, including Chunga's Revenge, 200 Motels, Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe, Over-Nite Sensation, One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury and Roxy & Elsewhere.
Duke's other high-profile collaborators include Jean-Luc Ponty, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham,[citation needed] Cannonball Adderley, his cousin Dianne Reeves, Deniece Williams, Jeffrey Osborne, George Clinton, Anita Baker, Regina Belle, Rachelle Ferrell, Marilyn Scott and Mike Mainieri's jazz fusion group Steps Ahead, for whom he produced the track "Magnetic Love." Duke played on Herb Ellis' album, Soft Shoe (Concord, 1974) with Harry Sweets Edison; Duke played the piano and organ.
He also served as a record producer and composer on two instrumental tracks on Miles Davis albums: "Backyard Ritual" (from Tutu, 1986) and "Cobra" (from Amandla, 1989). He has also worked with a number of notable Brazilian musicians, including singer Milton Nascimento, percussionist Airto Moreira and singer Flora Purim. Sheila E appeared on Duke's late-1970s solo albums Don't Let Go and Master of the Game.
Duke had been fairly visible in the R&B world releasing funk-based songs like "Reach for It" and "Dukey Stick". In 1979 he traveled to Rio de Janeiro, where he recorded A Brazilian Love Affair. He employed singers Flora Purim and Milton Nascimento and percussionist Airto Moreira. The album featured some Latin jazz and jazz-influenced material. From a jazz standpoint, the album's most noteworthy songs include Nascimento's "Cravo e Canela," "Love Reborn," and "Up from the Sea It Arose and Ate Rio in One Swift Bite." In addition was "Brazilian Sugar" which was featured on the 2006 video game Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. Meanwhile, Nascimento's vocal on the ballad "Ao Que Vai Nascer" is an example of Brazilian pop at its most sensuous. This acclaimed album contained a wide variety of genres.
Duke has also worked as musical director at numerous large-scale musical events, including the Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, London in 1988. In 1989, he temporarily replaced Marcus Miller as musical director of NBC's acclaimed late-night music performance program Sunday Night during its first season.[4] Duke was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
"No Rhyme or No Reason" can be heard during the period of time designated as Quiet Storm.
Duke's songs have been used by a wide variety of contemporary musicians in a wide array of genres. These include: "I Love You More", sampled by house music-act Daft Punk for their hit "Digital Love"; "Guilty", sampled by electronica music artist Mylo in his song "Guilty of Love" on Destroy Rock & Roll. . . "
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(from wikipedia.com)
". . . Nathaniel Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.
Adderley was born in Tampa, Florida, but moved to Tallahassee, Florida, when both parents were hired to teach at Florida A&M University. He and Cannonball played with Ray Charles in the early 1940s in Tallahassee. In the 1950s Nat Adderley worked with his brother's original group, with Lionel Hampton, and with J. J. Johnson, then in 1959 joined his brother's new quintet and stayed with it until Cannonball's death in 1975. He composed "Work Song," "Jive Samba," and "The Old Country" for this group.
After his brother's death he led his own groups and recorded extensively. During this period he worked with, among others, Ron Carter, Sonny Fortune, Johnny Griffin, Antonio Hart, and Vincent Herring.
He also helped in the founding and development of the annual Child of the Sun Jazz Festival, held annually at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida.
Upon his death as a result of complications from diabetes, aged 68, in Lakeland, Florida, in January 2000, Adderley was interred near his brother in the Southside Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. His son, Nat Adderley, Jr. a keyboardist, was Luther Vandross's long-time musical director. . ."
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(Source: By Matt Stoller, Naked Capitalism | News Analysis - http://truth-out.org/news/item/13648-eight-corporate-subsidies-in-the-fiscal-cliff-bill-from-goldman-sachs-to-disney-to-nascar) Corporate CEOs expressed to the administration their agreement with modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy to tackle the deficit problem. In exchange for their support, they wanted “tax extenders” amounting to about $205 billion in tax breaks to be included in the fiscal cliff bill. Few political operatives paid attention to this part of the bill. A few hundred billion dollars of tax expenditures is a BIG deal to overlook.
And what about our popular media? Talk about overlooking!
And here are the winners. . .
1) NASCAR - Anyone who builds a racetrack and associated facilities will get tax breaks on it. This is projected to cost $43 million over two years.
2) Railroads - Tax credits will be available to certain railroads for maintaining their tracks. The value of this one, around $165 million a year.
3) Disney - Will be allowed extension of special expensing rules for certain film and television productions. According to the Joint Tax Committee, was projected to cost $150 million for 2010 and 2011.
4) Mining Companies - Will get tax incentives to buy safety equipment and train their employees on mine safety.
5) Goldman Sachs Headquarters – "tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,” which rather than going to small businesses affected after 9/11 (originally intended). Michael Bloomberg actually thought the program was excessive at $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds.
6) $9 billion Off-shore financing loophole for banks –Basically allows American banks and manufacturers to engage in certain lending practices without having to pay taxes on income earned from it. This is well supported by GE, Caterpillar, and JP Morgan.
7) Tax credits for foreign subsidiaries – Extends the “Look-through treatment of payments between related CFCs under foreign personal holding company income rules.” The cost was $1.5 billion from 2010 and 2011, and the US Chamber loves it. It’s a provision that allows US multinationals to not pay taxes on income earned by companies they own abroad.
8) Bonus Depreciation, R&D Tax Credit – Projected to cost $8 billion for 2010 and 2011, and the depreciation provisions were projected to cost about $110 billion for those two years, with some of that made up in later years.
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(from wikipedia.com)
". . . Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner (generally known as Marjoe Gortner; born 14 January 1944 in Long Beach, California) is a former revivalist and actor who first gained attention during the late 1940s when, aged four, he became the youngest-known ordained preacher. He then gained notoriety in the 1970s when he starred in Marjoe, an Oscar-winning behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching. The name "Marjoe" is a portmanteau of the biblical names "Mary" and "Joseph".
When Gortner was five, his father, Vernon, a third-generation[clarification needed] minister, noticed his son's talent for mimicry and his fearlessness of strangers and public settings. His parents claimed he had received a vision from God during a bath, but this was later conceded by Marjoe to be a lie his parents forced him to repeat. He claimed they enforced this by mock-drowning him because they could not beat him which would leave bruises which might be noticed during his many public appearances. They began training him to deliver sermons, complete with dramatic gestures and emphatic lunges. By the time he was four, his parents arranged for him to perform a marriage ceremony for a film crew from Paramount studios and referred to him as "the youngest ordained minister in history". It is not clear, however, who ordained him or if he was even ordained at all.
Until his teenage years, Gortner and his parents traveled the United States holding revival meetings. As well as teaching him scriptural passages, his parents also taught him several money-making tactics involving the sale of supposedly "holy" articles at revivals which promised to heal the sick and dying. By the time he was sixteen, his family had amassed what he later estimated to be three million dollars. Shortly after Gortner's sixteenth birthday, his father absconded with the money and a disillusioned Marjoe left his mother for San Francisco.[citation needed] He spent the remainder of his teenage years as an itinerant hippie until his early twenties, when, hard-pressed for money, he decided to put his old skills to work and re-emerged on the preaching circuit with a charismatic stage-show modeled after those of contemporary rockers, most notably Mick Jagger. He made enough to take six months off every year, during which he returned to California and lived off the previous six months' earnings.
In the late 1960s, Gortner suffered a crisis of conscience about his double life and felt his performing talents might be put to better use as an actor or singer. . . "
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When I first read Samantha's review of my release ANOTHER SHOT, I was somewhat hurt. After all, when one spends considerable time, effort (and maybe even talent) on a particular project, one doesn't like to have it so easily and summarily dismissed. But on re-reading it, she really did have some nice things to say about the solo piano. I don't really feel so bad about it after reading it again. Well, you live and you learn. I'm willing to go on. I even hope Samantha will review another one of my releases. (Hell. I got 5 Golden Eggs - That doesn't sound bad. . .does it?)
(from "Buzzlegoose.com" by Samantha Hatfield)
"In all of my musical experiences there is a genre that has in some ways always evaded me. While I love old standards, there is something about jazz music that I just never really understood. When I was passed Ray Jozwiak’s latest album Another Shot I sat down, in an attempt to find the beauty in a musical art form that never totally made sense.
Ray Jozwiak is a Baltimore-based artist who performs what can be referred to as “fractured jazz”. His compositions are focused in piano performance. Jozwiak uses piano, keyboard, acoustic guitar, and electronic and acoustic percussion throughout the album to achieve a layering effect with much of his music. Much of his music is what can be called “fractured jazz” but his more classic piano compositions are much more enjoyable.
“Impressive”, the second track on the album is a more traditional jazz piano performance. Rather than getting weighed down by the combination of too many instrumental layers, Jozwiak uses just the piano to create a rather lengthy arrangement. It is pleasant to listen to containing many bluesy tones. “Pedantic Verdantic” is another soothing piano composition.
In much of the rest of the album, Jozwiak provides music that listens more as an instrumental jam band break a la Phish. However, this is a somewhat lame comparison because when you listen to a Phish record there is something about it that really jams ringing true with heart and feeling. Much of Jozwiak’s music has a fake electrical sound as though it were produced in a computer or through the stock sounds of an electric keyboard.
“Fred & Ginger” is a very strange track that sounds as though it was imported straight from a 70s couples cruise. This is the only track on the album that contains vocals and was intended to be a “tale of woe” but did not read this way at all. There is something extremely cheesy about the whole song that becomes muddled about halfway through getting lost in a mess of drum, tambourine, piano and vocals.
Jozwiak’s Another Shot certainly made me appreciate traditional jazz much more than I ever had in the past but his experimental, keyboard produced “fractured jazz” lacked heart and sincerity. His compositions seem strong, but he needs work on finding something truly inspiring and heartfelt.
