Most performers are limited to various kinds of songs, and for the great ones that range is often very vast. We hear about a 'Sinatra kind of song,' or a 'Judy Garland kind of song.' But you’ve never heard anyone speak of an 'Ella Fitzgerald kind of song,' because there’s no such thing. She could and did sing everything. | | | | Ella Fitzgerald circa 1970.
(Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Archive Photos/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Most performers are limited to various kinds of songs, and for the great ones that range is often very vast. We hear about a 'Sinatra kind of song,' or a 'Judy Garland kind of song.' But you’ve never heard anyone speak of an 'Ella Fitzgerald kind of song,' because there’s no such thing. She could and did sing everything.”
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| | rantnrave:// Her range was astounding, both technically and stylistically. Her mechanics were nearly flawless, her heart huge. ELLA FITZGERALD, who would have turned 100 years old today, was also a quintessential AMERICAN cultural figure: revered and canonized for who she was—and criticized for who she was not and for what people wanted her to be. (And, damn, if she couldn't satisfy you by following her own muse, what chance do the rest of us have?) We remember the First Lady of Song in our REDEF MusicSET "Scat That: Ella Fitzgerald at 100"... That time BIG BOI walked in on that class about OUTKAST at GEORGIA TECH... Guess who is copyright-enforcement company RIGHTSCORP's biggest customer?... ROGER WATERS, TUNDE ADEBIMPE, THURSTON MOORE and YOUNG FATHERS join BISHOP DESMOND TUTU, ALICE WALKER and others in signing an open letter asking RADIOHEAD not to play in ISRAEL on JULY 19... Punk band DOWNTOWN BOYS plays COACHELLA, then calls out the festival's ownership and management. And not just for the expected reasons... That time your old label pulled your record from SPOTIFY and you had no idea why. Then again, it was no ordinary label... Welcome back, BANANARAMA... Get well soon, ELTON JOHN and GREGG ALLMAN. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| To even begin to try to comprehend Fela, perhaps an impossible ask in itself, you have to understand and accept. | | |
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| Algorithms, concerts, noise: Understanding the new dimensions of sound. | | |
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| Born April 25, 2017, she was the First Lady of Song—master of swing, bebop, the Great American Songbook and anything else she wanted to sing. A quintessential American cultural figure, she was canonized for who she was—and criticized for who she was not, and for what people wanted her to be. | | |
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| Outkast's Big Boi dropped into a class our Southern Music columnist Dr. Joycelyn Wilson was teaching. These are the lessons he taught. | | |
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| From Nirvana to Foo Fighters, Virginia Grohl knows what it’s like to be the mum of a rock star. Now she’s written a book comparing notes with other rock mothers including Pharrell Williams’ and Michael Stipe’s. | | |
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| The most surprising thing about Frank Ocean’s return is that it hasn’t ended. | | |
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| There are some old ways of doing things. There are some new ways of doing things | | |
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| The high cost of entering the streaming market means there isn’t enough innovation and experimentation, reckons CrossBorderWorks founder Vickie Nauman. This means potentially profitable new avenues that could further grow the streaming music business are not being explored. | | |
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| Hurray for the Riff Raff, tUnE-YaRds, and more on how Revolutions Per Minute has helped them connect with charitable and political causes they care about, during Our First 100 Days and beyond. | | |
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| I wasn't a Bruce Springsteen fan, at least until this past weekend. As a young black millennial from coastal Virginia, I grew up liking genres as varied as hip-hop and Broadway showtunes, but never really got into the particular blend of classic rock Springsteen offers. | | |
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| We hung out with the godfather of yacht rock at Coachella to talk working with Thundercat, his first new album in ten years, and Trump's America. | | |
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| "The first season is a lot more serious, and the music reflects that. We have a lot more fun in the second, and I think, especially, the third season." | | |
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| In March 2015 the New York Times named Zachary Woolfe its classical music editor, even as the paper was undergoing one of the most penetrating periods of self-evaluation in its history. Woolfe addressed those changes, large and small, during a wide-ranging conversation. | | |
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| Quality Control founders Coach K and Pee talk Migos, Lil Yachty, Stefflon Don -- and global domination. | | |
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| Their audience didn't understand them. Their label didn't want to talk to them. Not to worry: For the Beastie Boys, it was a brand-new morning. | | |
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| Tour coaches are better for the environment (but don’t count on electric buses yet). | | |
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| Fans of the Tejano singer, who was murdered in 1995, gather to celebrate her life. | | |
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| The punk icon remembers the influence of the Asheton brothers and Ann Arbor’s scene. | | |
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| Torii MacAdams speaks with Thundercat about his cat, his new record, 'Drunk,' and taking time to say hello to strangers. | | |
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| Bananarama were the biggest girl group of the 80s thanks to their gleefully shambolic pop hits and punk attitude. Then came their ‘painful divorce’. Can Siobhan, Keren and Sara recapture their glory days? | | |
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| | | | | | | Live at the Cannes Jazz Festival, July 8, 1958. |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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