Entertainment Bay

Michael Bublé, who has sold over 22 million CDs worldwide, released his last album back in 2007, the Grammy-winning Call Me Irresponsible. This record, his third, was a #1 album in more than 15 countries. No stranger to success, he decided to do things a little differently for his next album.

Bublé takes a much more introspective approach to each song on the new album. “Basically, I sang the truth – made each song autobiographical – and you can definitely hear the difference,” he says. “The musicians and I all sat in the room, recorded it right from the floor and we let the sounds all come together and bleed into one another. It’s not contrived. Not too perfect. It just feels really good.”

He recorded the album in multiple recording studios over the last six months, working in L.A., Brooklyn, New York, and his home town of Vancouver. Working with producers David Foster, Bob Rock, and Humberto Gatica, it includes 13 songs, including such standards as “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” “Georgia On My Mind,” and Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.” His first single “Haven’t Met You Yet” was the first single to hit the radio back in August.

Here’s the first video from Crazy Love for “Haven’t Met You Yet”:

Be sure to check out Michael Bublé’s new album Crazy Love when it hits shelves on October 9, 2009.

For years I accepted on faith that the best album ever made was Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. While that album remains a stunning example of the summer of love, the true trinity of the Beatles oeuvre are Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road–with the nod going to Abbey Road as the Beatles final studio album.

The only thing I knew about The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” was the goofy album cover where all four band members are crossing the street. Now I consider it one of the best, most innovative rock ‘n’ roll albums ever released. And I mean innovative and fresh by today’s standards, not just the standards of the late 1960s. These guys practically invented the art of making melodic rock music, and they certainly weren’t afraid to experiment with sounds and ideas.

“Abbey Road (Remastered)” offers something for everybody; a 90-year-old senior citizen could enjoy this album as easily as a 5-year-old kid. The sounds and tastes of this record are all over the map. For instance, whereas “Come Together” is a serious rock anthem with a heavy message, songs like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Lennon-McCartney) and “Octopus’s Garden” (Ringo Starr) are silly pop nuggets. Romance is also present, like on George Harrison’s beautiful “Something” (which includes a swooning string section), and on the dramatic “Oh! Darling,” where Paul McCartney belts out the lyrics in his most sincere tone. Overall, there’s a boyish, innocent quality to these songs, especially lyrically, yet a sophistication to the sound and musical development. In short, the Beatles, as well as their producer, George Martin, possessed the resources, talent, musicality and what must have been a sense of finality to create one of the best records ever.

Check Out this…so groovy

Though the Beatles were on their way out with “Abbey Road,” the seven-minute-plus “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is reminiscent of another British band on their way in back in 1969, Led Zeppelin. The song features longing lyrics and an indelibly heavy guitar riff in the style of Jimmy Page before he became a household name. Conversely, songs like “Because” and “Sun King” are positively airy and lightweight, unbelievably catchy. The Beatles thrived on hazy, dreamy songs that featured their head-in-the-cloud choruses and melting melodies, making it all seem as easy as a summer breeze.

Beginning at “You Never Give Me Your Money,” the album transforms into a hot-potato medley of one sublimely melodic song after another, a shockingly creative assembly line of tracks that magically blend together, thanks mostly to producer George Martin. It’s comparable to a movie score with words or a spur-of-the moment “Best of” mixture. McCartney and Lennon deserve the lion’s share of credit for creating this 20-minute joyride, on the second side of one album. Despite the inevitable end of the band, the guys sound excited, joyful, happy to be alive, inspiring, a little crazy and willing to experiment on their way out.

As the music on “Abbey Road (Remastered)” mutates from one moment to the next — sometimes in the space of just one song — the lustrous sounds and sky-high choruses mix perfectly with the weightless lyrics. As the album winds down and such greats as “Mr. Mustard” and the punk-ish “Polythene Pam” rage on, the band opt to go out on a positive and touching message that truly resonates. Overall, I understand now why many have said that there are the Beatles and then there is everyone else.

Check Out Abbey Road (Remastered) on Amazon.com

International superstar and multi-media mogul, JAY-Z confirms the most highly speculated date in recent music history. Friday, September 11, 2009 is the official release date for the eagerly anticipated The Blueprint 3
. The follow up to JAY-Z’s instant classic Blueprint (2001) and the critically acclaimed Blueprint 2 (2002); The Blueprint 3 is the final installment in the The Blueprint series. The Blueprint 3 is a Roc Nation / Live Nation release distributed through Atlantic Records. The album’s first single “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” has exploded since it’s June release. Performed live on the BET Awards on June 28th, the song’s video premiered immediately following the show to great acclaim. Second single “Run This Town” with Rihanna and Kanye West was just serviced to radio. Since 1995, Jay-Z has dominated the rap industry and set the trends for a generation. Over his career, he has sold more than 40 million albums and sold out arenas worldwide. Winner of 7 Grammy Awards, his 10 No. 1 albums tie him with Elvis Presley and place him behind only The Beatles for the most of all-time. He is the founder and chairman of Rocawear, co-owner of the NJ Nets, 40/40 Sports Clubs and co-owner of the skin care and beauty line Carol’s Daughter. Jay-Z became the first non-athlete to enter into a major footwear coventure with his S. Carter line for Reebok and in addition, continues his philanthropic work through his Water For LIfe initiative and Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2008, JAY-Z entered into a partnership with Live Nation forming Roc Nation. This groundbreaking new division, headed by Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter creates unique management, publishing and distribution deals with artists and songwriters.

Kanye West is in the producer’s chair for seven tracks, and it’s clear he was reaching for the same energy level as the original Blueprint (which he produced). “What We Talkin’ About” begins the album with a wave of surging, oppressive synth, while Jay-Z enumerates with an intriguing lack of detail what he’s said and what’s been said about him, ending with a nod to Barack Obama and the future. West also produced the second, “Thank You,” and while it starts with typical Jay-Hovah brio, the last verse piles on more witty criticism of unnamed rappers. There’s plenty more lyrical violence to come, but most of the targets are much safer than they were eight years earlier. (Jay doesn’t sound very convincing when he claims in “DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)” that it’s not “politically correct” to rail against one of the most reviled trends in pop music during the 2000s.)

Listen D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)!

From there, he branches out with a calculating finesse, drawing in certain demographics via a roster of guests, from Young Jeezy (hardcore) to Drake (teens) to Kid Cudi (the backpacker crowd). The king of the crossovers here is “Empire State of Mind,” a New York flag-waver with plenty of landmark name-dropping that turns into a great anthem with help on the chorus from Alicia Keys. The Blueprint 3 isn’t a one-man tour de force like the first; Jay is upstaged a time or two by his guests, and while the productions are stellar throughout — Timbaland appears three times, and NO ID gets multiple credits also — it’s clear there’s less on Jay’s mind this time. Not tuned out like on Kingdom Come, but more content with his dominance as a rap godfather in 2009.

Check Out The Blueprint 3 on Amazon.com

Colbie Caillat practiced a little bit of reverse psychology as she waited for the numbers to come in for her sophomore album, “Breakthrough” — which is No. 1 on this week’s Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 106,000.

“You always hope for the best, but you never actually think it’s going to happen,” Caillat told Billboard.com from England, where she’s currently touring. “I never want to get my hopes up. Everyone kept saying, ‘I think it’s gonna be No. 1. It’s gonna be No. 1. It looks like it,’ and I just kept trying to ignore it ’cause I didn’t want it to not happen.

“And now that it is happening, I can’t believe it. I’m so excited. I’m so thankful. I’ve grown up a lot over the past two years and I…just knew exactly what I wanted for the record and I was able to express that to my producers and the people I wrote songs with. To be able to do it the way I wanted and it actually turned out the way I wanted feels like such an accomplishment.”

Caillat’s 2007 debut, “Coco,” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified double-platinum. “Breakthrough’s” first single, “Fallin’ For You,” has reached No. 12 on the Hot 100, and two tracks — “Begin Again” and “You Got Me” — are under consideration for the follow-up, with “Fearless” Caillat’s personal choice for a third single.

Colbie Caillat said she hopes to show even more of that growth when she hits the road in North American with Howie Day to support “Breakthrough,” starting Sept. 17 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif. “I know I was very timid on the last tour,” she acknowledged. “I wasn’t a performer yet. I didn’t know how to do it. I was very shy on stage…But I’ve really learned a lot. That’s actually why I named my album ‘Breakthrough;’ I broke through my fear of performing and having stage fright. So now I’m being me and laughing and dancing with my band and telling the crowd about my songs.”

During her brief break between tours Caillat is planning to record a pair of Christmas songs, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Merry Christmas, Baby.” One will be used for a Special Olympics compilation, while the other will be held because “something may just come up this year for Christmas songs or radio and I’m going to be on tour, so I won’t have time to record it. I may as well do it now and be ahead of the game.” She and collaborator Stacy Blue, who co-wrote Caillat’s 2007 holiday single “Misteltoe,” are also planning to write some new Christmas songs.

Bassist, producer, and composer Victor Wooten is without question a master musician. He’s played with everyone from Larry Coryell and Bela Fleck to Gov’t Mule and Mike Stern; from India Arie to Branford Marsalis; from Daniel Amos to Natalie MacMaster. He’s released seven albums under his own name. His eighth, Palmystery, drops April 1 from Heads Up.

Wooten has also written a number of popular — some would argue necessary — instructional manuals for bassists. The Music Lesson
is self-published by his Vixboox imprint and it marks his first foray into the role of novelist. According to some (see below), his story is about enlightenment, told through the eyes of a bass player (big surprise there) who encounters a rather amorphous and ambiguous character that becomes his musical and spiritual teacher. It is cosmic, but it hardly qualifies as a “new age” tome. It’s far too funny and even random for that. And while it is about music, it’s also about the process of living. Narrated in the first person, Wooten’s novel feels like a story told intimately over dinner, and the protagonist’s voice comes across as both stunned, kinetically charged, and in a state of near constant surprise as he unfolds his tale. The novel has flaws: Its character development is sketchy, and it feels more like an autobiography than a fleshed-out novel, and the “plot” is almost nonexistent. But it’s no big deal. It’s a first book offered with an immediacy that puts his voice in the ear of the reader and it’s a good yarn.

Bassist Tony Levin claims in his back-cover blurb that: “Victor Wooten is the Carlos Castenada of music.” And Shannon Pable, a non-musician who is a master garden designer, claims in hers: “Don’t let the title fool you… it’s not just about music. Victor’s book blended beautifully with my vocation… In fact, it applies to everything we do in life.”

Um… yeah. Don’t let those stop you. The Music Lesson is fun, a quick read that asks more questions than it answers — those are for you to tangle with when you’re done.

Check Out The Music Lesson on Amazon.com

Of all the great jazz vocalists of the 1950s and ’60s, Chris Connor is perhaps the least well-known today. Despite making a string of classic records for Atlantic, she always seems to be mentioned (if at all) after June Christy, Carmen McRae, Chet Baker, Anita O’Day or even Julie London when lists of the top singers of the era are compiled. Still, she was quite popular at the time, and it’s very easy to hear why. Though she could swing with anyone, her true greatness came on the slow songs, the torchy ones that come from broken hearts and messed-up lives, and sound best filtered through the blue haze of smoke and low lights. Connor could sing these ballads like Hank Aaron hit home runs: effortlessly and with loads of power. Her deep and rich voice caressed the words tenderly and with great care, giving the feeling that she was singing to you and you alone. Her death this week gives us a chance to look back on some wonderful performances and celebrate her all-too-short career.

from 1955’s Chris:
“All About Ronnie”

“Indian Summer”

from 1957’s Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song:
“I’ve Got a Crush on You”

From 1958’s Chris Craft:
“Moonlight in Vermont”
“Lover Man”

From 1960’s A Portrait of Chris:
“Follow Me”
“Here’s That Rainy Day”

If you can make it through these songs without tears shorting out your keyboard, you are made of stronger stuff than I am. Finding her records may not be an easy task but it’s well worth the effort. All About Chris is a nice collection of Connor’s early work on Bethlehem, Warm Cool: The Atlantic Years is a fine overview of her years spent on the label.

This is the best Chris Connor’s album:
A Jazz Date with Chris Connor/Chris Craft
This is an intruiging pair of Connor dates from the 1950s: the CD is filled to the brim with music (over 70 minutes’ worth) & that’s perhaps a good thing, as there’s a few duds here along with the gold. The best single track is probably the opener, “Moon Ray”, which deploys the resources of the band brilliantly & features spine-tingling singing. Other highlights are “Driftwood” and “Everything I’ve Got”. Connor’s singing is beautiful and swinging, and the band is terrific–Al Cohn & Lucky Thompson on sax on one date, Mundell Lowe on guitar on the other. — On the other hand, there is some pretty intrusive percussion on the first date, notably on a version of “Just Squeeze Me” where the bongos and whatnot simply sound ludicrous. Some of the arrangements are a bit dated or precious too, as on “Fancy Free” or “Be a Clown”. And perhaps “Johnny One Note” is an acquired taste too. Anyway, newcomers to Connor should head straight to the Gershwin two-disc set; those already introduced to her will want this disc for its best performances.

Check Out A Jazz Date with Chris Connor/Chris Craft on Amazon.com

This whole album is a masterpiece. Nothing has been done before or since that can equal this one. Of course its been said a zillion times, but its really true. I bought it in Christmas back a few years ago (1997), and as I listened to it, it got better and better. For me, The Beatles (at first) took some time getting used too. Then they got stronger and stronger. On this record, they do almost the impossible. They create an entire magical fantasy. Its delishisouly (spelling?) sweet. The First Concept Album was indeed the finest. Everything works well with the concept. The album sleeve works better with the music than any I have seen. They help endear us to this wonderful world The Beatles are taking us too. At first I thought it was a bunch of hype, and the reason I bought it was because I was rapidly sinking (regressing, some of the younger people I know say) into the older music. I wanted Sgt Pepper cause everyone talked about it and had never heard it. This record will never be equalled, I fear. I wish it would, because I would love to do some more exploring. They took us on a Magical Mystery Tour on this one. Ironic, they did exactly that on this record, and though it was a concept album I don’t think it was their intention, and then they made a concept movie with this in mind, and they didn’t do that well (for The Beatles). If you want a record like no other, go out and buy this right now. Another great record that came out the same year is The Doors (debut). If it weren’t for this, that would easily be the best for that year. But Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered) has surpassed all others. The Beatles never were able to do it again. They did get it in isolated moments, but never for the whole record like on this. No one else has ever come close. This deserves all the acclaim it gets.

As far as personal favorites go, however, I still enjoy the White Album the most. Rubber Soul and Revolver are good also (Rubber Soul is better than Revolver, tho’ Revolver is more of a break thru). YOu could see the dircetion they were going with a few of the songs off Help! Some of that material is on level with Rubber Soul. Abbey Road, which I didn’t care much for now, I really enjoy now. Sgt Pepper, however, is the cultural milestone to end all cultural milestones.

Check Out Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered) on Amazon.com

Music, according to Sufi teaching, is really a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe—and that is the secret of its amazing power to move us. The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927), the first teacher to bring the Islamic mystical tradition to the West, was an accomplished musician himself. His lucid exposition of music’s divine nature has become a modern classic, beloved only by those interested in Sufism but by musicians of all kinds.

The Mysticism of Sound and Music
is a powerful book of mystical insight for people of all traditions. Inayat Khan says that music is the ‘picture of our Beloved’ and then draws the picture stroke by stroke from every angle and plane until we see it. He is the only holy man I know who delivers an authentic and inclusive spiritual message from a musical sensibility. He does this rigorously, poetically and spontaneously, until we perceive our own actions as music. Open to any line on any page: you will be opened.

About the Author
Hazrat Inayat Khan was trained as a musician and a Sufi of the Chishti order and gave concert tours of Indian classical music in the United States and Europe.

Check Out The Mysticism of Sound and Music on Amazon.com

Chris Connor, the great jazz singer whose lush, foggy voice and compressed emotional intensity distilled a 1950s jazz reverie of faraway longing in a sad cafe, died Saturday in Toms River, N.J. She was 81 and lived in Toms River.

The cause was cancer, her publicist, Alan Eichler, said.

A singer who used little vibrato and was admired for her inventive rhythmic alterations of ballads, she belonged to the cool school of jazz singers that included Anita O’Day, June Christy, Chet Baker and Julie London.

Both O’Day and Christy preceded her as vocalists with the Stan Kenton band, which she joined briefly in 1952, replacing Christy. Chris Connor had earlier sung with the Claude Thornhill band. During her solo recording career, which began in 1953, she had only two charted hits: “I Miss You So” (1956) and “Trust in Me” (1957), both for Atlantic Records. But for jazz vocal aficionados, her signature song, “All About Ronnie,” Joe Greene’s smoldering ballad of romantic obsession, is a pop-jazz milestone of dreamy cool. Originally recorded with Kenton, she re-recorded it on Bethlehem Records after she went solo.

Today, many of her 1950s and ’60s albums are regarded as pop-jazz classics.

Born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 8, 1927, Ms. Connor studied clarinet for eight years as a child before becoming a singer in her late teens.

Ms. Connor is survived by her longtime partner and manager, Lori Muscarelle.