Entertainment Bay

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.

If you haven’t heard Vita yet, then you’re in for a real treat!

Her new song, “Like Boom” will be released digitally on September 1, 2009, but you can listen to it here now!

Check it out!

I’m loving it! What a great pop song. She reminds me of Gwen Stefani, but more pop-like, if that’s possible. It’s a great song, very hip and alive. Stop what you’re doing right now and sing with me, with Vita “Like Boom” lyric.

i like fast cars and candy bars, like you
i like staying out and sleeping in, like you
when you get so close to me i don’t know what to do
it’s like boom like boom like boom

i like milkshake and lots of bakes, like you
i like wolverine and james dean, like you
my pulse shoot straight up to the moon
when your in the room
it’s like boom like boom like boom
and its all because of you

my friends say i’m crazy
they all try to save me
their is nothing they can do
everyone else is boring
not even …………….
it’s just what i’m addicted to

it’s like boom

i like blue jeans and trampolines, like you
i like cartoons and full moons, like you
it doesn’t matter what you say
cause everything you do
it’s like boom like boom like boom

i like 808’s and chocolate cake, like you
i like saturdays what i say i like you
my pulse shoot straight up to the moon
when your in the room
it’s like boom like boom like boom
and it’s all because of you

my friends say i’m crazy
they all try to save me
their is nothing they can do
everyone else is boring
not even………………
it’s just what i’m addicted to

everyone else is boring
not even……………..
it’s just what i’m addicted to

like boom
boom boom

what can i say
what can i do
everything is louder
when i’m next to you
feels like i’m shaking
room is earthquaking
feels like the whole world is 8-0-8-ing

Like? I like it very much, that nice song. So I add Vita “Like Boom” to my MP3 song list, you can get too here

For more information on Vita, check out her official MySpace page. She’s also going to be touring with Cobra Starship and Forever The Sickest Kids.

Check out the tour dates:

Opening for Cobra Starship, The Audition & Friday Night Boys
8/25 Richmond, VA @ Canal Club
8/26 Wash DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
8/27 Farmingdale, NY @ Crazy Donkey
8/28 Hartford, CT @ Webster Underground
8/31 Providence, RI @ Club Hell

Opening for Forever the Sickest Kids and Hey Monday
9/4 Jackson, NJ @ Six Flags
9/6 Wash DC @ Six Flags

She’s only 16, but her music packs a punch! I would love to see her and Cobra Starship together , that would be fantastic!

Check Out Vita..like Boom on Amazon.com

Colbie Caillat’s breakthrough arrived before Breakthrough, when her debut Coco turned into a breezy surprise hit. Breakthrough isn’t meant to catapult Caillat into a mainstream that already knows her, but to consolidate her success, so it’s not entirely a surprise that the album bears evidence of her showbiz kid roots, a record that relies just a bit more on the studio than the song. It’s a creation that’s slicker and sleeker than the debut, but fortunately, it’s not quite at the expense of Caillat’s simple charms. The high-buff sheen on Breakthrough can mean that the songs glide down a little too smoothly, sliding down like a velvety Piña Colada which is perhaps a bit too sophisticated after the everyday charms of Coco, and perhaps a little bit too polished for Colbie in general. Underneath all that gloss, Caillat remains a simple girl singing songs of love as light and crisp as a sugar cookie. Too many of these in a row can cause a toothache — and that’s particularly true in the deluxe edition that runs a very lengthy 17 tracks — but having a handful at a time is a sweet ordinary treat.

About Colbie Caillat
Last time around, Colbie Caillat was feeling “Bubbly,” and the entire pop world seemed to want a sip. But this time, effervescence flirts with explosiveness. For her sophomore album, Breakthrough, Colbie has shaken up her sound, bringing in a wider array of producers and players, and significantly picking up the tempo at times from her debut effort’s signature ballads. So keep an eye on those carbonation levels: champagne corks may fly.

You’d be hard-pressed to consider an album as accomplished and successful as Coco an accident, yet that’s almost what Caillat’s 2007 freshman release was. The sudden mania it created at radio and retail “was a surprise for me,” Caillat says, “because I hadn’t really been in this business yet. I hadn’t been doing shows. I wasn’t trying to get signed. I just was this girl who wrote songs and put them up on MySpace.” By the time Coco
was released to stores, “Bubbly” was already enough of an airplay sensation that the album debuted at No. 5. The massive success of a second single, “Realize,” helped push the album to over 2 million shipments, in addition to almost 6 million individual digital tracks that were sold. “It all just happened naturally,” says Caillat–”and now I have to keep up with it.”

The making of Breakthrough was far more purposeful than the ramshackle sessions that became Caillat’s first album. Whatever might have been lost in the way of charming naiveté is more than made up for with greater experience and heightened maturity. “When I found out I had six months to make this album it was so exciting, because my favorite part is being in the studio and having a chance to get it right. ”

“We tried different versions of a lot of the songs–some raw and acoustic; some with lots of harmonies and others with 20 more instruments than needed to be there–just to see which version sounded best. We ended up having a lot of variety.” But for all this diversification, there’s at least one carry-over and constant: the front-and-center intimacy of Caillat’s vocals, which fans already relate to coming through their ear buds like the voice of a warm and trusted friend.

Production credits for Breakthrough were split between two new helmers. One is hitmaker John Shanks, who’s particularly known for his work with strong female artists like Kelly Clarkson, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, and the Wreckers. The other new guy behind the boards is Ken Caillat, most renowned for his work on one of the top-selling albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours… and also, not insignificantly, for being Colbie’s father. Bringing things full circle, the new album was recorded at Village Recorders in West L.A., where Ken Caillat met his future wife and Colbie’s mother-to-be when they were both working there during the making of Tusk.

Both John Shanks and Ken Caillat recorded basic tracks with a band playing live in the studio while Colbie sang along in the vocal booth. Beyond that similar approach to the early sessions, though, their approaches diverged. “My dad’s recording is very organic and reveals the rawness and vulnerability in a song,” she says. “And John Shanks is a great pop producer. His songs are perfect for radio.”

“On this record, Caillat continues, “I was able to contribute a lot more of my production ideas into the recording. I had a better sense of how I know the songs should sound and feel, and what instruments should be added or taken away from them. Because I didn’t get to do that on Coco, to really be able to make these songs completely my own was a special experience for me.”

No one wanted to fix what wasn’t broken about Coco, of course. At this time in music-business age where new stars aren’t even being added to the firmament anymore, Caillat’s success was as close to overnight as it gets. Two years after its July 2007 release, the debut is still in the top 100, and stands as the 12th biggest selling digital album of all time. “Bubbly” is the 21st best selling digital track ever, with sales of more than 2.8 million, and was a No. 1 smash at Hot AC radio for 19 weeks and AC for 17. The music videos for the first album’s songs were streamed over 22 million times. “Bubbly” was named song of the year at the last BMI Awards, and Colbie tied for artist of the year, for that song and “Realize.” She was named the winner of Billboard’s Rising Star award, too, on top of nominations for the American Music Awards and Teen Choice Awards. If the bubble ain’t broke, don’t pop it, right?

Coming off such rare and covetable success, expanding the sonic palette beyond the mostly acoustic base of Coco for the new album wasn’t undertaken lightly. “I didn’t want to stray too far too fast from what my fans are used to from me,” she says. “But I did want to grow and experiment and work with different people. I searched for the right balance.”

Caillat expanded her circle of co-writers as well as producers, sitting down to work with hitcrafter-turned-Idolmaker Kara DioGuardia (who helped write three tracks, including “Begin Again”) and Rick Nowels, who says, “I’ve worked with some really good writers–Madonna, Dido, Nelly Furtado, Jewel–and I’m just really impressed with Colbie’s songwriting. She’s got her own voice and lyrical and melodic point of view; she’s what I call a natural. And she’s a proper singer-songwriter, which is a breath of fresh air today. I think everybody responds to strong songs sung emotionally, and everybody responds to real.”

On Breakthrough, the emotional highs are higher, and the lows arguably lower. “All the songs are definitely about the roller coaster of being in a relationship–happy, sad, breaking up, falling in love, just the whole cycle of it,” she says. At the crest of this coaster, there’s the first single, “Falling for You,” which might be described as wearing its heart on its sleeve, if the tune’s upbeat feel didn’t conjure a kind of summer sleevelessness. “I had gone out on this `friends’ date, and I realized I started liking him more than I thought I did,” Caillat explains. “I was on cloud nine over this guy, thinking I was falling for him, so I wrote about everything we did hanging out the day before.” Think “Bubbly” squared and gone to the beach.

But, in keeping with that coaster analogy, the album doesn’t lack for romantic free-falls. “A lot of the songs from both Coco and the new album are about the same poor guy that I keep torturing in some way,” she laughs. Knowing that he was more invested in the relationship than she was, she’s written a number of songs from this boyfriend’s point of view–including the hopeful “Realize” on the last album and the resigned but brave “Fearless” on this one. “The song `Fearless’ is sung by someone who’s having their heart broken–but I really haven’t been broken-hearted yet, so that song was me kind of switching it around from his perspective. I wrote it as him saying to me that he’s fearless and this won’t damage him for future relationships. The opening lines are, `It that’s the way you love? You’ve got to learn so much.’ And I really do have a lot to learn about love.

“All the songs have a different twist,” Caillat continues. “It may not be exactly what happened to me, but it’s happened in a situation that I’ve learned from or been watching. I wrote `Breaking At the Cracks’ about one of my parents’ friends who I’ve known my entire life. Everything in her life came crashing down on her at the same time: her mother died, her dogs died, then her father died, and finally her husband left her. I was on tour and my heart was hurting for her. So I started playing my guitar and crying while I was singing, imagining what it would take to get yourself out of that depression and get your life back together. That was another song that had nothing to do with me, but I was expressing someone else’s emotions, like I was sending a message to the world for them.”

Having just been a fan herself until recently, Caillat thinks about how her most emotional songs will click with her own followers. “Because I know a Coldplay song like `Fix You,’ when I’m having a bad day, I can put it on and just pour my heart out–and then five minutes later, I’m ready for a smile again. So I want to have the perfect mixture of having those kinds of songs that you can cry to when you’ve had a horrible day, and these upbeat, fun songs you can listen to at the beach or when you’re driving.”

Breakthrough’s title track is another ruminative song about a friend’s experience–in this case, that of Colbie’s best pal, who has long been estranged from her father and continues to desperately desire a breakthrough in her relationship with him. But when Caillat applied the title to the album, it took on a different, more celebrative, strictly personal meaning.

“I’m 24, and I’m still trying to grow up as a woman and find out who I am and be comfortable in my own skin,” she says. “I had gone through this very hard time where I was really down on myself, and I just kind of wanted to take the easy route and drop everything hard that was getting in my way. And I realized I had to step up and get past that. It took me a while, but I did finally break through my fears and insecurities. And that’s why I felt that that would be a great album title, especially for my younger fans.”

A newly minted star who’s still discovering her boundaries, Caillat tries t to stay open and even vulnerable. “You keep your guard up with some of the people that you meet. But I also think that fans should know who you are, and why be afraid of it? It’s like that feeling you get when you see someone on YouTube with no makeup on or acting silly–whatever it is that you normally do–and it’s like `Oh, they’re doing it too, and it’s okay, we can be who we are.’ You just have to remind yourself not to hide what you do and who you are, because people like seeing that.”

That’s something Caillat clearly hasn’t forgotten with this bigger, better, and even more intimate album. Finding out that increased amplitude and heightened transparency aren’t mutually exclusive after all–that’s the stuff that true bust outs are made of.

Check Out Breakthrough, Bubbly , Coco on Amazon.com

Released roughly three days after Michael Jackson’s passing, The Definitive Collection is a 19-track collection of highlights from his Motown recordings, including the hits he had with his brothers in the Jackson 5. This emphasizes Michael’s solo hits over the Jackson 5’s — there are ten cuts of him alone, nine with his brothers (and one of those is an alternate “minus mix” of “I’ll Be There”) — which skews this a little bit toward puppy love over bubblegum, something that may be a little too syrupy for some listeners, but there’s no denying that for fans lacking a collection of Michael’s earliest hits, this is a useful compilation, gathering “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” “Who’s Lovin’ You,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Got to Be There,” “Rockin’ Robin,” “Ben,” and “Dancing Machine” in one place.

Who don’t know Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson was a phenomenon from the start. As a pure singer, he was remarkable, his voice soaring with the eager confidence of a prodigy. His initial work ranks among his finest and still sizzles with fresh enthusiasm. Michael is gone, but his ability to express an astounding range of feelings with conviction and grace guarantees his immortality. He earned his crown as King of Pop, but these timeless tracks make it clear that the King had deep roots in the rich soil of his soulful past. Michael Jackson books can explain what his feeling and passion.

Check Out The Definitive Collection on Amazon.com

Christina Aguilera has added another pair of heavyweight talents as collaborators for her upcoming fourth album, telling her Artist Personal Experience Radio station that she recently wrote songs with M.I.A. and Santigold, MTV reports. Aguilera has made it a habit of collaborating with some of the biggest female artists in the game now while working on her new album. As Rock Daily previously reported, she’s already hit the studio with Sia, Goldfrapp, Le Tigre and Ladytron, with whom Aguilera reportedly recorded a new version of Ladyhawke’s 2008 hit “My Delirium.”

“There’s no holds barred for anything,” Aguilera told Rolling Stone last year about her futuristic new album. “It’s really the future and can go anywhere. It’s exciting to challenge myself in that way and explore.” As for collaborating with Sia, Aguilera told RS before the pair hit the studio, “Her voice has a really cool sound to it. It’s really gritty and unique. I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to get when we go into a studio together. There’s probably magic to be had.”

And magic was had, as Christina Aguilera said on her A.P.E. channel, “[Sia and I] did a lot of work on this record together, and she’s just a complete gem. She’s truly just such a talented force to be reckoned with. And I so enjoyed her company, and I think we really created some super crazy magic together.”

No release date has been set yet for Aguilera’s forthcoming fourth album. Other rumored collaborators include the Neptunes, the Diplo & Switch alter ago Major Lazer and Aguilera’s Back to Basics producer Linda Perry. In addition to working on her new LP, as Rock Daily reported, Aguilera is also set to make her non-animation debut on the silver screen in the upcoming film Burlesque.

The books below are books actually written by Michael Jackson. Read about him from his own words. Or in other cases they are a chance to read his poems, see hand written lyrics or previously unreleased photos and much more.

Moonwalk

This book was Michael Jackson’s first autobiography published by Doubleday in 1988. The book was released in both hardcover and paperback.

In ‘Moonwalk’, Michael Jackson talks for the first time about his life, from his early Jackson 5 days, through the making of his albums , Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. He touches on some of the most prominent rumours that have surrounded his career.

The book contains many never-before-seen photographs from the Jackson family archives, as well as photos taken of Michael throughout his lengthy career, and artwork drawn by Michael Jackson himself. The book was a USA best seller.

‘Moonwalk‘ is no longer in print, so can not be found in regular book stores but may be found in our MJstore subject to availability.

Moonwalker: The Storybook

This book was written by Michael Jackson and published by Doubleday in 1988.

This is a children’s story based on the short film ‘Smooth Criminal’ (from the film Moonwalker) in which Michael’s friend Katy is kidnapped by the evil ‘Mr. Big’ who is planning on getting the children of the world addicted to drugs. Michael and his friends Sean and Zeke must save Katy and stop Mr. Big before it’s too late.

‘Moonwalker – The Storybook’ includes over 50 full color photos from the short film ‘Smooth Criminal’.

Dancing the Dream
This book was published by Doubleday in 1992 and was written by Michael Jackson.
The book contains 28 essays and reflections, 17 poems, 84 color and black and white photographs, and 20 pieces of other artists artwork. Michael writes on topics such as creating his dance and music, children, religion, life, love, and autobiographical reflections.

My World: The Official Photobook
Released in 2006. An insight into the world of Michael Jackson through some of his private photos and thoughts. Also includes copies of his hand written lyrics to some of his biggest hits from the 1980’s and 90’s.