Search Results for: grammy

As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G. He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed the 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio. “Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop,… Read more »

Concert tours to Southeast Asia have become the latest casualty of recent bomb blasts in Bali and the Philippines with veteran jazz guitarist George Benson and rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis canceling shows. “George Benson did cancel some dates that he had lined up for Indonesia,” promoter Nigel Peters said on Tuesday. “It’s obviously a direct relation to the Bali bombing. That’s the only reason this decision was taken.” A bomb attack at a nightclub on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali on October 12 killed more than 180 people, most of them Australian. Ten people were… Read more »

A posthumous CD is planned for Aaliyah, the singer and actress who died in a plane crash in August 2001. The as-yet-untitled new CD, due to be released by Blackground Records and Universal in November, will feature an undetermined number of new Aaliyah songs, as well as old hits such as “Try Again” and remixes of other songs in her catalog. The new tracks, according to Blackground, are a mix of up-tempo numbers and ballads the singer recorded before her death, Time.com reported Saturday. Aaliyah, a two-time Grammy nominee for best female R&B vocalist, was leaving the Bahamas following a… Read more »

Widely respected entertainment attorney Joel Katz has been appointed General Counsel to the Recording Academy(R), it was announced today by Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Garth Fundis. Katz – a member of the Georgia, Tennessee, American, and Atlanta Bar Associations – will serve the Academy in a volunteer capacity, overseeing its legal matters and coordinating the work of various outside counsel. “It is a great pleasure to appoint Joel Katz as General Counsel to the Recording Academy,” said Fundis. “He is a longtime member of the Academy’s volunteer leadership, former Chairman, and one of the founders of the Academy’s… Read more »

“Surreal” is about the only word to describe it when that kid you remember from “Gremlins” and “Goonies,” all grown up now, is rocking out in the middle of a record store. And surreal it was when Corey Feldman and his band played for a bewildered crowd numbering less than a hundred recently at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. As fans and curious shoppers waited (and waited), a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist named Pharaoh and a keyboard player (none of whom would look lost at a construction site) along with two backup singers crowded onto a makeshift stage, where… Read more »

Remember when Michael Greene, then-President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, warned us all about the unlawful evils of Internet file sharing during the Grammy Awards back in February? Soon people will get an earful straight from those who make the music. Britney Spears, Missy Elliott and Nelly are among the artists set to appear in TV spots as part of an awareness campaign to educate people about the legal and financial ramifications of unauthorized file sharing, according to a Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spokesperson. The ads were first shown Thursday at a congressional hearing… Read more »

Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix is having trouble concentrating on the conversation. Interrupting the lead singer’s discussion about the in-your-face band’s latest album is the cry of a baby. “Can you hold on? I’ve got to get the baby a bottle,” he says. It’s the first sign there’s something afoot for the band that burst onto the musical scene in 2000 with the rap-rock triple platinum album “Infest,” which included the single “Last Resort.” First, there’s the name change from the irreverant Coby Dick to the more respectable Jacoby Shaddix. “Call me the artist formerly known as Coby Dick,” jokes the… Read more »

Nick Carter is making his acting debut this week in a role as equally “dreamy” as his status in the Backstreet Boys. The singer will play the frontman of Jay & the Americans on NBC’s new “American Dreams,” a drama centering on the legendary music show “American Bandstand” in the late 1960s. Carter will sing Jay & the Americans’ two biggest hits, “Come a Little Bit Closer” and “She Cried,” according to an NBC spokesperson. He’s filming the episode, which will air November 3, in Los Angles this week. The October 6 show will feature Michelle Branch as Lesley Gore,… Read more »

The album ex-Beatle George Harrison recorded in the last months of his life as he fought a losing battle with cancer will be released in November, 10 days before the first anniversary of his death, his recording company said on Monday. “Brainwashed,” the first release of new solo material from the former lead guitarist for the Beatles since his 1987 album “Cloud Nine,” features 11 new Harrison compositions and one cover track. The record was produced by Harrison in collaboration with his son, Dhani, and longtime friend and fellow musician Jeff Lynne. “Before we started working on the album, George… Read more »

Sitting in an outdoor cafe for lunch the other day, Richard McDonnell mentioned he was working on just three hours of sleep. The former investment banker, who founded and runs the small, independent record label MAXJAZZ, was up nearly the entire night before in St. Louis, reading up on key buyers at record retail chains. Now he was in Washington for an afternoon meeting at the Kennedy Center, then had plans to go to Chicago the next day to see one of the singers on his roster, Carla Cook, perform at the Chicago Jazz festival. This whirlwind schedule is not… Read more »