STEVE SMITH: Classic rock, pop and country – Long Beach Press-Telegram
STEVE SMITH MUSIC COLUMN
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STEVE SMITH: Classic rock, pop and country
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STEVE SMITH: Classic pop, rock and country
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AMY WINEHOUSE-TONY BENNETT DUET DUE From what Tony Bennett says was Amy Winehouse’s last recording session, legendary 85-years-young crooner told NBC’s “Today” show, “It was great. She sang beautifully.”
Bennett was talking about their duet on the 1930 standard, “Body and Soul” he recorded with the troubled singer who died last month at 27. “That was the last record she made,” he said.
In an interview with the BBC last month, Bennett said of working with Winehouse, “Amy was beautiful. She was quite nervous, but I thought, I met Sinatra before a show, and he was nervous, and Duke Ellington, and he was nervous. What calmed her down when we did the record, and I’ll never forget it, I said the way you sound (you sound like) Dinah Washington … and that calmed her down. She’s truly a good jazz singer. She’s not making believe it’s jazz. She’s completely original and she’s good at it.”
The track will serve as the closer to Bennett’s upcoming “Duets II” CD that comes out Sept. 20. In addition, the song will be released sooner with proceeds benefitting a new foundation created by her father that will educate children about drugs.
ZOMBIES CELEBRATE 50 th British Invasion band The Zombies will celebrate its 50 th anniversary with a new celebratory tour of the U.S. and Canada in September and October.
In concert, original members singer Colin Blunstone and organist Rod Argent will also include a song or two from Argent’s other successful outfit, Argent,
as well as from Blunstone’s solo career that saw him score several hits in the U.K. and Europe.
Other band members include drummer Steve Rodford and his dad, Jim Rodford, who was founding bassist for Argent in 1968. Jim Rodford played with that band until its demise in 1976. He then joined The Kinks and was with them until they called it a day in 1996. He joined his cousin Rod Argent when he and Blunstone permanently revived the group in 2001.
The Zombies 50 th anniversary tour makes stops at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills on Oct. 1, and at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Oct. 2.
MONKEES CANCEL REMAINDER OF TOUR Without explanation, The Monkees cancelled the remainder of its successful 45 th anniversary tour that was to run through August and September. On his Facebook page, Davy Jones said, “It has been determined that the remainder of The Monkees 2011 tour has been cancelled. No reason has been given at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your continued support of The Monkees.” Tour producer Live Nation said the cancellation was due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Before the tour began, rumors that the trio, Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz, were having a hard time getting along during rehearsals.
ARETHA’S FREE CONCERT Last year, Aretha Franklin had to cancel two shows in Brooklyn due to the still unexplained serious illness and surgery that sidelined her for much of 2010. The Queen of Soul made up for it by performing a free concert before 10,000 fans at Coney Island’s Seaside Concert Arena, reports RTT News. She mixed a long string of classic hits with a showcase of tunes from her new CD, “A Woman Falling Out of Love.” One highlight occurred when she sat behind her piano and performed a stirring take on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
BOCELLI’S FREE CONCERT Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will give a free concert in New York City’s Central Park on Sept. 15, notes Ontheredcarpet,com. Bocelli, 52, says the concert, which will be filmed for a Dec. 2 PBS special, fulfills a dream of his father. He will be accompanied by the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Symphonic Choir.
ROCK & ROLL LEGENDS HONORED Buddy Holly will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Sept. 7, what would have been his 75 th birthday, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Holly died in a plane crash in a snowstorm on Feb. 3, 1959 outside Clear Lake, IA, at age 22.
Doo-wop, rock and roll and folk legend Dion will be honored by the National Italian American Foundation at its 36 th annual gala weekend, Oct. 28-29 at the Washington Hilton in the nation’s capitol. Among the entertainment includes Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Said Dion, “My grandparents would be very proud of me.”
GREGG ALLMAN CANCELS SHOWS Gregg Allman was forced to cancel his concerts through Sept. 15 due to a lingering upper respiratory infection, reports Reuters. This is the same infection that forced the 63-year-old singer-keyboard player to cancel shows in Europe in June.
Allman, who received a liver transplant last year, is a spokesman for the Tune In To Hep C campaign. On July 27, the evening before World Hepatitis Day, he hosted a benefit concert that raised more than $250,000 for the American Liver Foundation and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Joining him was his regular outfit, The Allman Brothers, as well as Natalie Cole, The Dead’s Phil Lesh, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons as well as David Crosby and Graham Nash.
Crosby, 69, received a liver transplant in 1996. Cole, 61, who was diagnosed with hepatitis C, received a kidney transplant in 2009.
GEORGE BENSON, GUITAR MAN Jazz-singing guitarist George Benson will release his latest album, “Guitar Man,” Oct. 4, according to Pollstar.
Benson will support the release by heading out on the road with his band that includes former Jazz Crusaders pianist Joe Sample and noted jazz drummer Harvey Mason, whose work with Benson dates to his “Breezin”‘ LP in 1976.
Prior to the CD’s release, Benson will headline the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 31 and is sure to preview a cut or two from the new album. He’ll also be at the Thornton Winery in Temecula on Sept. 3.
The album includes his smooth jazzy rendition of the song that broke The Beatles in America in late 1963, John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” and The Champs all time great party song from 1958, “Tequila.”
J. GEILS BAND CAPPER The J. Geils Band that is currently on a brief reunion tour back east through the end of the month is ending its shows with ripping shout-along versions of versions of the rock and roll classic, “Land of 100 Dances,” made famous by Cannibal & The Headhunters in 1965 and again a year later by “Wicked” Wilson Pickett. By the way, with The Black Crowes on indefinite hiatus, singer Chris Robinson and his latest band, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, are serving as the tour’s opening act.
BEATLES NEWS Paul McCartney, who is on his latest American tour, says it appears that he and then-wife wife Heather Mills are victims of the Rupert Murdoch and Daily Mirror group newspaper telephone hacking scandal that is sweeping England.
He made his claim in a conference call to journalists in L.A. The Beatle said he didn’t have all the facts but called the mass phone message hacking, “a horrendous invasion of privacy.”
“When I go back (to England) after this tour, I am going to talk to the police because apparently I have been hacked. I do think it’s a horrendous violation of privacy. I do think it has been going on for a long time and I do think more people than we know knew about it,” he said.
The “Concert for Bangladesh” documentary film of George Harrison’s 1971 benefit concert was recently made available as a digital download.
That was enough to bring the triple album back to the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, where it’s at #116.
“Backbeat,” the 1994 filmed dramatization of the early years of The Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg, has been turned into a play. The musical, “Backbeat,” will open in Oct. 10 at the Duke of York Theatre on London’s West End. The production features performance of such early non-Lennon-McCartney Beatles covers as The Isley Brothers’ hit, “Twist & Shout” by Phil Medley and Bert Russell; Chuck Berry’s “Rock & Roll Music,” The Marvelette’s “Please, Mr. Postman” and Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.”
NEW RELEASES Recent new album releases include “Re: Creation” by Contemporary Christian performer Steven Curtis Chapman; “The Complete Reunion Concert” from pioneering British progressive jazz-rockers Colosseum; “Miss Me Blind: Greatest Hits Live” by Boy George and Culture Club; “Stand By Me,” a 3-CD package from Mickey Gilley; “The Lowdown,” a 2-CD spoken autobiography from Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson; “Live On Air/The Lost Tapes” from Neil Young; the “Boswell Sisters Collection,” a 6-CD set from the closely harmonizing sisters who recorded between 1925-35; and “Dedicated,” a tribute to early rock and roll and doo-wop act, The 5 Royals from former Booker T & The MGs guitarist Steve Cropper with guests Steve Winwood, B.B. King, former Blues Traveler singing harp player John Popper, Lucinda Williams, Bettye LaVette and Queen’s guitarist Brian May.
DOOBIES PLAY WALTER REED To celebrate the closing of the Walter Reed Arm Medical Hospital in Washington, DC, and the launching of the building of the new Reed hospital, The Doobie Brothers played a free concert on its lawn for patients, staff and their families sponsored by the USO.
MT. JOHN DENVER? Despite a petition signed by thousands of fans, a drive to rename Colorado’s Mt. Sopis in honor of the late singer, environmentalist and Colorado resident John Denver has hit a snag, reports the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names says that renaming the peak could be forbidden under a federal wilderness law.
INXS SHORT-CIRCUITED Aussie rockers INXS’ outdoor concert at the Mohecan Sun Casino at Pocono Downs in northeastern Pennsylvania was canceled after a rainstorm shorted out the venue’s electrical system, reports the Times-Tribune of Scranton.
So, instead, after the gig was canceled, the band mingled with the concert attendees, chatting with their fans and signing autographs.
HAGGARD FEELING GOOD! Country Outlaw legend Merle Haggard says he’s recovered from his 2008 lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, according to The Boot. “I’m swinging back in full throttle right now,” he insists. “Music keeps me alive. It makes me breathe better. It’s funny, but I feel better when I come off a tour than when I start out.”
Haggard’s new CD, “Working in Tennessee,” will be released Oct. 4.
Hag wrote nine of the album’s 11 songs. He plays the Greek Theatre in L.A. on Oct. 7 with the other surviving member of The Highwaymen, Kris Kristofferson. Hag then travels down to Temecula for solo shows with his band at the Pechanga Casino on Oct. 8-9.
Readers, email your questions and comments to Steve Smith at classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com. Read this week’s complete Classic Pop, Rock & Country Music News online at www.presstelegram.com.