STEPPIN' OUT WITH JOE JACKSON

Joe Jackson’s name might not frequent the Top-40 or MTV like it did when hits like “Breaking Us In Two,” “Steppin’ Out,” “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” and “You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)” made him a star more than 20 years ago, but these days the British singer-songwriter isn’t overly concerned with commercial success.

“I have no expectations at all about how my music will be received,” Jackson told the Toronto Star in March 2008. Truth be told, Jackson has never seemed concerned with the commercial aspects of the music business, preferring to follow his creative muse. Slapped with the new wave/punk label when his debut album, Look Sharp! was released in 1979, he disregarded expectations and explored swing (Jumpin’ Jive), jazz (Night and Day), and classical music genres (Symphony No. 1) on subsequent albums.

Jackson recently completed a U.S. tour in support of his latest album, Rain.

For both the album and tour, Jackson reunited with two-thirds of his original band — bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton — who worked with Jackson on his first three albums - Look Sharp!, I’m the Man, and Beat Crazy.

“I’m having a lot of fun this tour, especially playing with two old friends,” Jackson said in a telephone interview in the midst of the tour, “and they’re playing better than ever.”

For the Rain album and tour, Jackson wanted to explore the piano-bass-drums trio format. “It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a few years,” Jackson says. “I think it’s interesting how wide-ranging you can be using just the minimum of resources — just the trio.”

The material on Rain touches on nearly every musical style Jackson has explored in the past, with the bulk of the songs falling close to the pop/jazz flavor of Night and Day, his most popular album.

Jackson says he doesn’t mind playing his oldest hits for his fans. “You can get a bit fed up with playing the same songs over and over again,” he says, “but I think it’s important to give the audience some familiar landmarks, so to speak. We do quite a long show, so we do a lot of new stuff as well as old.”

In the first four years after being signed to A&M Records, Jackson released five albums and an EP. He kept up that prolific pace throughout the 1980s, but has made a conscious decision to slow down in recent years.

“I’m much less of a workaholic now than I was early on,” he says. “I think in the early part of my career, I made too many records and put out too much stuff that was just not as good as it could have been. I think now I’m a lot more particular. I think I’ve come a long way as a lyricist.”

Over the years, Jackson has branched out creatively. In 2000 he published a well-received memoir entitled A Cure for Gravity that he calls “one of the best things I’ve done.” A few years later, he became a bit of a social activist, campaigning against the public indoor smoking ban now in effect in many American and British cities. His most recent endeavor is "Stoker," a play he is co-writing about author Bram Stoker and his process of creating "Dracula."









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THE PRETENDERS RE-GROUP FOR "BREAK UP"

When a veteran band releases a new album that captures the energy or spirit of its youth, it has become almost cliché to suggest that the band has “rediscovered its roots.” But when Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders set out to write music for Break Up the Concrete, her group’s first album in six years, that’s just what she had in mind.

Touring in support of the album, the Pretenders play Philadelphia’s Electric Factory Friday, February 6.

In Hynde’s case the roots were both musical and geographical. The Akron, Ohio-born singer had lived mostly in England since the early 70s, but in 2007 she opened a vegan restaurant in her hometown and found herself spending more time stateside so that she could be near her parents.

While early Pretenders albums had been slightly influenced by British punk and new wave, most of the band’s body of work was in more of a traditional pop-rock vein, including hits like “Brass In Pocket,” “Talk of the Town,” “Back on the Chain Gang” “Middle of the Road,” “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” and “I’ll Stand By You.”

But Hynde wanted to explore a decidedly American sound on Break Up the Concrete.

“I had something of an epiphany when I took part in a tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis,” she said in an interview with MusicRadar.com. “Just to be on the same stage as Jerry Lee was a miracle. I guess it came off rather well, because the next day the guy who runs my record company called me up and asked me if I ever thought of making a country album, and of course my answer was ‘no.’”

While far from a “country album,” Break Up the Concrete does showcase a variety of musical styles deeply rooted in Americana. To achieve that sound, Hynde shook up the band’s studio line-up, adding Eric Heywood on pedal steel, and Jim Keltner on drums. In a recent telephone interview, original and touring Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers said he was fine with the arrangement.

“[Former guitarist] Adam [Seymour], Chrissie, [bassist] Nick Wilkinson and I had made a record, but Chrissie wasn’t happy with it,” Chambers said. “She [fired] Adam. Luckily, through a bass player friend of mine I knew James Walbourne and introduced James to Chrissie. They hit it off real good. It’s lit a fire underneath us again and I think it’s probably the best lineup since the original band.”

The original band formed in Hereford, England in 1978 and included Chambers, Hynde, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon. After only two albums, both Honeyman-Scott and Farndon were dead. Both deaths were drug related.

“At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005, Chrissie described us as a tribute band,” Chambers said. “I understand what she meant. We’re paying tribute to Jim and Pete all the time.”

Fans who come to Friday’s show at the Electric Factory can expect to hear new tracks like “Boots of Chinese Plastic” and “Love’s A Mystery,” interspersed with the band’s hits and fan favorites. Martin says they’ll sound just like fans remember them.

“Sometimes there’s a bit of a different arrangement going on, but the heart and guts of the thing are the same,” he says. “I will approach ‘Tattooed Love Boys’ or ‘Bad Boys Get Spanked’ exactly the same. I don’t play them any different than the way I played them back then.”

At 57, Martin admits he’s “feeling [his] age.” But even though it takes a physical toll on him, Martin says he won’t compromise his aggressive drumming style.

“I could sit there and tap away and make nice sounds like I do on the record,” he says, “but I want to be physical as well. That’s why I have my cymbals higher, so I’m leaning over and throwing myself around. It’s hard work, but it’s the way I want to play.”

As singer, songwriter, and guitarist, the Pretenders are Chrissie Hynde’s band. While fans regard Martin’s presence and powerful, visual drumming as vital elements of the group, these days Martin considers himself “a hired hand.”

“Chrissie’s got to carry the band,” Chambers says. “She’s the front person. I understand that. I’m not in competition with her. I’m there to make her sound good, and I’ve been doing that for 31 years.”

Martin prefers to remain positive and pragmatic when he contemplates his role in the group.

“I get to go on the road and be a rockstar for a couple of months,” he says. “You never know when something is at the end. As far as I’m concerned, every tour we do is a bonus for me. That’s the benefit of hindsight. It gives you an idea of how lucky you are. I’ve known many drummers I consider far better than me that are taxi drivers in Cardiff.”

BLACK EYED PEAS FLOAT TO THE TOP

From their outward appearance and public persona, the Black Eyed Peas seem like the perfect embodiment of a fun-loving — albeit very successful — Top-40 group. The multi-racial quartet, known for its funky, flamboyant fashion sense, looks like it stepped from the pages of a “United Colors of Benetton” ad; and their infectious blend of hip-hop, pop, and funky R&B has struck gold with an equally diverse worldwide audience. Hits like “Let's Get It Started,” “Where Is the Love” and “Don't Phunk with My Heart” have helped the Peas' last two albums — 2003's Elephunk and 2005's Monkey Business — sell well over 10 million copies combined.

But the group paid its dues on the way to becoming international pop stars. Before they rose to the top of their game, the members of the Black Eyed Peas (William “will.i.am” Adams, Allen “apl.de.ap” Pineda, Jaime “Taboo” Gomez, and Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson) experienced what it's like to sink to the bottom of the show business barrel.

William Adams grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood in the projects of East Los Angeles. He attended an all-black chuch, but was bused to the racially mixed Palisades High School. He says his exposure to people of various racial and cultural backgrounds has helped shaped his music.

Allen Pineda grew up in the Philippines. He moved to Los Angeles when he was 14. Even though he didn't speak English, he and Adams shared a love of hip-hop and soon became friends. The two teenagers started began rapping and performing together around Los Angeles Along with another friend, Dante Santiago, they formed a group called Atban Klann.

Adams' socially-concious lyrics and jazzy flow made Atban Klann a top attraction on L.A.'s alternative-rap scene in the early '90s. Their style was the polar opposite of hardcore, but gangsta godfather Eazy-E signed the group to his Ruthless Records label.

“I think Eazy-E saw all of the ‘conscious' rap groups like A Tribe Called Quest coming out then, and he wanted one for himself,” Pineda said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Unfortunately, when Eazy-E died of an AIDS related illness in 1995, Atban Klann's album was shelved, and the group was dropped from the label.

Undaunted, Adams and Pineda reformed the group as the Black Eyed Pods, replacing Santiago with rapper Jaime Gomez, who they knew from their early club days. They also brought on singer Kim Hill as a steady background vocalist, and eventually changed the group's name to the Black Eyed Peas.

The group was signed to Interscope Records, and released its debut album, Behind the Front, in 1998. Underground hip-hop fans embraced the group, but radio and most record buyers did not. Their second album, Bridging the Gap, featured guest appearances by notables like Macy Gray, De La Soul, Jurassic 5, and Mos Def, but sold fewer copies than their debut.

After Bridging the Gap failed to find a wider audience, the group decided to take some time off. It was during their hiatus that the group nearly came apart at the seams.

Pineda received news from the Philippines that his brother had committed suicide. Around the same time, Pineda broke up with his girlfriend. He became increasingly depressed, and developed a crystal methamphetamine addiction. Gomez got hooked on the club scene, and started drinking heavily. Adams began philandering, and destroyed a nine-year relationship in the process. Hill quit the band. It took rehab and a few cold, hard reality checks to bring the group back from the brink.

The trio decided to put everything they had into their next album, which looked like it might be their last. During the recording sessions for the album that would become Elephunk, they needed a female vocalist to duet on a track called “Shut Up.” A mutual friend suggested Stacy Ferguson, whom they had met years before.

Ferguson had been a member of the moderately successful female pop trio Wild Orchid. She was unhappy with Wild Orchid's teenybopper image, however, and was looking for a project that reflected her musical tastes, which leaned more toward hip-hop and R&B. The Black Eyed Peas were a perfect fit.

Ferguson also shared something else with the members of the Black Eyed Peas. Like Pineda, she had recently recovered from an addiction to crystal meth.

She reached rock bottom after a two-year addiction, but says “a conversation with God,” her supportive family, and hypnotherapy gave her the strength to kick her addiction cold turkey.

Ferguson brought a visual balance to the Peas. With her pin-up worthy good looks and dance training, it was an easy decision to have her share the stage spotlight with the guys in the band. But Ferguson is no mere eye candy. Her vocal ability has allowed the Peas to explore an even wider gamut of musical styles.

Elephunk was a huge breakthrough album for the Black Eyed Peas, selling 7.5 million copies worldwide, and earning four Grammy nominations and one Grammy award. The follow-up, Monkey Business, did nearly as well, landing two Top-10 hits with the Grammy winning
“Don't Phunk with My Heart,” and “My Humps.”

With the success BEP has enjoyed over the past three years, Adams has become a sought after writer (John Legend's “Ordinary People”) and producer (Mary J. Blige, Nas). Ferguson has completed a solo album, the forthcoming The Dutchess, which features the Top-10 lead single, “London Bridge.” Pineda and Gomez are planning solo projects as well.

The sound of the Black Eyed Peas has changed drastically from the group's “underground” days. Even though their fans now number in the millions, some long-time supporters have accused the group of “selling out.” But the group members insist they always wanted to appeal to the largest possible audience. Having experienced the alternative, they prefer commercial success over someone's idea of artistic purity.

“I don't wanna be living at home with my mom and freestyling in the backyard 'cause I wanna be a purist,” Gomez said in an interview for Blender magazine. “Forget that sh--! I'm selling out? I'm selling out arenas, mother------!”

The Hit Man

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds has been one of the biggest names in popular music for over 20 years. The multitalented singer, songwriter, and producer, has written, and/or produced dozens of Top-10 hits for some of music’s top stars, including Aretha Franklin (“Willing To Forgive”), Toni Braxton (“Another Sad Love Song,” “Breathe Again”), Whitney Houston (“I’m Your Baby Tonight” “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” ), Boyz II Men (“End of the Road,” “I’ll Make Love to You”), Pink (“Most Girls”), Madonna (“Take A Bow”), and many others.

The 10-time Grammy winner has also enjoyed an extremely successful recording career with eleven albums of his own. Known primarily for his smooth, romantic ballads, his hits include “Whip Appeal,” “Every Time I Close My Eyes,” “It’s No Crime,” and “When Will I See You.”
Touring in support of his current Island Records release, Playlist, Edmonds recently performed at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino Hotel.

Playlist marks a departure for Edmonds in both song selection and style. Of the album's 10 songs, only two are originals. The other eight are covers of songs that Edmonds says influenced him as he was growing up, including Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight,” James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” and Dan Fogelberg’s “Longer.”

When Playlist was released in September 2007, some long-time fans were surprised to learn that Edmonds’ early mentors were soft-rock, rather than R&B, artists.

“I started listening to this music as a kid, probably around the seventh grade,” the 48-year-old Indianapolis native explained in a November 2007 interview with BET. “When we used to go to church, I would sneak out and listen to the car radio. Most of the R&B stations were playing church choirs, which I didn’t want to hear. But most of the other pop stations were playing stuff like James Taylor, Bread, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. I’d already started doodling with the acoustic guitar. Obviously, you couldn’t play James Brown on the acoustic guitar, so I started playing those pop songs.

“That pop music really talked to me, because they were romantic songs. I was a kid who was always in love; I was always trying to write pretty songs. That experience definitely influenced me to be a songwriter and to really emphasize melody.”

In an exclusive telephone interview with Atlantic City Weekly, Edmonds promised a “walk down memory lane” for fans attending shows on his current tour.

“It’s a combination of things, including songs from Playlist, my hit songs, as well as older songs from my other records,” he said. “I even do a medley of songs that I wrote and produced for other people. It’s a lot of fun. I think most people come with the perception that they’re coming to a romantic, mostly ballad driven show, not necessarily one with a lot of energy. But actually the show has a lot of energy, with the combination of things that I've done for myself as well as for others. The audiences have been very receptive, and we've had a good time.”

Edmonds began playing in local bands while still in high school. In his late teens he joined a funk group called Manchild, which signed a record deal in 1977 and released three albums. He earned his nickname while on a side gig as part of Bootsy Collins’ backing group.

After Manchild broke up, Antonio “L.A.” Reid asked Edmonds for help writing some material for a group he was putting together called the Deele.

“I joined the Deele initially as a writer,” Edmonds says. “I came on to help them with a few demos. It was after they got a record deal that L.A. asked me to be in the group.”

Although the Deele scored a few hits in the mid-to-late 80s (most notably “Shoot Em Up Movies” and “Two Occasions”), Edmonds and Reid began producing and writing for other artists on the side, landing hits with Pebbles’ “Girlfriend” and the Whispers’ “Rock Steady.” After the Deele's third album was released in 1988, the duo left the group to continue their outside activities full-time. They co-founded the LaFace record label in 1989.

Edmonds says his approach to songwriting doesn’t change, whether he’s writing for himself or for another artist.

“When I break it down, it's always about what is believable – either for myself or for another artist. It’s really all the same – you’re always looking for great melodies and a great story.”
He says sometimes, as was the case with his current single, “Not Going Nowhere,” the song comes together quickly.

“It flowed out like a conversation,” Edmonds says. “That’s happened to me before. I wrote ‘The Day’ when I found out I was going to be a father. It was five o'clock in the morning, and I got out of bed. I sat down at the piano, and it just came out of me.”

Early in his career, Edmonds demonstrated his versatility not only as a performer, but also as a songwriter and producer. Today he believes that early success has been a key to his longevity.

“There are a number of artists who came out at the same time that I did, and you don't really hear about them in the same way anymore,” he says. “It’s partly because I was a writer and producer for so many other artists and had success with it. Enough people in the industry knew about it, and that gave me a platform that wasn’t the norm. Because of that I ended up being able to stay in the game a lot longer.”

While he’s equally adept at performing, producing, and songwriting, if he were forced to pick just one full-time pursuit, Edmonds doesn’t hesitate.

“I believe I'd be a songwriter,” he says. “As a writer you’re able to touch a great number of people, and if you write the right song, it lives forever.”

The Police: Back on the Beat

“Well, if the Grand Canyon were to rejoin itself, maybe there would be a possibility. We got back together for my wedding. It made me firm in my belief that it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

— Sting in a July 2000 Webchat for JAM, on the possibility of the Police reuniting for a tour.

“We started 30 years ago, so it would be nice to do something to celebrate. We don’t quite know what, but we’re talking about it. I’m very proud of the band we were in.”

— Sting, 2007

The Police, featuring lead singer and bassist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers were one of the true supergroups of the 1980s. From their punk-pop origins, the trio became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the decade. Their hits include “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “King of Pain.”

Although there was no official breakup, the band had not toured since March 1984. On Saturday, Nov. 3, thousands of fans will pack Boardwalk Hall to welcome the Police back to Atlantic City for only the second time in the group’s history (their other concert here was in 1984). Tickets range from $50 to $350. Fiction Plane (featuring Sting’s son, Joe Sumner) will be the opening act.

“The reunion they said would never happen” is a line often used to hype the reunion tours of supergroups. However, the “they” is usually not a member of the band itself. Before this year, Sting’s stock response to reunion questions was, “What would be the point?”

It wasn’t that Sting, who was born Gordon Sumner, felt the Police had done everything artistically that they could do. Simply put, Sting was disliked by his bandmates, and vice versa.

Things were especially testy between Sting and Copeland, who were rumored to have come to blows on more than one occasion. During the making of Synchronicity, the band’s fifth and final studio album, things got so bad that Sting would record his parts during the day and Copeland would record the drum parts at night. Remarkably, not only was the album completed, but it went on to become the group’s first No. 1 album in the United States, and its biggest seller worldwide.

Over the years friction between the band members subsided and they became, if not friendly, at least less adversarial. The trio performed an impromptu set at Sting’s wedding to Trudie Styler in 1992, and played a three-song set at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2003. Today, Copeland says the stories of constant fighting are overblown.

“We used to read in the papers about how we were fighting all the time,” he said in a recent interview for the New York Post. “I don’t know what we were doing, but it wasn’t fighting. When we did argue, it wasn’t about petty stuff, it was about the music, because we’re passionate about what we do.”

Copeland formed the Police in England in 1977 along with Sting and original guitarist Henry Padovani. Copeland and Sting had strong backgrounds in jazz, but Copeland envisioned a power trio to join the burgeoning London punk scene. Padovani lacked musical skills, but he brought punk credibility to the group.

Sumner joined shortly thereafter, and the Police performed briefly as a quartet. After an attempted recording session exposed Padovani’s weakness as a guitarist, he was asked to leave the band. The group decided to continue as a trio.

Realizing that they were too old to play straight out punk rock, they developed a sound that combined the energy of punk with a strong reggae influence and even some jazz overtones. Over the years, even as the group became a commercial success, it never abandoned its experimental nature.

Early this year, when it was announced that the reunion tour would take place, there was much speculation as to whether the trio could actually pull it off. Thus far, the tour has received almost unanimously positive reviews.

To their credit, Sting (56), Copeland (55), and Summers (64) are all in great shape, both physically and musically. Rather than a lot of bells, whistles, and backing musicians, the tour features just the three musicians performing on an uncluttered, half-circle stage. The trio plays all the hits in a generous, 20-song set. While some arrangements have been updated, most of the songs sound just like you remember them.

While some critics have dismissed the Police reunion as an attempt by the aging trio to cash in on their legacy, most fans are happy to have the chance to see the group perform at least one more time. Other bands notorious for internal fighting have let bygones be bygones. If the Eagles, Kiss, and three-fourths of Van Halen can do it, why not the Police?

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The Police Files: Things You May Not Know:

• Copeland chose the name, “the Police” because his father was a CIA officer and his mother served in the British intelligence.

• Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland, who managed the Police, also started I.R.S. Records in the ’80s, home to the Go-Go’s, R.E.M., Squeeze, and others.

• Sting got his nickname while he was a member of a group called the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow jersey with hooped stripes, and bandmate Gordon Solomon told him he looked, “like a bumblebee.”

• Sting’s love for literature found its way into his lyrics: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” includes a reference to Nabokov’s Lolita, and “Tea in the Sahara” includes a line about The Sheltering Sky, the title of a Paul Bowles novel. Ghost in the Machine is a book by political writer Arthur Koestler; “Synchronicity” a well-known essay by Carl Jung.

• Each of the band’s five album covers featured some representation of the three members’ faces, from the straightforward portraits on Outlandos d’Amour, Reggatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta, to the three colored stripes on the cover of Synchronicity. The cryptic cover of Ghost in the Machine is actually digital clock-style depictions of the three faces, with spiky-haired Sting in the middle.

• After one of the early reunion concerts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Copeland posted a satiric review trashing the show on his Web site (http://www.stewartcopeland.net/). For example, Copeland about one of Sting’s mistimed stage moves, “The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock.” Many in the media took Copeland’s post seriously, and predicted that tempers were already flaring among the band members.

• Prior to the reunion tour, the last official shows performed by the Police took place in June 1986, when the band reunited to play three concerts for the Amnesty International.

• The bleached-blonde hair sported by the trio on the cover of their debut album, Outlandos d’Amour was not a marketing ploy. The band members all dyed their hair blonde so they could do a Wrigley Doublemint Gum commercial.

Macy Gray's "Big" Return

Before Macy Gray released her current album, Big, earlier this year, more than a few music industry insiders had closed the book on her music career. The singer, best known for the Grammy Award winning hit “I Try,” had not released an album since 2003’s commercially disappointing The Trouble With Being Myself, and had since parted ways with her record company.

Four years between albums is a lifetime in the music business. But Gray, who performed at Atlantic City's Borgata Music Box along with opening act the Brand New Heavies in September, says she always knew she would rebound.

“I was definitely confident [that I would wind up on another major label],” Gray said in a telephone interview in advance of the Borgata show. “I thought about my next album a lot. [The break between albums] gave me time to figure out what I was going to do next, and how I was going to do it.”

While the time away from music allowed her to further pursue her acting career (she’s appeared in such films as Training Day, Domino, Shadowboxer, and Idlewild), and start her own clothing lines (the high-end Natalie Hinds Collection for women, SNAC for men’s fashion, and HUMPS, for “voluptuous women”) she eventually signed with will.i.am Records, headed by and named for Black Eyed Peas leader and in-demand producer William James Adams Jr.

Soon after, Gray recorded Big with an elite group of producers and guest artists, including will.i.am, Ron Fair, Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and Natalie Cole. Released in March 2007, and featuring the singles “Finally Made Me Happy,” “Shoo Be Doo,” and “What I Gotta Do,” Big has become Gray’s most critically acclaimed and most commercially successful album since her 1999 debut, On How Life Is.

Born Natalie Renee McIntyre in Canton, Ohio, Gray studied piano at an early age, but never envisioned herself as a performer, much less a singer. She moved to Los Angeles to attend USC’s film school in the hope of becoming a screenwriter. While there, she became friends with a group of musicians who convinced her to try her hand at songwriting, and eventually, singing.
“I was shy about doing music because kids used to make fun of my voice when I was younger,” Gray said in a 1996 interview for the All Music Guide.

“Squeaky,” “raspy,” “scratchy,” and about a dozen similar adjectives — none of which begin to do it justice — have been used to describe Gray’s distinctive, soulful voice. Gray has heard them all, and recently added her own description to the mix.

“You know what? I think my voice is better now than it has ever been,” she said in an interview for You Magazine. “It sounds like raspberries — like ripe raspberries — and I like raspberries a lot.”

Gray says the songs on Big came together in a variety of ways.

“Every song is different,” she says. “On some songs I had an idea and I would sing it to my piano player. I always come up with a hook line and a melody first, then put it together. With people like Will and Justin, they build the track first, and then they come up with the hook. Everybody does it a different way.”

Lyrically, the album covers familiar territory.

“It’s always ... talking about life and love and all the things that everybody goes through,” Gray says.

While Big boasts its share of old-school instrumentation and lush production, executive producers will.i.am and Ron Fair manage to add a modern edge to the proceedings while maintaining Gray’s distinctive, somewhat retro sound.

“Musically, there are a lot of beats. At the same time, there’s a lot of production on it, a lot of strings, horns, keyboards. So it’s a really built album,” Gray says. “It varies from one song to another. I wanted it to be different from everything else that’s out there. So we took our chances.”

The approach seems to have worked. Besides overwhelmingly positive press, Big has already attracted a more diverse audience than Gray’s previous albums.

“Up until now my audience was mostly white females,” Gray says. “On my first couple of albums I didn’t really have a black audience. I wasn’t embraced by black radio at all. But for this album [my audience has been] very mixed — I get a lot of black people, a lot of guys, even a couple of kids.”

Fans at Gray’s Borgata show witnessed a performance that appealed to the eyes as well as the ears. Gray and her eight-piece band performed nearly all of Big, as well as over a half-dozen songs from her first three albums in a highly polished, 75-minute set.

“Besides the music, there are a lot of visual dynamics going on. The set list has a storyline,” Gray says. “We crafted every minute of our show. We don’t have revolving stages and a bunch of dancers. It’s just me and my band, but I think it’s just as much a show as anybody else’s. It’s pretty hot. You have to see it.”

The Classic Soul of Ryan Shaw

A few weeks ago I happened to hear a song called "Do the 45" playing on Internet radio. I thought I was listening to an obscure soul classic from Wilson Pickett, Junior Walker, Sam and Dave, or some lesser-known soul artist of the same era.

I was only half right.

"Do the 45" is an obscure soul classic originally done by a group called the Sharpees in 1966. But the version I heard was recorded over 40 years later by a soul prodigy named Ryan Shaw. If it weren't for the improvements in sound recording that have been achieved over the past 40 years, Shaw's version could pass for an undiscovered chestnut.

That's a compliment.

Of the 12 slices of retro-soul featured on Ryan Shaw's debut CD, This Is Ryan Shaw, nine are covers of lesser-known hits originally made famous 30 to 40 years ago by Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Womack, and others. The remaining three are original songs written or co-written by Shaw. If you're not well versed in your vintage soul, however, you might have a hard time figuring out which are originals and which are covers.

That's also a complement.

Since the release of This Is Ryan Shaw earlier this year, the 26-year-old Decatur, Georgia native has received his fair share of media attention. The press is fascinated by his retro-sound. Critics write about his powerful and mature singing style. Reviewers praise his dynamic stage presence. But what is mentioned most often, in article after article, is the fact that Shaw never heard Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Womack, Donny Hathaway – or any other secular music – until he was 18.

Shaw, who performs Thursday, November 8 at Collingswood, New Jersery’s Scottish Rite Auditorium opening for the Derek Trucks Band, grew up in a deeply religious Pentecostal family. Music was an important part of his life from an early age, but it was strictly gospel music played in church, not the pop, soul, hip-hop, rock or R&B played on radio and MTV. He began singing in church at the age of five, and later formed a family group with his four brothers called the Shaw Boys. Shaw's early musical influences all came from the gospel world – singers like Darryl Coley, Keith Brooks, James Moore, and the Pace Sisters.

The first time he heard music that wasn’t gospel was when he left home for college. After briefly attending Georgia State University, he successfully auditioned for the gospel musical A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Part II). In 1998, he joined the cast of I Know I've Been Changed, written and directed by Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman). Shaw moved to New York with the production and performed to sold-out crowds at the Beacon Theater.

After the closing of I Know I've Been Changed, Ryan joined the resident cast of the Motown Café on West 57th Street where he performed Detroit soul favorites by the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. Later he found another steady gig with a group that he says played “just about anything from the Fifties and Sixties that you could dance to – Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, Stax and Motown, Dion & the Belmonts, you name it.”

In a recent telephone interview, Shaw said that he gravitated toward soul music from the 60’s and early 70’s because many of those artists also started out singing gospel music.

“Those singers came out of the church, so I’ve been singing like them my whole life,” he said. “We all sang the same music growing up. I just didn’t know about their secular side. But it’s all based on traditional gospel music. It wasn’t a big switch for me, or anything I had to study. When I heard Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave – I said, ‘that was the same song I sang in church last Sunday, only with different words.’”

When he first decided to pursue a career in music, he considered becoming a gospel artist.

“Being born and raised in the church, you think that’s your only option,” Shaw says. “I’ve considered it. Even when I was first signed to the label, they talked about doing a gospel album. My third album might be a gospel album, I’m not sure.”

Shaw says the follow-up to This Is Ryan Shaw won’t be a gospel album, but it won’t be another collection dominated by covers, either.

“The next one is going to be pretty much all original,” he says. “The purpose of the first album was to establish me as a singer; hopefully the next album will establish me as a writer and as a more complete artist. There’s a possibility that there might be a few covers that I really love on the album, but they’ll be even more obscure than the stuff I covered on the first record.”

Since his album’s release last March, Shaw has toured the country as both a headliner and a support act. He’s opened for a variety of R&B, jazz, and blues artists, including John Legend, Buddy Guy, Joss Stone, and Los Lonely Boys. He’s even appeared at Lollapalooza.

Shaw says that even though “it’s more work to win over an audience when you’re opening for somebody,” he hasn’t met an audience yet that he couldn’t win over.

“There hasn’t been a bad show yet,” he says. “I think the strangest one was when we opened up for [jazz instrumental group] Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Their crowd is a different group of people, but they still love real music. When I first came out, it was like blank faces and crickets chirping. But halfway through the second song, they were with me. By the end of the show, they were going crazy.”

Shaw acknowledges that given the strong musical statement he made with his debut album, the industry has already labeled him as a soul singer. While he’s comfortable with the label, he’d like to establish a career in which he’s known as a singer who can handle any style of music.

“You go back to someone like Aretha Franklin – Aretha did two or three jazz albums, then she did the Rock Steady album, she did a little bit of everything. People just loved her. It wasn’t about the song, it was Aretha. No matter what Aretha was doing, people loved her and they knew what she brought to the table.”

“I think a great song is a great song whether it’s sung by a country artist, or a soul artist, or a rock ‘n’ roll artist,” he adds. “I think people love real music. I think what attracts people to what I do is my interpretation of it all. Not necessarily the song, but what I bring to the table.”

Seal With A "Kiss"

Seal, the British-born singer-songwriter of Brazilian and Nigerian heritage, burst on the music scene in 1991 with a self-titled album that presented a unique fusion of soul, folk, pop, dance and rock, and immediately brought him success on both sides of the Atlantic. Although he’s only released three albums since — six, if you count two live recordings and a 2004 hits collection — Seal continues to attract a large and intensely loyal international following.

Despite his relatively sparse recording output, the 44-year-old singer, whose real name is Sealhenry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, has managed to remain in the public eye. He’s released enough new music to remind listeners of his distinctive soulful voice, including a Grammy-nominated cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Walk On By” on Best 1991 – 2004, and the song, “A Father’s Way” (from the film The Pursuit of Happyness), which received a 2006 Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

With a lean, muscular 6’4” frame, Seal’s sheer physical presence has always been enough for him to garner media attention. Growing up in the image-conscious MTV era, Seal has been savvy enough to take advantage of it. He might have gone into modeling, but was initially discouraged by the facial scars he carries as a result of a childhood bout with lupus. But when he decided on a performing career, Seal became convinced that the half-moon scars under his eyes were an omen of future stardom.

“I got really depressed about [the scars] at first, as you can understand,” he said in an interview with Rob Tannenbaum of Rolling Stone magazine. “Now I really like them. If I could design something, I don’t think I could do it better.”

He did design the rest of his look, which at one time featured long dreadlocks, but now sports a clean-shaven head.

“True beauty is internal and eternal — it doesn’t matter what’s only skin deep,” he has said.

Apparently, his view of female beauty tends to be more traditional. Seal dated supermodel Tyra Banks in the mid-90s, and married supermodel Heidi Klum in 2005. The couple has two children.

Seal began his performing career singing in London clubs and bars. He joined an English funk band called Push, which was successful enough to tour Japan in the mid-’80s. From there, Seal took advantage of his time abroad, immersing himself in a variety of musical cultures, and perhaps influencing his own eclectic style of pop music. While in Asia, he joined a Thailand-based blues band. After a short time with that group, he traveled throughout India on his own.

When he returned to England, Seal started collaborating with artists on the local dance music scene. He wrote and independently recorded a song called “Killer” with keyboardist Adamski. Its balance of dance and rock, coupled with Seal’s emotional singing and lyrics, took it to the top of the U.K. charts.

The song caught the attention of producer Trevor Horn (Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Yes), who signed Seal to his ZTT label and produced his eponymous debut in 1991. The album was positively received by both critics and fans, and the singles “Crazy,” “Future Love Paradise” and a new version of “Killer” all performed well on the charts.

But it was Seal’s second album, also self-titled, that established him as one of pop music’s top artists of the ’90s. The 1994 album was also produced by Horn, and featured guest appearances by Joni Mitchell and Jeff Beck. It included the singles “Prayer for the Dying” and “Newborn Friend,” and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. A third single, “Kiss From a Rose,” performed modestly when initially released, but later became a worldwide smash hit when it was featured in the film Batman Forever. “Kiss From a Rose” went on to win Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1996, and became Seal’s best known song.

Sales of 1998’s Human Being failed to match those of Seal’s first two albums, and the singer went through a difficult period, both personally and professionally. He had a falling out with Horn and left ZTT Records for Warner Brothers.

Seal returned to form for 2003’s Seal IV. Again produced by Horn, the album was a critical and commercial success, and included the singles “Get It Together,” “Waiting For You” and “Love’s Divine.”

In blog posts on Seal.com, his official Web site, Seal has talked about his new album (no, it's not called Seal V - it's called System) which hits the streets November 13, 2007. He says it will reflect a return to his roots as a club singer. Some of the song titles include “Amazing,” “System,” “Wedding Day” and “The Right Life.”

Hoping for a fresh sound, the album will be produced by Stuart Price, known for his work with Madonna, No Doubt, and Coldplay.

“The new record is really shaping up and is turning out to be much of a dance record,” Seal said in a recent post. “Over the years I’ve somehow become more known for my ballads, which I also love doing, but dance music has always been close to my heart. Make no mistake, there will also be a killer ballad or three on this record, but at this point in my life I really want to make something that is more dance-directed.”

Christina Aguilera Gets Back To Basics in Atlantic City

The show that Grammy award-winning pop diva Christina Aguilera brought to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Saturday, March 31 might have been part of her Back to Basics Tour, but like the 2006 double-album it’s named after, there was nothing “basic” about it. The ninety-minute, hi-tech spectacle featured 15 costume changes, a supporting cast of 20 dancers and musicians, over 600 lights, and an array of Cirque du Soleil-inspired acrobatics and special effects.

In a recent teleconference interview to promote the tour, Aguilera said that she feels presenting anything less would be shortchanging her audience.

"Nowadays, I don't think it would be fair to my audience to just kind of sit on the stage with a mike,” Aguilera said. “If I play an arena, I want my audience to be able to look around and enjoy a show from all aspects. I think it's only fair to my audience to fill up the space and to give them a real show.”

Aguilera’s luck crapped out the last time she was scheduled to perform at Boardwalk Hall. In August 2003, the Justified & Stripped Tour, featuring Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, was derailed in Atlantic City when a lighting grid collapsed prior to the show. No one was hurt, but the accident caused over $1 million in damage to the show’s lighting, sound and video equipment, and forced the cancellation of several dates on the tour.

Much of the current show’s staging is inspired by the vintage jazz, big band, soul and blues themes the 26-year-old singer explores on the critically acclaimed Back to Basics album. Artistically, it’s Aguilera’s most impressive album yet – eons beyond the corporate pop of her self-titled debut, and even more ambitious than 2002’s Stripped.

“I always just do what I feel,” Aguilera says. “With my first album, I kind of had to play by the rules and go accordingly to what my label wanted me to do. A few million records sold later, I was able to do what I wanted with Stripped, which was kind of my own interpretation of my coming-of-age record. It was the first time that I felt that I could really be myself, write my own material, and express myself as the woman that I'd grown into at that point.

“While I was on tour with Stripped, I started diving deeper into this place of inspiration. Blues, soul, and jazz music were always an inspiration for me, and I really felt that it was time to dive into that world, getting to know it better.”

Aguilera has always had an affinity for jazz and blues standards. A native of Staten Island, she began performing in local talent shows while growing up in suburban Pittsburgh. At 9-years-old, she appeared on Star Search singing Etta James’ “A Sunday Kind of Love,” but lost the competition.

“There's a lot of sadness in old music and in blues. It originates from pain and I think that's really beautiful,” Aguilera says. “I talk openly about my past and what I've gone through – abuse being something that was very real in my household, and a lot of chaos growing up as a child. I think that I naturally just gravitated towards music that I could really feel on a deep level – and that meant sadness. I was able to connect with that at a really young age.”

In 1992 she joined the cast of the Disney Channel’s The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and JC Chasez. In 1998 Aguilera recorded the song “Reflection” for Disney's animated film “Mulan.” It led to a record deal with RCA and the release of her self-titled debut album in 1999. The album hit #1 on the strength of the single, “Genie In A Bottle” and its follow-up, “What A Girl Wants.”

With remarkable ease, Aguilera’s public persona has evolved from a Britney pop clone, to a “Dirrty” party girl, to a retro-chic diva. Like Bette Midler in the ’70s, and Madonna in the ’80s and ’90s, Aguilera admits she enjoys reinventing herself on every album.

“I do get bored easily and not only is it important for me to challenge myself and evolve as an artist, but it's important for me personally,” she says. “I think that life is all about changing and trying to continue your growth as a person. I'm not the same person that I was on Stripped, and I wasn't the same person on Stripped that I was when I first came out. To me, it's just a constant evolution.”

As part of that growth process, Aguilera says that she would like to branch out into acting.

“Movies and film is something that I do intend on doing,” she says. “Like music, it's another art form and I want to take it seriously. So I've been reading scripts, but I really want to make sure it’s the right role. If I want to act, I want to do just that. I don't want to play myself as a singer.”
Music will remain her first love, however. Aguilera says she already has ideas for the direction her next album will take.

“I can't give away what [it is] because there always has to be that element of surprise,” she says. “But I am extremely driven and it'll always be inside of me to keep that focus on the next thing. It's not really about knowing exactly where the next album will be five years from now, 10 years from now, or the third or fifth album from now, but it's more about just keeping my focus and keeping the ultimate game plan of bettering myself and constantly evolving and changing and seeing what the next ‘me’ has to offer.”

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The Pussycat Dolls Offer More Than Meets The Eye

Take six beautiful women, dress them in lingerie and pin-up costumes, and have them sing lines like “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me,” or “I’m telling you to loosen up my buttons, baby” choreographed to flirty burlesque moves. Now call the group the Pussycat Dolls and expect any self-respecting music critic to take them seriously.

Okay, count me in.

Truth be told, those who would make the mistake of dismissing the group and its debut album, PCD on face value would miss out on one of the catchiest, most enjoyable, and yes, most diverse albums released in the last year. Hip-Hop, soul, pop, R&B – even big-band swing and jazz are represented.

The group, currently on tour opening for Christina Aguilera, has been together about three years, but the Pussycat Dolls have existed for over ten. The Dolls were founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995, as a campy, burlesque dance revue based at the Viper Room, Johnny Depp’s club on L.A.’s Sunset Strip. The revue quickly became a phenomenon as celebs like Aguilera, Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, Carmen Electra, and Gwen Stefani joined the show as guest stars and became a Pussycat Doll for a night.

The concept was taken to the next level when the current line-up – Nicole Scherzinger, Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton, and Kimberly Wyatt was recruited specifically as a singing group. Matched with an A-list of writers and producers, they recorded PCD over the course of a year, and released the album in September 2005.

Nicole Scherzinger handles all the lead vocals on PCD; and some have suggested that the other Dolls merely serve as eye candy. But in an August 2006 interview, Melody Thornton said that in their live show, each of the Dolls takes a turn on lead vocals.

“In the live show we all trade off lead vocals from time to time,” she said. “For example, there’s a section in the show where Carmit and I split verses singing “Fever” that’s a throwback to what we used to do on the Sunset Strip.”

The Pussycat Dolls might play up their sex appeal, but ironically the majority of the group’s fans are younger females.

“Overall, I think the album is definitely about female empowerment,” Thornton says. “As much as we hear that younger females are all jealous of each other, every time a female group comes out with a strong voice, we just jump all over it, because we need that. We need somebody to look up to.”

The promoters behind the Pussycat Dolls are determined to keep the phenomenon going. The Pussycat Dolls Lounge opened in April 2005 inside Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, featuring a different roster of performers. Currently, there’s a Pussycat Dolls line of makeup. A line of clothing, lingerie, perfume, videogames, TV and movie projects, and other lounges are also being discussed.

The current single, “Wait A Minute” is the fifth pulled from PCD, and Thornton says more will probably follow. She can currently be heard on Jibbs new single, “Go Too Far.”

The group will eventually record a follow-up, Thornton says, but on the heels of such a successful debut, they want to take their time “and make sure that the ‘sophomore jinx’ isn’t an issue.”