Podcasts about Natalie Cole

HERE WE GO MY SHOW FOR 26-JUNE-2025 WITH A MIXED BAG OF OLD CLASSICS INCLUDING ( EARTH WIND & FIRE,RIPPLE, THE OJAYS, NATALIE COLE, THE PHILLY DEVOTION, JEAN CARN ) AND MANY MORE ALSO SOME TOP NEW TRACKS FROM ( CHANGE, NES POWERS ft RICH BEGGAR, SOULUTIONS   ) WE ALSO HAVE THE CONNOISSEURS CORNER ( THIS WEEK WE HAVE PAUL TAYLOR AND SPYRO GYRO) AND WE HAVE THE BACK TO BACK CLASSICS BY A CLASSIC ARTIST (THIS WEEK WE HAVE THE CHI-LITES ) THEN WE HAVE THREE TRACKS DUG OUT FROM THE GARAGE FROM ( CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, THE FLIRTATIONS, THE ELGINS )  AND MUCH MUCH MORE SIT BACK WITH A GLASS OF SOMETHING AND ENJOY OR DOWNLOAD FOR LATER.

In this powerful episode, Angelique sits down with legendary makeup artist and industry pioneer Marietta Carter-Narcisse for a candid, wisdom-filled conversation that every makeup artist needs to hear.Originally recorded inside the Coming in Clutch Club, this intimate throwback is overflowing with hard-earned lessons on career longevity, union navigation, motherhood on set, burnout, boundaries, and building a legacy in a system not built for you.Marietta shares:Her journey from pre-med student to working with icons like Natalie Cole, Samuel L. Jackson, and Cindy CrawfordThe hidden truths about union membership, retirement, and setting yourself up financially as a freelance artistWhat it's really like to be a department head and personal artist on major film setsThe power of knowing your worth and walking awayA true story involving a flight... and Selena.Whether you're brand new to the industry or decades deep, this episode will leave you feeling empowered, educated, and deeply inspired.Connect with Angelique:Website: ⁠⁠https://breakupstomakeup.com/⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠@breakupstomakeup6358⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠@breakupstomakeup⁠⁠Facebook: ⁠⁠@breakupstomakeup⁠⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠@breakupstomakeup⁠

Diese Sendung hat Andreas Pasternack zusammengestellt. Das LIVE – Anspiel diesmal ist : „Stardust“ – 1927 komponiert von Hoagy Carmichael. Folgende Titel sind zu hören: 1. Take the A-Train – Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra 2:55 2. I'm beginning to see the Light – Natalie Cole 3:28 3. Stardust – Clifford Brown 3:24 4. Brasil – Eliane Elias 4:41 5. Ice Cream – Chris Barber's Jazz Band 3:26 6. My funny Valentine – Sting feat. Herbie Hancock 4:54 7. Mas que nada – Ella Fitzgerald 3:52 8. House Party – Nils Landgren Funk Unit 5:05 9. Mack the Knife – Louis Armstrong 3:22 Für Titelwünsche und Anregungen schreiben Sie gern an: jazztime.mv@ndr.de Keep Swingin' !!!

Phonte Coleman is best known as a founding member of hip-hop group Little Brother, and as one of the co‑hosts of the podcast Questlove Supreme with Questlove. In the late 90s, Phonte met Thomas “Big Pooh” Jones and Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and they started making music together as the hip-hop collective, Justus League and released their first album The Listening in 2003. They changed their name to Little Brother and signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released The Minstrel Show in 2005. They left Atlantic not long after and then released Getback in 2007 and Leftback in 2010, but then disbanded. Phonte and Big Pooh reunited in 2018 at the Art of Cool Festival and started working on the album May the Lord Watch which came out the following year. There's a documentary called May the Lord Watch you can find online that tells their story, from founding to breakup to reunion. Their final tour which is underway now.Phonte is also co-founder of the Grammy-nominated group The Foreign Exchange with Dutch producer Nicolay. They've put out six studio albums and several singles. SONG 1: “Think (About It)” by Lyn Collins from the 1972 album of the same name. https://youtu.be/vCByeJsq65M?si=e6yfkujwMOUfo5izSONG 2: “Word Play” by A Tribe Called Quest off their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes and Life.https://youtu.be/LfWtkay3lEo?si=VnnVZE9s5eCZEx-pSONG 3: Natalie Cole's “La Costa” released in 1977 on her album Thankful.https://youtu.be/E1ckb_LDGnA?si=gqZpULJymfyKuCru

**VJ Gary & The Pac To The 90's Replay On traxfm.org. This Week Gary Features Superb 90's Special. Featuring Adamski, Adventures Of Stevie V, En Vogue, Paul Abdul, Beats International Ft Lindy Layton - "Dub Be Good To Me" (Pete Le Freq Remix), Michael Bolton, UB40, Snap, Family Stand, Was Not Was, Lisa Stansfield, Natalie Cole, Talk Talk, Bizz Nizz, Soul; II Soul, Technotronic Ft Ya Kid K, Blur - "Girls & Boys" (Pete Le Freq Remix), Let Loose, Kenny Thomas & More. #originalpirates #80smusic #popclassics #80sclassics #remixes #danceclassics #80charts #80sdancemusic #topofthepops Catch VJ Gary's Pac To The 80's Show Every Sunday From 3PM UK Time On www.traxfm.org Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring a live panel discussion on the legacy of William Adam and AdamFest, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. This episode also appears as a video episode on our YouTube channel, you can find it here: "AdamFest 2025 Panel Discussion"   About the William Adam Trumpet Festival (AdamFest): The 11th Annual William Adam International Trumpet Festival will take place June 19–22, 2025, at Austin Peay State University, hosted by Dr. Rob Waugh. This year's festival brings together a distinguished roster of William Adam's former students—many of whom are among today's leading trumpet artists—for four days of inspiration, performance, and pedagogy. In the spirit of Mr. Adam's legacy, the festival offers a rich mix of masterclasses, performances, complimentary private and group lessons, and targeted seminars on topics such as jazz improvisation, orchestral playing, trumpet fundamentals, and effective teaching. Special programming is available for younger students and their educators. William Adam taught trumpet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music from 1946 to 1988 and continued teaching privately until his passing in 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most influential trumpet pedagogues of the 20th century, his teaching emphasized sound, simplicity, and personal connection. The annual festival ensures his philosophy continues to inspire new generations of trumpet players. About Our Panelists: Bobby Burns Jr. is a longtime member of Earth, Wind & Fire and a veteran of the Los Angeles music scene. After studying with the legendary Bill Adam at Indiana University—where he overcame early challenges to earn a degree in trumpet performance—Bobby moved to L.A., balancing day jobs with gigs until establishing a full-time music career. His versatile résumé spans symphonic, studio, and touring work, with credits including The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Dr. Dre, and Broadway productions like Evita and A Chorus Line. Since joining Earth, Wind & Fire in 2004, he has performed on major stages around the world, from the White House to the Grammys. Bobby is also an active educator, passionate about mentoring the next generation of musicians. Charley Davis is a versatile trumpeter, respected educator, and innovative designer with a career spanning over three decades. A fixture in the Los Angeles studio scene, Charley has performed with legends like Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Buddy Rich, and Placido Domingo, and his credits range from motion pictures and Broadway shows to big bands and Las Vegas stages. He currently teaches at Cal State Long Beach, Citrus College, and the Henry Mancini Institute, where he's known for his deep diagnostic insight and mentorship. Charley is also the founder of Charles Davis Music Products, producing a signature line of trumpets and mutes that reflect his commitment to excellence in both sound and craftsmanship. Robert Slack is a seasoned trumpeter, educator, and recording artist with a master's degree in trumpet performance from Indiana University, where he studied under the legendary William Adam. His diverse career has included everything from orchestras and brass ensembles to touring with Buddy Rich and Paul Anka, and performing in Las Vegas showrooms with stars like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Now based in Los Angeles, Robert has built an extensive studio career with credits spanning film, television, and commercial work. He currently serves as trumpet professor at Azusa Pacific University, where he's been on faculty for over 18 years. Larry Hall is one of Los Angeles' top session trumpet players, known for his versatility across virtually every musical style. A former student of William Adam at Indiana University, Larry has built a prolific recording career with credits spanning film, television, and albums for artists including Elton John, The Jacksons, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Placido Domingo. His ability to adapt his sound to any musical context has made him a first-call player in the L.A. studio scene. Dr. Karl Sievers is a distinguished performer and educator whose career spans orchestral, jazz, and commercial music. A former student of William Adam, he holds a DMA in trumpet performance and recently retired as a Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma. Now in his 24th season as principal trumpet of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Karl is equally at home playing lead in jazz and Broadway settings. When he's not performing, he enjoys fitness, motorcycles, fishing, and time with family. Gino Muñoz is a versatile musician, educator, and entrepreneur with over two decades of professional performance experience, including work with Michael Bublé and Gwen Stefani. A proud alumnus and now full-time faculty member at Citrus College, Gino has played a key role in shaping the school's acclaimed Instrumental Music program. He is the past Academic Senate President, produces live shows for venues like SeaWorld and Legoland, and is a partner at 37 St Joseph Studios, a professional recording facility in Arcadia. Anthony “Tony” Bonsera Jr. is a dynamic trumpeter, composer, arranger, and educator whose career spans jazz, big band, rock, and fusion. He has played lead or split lead trumpet with groups like The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and the Bill Holman Big Band, and is a longtime faculty member at Citrus College. As a bandleader and recording artist, Tony's projects—such as his original album The Gates of Hell and the genre-blending Los Angeles Classic Rock Orchestra—showcase his creative range. His latest work, L.A.'s Finest, is an ambitious double album featuring top musicians from across the country. A Philly native, Tony still finds time for family, friends, and the occasional cheesesteak.   Podcast listeners! Enter code "podcast" at checkout for 15% off any of our Gard bags! Visit trumpetmouthpiece.com for more info.     Episode Links: WilliamAdamTrumpet.com Bill Adam Facebook Group -  https://www.facebook.com/groups/603106766409745/ Charley Davis Book - A Tribute to William Adam Print Version - https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/products/tribute-to-william-adam-method-book-his-teachings-his-routine-by-charley-davis PDF Version - https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/products/digital-copy-tribute-to-william-adam-method-book-his-teachings-his-routine-by-charley-davis William Adam Brass Choir Arrangements - https://trumpetmouthpiece.com/collections/william-adam-brass-choir-arrangements International Trumpet Guild Conference, May 27-31, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/itg William Adam Trumpet Festival, June 19-22, Clarksville, Tennessee. williamadamtrumpet.com  Sign up sheet for valve alignments: bobreeves.com/williamadam   Podcast Credits: “A Room with a View“ - composed and performed by Howie Shear Podcast Host - John Snell Cover Art - courtesy of John Snell Audio Engineer - Ted Cragg

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Este fin de semana se celebra en Murcia el festival de literatura y poesia feminsita 'Demoleer' y en relación a esta cita, Miriam Iniesta nos trae una lista musical con 'empoderamiento feminista' así nos encontramos con Aretha franklin y su 'do right woman , do right man', Maddie & Tae con 'What A Woman Can Do' o la conocidisíma Natalie Cole con 'Wild Women Do' entre otras propuestas que podrás escuchar en este enlace:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLCjhH__DwhG4Nn-b92wpS6kYPUh8pQXz&si=egeO_m421KAfAC_W

¿Quién no desea tener amigos? Hay algunos que tenemos de paso por el colegio o la secundaria, el trabajo o la universidad, pero hay otros que permanecen toda la vida. Hay muchos valores hoy en crisis, pero si hay uno que renace con cada generación es el de la amistad, para muchos, tan importante o más que la familia. ¿Qué sería tener como amigo al Señor del universo, el Dios encarnado? De eso habla Jesús en este capítulo de la Buena Noticia según Juan (15:14). Meditamos hoy sobre ello. La cabecera está esta vez a cargo de la canadiense Diana Krall y la hija del cantante que popularizó el tema que da título al programa, "Ruta 66", Natalie Cole. Lo interpretan juntas en un concierto que escuchamos de 2002. Tras ella oímos una sorprendente balada de los Rolling Stones en 1981, "Esperando a un amigo" (Waiting On A Friend), a la que sigue el clásico de Carole King y James Taylor en 1971, "Tienes un amigo" (You´ve Got A Friend), que escuchamos esta vez cantado por ella en vivo en Los Ángeles en 1994. Hasta Taylor Swift reconoce en 2019 que "Es agradable tener un amigo" (It´s Nice To Have A Friend). La película con la que hablamos de la amistad humana y divina, es para muchos la mejor historia de redención del cine contemporáneo. La producción de 1994 que se conoce en España como "Cadena perpetua", "Sueño de fuga" en Hispanoamérica", o "Sueños" o "Escape a la libertad" en Argentina, se llama en realidad como la novela de Stephen King en que se basa esta historia, "La redención de Shawshank" (1982). Dirigida por Frank Darabont, está protagonizada por TIm Robbins y Morgan Freeman. Su lectura cristiana ha dado lugar a todo un libro del más importante crítico británico, Mark Kermode. Consideramos su interpretación con algunos diálogos de la versión doblada y la banda sonora original de Thomas Newman. "Viejos amigos" (Old Friends) es una pequeña joya del dúo judío de Nueva York que formaron Simon y Garfunkel. Apareció en 1968 en el reverso del disco sencillo que llevaba la canción de la película "El Graduado" (Mrs. Robinson). Como los discípulos de Jesús, cuando más apreciamos el valor de una amistad es ante la perspectiva de su partida. El cantautor argentino afincado en España, Alberto Cortez, escribió una de sus más emocionantes composiciones a la muerte de su padre en 1966, "Cuando un amigo se va". El problema es que en este mundo, hasta los mejores amigos nos fallan, como descubrió el músico cristiano Randy Stonehill, cuando se sintió traicionado por su amigo Larry Norman, que le sacó de la droga y le introdujo, tanto en la música como en la fe, pero se acabó quedando con su esposa, tras su divorcio y nuevo matrimonio. En la canción que apareció en su álbum de 1983, "Hasta el mejor de los amigos" (Even The Best Of Friends), descubre que sólo hay un Amigo que nunca nos falla, Cristo Jesús.

Fuld funk frem: Kom med ned i skufferne og hør hvad nogle af de bedste og største artister gemmer på. I denne udgave besøger jeg bl.a. Commodores, Fatback, Isley brothers, Jackson 5, Average White band og Natalie Cole. Alle artister du kender, men nok ikke de udvalgte numre. Så bered dig. Det bliver funky!

I'm back on the airwaves this week after what seems like an age, with music from Lynden David Hall, Bobby Thurston Omar, The Honest Guy, Natalie Cole & Peabo Bryson, Andriah Arrindell and much, much more. Stop on by and hear what you've been missing . . . Welcome To The Soul Show - DJ Chris JayNo Use feat. Clara Hill (Little Big Beat Studio Live Session) - JazzanovaWhen I Think Of You - Alison Crockett Are We Still Cool? - Lynden David HallWish You Were Here - Ernie & The Family McKone Feat. Laura Jackson80/20 Rule - Andriah ArrindellI Can't Shake This Feeling - Saucy Lady, U-key & OmarYou Decide - Dave Lee & Maurissa RoseYou Got What It Takes - Bobby ThurstonWhat You Won't Do For Love - Natalie Cole & Peabo BrysonBouncy Lady - PleasureFalling For You (Georgie B Remix) - Windy KarigianesMusic Man - Soulpersona Starring Princess FreesiaCan We Go Out? - OMARThey Wish They Could - Bronx Soul CollectiveInside You (B's Side) - Joe LeavyPull it up! Double D Remix - Don-E Brazillian Groove (EWF) - Jay Dee Aka J DillaYes I Do - Xantoné BlacqWatching You, Watching Me - SijiOMG - THEHONESTGUYSpaceship - Corey ElHoney - Citrus SunFalling Down (feat. Sarai Jazz) - PeaceyBienvenido A Casa - Mr. Terence ThompsonIf You Only Knew - Patti LaBelleAny Other Love - Rahsaan Pattersonflyintoya - MATYAM & Tyron MottThank You Thank You - Roy Ayers

Regular listeners to Unstoppable Mindset have heard me talk about a program called Podapalooza. This event takes place four times a year and is attended by podcasters, people who want to be podcasters and people who want to be interviewed by podcasters. Featured podcasters such as I get to talk with a number of people who sign up to be interviewed by us specifically.   This past Podapalooza saw me get to meet our guest this time, Susan Janzen. Susan wasn't even on of my original matches at Podapalooza, but she and I met and she told me she wanted both to be on Unstoppable Mindset and for me to come on her podcast, “Living & Loving Each Day”. Well, part one has happened. Susan has come on Unstoppable Mindset, and what a remarkable and unstoppable person she is.   Throughout her life she has been a professional singer and recording artist, a special education teacher, a realtor, now a life coach and she, along with her husband Henry, Susan has authored two books.   Make no mistake, Susan has performed all these life experiences well. She has been a singer for more than 30 years and still rehearses with a big band. She was a substitute special education teacher for six years and then decided to switch from teaching to selling real estate to help bring accessible housing to Alberta Canada.   Susan, as you will discover, is quite an inspiration by any standard. I look forward to receiving your comments and observations after you hear this episode. I am sure you will agree that Susan is quite Unstoppable and she will help you see that you too are more unstoppable than you think.       About the Guest:   Susan is an inspiring professional whose achievements span multiple fields. As a professional singer and recording artist, she enchanted audiences across North America. Her legacy as Edmonton's first Klondike Kate includes captivating performances from Las Vegas to the Alberta Pavilion during Expo 1987. Her versatility shines through her educational pursuits, earning a Bachelor of Education and influencing lives as a Special Education teacher. Alongside her husband, Dr. Henry Janzen, Susan co-authored two Amazon Best Sellers, further cementing her creative impact. Empowering Lives Through Coaching and Music Today, Susan combines her passions: Performs with the Trocadero Orchestra, a 17-piece Big Band. Empowers others as a Certified Happy for No Reason Trainer and Jay Shetty Life Coach. Hosts her podcast, Living & Loving Each Day Bridging Barriers sharing powerful stories of overcoming challenges.   Ways to connect Susan:   https://www.facebook.com/home.php https://www.youtube.com/@SusanJanzen www.linkedin.com/in/susan-janzen-b-ed-5940988 https://www.instagram.com/livingnlovingbridgingbarriers/   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone. I am your host, Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset podcast, unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, and that's always so much fun. So we do some, we do sometimes talk about inclusion, and we do talk about diversity, and we talk about inclusion first, because diversity usually leaves out disabilities, but in this case, we we like inclusion because we won't let anyone leave out disabilities if they're going to talk about being inclusive. So there you go. But anyway, even more important than that is the unexpected, which is anything that doesn't have anything to do with diversity or inclusion, our guest today kind of has a little bit to do with all of that stuff. Susan Janzen is our guest. I'm assuming I'm pronouncing that right, perfectly, right? Yes, perfect. And Susan is up in Edmonton, Canada, and I met Susan a couple of weeks ago because both of us participated in the patapalooza program. Patapalooza, for those of you who may be listening to this on a regular basis, patapalooza is a program that happens four times a year where people come on who want to be podcasters, who are podcasters, or who want to be interviewed by podcasters. And we all kind of get together and we talk, and we listen to some lectures, and a bunch of us go off into breakout rooms and we get to chat with people. And when I was being scheduled, Susan was not one of the people who, in fact, got scheduled with me, but she came into the room and she said, I want to talk to you. And so there we are. And so Susan, welcome to unstoppable mindset where we can talk.   Susan Janzen ** 03:12 Well, so glad and so glad to be in a room with you here on my screen. This is great. Oh, it's fun.   Michael Hingson ** 03:18 My door is closed so my cat won't come in and bug me, because every so often she comes in and and what she wants is me to go pet her while she eats, but I'm not going to let her do that while the podcast is going on. So there you go. But anyway, it's good to be here, and I'm glad that you're here with us, and I understand that it's kind of nice and crisp and chilly where you are right now. No surprise, we are much more weak,   Susan Janzen ** 03:45 yeah, much warmer. There we had in Alberta. We're always in Edmonton, Alberta. We're called the sunny province because it's doesn't matter how cold it gets. We always have blue cumulus clouds and beautiful blue sky   Michael Hingson ** 04:00 and so. And today you have and today it's my cold.   Susan Janzen ** 04:04 It's, well, it's minus 10 with a skiff of snow. But you know what? Minus 10 here is? Actually, that's kind of my prerequisite for skiing, like, if it's minus 10 or warmer, I'm good, because I'm not a very good added skier. That's why   Michael Hingson ** 04:20 my brother in law used to ski on a regular basis. He in fact, used to take trips and take tours and and allow people to hire him as their tour guide to go over to France to do off peace school in the else. And he is also a cabinet maker and general contractor, and Gary's philosophy always is everything stops in the winter when there is an opportunity to ski. So   Susan Janzen ** 04:50 that would be a beautiful wouldn't that be there? Like the perfect job to probably be a golf pro in the summer in a ski tour? Third guide in the winter. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 05:01 he he was a, he was a contractor in the summer. Now he's doing more contracting all year round. He still skis, but he's not a certified mountain ski guide in France anymore. I think, I assume that kind of runs out after a while, but he hasn't really taken people on trips there for a while. But anyway, we're really glad you're here. I would love to start by maybe you telling us a little bit about the early Susan, growing up and all that well,   05:27 with the early Susan, that sounds great. Sure,   Susan Janzen ** 05:28 let's do   05:30 it that was a long,   Michael Hingson ** 05:32 long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But let's do it anyway, exactly,   Susan Janzen ** 05:36 exactly. So way back in the day I was, I was actually my history is, is from I had a mother who was a singer, and she and I, I'm also professional singer, but she, she was my influence when I was younger, but when I was born, it was out those terminology at that time was called out of wedlock. Oh my gosh, you know, so bad. And so she was a single mom, and raised me as a very determined and and stubborn girl, and we had our traumas, like we went through a lot of things together, but we survived, and we're and we're, you know, all the things that I went through, I was on in foster care for a little while, and I kind of did a whole bunch of different things as a kid, and went on my own When I was 15. So I left home when I was 15, so I figured I'd be on my own. I figured I was mature enough to just go on my own, right like that made was made total sense and perfect sense to me at the time, and now I realize how young 15 is, but but finished high school and went to on the road and was a singer for like, over 25 years. That's better that. And, yeah. And so that's what I that was kind of like the childhood part of me. And that's, I think, what's putting me into all these play. I was in a convent for a while with   Michael Hingson ** 06:54 honey, and so you, you went off and you sang, you said, for 25 years, yes,   Susan Janzen ** 07:01 and I'm still singing. I'm still singing. That was Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 07:06 And I was reading that you sing with a seven piece, 17 piece, Big Band orchestra. I do.   Susan Janzen ** 07:12 It's called a Trocadero orchestra. It's so it's the whole horn section, the the rhythm section. It's so much fun, I can't tell you, so I we do that. We don't gig a lot because a lot of people don't want to put out the money for an ATP spend. But we do rehearse a lot, and we do the big, big events in the city. It's really fun. What kind of music? So big bands, so 40s, yes, and so all the Oh, exactly. We can do the Latin stuff I sing that's in mucho the same mucho is one of my songs. And I do, you know, there's so many, like, so many really good songs, but they're older songs that kind of the Frank Sinatra kind of era songs, all the big band stuff. I've   Michael Hingson ** 07:56 always thought that Bing Crosby was a better singer than Frank Sinatra. That's gonna probably cause some controversy. But why that?   Susan Janzen ** 08:04 I wonder. But you know what big, big Crosby was a little bit before, and then Frank Sinatra was called the crooner, and I think it was because of his blue eyes and how he looked. I think he took on a different persona. I think that's why I think it was more the singer than more the singer than the music. Maybe you think, I don't know. I   Michael Hingson ** 08:25 haven't figured that out, because Bing Crosby was, was definitely in the 40s. Especially, was a more well known, and I think loved singer than Frank. But by the same token, Frank Sinatra outlive Bing Crosby. So, you know, who knows, but I like being Crosby, and I like his music, and I like some Frank Sinatra music as well. I mean, I'm not against Frank Sinatra, yeah. I think, personally, the best male singer of all time. Yes, still, Nat King Cole   Susan Janzen ** 09:00 Oh, and I do? I do the dot I do orange colored sky neck and Cole's daughter, yeah, this one on my brain. Her name Natalie Cole, exactly. Yeah. But Nat King Cole was a really good singer, so I do agree with you in that. And we do some that can cool stuff. I do a lot of Ella Fitzgerald too, as well.   Michael Hingson ** 09:24 Yeah. Well, I, I've always liked and just felt Nat King Cole was the best of now, female singers, probably, again, a lot of people would disagree, but I really think that Barbara Streisand is, oh, there is.   Susan Janzen ** 09:37 I love her. Yeah, yeah, I did. I actually, I did an album. In the 719, 78 I recorded an album, and the main song on there was evergreen by Barbra Streisand. I   Michael Hingson ** 09:48 love that tune. Yeah, I was. I just have always liked Barbara Streisand. One of my favorite albums is Barbara Streisand at the forum. She James Taylor. And I forget who the third person was. Did a fundraiser for George McGovern in 1972 and I just always thought that that was Barbara's Best Album.   Susan Janzen ** 10:10 Ah, so such a voice. I mean, she could see anything. Yeah. Beautiful voice, yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, we're on the same page, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 10:19 Well, that's pretty cool. But so you, you grew up, you sang and and then what happened to you, or what did you do? What, what else occurred in your life that we should know about?   Susan Janzen ** 10:31 Oh, there's so many things. So then I, yeah, I know it's crazy. So I grew up, I think I still, I'm not quite there yet. I'm still growing. And then I when at 18, I got married, and I went on the road with a guitar player, and for 10 years, and then we had two kids. And then after five more years on the road, I actually got a divorce. And so I was six years as a single mom with two babies. The kids were, like, 11 months apart. They were really close. And so then that's when I did all my bigger gigs here in Edmonton, though, those are the like. I was hired as the first ever local Klondike Kate in Edmonton, Alberta. We have Klondike. We used to have Klondike games as our major summer fair, and it was a really big deal. It's kind of like the Calgary Stampede we had the Edmonton on Lake Bay, and so I was the representative of the city of Edmonton for two years. And I actually did it my first year. They made me audition for my second year. So I won it the second year. So I was the first ever two years in a row. And I represented the city all over North America. Actually, I sang, I met Muhammad Ali, I met some really great people, and I sang with Baba patola, did some commercials with him, went down to Vegas and played one of his stages. So I did a lot of really fun things in those two years, and convert a lot of commercials and a lot of telethons. So that was really fun. And then, and then, when that was over, that's when I got remarried to a wonderful man, and he was at University of Alberta, and he was a professor in psychology, education, psychology and so and I'm happy to say that we're just celebrated last week our 36th wedding anniversary. That's how old I am. Michael, congratulations.   Michael Hingson ** 12:18 Well, my wife, my wife and I were married for 40 years, and she passed in November of 2022, so, oh, so I I know what it's like to be married for a long time. I loved it. Love it. Still wonderful memories. It's unfortunate that all too many people don't ever get to have the joy of being married for such a long time. Yes,   Susan Janzen ** 12:43 and happily married, right? Like happily married? Yeah, that's the cavid.   Michael Hingson ** 12:50 Yeah. It's important to to acknowledge the happiness part of it. And I've got 40 years of memories that will never go away, which is great.   Susan Janzen ** 12:58 Nobody can take that away from you, that is for sure. They can't take that away from me. Don't take that away from me. That's   Michael Hingson ** 13:06 right, exactly. So that's that's pretty cool. So you do a lot of rehearsing and a lot of singing. What else do you do in the world today? So also   Susan Janzen ** 13:15 in the world today, I am, and I have been since 2003 I'm a residential real estate expert, so I'm a realtor, and I deal specifically with accessible and barrier free homes. So that's kind of my I was a special ed teacher. Actually, I should squeeze that in there for six years I was, I got my degree in education and with a special ed teacher in secondary ed. So all my kids were junior and senior high. And then when I came out of that, I took up the after I was teaching. I took real estate license, and I got it and I I just felt like I understood anybody with mobility challenges and with any other challenges. And so I took that extra time that is needed and necessary to to help them find homes and to sell.   Susan Janzen ** 14:02 What got you started down that road   Susan Janzen ** 14:05 at the time, I was teaching for six years, and when in Edmonton, I don't know why it was just here. So I was 2003 when I quit. So I had been teaching from the late 1990s and it was like I was subbing, but I was not getting a full time position in that and my Evanston public school board said your your file is glowing. We just don't have any spots for you. So I think it was a government funding issue. And so I ended up just thinking, I don't want to sub forever. I want to get my own classroom, and I want to have my own and I would, I would teach for six months at a time in a school. So it wasn't like I was jumping around crazy but, but I want, really wanted my own classroom. And so when that wasn't happening after six years, I thought I'm going to write the real estate license exam, and if I pass it the first time, that was my Gage, because no, they say the word was that you don't pass it the first time. Everyone has to write it to a. Three times before they pass my rule. For my own ruler for me was to say, if I take the exam, pass it the first time, I will make that move. And that's what happened so and then I just took up with accessible, barrier free homes and that specialty. So   Michael Hingson ** 15:17 was there any specific motivation that caused you to really deal with accessibility and accessible homes and so on.   Susan Janzen ** 15:25 Yes, and at the time, and just actually, my mom had been in a walker and on oxygen. I had quite a few friends who had mobility issues. And then just shortly after that, when I was a realtor already, and my daughter had a baby, and her baby at eight weeks old had a near SIDS incident. So she was eight weeks old, and Candace went to do the dishes one night at nine o'clock at night, and came back and calea is her daughter's name, and she was like blue in the crib. She was she had to be revived. So that was terrifying for all of us, and so it was wonderful news that she did survive, but she had occipital and parietal damage, so she has cortical vision impairment and also cerebral palsy, but she's she's thriving and loving it, and so that actually kind of Got me even doing more accessible homes, because now I'm a grand ambassador, and what's that called when you get out on the street and yell at people for parking in handicap stalls? What is that smart person? A smart person, and I was just passionate about that. I wanted to fix things and to try to make things easier for people as they should be, without having to ask in the first place. So yeah, so that's kind of the other reason I stuck to the that that area in real estate, and I just had the patience for it. I had the knowledge and the understanding and I and I really it was just easy for me because I did. I think it was because the passion I had for that area, and I just love doing it and helping other people   Michael Hingson ** 17:05 well. So how old is your granddaughter now? Now she is 12. Okay, she's 12. Now, does she walk, or does she use a wheelchair?   Susan Janzen ** 17:13 She uses, um, well, because she is as tall as me now, oh, she's using more a wheelchair more often, okay? She She walks with a walker. She can't walk on her own at all, and I think it's because of the vision, right? She if she could, you know, yeah, if she could see, she sees light. It's amazing how that how the brain works. She sees lights, and she sees color. And I can put up any color to her, and she'll identify it right every time, every time, but she doesn't see me. She doesn't see my face. Well, tell   Michael Hingson ** 17:45 me a little bit more about cortical vision. You. You and I talked about that a little bit. So Lacher, yeah, explain that to people. It's   Susan Janzen ** 17:52 really interesting because it's something that it's not readily out there, like you don't hear about it a lot. And even as a special ed teacher, I can tell you that I was trained in all of the different areas of special needs, but that did not come up for me, so this was new when I found out about it, and it just means that her eyes are fine. There's nothing wrong with her eyes, but her she's not processing so the information is coming through her eyes, but she's not processing that information. But she, like I said, if I turn out the light, she'll go, oh, the lights are off. Or if I put the lights on, she'll look up and be surprised at it. She you can tell that she knows. And then I used to put her on my counter in the kitchen, and I had these LED lights underneath my counter, my kitchen counter, and it had all these, these 12 different colors of light, and so I would put the blue on, I'd say, calea, what color is that? And she'd go blue, and I'd say, What color is that, and she'd go red. So it would be variable colors that I'd offer up to her, and she wouldn't get them right every single time. So that's the cortical vision impairment, and where they if she needs to pick up something off of a dresser, off the floor, for instance, it has to be on like a black background, and then she can see it, no problem. But if you have a whole bunch of things on the ground or on the table and ask her to pick up something, that's too much information for her, so she can't just zero in on that one area, right? So it's harder for her. So you just have to make things more accessible, so that she can see things you know, in her way.   Michael Hingson ** 19:25 But this is a different thing than, say, dyslexia, which is also you can see with your eyes, but your brain is in processing the characters and allowing you to necessarily truly read it exactly. And   Susan Janzen ** 19:38 that's that different part of the brain, where it's analyzing the the at least you can you can see it, but you process it differently. That's exactly right where she can't see. So then that's why I was thinking, if she could see better, I think she would be walking, maybe with a cane or with a walker, better. But right now, in that. Stage, we can point her in the right direction and tell her to go, and she'll go, but she's not sure where she is.   Michael Hingson ** 20:08 But that clearly wasn't the start of you doing real estate sales, dealing with accessible homes, but it must have certainly been a powerful motivator to continue with exactly   Susan Janzen ** 20:20 that, exactly that, because my mom was on oxygen, and she had, she had a lot of issues, mobility challenges. And I had a lot of friends who who were also like in that older age group that had mobility challenges. And those are the people that that were, may say, moving from a two story to a bungalow because they couldn't make manage the stairs anymore.   Michael Hingson ** 20:41 So how do we get people like the Property Brothers? Do you ever watch them and you know who they are? Oh yes, oh yes. We get them to do more to deal with building accessibility into the homes that they built. Because the the issue is that we have an aging population in our world. And it just seems like it would be so smart if they built accessibility and rights from the outset in everything that they do, because the odds are somebody's going to need it   Susan Janzen ** 21:11 exactly. And that's the for the forward thinking, right? You know? And it's interesting that some people, some builders, have told me that just to make a door frame three inches wider does not cost you any more money. But the point, the point is just that it's getting all the contractors on board to to come out of the way that they've been doing it for so long. You know, sadly,   Michael Hingson ** 21:38 yeah, my wife was in a chair her whole life, she was a teacher, paraplegic. Oh, so you know, I know about all this really well. And in fact, when we built this house, we we built it because we knew that to buy a home and then modify it would cost a bunch of money, one to $200,000 and in reality, when we built this house, there was no additional cost to make it accessible, because, as you point out, making doors wider, lowering counters, having ramps instead of stairs, all are things that don't cost more If you design it in right from the outset, exactly,   Susan Janzen ** 22:24 exactly, and that's that's the problem. Yeah, that's the problem. I mean, that's exactly the problem.   Michael Hingson ** 22:29 Yeah. Now we built our home in New Jersey when we moved back there, and we did have a little bit of an incremental extra cost, because all the homes in the development where we found property were two story homes, so we did have to put in an elevator, so it's about another $15,000 but beyond that, there were no additional costs, and I was amazed that appraisers wouldn't consider the elevator to be an advantage and an extra thing that made The home more valuable. But when we did sell our home in New Jersey, in fact, the elevator was a big deal because the people who bought it were short. I mean, like 5253, husband and wife, and I think it was her mother lived with them, and we put the laundry room up on the second floor where the bedrooms were, and so the elevator and all that were just really wonderful things for everyone, which worked out really well.   Susan Janzen ** 23:30 Oh, that's perfect. And that's, that's kind of what I do here in evident that I try to match the people who are selling homes that have been retrofitted and made more, you know, accessible. I try to put out the word that this is available, and I try to get the people in who need that. I feel like a matchmaker, a house matchmaker, when it comes to that, because you don't want to waste that like some people, actually, they'll some people who don't understand the situation have chairless For instance, they they're selling their house, and they rip out the chair. Then it's like, well, call me first, because I want to find you somebody who needs that, and that's exactly what they're looking for. Okay, so that's kind of where, how I I operate on my my job   Michael Hingson ** 24:15 well, and I will tell you from personal experience, after September 11 for the first week, having walked down 1400 63 stairs and was stiff as a board for a week, I used the elevator more than Karen did. Oh,   Susan Janzen ** 24:28 at that, but you survived that. And that was, that's amazing, but it   Michael Hingson ** 24:35 was, yeah, you know, you have to do what you gotta do. I think that there's been a lot more awareness, and I I've been back to the World Trade Center since, but I didn't really ask, and I should have, I know that they have done other things to make it possible to evacuate people in chairs, because there were a couple of people, like, there was a quadriplegic. Um. Who I believe is a distant cousin, although I never knew him, but he wasn't able to get out, and somebody stayed with him, and they both perished. But I think that they have done more in buildings like the World Trade Center to address the issue of getting people out.   Susan Janzen ** 25:17 It's just too bad that we have to wait for that, things, terrible things like that to happen to crazy awareness. That's the only bad thing. What? It's not like, it's not like we're not yelling on the streets. It's not like we're not saying things. It's just that people aren't listening. And I think it depends on if you're to a point where you are actually in a wheelchair yourself, or you have a child who's in a wheelchair now, now they understand, well,   Michael Hingson ** 25:43 yes, it is getting better. There's still a lot of issues. Organizations like Uber still really won't force enforce as they should. All the rules and regulations that mandate that service dogs ought to be able to go with Uber passengers who have a need to have a service dog, and so there, there's still a lot of educational issues that that have to occur, and over time will but I think that part of the issue was that when 2001 occurred, it was the right time that then people started to think about, oh, we've gotta really deal with this issue. It is an educational issue more than anything else. That's true. That's   Susan Janzen ** 26:26 true. There's a fellow here in Edmonton that, and I'm sure it's elsewhere too, but one particular fellow that I know, and he builds, they're called Garden suites. Like in Edmonton, we're kind of getting so much the population here is standing so quickly that the city is allowing zoning for they're called Garden suites, so they're just but he goes in and puts in like a two story behind the home, and it's 100% accessible, barrier free, and no basement. And so we're encouraging people to buy those homes, and they don't cost as much because they're quite a bit smaller. They're only two bedroom but they have everything that anybody would need if they had mobility challenges. And so it's it's perfect for either people who have a son or a daughter who is getting close to being an adult and they want their more a little more freedom and independence. They could use that suite at the back. Or I know some adults in particular who are have mobility challenges, and they just physically move to that new place in the backyard and rent out their home right to make home revenue.   Michael Hingson ** 27:31 Since it's two stories, what do they do to make it accessible? They   Susan Janzen ** 27:34 have, they have an elevator. It's a zero entry, and it's 100% everything in it is specifically so you move in, walk, go right in, and it's, it's accessible. That's how he does it, right from scratch. Cool, super cool. And so we're trying to, I'm trying to promote that here, out here, because I, I know the fellow who builds them, and it makes sense. I mean, even if you want to have a revenue property, right? And you want to build that in your backyard and then rent it out to somebody who needs that, then that'd be perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 28:06 It makes, makes a lot of sense to do that. It does. Mm, hmm. Well, do you think that all of the knowledge that you gained in special education and so on has helped you a great deal in this new, more, newer career of doing real estate sales.   Susan Janzen ** 28:25 Oh, 100% because it's just an understanding. It's just having the compassion and understanding what not, because I haven't experienced it myself, but I do understand what they may be going through. It's just an enlightening for me, and I I just appreciate what they're going through, and I am, you know, I want to make it easier for them, you know, to make any decisions that they have to make. And I try. I don't like, I don't waste their time like, I make sure I go preview the homes first, make sure that it's something and I FaceTime them first to say, is this something you want to even come out to? So I don't want them to be wasting their time or their energy just trying to get to a place that's not accessible,   Michael Hingson ** 29:05 right? Mm, hmm. We moved from New Jersey to Novato California, which is in the North Bay, which is now being just bombarded by rain, but Northern California in 2002 and when we started looking for homes, we tried to find a place where we could build, but there was just no place up there where there was land to build a home. So we knew we had to buy a home and modify it. And one day, we went with a realtor, and he took us to a house, and it was clearly a house that wasn't going to work. The this there were, there was no room to put in a ramp, there were lots of steps, and we pointed out all the reasons that it wouldn't work. And then he took us to another home that was really like the first one. We went to four different homes and. We kept saying, this won't work, and here's why, and it was like a broken record, because it was all the same. I'm so sorry. Yeah, you know, I realized that not everyone has the opportunity to really understand and learn about wheelchair access and so on. But people should focus more on on doing it. It wasn't like I needed a lot for the house to be usable by me as a blind person, but, but Karen certainly did. And what we eventually found another realtor took us to a place, and what was really interesting is we described what we wanted before we started looking at homes with Mary Kay, and she said, I have the perfect home. You'll have to modify it, but I have the perfect home. And of course, after our experiences with the other realtors, we were a little bit pessimistic about it, but she took us to a home, and there was a step up into it, but that's easy to modify. Then you go through an entryway, and then you can go left into the kitchen or right, and if you went right, you ended up in a little Nexus where there were three bedrooms, oh, and it wasn't even a hallway. There were just three bedrooms. And so it was, it was perfect. We still had to make significant modifications, but it really was a home that was modifiable by any standard, and we, we bought it. It was perfect   Susan Janzen ** 31:44 for what we needed. I'm so glad I love that's a good start. That's a good story here. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 31:50 she, she got it and and it's so important. And I think Realtors need to be aware of the fact that we deal with a very diverse population, and it's important to really understand all of the various kinds of people that you might have to deal with, but we just don't always see that. Needless to say,   Susan Janzen ** 32:08 that's true. Unfortunately, that's so true. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 32:14 So do you how? How much time do you spend doing real estate? Is that a full time job for you.   Susan Janzen ** 32:20 Well, it always has been. I've been full time, full service, so I'm on call, really is kind of what it boils down to. But I've also pursued, in the last since COVID, I've pursued coaching courses because that's something I'd like to get into. And so now I'm a certified Jay Shetty resilience and confidence coach, and so I'm kind of leading, I think, as I age and as I, you know, getting tired of I've been a realtor 21 years now, so I would like to eventually slow down in that area and focus more on coaching people. That's kind of where I'm leaning now a little bit, but I'm still full time up there. And singer   Michael Hingson ** 33:02 and singer and your coach, yeah. So do you ever see your coaching customers? Just check, no no   Susan Janzen ** 33:10 checking. I send them the recording. I'll send them my CD. You can go and get you could get two of my CDs on iTunes, so I'll send them there, or else tell them one of my geeks.   Michael Hingson ** 33:20 Oh, cool. Well, I'll have to go look you up on iTunes. I have, yes, oh, it   Susan Janzen ** 33:25 is a Christmas there's a Christmas one there. I think you'd like that. Michael, is it really cool?   Michael Hingson ** 33:29 And I have Amazon unlimited music. I wonder if. I'll bet there too. You   Susan Janzen ** 33:33 just take in. Susan Jansen, and I come up. I have the greatest love of all is my one, and the other one's called the gift for you, and that's my Christmas split. Oh,   Michael Hingson ** 33:41 cool, yeah. Well, we will. We will check them out, by all means. Well, so when do you rehearse? When do you when do you do singing?   Susan Janzen ** 33:52 Well, the big band rehearses every Saturday. So we, we all get together and we do. So it's, I just, you know, I love the rehearsals, like it's so much fun for me. So that's what we do with my other singing. I still get I still get hired, especially during the summer festival time, I get hired to come back and we call it throwback Klondike dates. And I have one costume of all my costumes that were made for me this you can imagine my costumes is called that Kate were like, a lot of sequins, full dresses with the big furry bottoms and then the feathery hats. So I used to wear those. So I still have one costume that still fits me, and so I use that every summer, and I go out, and I'm asked to do different functions during the summer, and then during all throughout the year, I do parties, you know, like, what if somebody hires me to do a birthday or some special celebration? I still do that. Okay, so   Michael Hingson ** 34:47 how often does the big band actually go out and perform and earn some money? Or does that happen much at all? Not that much because of   Susan Janzen ** 34:54 the size of us, right? Yeah. So, you know, we've done, you know, like the 100th anniversary of Arthur. Is a dance floor. And so we did their 100th anniversary celebration. And can you imagine, like the dance floor was just, it was like I was watching my own show from from the stage, because they we did all the Latin tunes, and they came out and danced the Sava and the rambas and the tangos and everything. It was beautiful. So I got to so that was a really fun gig for us, and then, and so we do other big and larger functions, like in ballroom. So you can imagine a conference, perhaps that's having a big celebration will be the ballroom entertainment. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 35:32 you know, you're in Canada. Can't you get Michael Buble to hire you guys? Ooh,   Susan Janzen ** 35:35 wouldn't that be nice? He's got his own man. He's   Michael Hingson ** 35:39 got, yeah, he does. I know these old charts and yeah, but he occasionally brings to the choir. I know that we, we went to see him well. Karen passed in November of 2022 we actually went to see him in Las Vegas in May of 2022 that was the last concert that we got to do together. And we ended up being relocated from up in the balcony in what Henry, what Harry Belafonte, would call the scholarship section. We We got moved down to the orchestra pit, and we were like in row 18, even two rows in front of Michael's family, but we ended up being there for the concert. It was wonderful. Oh, and he walked out and shook hands with everyone while he was singing, and all that was a lot of fun. But, yeah, he does have his own band, but music's great,   Susan Janzen ** 36:36 so good, and he does that so well. Like my favorite show is the voice. And so he's a judge on there too, and I really appreciate input. And he comes off very Canadian. I think he's this is very friendly and very silly and fun and and just really caring too. So I think he represents us well on the voice.   Michael Hingson ** 36:56 He does not take himself too seriously, which is so important, I think for so many people, so true. He does so well with that. So true. Well, so we mentioned pada Palooza, and you have a podcast. Well also, and you, you've written a book, right?   Susan Janzen ** 37:14 Yes. So I've co authored a few books, and then, plus my husband and I Well, my husband actually is a psychologist. He wrote the book, I typed it, and then he gave me credit, because I kept putting in my own stories and and he would, he was kind enough to put my name on the cover. So and we wrote a book called living and loving each day. And that's how, why I made my podcast that same name, and, and, but when we wrote it, the full title is living and loving each day success in a blended family. Because at that time when we got married, I had the two children, and they were just under you know, they were nine and 10 years old, eight and nine years old, and his boys, he had three boys that were older, like teenagers, and so and his wife passed away from cancer. So we all got together. And I mean blended families, that's a whole nother world, you know, if you're not used to that, that's something else. And, and then it turned out that his oldest son was diagnosed schizophrenic, so that was something that we dealt with together as a family. And, and, and then yeah we so we just felt like this was our life, and we wanted to share that. But that's like combining two separate families together, and how that works, and the dynamics of that. So he wrote some great, great stuff about how to deal with in laws, X laws and outlaws. He called them Yeah, and how to deal with every family celebration, Christmas and Easter, everything you know, like, there's so many things that come up even think about until you're in that situation, like, how do you do it? Right?   Michael Hingson ** 38:52 But it's so great that you two made the choice to do it and to blend the families and not give up on each other, or any of the people in the family, exactly,   Susan Janzen ** 39:04 and that's in that's huge for me. And I can share a little story with you. Feel like the view is okay. So this is kind of cool. So this so when I was singing, and I was just at the end of my second year as Klondike Kate, and I was doing a lot of gigs, like a lot of singing and and I was just kind of cut, you know how they like you're, you see on the calendar that they're you're tuning down here. The end of the year is coming. The end of the gigs are coming, and you're not in that role anymore because they chose a new Klondike. And so those six years that I was a single mom, my husband now had his own radio show, and it was called that's living and there was a show out of Edmonton, and it actually won Canadian awards for this was a talk show during the day for one and a half hours, and it had two psychologists, and the psychiatrists were the hosts. And so on the Tuesdays and Thursdays with Dr Jan, that was my husband and I used. To listen every day because I had, I was a single mom. I really didn't have a lot of support, and I worked every night singing so and I had my kids all day. So it was just like my favorite show to listen to. And when I remember listening to and I heard this Dr Johnson's voice, I always thought he had, like, long white hair, long white beard, so he was just so calm and so compassionate and so smart that he was just such a I never knew what he looked like, but that's what I pictured him looking like. And then it turned out that right at the end of my my singing, I remember listening one day, and he was on the air, and he I was going to my agents I was driving down Main Street in Edmonton, and I remember going to my agent's office to see what was next for me, like, what's next? What next gig do I have? And I remember he came on the air that day, and he said, You know what, folks, I have to let you know that his he said, My wife passed away. And he said, My boys and I've been grieving since the day we found out six months ago. But I need to be here to be of service to you, and I need to be on the air to help you today. And hope you don't mind. I hope you understand, you know he was, you know, and it was, it was so emotional, and like I was sitting in my van, like crying, thinking, because I'd been listening to him all those years, and I just felt so sad for him. And then I kind of, I'm a God fearing woman, and I said, Lord, why can't I meet a man like that that needs me as much as I need him. That was my outside prayer. And you know what? It wasn't even a week and a half later, I get a call from that station, CTC, saying, hey, Sue, can you do a Christmas Bureau fundraiser for us? He said, There's no pay involved, but you can be MC and and, you know, help us. You know, raise money for the Christmas funeral. And so I was happy to do that. And so that's how, how I met my husband was when at that particular function. So that was kind of my, you know, and like, just an answer to prayer and something that I really, you know, it was interesting how, how that all happens when you are very specific and, and so that's how we met. And, yeah, so we've been together ever since 36 years now. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 42:06 as I tell people, you know, Karen passed away two years ago, and I don't move on from Karen, but I move forward exactly because I think if I I've always interpreted Moving on is you go on and you forget, and I don't, and I don't want to forget, so I move forward Exactly. And besides that, I know that if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it, so I gotta be a good kid, or she's going to get me one way or another. Yeah, that's right. And so, you know, as I, as I said to somebody yesterday, I don't even chase girls, so you know, it works out very well, but you know, the the the issue is that those 40 years of memories are always going to be there, and there's so much to learn from that. And again, it's all about choice. This is so important well, so tell us more about the podcast on how long have you been doing it? How did that start? And and so on,   Susan Janzen ** 43:03 right? So I was actually my daughter has this a nonprofit where she was she works with other parents who have children with adaptive needs, and so she asked if I would interview her parents just to find out about parents stories and you. I'm sure you understand where you want to just tell your story, what happened without having to explain. And, you know, I don't know, just give all the, you know, the background to everything. They just wanted to share this story and to be heard on with no judgment and with compassion. So I said, No, I can do that. I can interview them, and I want to hear their stories. And they need, I think they need to share them those stories too, for whatever happened, you know, with whatever incident happened with their children. So, so I said to my daughter, I sure I'll do a podcast for them, you know, and just interview them. And then I only did it through zoom and not knowing anything about how to do that, I've been MC for fundraisers, but I don't know how to do a podcast. So I did that the best I could, using Zoom. And then I when I was done it, I liked it so much, I thought, well, I better figure out how to do this, like the right way, right? So I actually did take a course. And there was a lady out of Toronto that was giving a course called cash in on camera. And so she talked about how to set up restream, how to set up air table, how to do your mic, your lighting, and all of the things that you need to consider. And so I took that course. And so then I interviewed a few more people and a few experts for her, for her. So that's kind of how I got started, with just focusing specifically on on my daughter's audience. So those parents.   Susan Janzen ** 44:40 And how long ago was that?   Susan Janzen ** 44:41 That was, what, two years ago now total, because I've been doing my podcast now for just over a year.   Susan Janzen ** 44:48 And do you how many episodes a week? Do you do one?   Susan Janzen ** 44:51 I do one, but I, you know what? I've got 140 that I've done. And I'm thinking, I've got quite. If you in the books, you know how that works. Where you report I'm you, Michael, give me advice on this. So I have three recorded that are waiting for me, but plus I have 14 others that are on my book to interview like I'm getting a lot of interest and people who want to be on my podcast, which is wonderful, but then I got, now gotta figure out how to do that, or how to actually, you know, organize it. How often should I be putting out podcasts? Like every three days now, like otherwise, we're going to be going into middle of 2025 I don't know.   Michael Hingson ** 45:33 I started for accessibe, doing unstoppable mindset in August of 2021 when I started using LinkedIn seriously to look for podcast guests in 2022 and I use sales navigators, so we profile authors or coaches or whatever, and we'll send out emails saying, I saw your profile. It looks like you'd be an interesting guest. Would you love to explore coming on unstoppable mindset, what we do is then we, when they're willing, we schedule a meeting and we we talk about it, and if they want to come on, which usually they do, then we actually schedule the time, and I ask them to send me some information, as you know, like a series of questions that they want to talk about, a bio, other things like that, but we got a pretty significant backlog. And I've learned that a lot of people with very successful podcasts do have backlogs. Oh, good. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay, good. It's better to have them. You can always add an extra podcast if you want to play more, but we do two a week now, and just today, we published episode 286, wow. Since August of 2021, and so it's a lot of fun. I enjoy it, and I get to meet so many people. And as I tell people, if I'm not learning at least as much as anyone who listens to the podcast, I'm not doing my job well. I agree, quite invested in it. I think it's so important to be able to do that. So the bottom line is that we do get a lot of interesting people. I talked to someone just the other day who is very much involved in energy and healing and so on. Well, she also was a singer in Australia, had a very serious auto accident, and kind of went away from seeing for a while, and then she realized she started doing a lot of creating, of affirmations, but then she put the affirmations to music, and she points out that, you know, the lyrics are in the left side of the brain, but the music's in the right side, and they actually work together, and so by having them in a musical form, you you're more likely to really be able to internalize them. So she even sang one for us on the earth, a lot of fun, but, but the bottom line is that, you know, it's she also does her own podcast, which is kind of fun, but there is so much to learn from so many different people. I've had so much fun doing it, and I enjoy very much the opportunities to learn. Yeah,   Susan Janzen ** 48:29 no, I'm right there with you, and I think that's why I just keep going, because it's fascinating. And then, and it seems like the right different people come into my, my, you know, my area, just to ask if they can be on it. And it's, it always works out really well, like it's always something that else that I've just kind of broadens it a little bit, but I, I'm trying to be more focused this night, last two months now, in that, you know, in conjunction with my daughter and just doing the parents with accessible, you know, needs, or kids with adaptive needs. And also, some adults are coming to me now too, saying they've in their 30s and 40s, they were in psycho with ADHD, and so they're that diverse, neuro, diverse group. So, I mean, who knows where that will take me, right? I'm open to it   Michael Hingson ** 49:18 well, and that's what makes it so much fun. You never know where the journey is going to take you, or if you do, and you're all embracing it, so much the better. But if you don't know what's an adventure, and that's good too, that's   49:28 great. No, I agree with you, yeah. So I love how   Michael Hingson ** 49:31 many, how many pot of Palooza events have you been to? That   Susan Janzen ** 49:34 was my first one. I know I did not have a clue what to expect. I put you down as my potential guest, though, but I don't know how it didn't come up forward. So I'm glad we're doing this now, but I I really enjoyed it. I love the people, and you could tell we were all in the same room with the same visions and the same, you know, compassionate areas that we're working in. So. I was really grateful for a lot of the people I met, great people. Well   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 now you and I also have an event time scheduled next Tuesday. Do we good? Yeah, are you? Well, you scheduled it in my Zoom. But if you, if you, when you go look at your calendar, you'll see, I think what you did was you scheduled it, forgetting this was supposed to be a 60 minute interview conversation. But if you send me a link, this is live radio sports fans. If you send me a link, then I will come to yours next time, next Tuesday, at the time that we're supposed to meet, rather than you coming into the Zoom Room, where we are, or I can make you a co host, and you can record it your choice.   Susan Janzen ** 50:45 Oh, what? Hey, yes, let's do it. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 50:49 I'll just, we'll, we'll get together, and I'll make you a host or a co host, that'd be perfect.   Susan Janzen ** 50:54 And then you can record it that'd be great. Or, I have three streams, so I can send you the link for that you   Michael Hingson ** 51:01 choose, but long as it's accessible to screen readers, I'm happy. And,   Susan Janzen ** 51:09 yeah, thank you for that, Michael, I did. We'll do that. You got it good. We're booked. Yeah, we are   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 already booked. So it's next Tuesday, so that'll be good. That'll be great, but it's a lot of fun.   Susan Janzen ** 51:23 Yeah, really it's it's nice to get to know people. It's really nice to know other people's journeys. And especially, what I find most fascinating is all over the world, like we're meeting people that we would have never met. Yeah, you know before. So I'm glad. I really   Michael Hingson ** 51:36 appreciate that I've met a number of people from Australia. We interviewed? Well, we had a conversation with somebody from Uganda, number of people in England and people throughout the United States. So it's a lot of fun.   Susan Janzen ** 51:49 It really is, yeah, so we're blessed that that's great. It's a   Michael Hingson ** 51:53 wonderful blessing. I mean, doing this is so enjoyable. I used to do radio in college, and so this the neat thing about doing a podcast, at least the way I do it, is you're not absolutely governed by time, so you don't have to end at four o'clock and and it's so much more fun than radio, because you are the one that's really in control of what you do. So it's it's a lot of fun, but I very much enjoy doing the podcast, right?   Susan Janzen ** 52:23 You're right is that if they start having to go to worship break and not have to take the time and stopping and starting, that is really,   Michael Hingson ** 52:30 oh, that people seem to like it. They they keep emailing me and saying they like it. And I, I'm hoping that they continue to do that. As long as people are happy with me doing it, I'm going to do it. And you know, as I tell everyone, if you know anyone who ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, want to hear from you and provide us with an introduction, because it is part of what we do. And so, so much fun,   Susan Janzen ** 52:53 so much fun. So tell me why you Why did you choose that name unstoppable mindset?   Michael Hingson ** 52:59 You know, I was looking for a name. And I've heard some people kind of talking about unstoppable in their lives in some way, but I also thought that we really needed to define what unstoppable meant. And so I just thought about it for a while, and it just really kind of clicked. And I said, Okay, God, that must be what you want me to do. So we're going to have unstoppable mindset. We're inclusion, diversity in the unexpected beat. Love it and it's and it is stuck. And every title for people starts with unstoppable. So you'll be unstoppable something or other. I gotta think about the title, unless you've got some bright idea.   Susan Janzen ** 53:48 Oh yeah, you have to let me know.   Michael Hingson ** 53:51 Well, I'm trying to use something like unstoppable. Woman of many talents. But you know,   Susan Janzen ** 53:56 yeah, I don't have just 111, little lane. I love learning about everything, and I love open and grateful for every opportunity. So that's probably my problem. Yeah, that's our problem. That's not really a problem, but I know it's not,   Michael Hingson ** 54:11 and it's so much fun. So what are your goals for the podcast? How do you hope it will make a difference in the world?   Susan Janzen ** 54:21 I think my, my biggest thing is to say, you know, I've been through, I think it's showing people that they're not alone, that there are people out there who do understand, and there are people there that really do care about them, and that we want to provide information and services, and we want to hear their story. We want them to just know. I think a lot of people feel when they're in situations that are not whatever normal is, whatever that is even mean that they're just they're in isolation, and they're there's nobody that cares and that they don't matter. And I think my biggest thing in my coaching and in my podcast. Have to just say, You know what, we're here, and we really want to understand, if we don't understand, explain it to us. So we do, and that you're not alone in this, and we we're here to help, you know, to collaborate and to help each other.   Michael Hingson ** 55:11 Yeah, well, tell us a little bit more about the whole coaching program, what's what's happening now, what your goals are for that, and and how you're finding people and so on,   Susan Janzen ** 55:22 right? So the coaching my specific areas are confidence and resilience is my is my title, like confidence and resilience coach and I, and I'm going based on my past and the resilience that I've overcome so many different things. So I've got kind of a long list of things every time. So you talk to say, yeah, no, I that's happened to me, but, and just to, just to encourage people to come into either one on one coaching, or I'm going to have group coaching. And on my website, I also want to have drivers where we we create more value, so that if they're a member, then they can get more podcasts that are more about the how tos, like exactly, specifically areas that they might be interested in. And I also want to create a group where we can have, like a one day a week, coffee time, coffee chat, so we can get people together who are in the same boat, especially those parents with children with a breath of me, and just a place where they can just, kind of no agenda, just to chat and and I also would love to have, like a retreat by the end of the year. Let's all gather, and let's just have a day, you know, together, where we can enjoy each other's company. So that's kind of what I'd like to build with my, with my, with my coaching packages, and then also one on one, of course, as well. And that's, yeah, I would like to have a community, like, build a community. So   Michael Hingson ** 56:51 do you do any of your coaching virtually, or is it all in person? Well,   Susan Janzen ** 56:55 right now it's virtual, like, the one coaching I've done so far and but I'm open to either, like, I'm happy to meet people I don't have an office. Um, is that interesting? How, if you would have asked me that question before COVID, bc I would have just had an office somewhere, and where now it's, like, virtual just is so convenient. Yeah? Meeting full and just all the driving I've eliminated, it's been amazing. So, yeah, I would be open to eat it. You know,   Susan Janzen ** 57:27 how far away have you had clients from?   Susan Janzen ** 57:31 Basically, the ones I've had are the ones that I've had up till now. Really, interestingly enough, are local. They're more local people so we could have met for coffee. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 57:43 and still might, and we still, I'm   Susan Janzen ** 57:47 sure we will. I'm sure we will, because I keep in touch with them, and they're doing great, but interesting, isn't that interesting? It's a really good question, though, because I'm curious to see you know how far you know, the word will get out to come and join me, you know, in the coaching program, yeah, that'd be human.   Michael Hingson ** 58:08 Well, it sounds like a lot of fun. It sounds like fun, yeah, so why do you still continue to sing? Oh, I   Susan Janzen ** 58:15 can't stop I can't shut up. I just think it's like, even it, yeah, it's too hard for me to stop. It's my joy. That's where I find my you know, even as a kid, going through all the tough times I went through, that was my my joy. It was my vice happy place. So I just   Michael Hingson ** 58:32 so do you think that that singing helps others with confidence and resilience?   Susan Janzen ** 58:36 I um, I think, I think the the techniques that are used in singing, a lot of them are used in podcasting or speaking. A lot of them, we are speakers, for instance. And then they have, they worry about confidence on camera specifically, and when that where light comes on, or when the light comes on, and they just don't know how they're looking or how people are seeing them, those kind of areas, those are the things that I kind of tackle when I talk, talk to them and just explain it as a like, I sang the national anthem for a Stanley Cup playoff game. That's scary, like, that's that's really scary. So I mean, I know I've been there, and I know what that feels like, and I know how your body feels, and I know the importance of breathing, and I think one of the biggest things is just getting people to, just to take deep breaths. You know, when   Michael Hingson ** 59:28 you're when you relax and you lean into it, which I'm sure you do because you're used to it. That gives you a confidence that you can then project onto other people 100% Yeah, exactly. You talked about the red light on the camera coming on. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories. Yeah, right after September 11, I was interviewed on Larry King Live on scene. Oh, wow, wow. We actually had five different interviews, and when the second one occurred, mm. Uh, the the the producer, the director, came into the studio where I was and Larry was still out in California, and I was doing it from CNN in New York. And you know, when they, when they do their shows, everything is like, from sort of the chest up. It's mainly dealing with your face and so on. So for Roselle, excuse me, for Roselle to be able to be my guide dog, to be part of the show, they build a platform that we put her up on. Now she was just laying there. And the director came in and he said, you know, your dog isn't really doing anything. Is there anything we can do to make her more animated? And I said, are the Clea lights on? Because I couldn't really tell and he said, No. I said, then don't worry about it. When those lights come on, she will be a totally different dog, because she figured out cameras. She loved to go in front of the camera. The klieg lights came on, she lifts up her head, she's yawning, she's blinking, she's wagging her tail. It was perfect. Yeah, it's one of my favorite stories. But that is so great. I guess it's also the time to tell you that the name of my third guide dog was, here it comes, Klondike. Oh, really, my third guide dog, anything was a golden retriever. His name was Klondike.   Susan Janzen ** 1:01:18 Oh, that's and I know I'm public dates, and then you got two of us here. This is great. Yeah, that is so cool. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:26 if people want to reach out and get get in contact with you, they want to learn about your coaching programs and so on. How do they do that?   Susan Janzen ** 1:01:35 So I think the best way is, my website is this, www, dot Sue. Janssen, I'm just going by my short Susan. So S, U, E, J, a, n, z, e n, dot, C, A diamet, and that'll kind of give you everything there. There'll be a little video of my granddaughter on there. There'll be ways to get in touch with me and to book a call. So that would be great. And then we'll chat about it,   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:59 and we have an image of your book cover in in the show notes and so on. And so I hope people will pick that up. Um, I always ask this, although a lot of times it doesn't happen. But does it happen to also be availabl

Lynn & Carl are joined by award-winning actress Kimmie Kidd & her collaborator on her next couple of projects, Fly North's Colin Healy to discuss "This Will Be - The Spirit and Soul of Natalie Cole" at the Blue Strawberry (this & next Friday) and July's "Madam" at the Greenfinch. Plus Colin talks about "Little Miss Sunshine" coming up April 25th at the Greenfinch.

**Lynda Law's Soul Show Replay On traxfm.org. This Week Lynda Features Soul/Boogie/Dance Classics/Contemporary Soul From Roy Ayers, Natalie Cole, People's Choice, Rose Royce, First Choice, George Duke, The Stylistics, Rah Band, The O'Jays, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Jackson & More #originalpirates #soulmusic #contemporarysoul #70smusic #80smusic #disco #danceclassics Catch Lynda's Soul Show Every Tuesday From 4:00PM UK Time On www.traxfm.org Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Cafe Mocha closes out Women's History Month with special tributes to music royalty with female soloist from the  ‘Inseparable' Natalie Cole to the Disco Queen Donna Summer and today's ‘ Queen of Inspiration' Ann Nesby who  just released a new single that will inspire us all! Cafe Mocha good for your soul.  #LEGACY #WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Narada speaks with Preston Glass: American musician, songwriter and producer. Glass is the winner of six BMI Awards. He has also worked with several famous artists such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kenny G, Natalie Cole and Earth, Wind & Fire and more!Visit Narada at his website and socials and leave a comment, like and subscribe if you enjoyed the podcast!Website: https://www.naradamichaelwalden.com/allinpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialnaradaApple Music https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-in-with-narada-michael-walden/id1470173526Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5agWJLSreLNze8Sjxit4Na?si=928a8dd6316d4986

Meghan appears to have entered what fans are now cheekily calling a “breakfast war” with   Gwyneth Paltrow, after a seemingly pointed exchange of lifestyle videos sparked speculation of simmering tensions between the two Montecito neighbours.It all began when Gwyneth posted a casual, makeup-free breakfast reel from her own kitchen. The Goop founder, clad in pyjamas, prepared bacon, eggs, and gluten-free buttermilk biscuits to the tune of Natalie Cole's *This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)*—the same track used in promotional material for Meghan's *With Love, Meghan*. The not-so-subtle similarities did not go unnoticed.Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!  You also get 20+ other shows on the network ad-free!    Subscribe to Deep Crown's free newsletter at https://deepcrown.substack.com

Hoy James Taylor cumple 77 años y hemos seleccionado dúos que grandes artistas femeninas han grabado con él: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Luciana Souza… ¡Happy Birthday, sweet James! DISCO 1 JONI MITCHELL & JAMES TAYLOR Close Your EyesDISCO 2 CARLY SIMON & JAMES TAYLOR MockingbirdDISCO 3 LINDA RONSTADT & JAMES TAYLOR i Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine DISCO 4 SHERYL CROW & JAMES TAYLOR Flying BlindDISCO 5 MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER & JAMES TAYLOR Soul CompanionDISCO 6 KATE TAYLOR & JAMES TAYLOR It’s In His KissDISCO 7 DIXIE CHICKS & JAMES TAYLOR Sweet Baby JamesDISCO 8 ALLISON KRAUSS & JAMES TAYLOR How's the World Treating YouDISCO 9 CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR Up On The RoofDISCO 10 THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER & JAMES TAYLOR Dream LoverDISCO 11 JAMES TAYLOR & NATALIE COLE Baby It’s Cold Outside DISCO 12 MAURA O’CONNELL & JAMES TAYLOR Love DivineDISCO 13 LUCIANA SOUZA & JAMES TAYLOR Never Die Young DISCO 14 KARAN CASEY & JAMES TAYLOR The Winds Begin To SingEscuchar audio

As the lumpy trousers continued their march across the world in the spring of 1990, another Beatles live experience arrived on the shores of Liverpool just in time for a special anniversary. The John Lennon memorial concert on May 5th offered healthy doses of both celebration and catharsis for the home city of the former Beatle on what would have been the year of his 50th birthday. Cyndi Lauper, Hall & Oates, Lou Reed, Natalie Cole, Kylie Minogue and more took the stage before thousands of fans to deliver music and memories of the late great Johnny Ace. Elsewhere in Beatle world, another collection of all star collaborators were also making music together, but this traveling band weren't on the stage, they were in the studio... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Tales From Hollywoodland crew sits down with Intellectual Property Manager Seth Berg to discuss his work preserving the legacies of music icons. As the Legacy Manager for Peggy Lee and Natalie Cole, Head of Licensing for Frank Sinatra Enterprises, and Licensing Agent for The Dean Martin Family Trust, Seth shares insights into managing the […] The post Tales From Hollywoodland: Preserving Legends with IP Manager Seth Berg appeared first on The ESO Network.

The Tales From Hollywoodland crew sits down with Intellectual Property Manager Seth Berg to discuss his work preserving the legacies of music icons. As the Legacy Manager for Peggy Lee and Natalie Cole, Head of Licensing for Frank Sinatra Enterprises, and Licensing Agent for The Dean Martin Family Trust, Seth shares insights into managing the brands of legendary artists. Don't miss this fascinating look behind the scenes of entertainment legacy management! Tales From Hollywoodland on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/talesfromhollywoodland   Tales From Hollywoodland on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/talesfromhollywoodland/ We want to hear from you! Feedback is always welcome. Please write to us at  talesfromhollywoodland@gmail.com and why not subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, and wherever fine podcasts are found.    #TalesFromHollywoodland #SethBerg #IntellectualProperty #LegacyManagement #PeggyLee #NatalieCole #FrankSinatra #DeanMartin #MusicLegends #HollywoodIcons #EntertainmentLaw #CelebrityBranding #MusicIndustry #Licensing #ClassicHollywood #ArtistLegacy #BehindTheScenes #HollywoodHistory #PodcastEpisode

Raiding The Crates-Remembering Natalie Cole by DC RADIO HD

Grammy Award, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ~My Tribute Chris Jasper. I am a Major Fan of this Award-Winning Talented Vocalist, Musician, Family Man, Man of Faith!Rest on Power!Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, CHRIS JASPER, an integral member of THE ISLEY BROTHERS during the 1970s and 1980s—their gold and platinum years—from the 3+3 (1973) to Between the Sheets (1983) albums. These were the years when THE ISLEY BROTHERS were a self-produced, self-contained group. If you are familiar with THE ISLEY BROTHERS, then you have heard the music of CHRIS JASPER, who was primarily responsible for writing and producing all of THE ISLEY BROTHERS music during this time, including such beautiful love songs as “For The Love of You” and “Between the Sheets” and uptempo funk such as “Fight the Power.” His arrangements and instrumentation as a classically-trained musician, and his expertise on the keyboards and synthesizers, are the foundation of the legendary “Isley Brothers Sound.”Re-recorded elements of "That Lady" are incorporated in "i", the lead single of Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. The song won the awards for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song at the 2015 Grammy Awards.Marvin and Ernie Isley joined CHRIS and formed ISLEY-JASPER-ISLEY. Without this crucial musical component, They were no longer a self-produced, self-contained group. BUT they topped the charts with Chris singing lead vocals on “Caravan of Love” (1985)  It was also used in commercials as part of a Dodge Caravan advertising campaign. He was also awarded a CEBA Award For Excellence for a Miller Brewing Company commercial. His music has also been used in radio and television commercials,  He continues to write songs and produce his own R&B/Gospel music (www.goldcitymusic.com).His music has been covered and sampled by hundreds of new and established recording artists, including Whitney Houston, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Fantasia, Will Smith, Alliyah, Queen Latifah, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Natalie Cole, and the list goes on and on. In 1992, CHRIS along with the other members of THE ISLEY BROTHERS, was inducted into the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME.Chris studied music composition at the Juilliard School of Music & received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in music composition from C.W. Post College in New York, where he studied under noted jazz pianist and composer, Dr. Billy Taylor. He received a J.D. degree from Concord University School of Law.Chris formed his own record label, Gold City Records, and released two albums as a CBS-associated label. His debut single as a solo artist, “Superbad” reached #1 on the R&B charts & has worked with such notable artists as Chaka Khan, writing and producing a song for her CK album (“Make It Last”).In 2016, Chris was awarded the National R&B Society Lifetime Achievement Award, Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's received numerous ASCAP awards.. Chris lives in New York with his wife of 50 years, Margie, and his three sons, Christopher, Nicholas and Michael. - chrisjasper.com© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!2025 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

资深DJ有待介绍爵士乐发展史上各流派和代表人物，深入浅出，雅俗共赏。

Send us a textWelcome back Jam Fam!  You are in for a treat today!  In this episode, we speak to Doriana Sanchez, a legend in the dance world.  So many of you have seen her but didn't know her name.  A creative with an incredible back story, a survivor and warrior, a mentor with a heart of gold, we know you will love todays chat with Doriana!DORIANA SANCHEZ is an Emmy Award and two-time American Choreography Award nominated choreographer and director, and a World Choreography Award recipient. Her love of Dance and Movement has allowed her to create in all areas of stage and media.Ryan Seacrest on E News! Has called her “The Dancing Queen”, and Tu Ciudad Magazine named her one of the 25 “Hip Hot Now” Hispanics in arts and entertainment.As a long time collaborator with Pop Icon Cher, Doriana has Created, Directed and Choreographed the superstars extravaganza performances including; Dancing with The Stars, The Voice, Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman and the associated “Dressed To Kill” Tour” which, met with rave reviews. Doriana has also Conceived, Directed and Choreographed Cher at the Colosseum during its three year, 200-plus sold out performances at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.Her work can also be seen in the Love Hurts, Believe and Living Proof tour, which was honored with four Emmy Awards including Outstanding Musical Variety Special. Over three million people saw the show during its 325 performances. It ranks as one of the most successful tours for a female artist, grossing over 200 million dollars. Doriana was also nominated for an Emmy for Best Choreography for the show's HBO special.Doriana's Stage, Circus and Touring credits include, choreographing the world premiere of Frank Loesser's musical Senor Discretion Himself, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. for which she received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Choreography, Barry Manilow's Copcabana, at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best new Musical, The Night is a Child, at Pasadena Playhouse and Blade To The Heat at the Mark Taper Forum.Her great love of circus arts led Doriana to China where she created The Galaxy Stars Circus featuring over 150 international performers. Other circus credits include Circo Fantastico, the all-Latin circus that Doriana wrote, directed and choreographed, as well as Odyssey, the first circus ever presented on a cruise ship, for Princess Cruises.Additional Directing and choreography credits include, Video Games Live, Jane's Addiction's Jubilee Tour, Perry Farrell's Porno for Pyros Tour, Peter Gabriel's Secret World Tour, Dirty Dancing Concert Tour (2 weeks Sold out shows at Radio City Music Hall. Her productions have been seen in nearly every large scale arena in the US and abroad.She has worked with musical legends such as Latin superstar Shakira, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Frankie Valli, and David Foster musical prodigies, Jackie Evancho and Charice, as well as comedy superstar Ellen DeGeneres.She received a TEA award for outstanding achievement, for Resorts World's Crane Dance, in Singapore Harbor, the largest animatronic water and video spectacular in the world and was director and choreographer for Festive Walk's Lake of Dreams also at Resorts World.Corporate clients include, Redken, Target, Toyota, Mattel and CanonDoriana's television credits include the Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars,Thank you for listening Jam Fam! Make sure you follow us across social media and don't forget to like and subscribe anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts!Facebook: JAM Joe and Michelle's Dance PodcastInstagram: jam_dance_podcastTwitter: @jamdancepodcastEmail: jamdancepodcast@gmail.com

Send us a textNomad's impressive career highlights his versatility and expertise across various musical domains, from touring to studio production and film scoring. His collaborations with a range of top artists and his work on well-known soundtracks show a deep and diverse skill set, making his insights on *The Bass Shed Podcast* a valuable resource for anyone interested in professional musicianship and production.Nomad is a seasoned composer, music producer, music director, and session/touring guitarist who has been active in the industry since the 1990s. He has toured the world extensively and been featured on countless GRAMMY-winning records. He has shared the stage with celebrated artists such as David Foster, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Kirk Whalum, Dave Koz, Kat Graham, Jewel, India Arie, and Carrie Underwood. In the studio, he has worked with Justin Bieber, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Lalah Hathaway, Josh Groban, Colbie Caillat, and Leslie Odom Jr., among others. He also served as Music Director for Donny Osmond, Scott Patterson, and Babyface, a position he held for 12 years.Nomad's contributions extend into television and film, where he has collaborated with renowned composers like Danny Elfman, John Powell, Elvin Ross, Tim Davies, and A.R. Rahman. His distinctive guitar work can be heard on soundtracks for films such as *Ferdinand*, *Men In Black 3*, *The Lorax*, *Happy Feet*, *Happy Feet Two*, *Knight and Day*, *MacGruber*, *Pineapple Express*, *Kung Fu Panda*, *Stop-Loss*, *P.S. I Love You*, *The Game Plan*, *The Grudge 2*, *The Departed*, *Chicken Little*, *Into The Blue*, *Mr. and Mrs. Smith*, *Open Range*, *Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines*, *The Lizzie McGuire Movie*, *What Women Want*, *The Prince of Egypt*, *The X Files*, and *People Like Us*, on which he also contributed his singing voice. His recent work includes guitar for the Netflix show *Maya and The Three* and the 2021 reboot of *Fraggle Rock*. In 2020, he produced a cover of the classic bolero *Sabor A Mi* for the Netflix series *Gentefied* and composed the original piece *AfroCuBrazil* for the Netflix movie *Beats*.Supporters to connect with:Mike's Bass CornerBass MagazineInternational Society of BassistsGlobal ArtsLemur MusicLawrence HaberTrey SederwallClaudia ArroyaveSupport the showInstagram / Twitter / Youtube / Website / BSA / View More Episodes

Special co-host today. The Host of the poodcast Backseat Confessions, JC.Backseat confessions is everywhere that plays podcasts. Check JC out on Instagram - backseat confessions podcastFeb 6th-National frozen yogurt day.Massachusettes became 6th state, Alan Sheppard hit golf balls on the moon, Coldest temp ever in Asia. Todays birthdays - Ronald Reagan, Thurl Ravenscroff, Rip Torn, Mike Farrell, Fabian, Bob Marley, Natalie Cole, Kathy Najimy, Richie McDonald, Axl Rose, Rick Astley. Arthur Ashe died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_LeppardFroyo Yolo song - Liv & MaddieBirthday - The BeatlesBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/Win one for the gipper - Ronald ReaganYour a mean one, Mr. Grinch - Thurl RavenscroffTurn me loose - FabianBuffalo Soldier - Bob Marley & the WailersMiss you like crazy - Natalie ColeWhat about now - LonestarWelcone to the jungle - Guns N RosesNever gonna give you up - Rick AstleyExit - Its not love - Dokken http://dokken.net/Backseat confessions is everywhere that plays podcasts. Check JC out on Instagram - backseat confessions podcast

Esta edición especial de nuestro podcast está dedicada a discos publicados en 1975 y que cumplen 50 años en este 2025. Son álbumes de Roberta Flack, Tom Scott, Harvey Mason, Natalie Cole, Gino Vannelli, George Duke, Earth, Wind & Fire, MFSB, The Crusaders, The Salsoul Orchestra, David Sanborn, Ronnie Laws y Michael Franks.

Baby, it's controversial up in here! Covers by: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan; Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton; Dean Martin; Ray Charles & Betty Carter; Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey; James Taylor & Natalie Cole; Lady A; Weihnactslieder/Xmas Hits Collective Tidal playlist here

HERE WE GO TWO HOURS OF QUALITY TUNES FOR YOUR LISTENING DELIGHT INCLUDING ROSE ROYCE, JEAN CARN, MISTIC MERLIN, GWEN McCRAE, THE AVEREGE WHITE BAND, NATALIE COLE, COLLINS & COLLINS AND MANY MORE .HOPE YOU ENJOY OR DOWNLOAD FOR LATER WITH A GLASS OF SOMETHING XXX .

Rita Reys; Pim Jacobs Trio; Frits Landesbergen – So Many Stars – 5:03 Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 – So Many Stars – 4:30 Natalie Cole – So Many Stars – 5:16 Chris Potter – Oh So Many Stars – 5:44 Brad Henderson – So Many Stars – 5:29 Emilie-Claire Barlow – So Many Stars […]

Note: I revisited a chat with the amazing Walter Mosley from 2021. Celebrated author, Walter Mosley, took a timeout to chat with me about how he didn't write a sentence he liked until age 35, the sprawling muse of Los Angeles, and his conflicted feelings after winning a big National Book Award. “Write your truth, and believe in it. And if your mother doesn't like it ... too bad.” – Walter Mosley Walter is the first Black man to receive the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for lifetime achievement in writing. The critically acclaimed author, playwright, screenwriter, and producer has written over 60 books including fiction (literary, mystery, and science fiction), writing guides, memoir, a YA novel, has won dozens of prestigious awards (including an Emmy), and been translated into 25 languages. His bestselling historical mysteries feature infamous, hard-boiled detective "Easy" Rawlins, a black PI living in the Watts neighborhood of LA. Blood Grove (Easy Rawlins Book 15) is the latest in that series and described as "... a novel of vast scope and intimate insight, and a soulful call for justice by any means necessary." Walter's work has also been adapted for film and TV including Devil in a Blue Dress (starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals) and the HBO production of Always Outnumbered (starring Laurence Fishburne and Natalie Cole). Preview a sample of a podcast at the break from this week's sponsor Look Closer: The Found Fiction Podcast, more at foundfiction.org. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Walter Mosley and I discussed: His winding career path How the apex of post-hippie Los Angeles, California affected his writing What it was like to work with the late, Oscar-nominated filmmaker John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) Why you need to read your drafts out loud And more! Show Notes: WalterMosley.com Walter Mosley Amazon author page Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology: A Library of America Special Publication (Amazon) Roger Zelazny Amazon author page Walter Mosley on Facebook Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pat Coil is a pianist to the Stars. He's toured with Michael McDonald, Carmen McCraie, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Woody Herman, Larry Carlton and Olivia Newton-John. He's recorded with just about everyone including Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow, Peter Cetera and Michael Feinstein. He's also played on commercials and TV shows and film scores. And he's released his own albums. My featured song is my version of Miles Davis's “All Blues” sung by the late, great Jon Lucien from my 1994 debut album Miles Behind. Spotify link. ---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here .To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------“THE GIFT” is Robert's new single featuring his song arranged by Grammy winning arranger Michael Abene. Praised by David Amram, John Helliwell, Joe La Barbera, Tony Carey, Fay Claassen, Antonio Farao, Danny Gottlieb and Leslie Mandoki.Click HERE for all links.—-------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES” is Robert's recent single. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's recent single. With guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------“MILES BEHIND”, Robert's debut album, recorded in 1994, was “lost” for the last 30 years. It's now been released for streaming. Featuring Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears), Anton Fig (The David Letterman Show), Al Foster (Miles Davis), Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones), Jon Lucien and many more. Called “Hip, Tight and Edgy!” Click here for all links.—--------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's latest Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at festivals in Pennsylvania and Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.Click here for song videos—-----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Pat at:www.patcoil.com Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

As an international touring artist on fiddle and pedal steel, Andrea Whitt will be joiningMoby in Europe this September on his first tour in ten years. She has also toured with country megastar Shania Twain, Italian rocker Zucchero, country artist/rapper Struggle Jennings opening for Jelly Roll, and an exclusive VIP experience performance on the Dead and Company tour. This year Andrea stepped out from her long time role as a side musician and produced her first solo show where Robby Krieger from The Doors joined her on stage as a special guest. She was also recently a guest performer with the well-known jam band, Blues Traveler.   Andrea has performed at many of the world's top amphitheaters, arenas and theaters, and has shared stages with high-profile artists across all genres. Her credits include Journey, Ariana Grande, Moby, Kamasi Washington, KYGO, Deep Purple, Stevie Wonder, Cee-Lo Green, One Republic, Natalie Cole, John Legend, Halsey, Harry Connick Jr., Phil Lesh, Jelly Roll, BB Rexha, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Allison Wonderland. Last fall she joined the house band for the CMT show ‘Smashing Glass' where she performed with Clint Black, Chris Jensen, Lucy Silvas. Andrea has also recorded on many acclaimed albums, including Kendrick Lamar's Grammy Award-winning To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar's Damn, Kamasi Washington's The Epic and Harmony of Difference, Zucchero's Black Cat Live, Stu Hamm's Hold Fast, Blxst, Katie Gavin of Muna, and a PBS special with Shania Twain.   Set for August 2024, Andrea Whitt's next release is “Sleepwalk,” her take on the classic song by Santo & Johnny. Andrea's version dark, dreamy and ethereal, and sounds like what you'd get if Lana Del Rey played pedal steel. The “Sleepwalk” video was shot at the historic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. Since most of her work is as a hired performer with other artists, when she has a release of her own, Andrea puts time and care into every facet of her artistry including styling her own wardrobe, artistic direction, and merch designs.   Determined and eager to explore new facets of creativity, Andrea wants her life to feel like the non-stop expression of Interlochen Arts Camp she went to growing up. In addition to music, she's a lifelong visual artist, having started drawing and painting when she was a toddler. Andrea is regularly commissioned for paintings in her signature ink and watercolor and oil painting styles. Much of her work can be found on her site, Boho Bunnie, which started as a fashion blog with recognition from press such as Marie Clare, Britt & Co and Free People. Modeling for the camera has “a similar type of energy” to performing on stage. The Boho Bunnie blog is morphing into a lifestyle brand, which produces products that inspire and encapsulate the fun, sexy, and expressive bohemian in all of us. She's now hard at work building the Boho Bunnie brand, which includes art prints, merch she has designed, fashion and a perfume line.   Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod (Please Subscribe)

Narada speaks with American musician, songwriter and producer Preston Glass. Glass is the winner of six BåMI Awards. He has also worked with several famous artists such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Kenny G, Natalie Cole and Earth, Wind & Fire and more!Visit Narada at his website and socials and leave a comment, like and subscribe if you enjoyed the podcast!Website: https://www.naradamichaelwalden.com/allinpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialnaradaApple Music https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-in-with-narada-michael-walden/id1470173526Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5agWJLSreLNze8Sjxit4Na?si=928a8dd6316d4986

HERE WE GO MY SHOW FOR 01-AUGUST-2024 WITH A MIXED BAG OF OLD CLASSICS INCLUDING ( B B & Q BAND, HERBIE HANCOCK, CHUCK JACKSON, ROSE ROYCE, NATALIE COLE, BOBBY THURSTON, RIPPLE ) AND MANY MORE ALSO SOME TOP NEW TRACKS FROM ( DOWN TO EARTH, DAVE MASCALL AND NORMA JEAN WRIGHT  ) WE ALSO HAVE THE CONNOISSEURS CORNER ( THIS WEEK WE HAVE KIM WATERS AND SIDE EFFECT ) AND WE HAVE THE BACK TO BACK CLASSICS BY A CLASSIC ARTIST (THIS WEEK WE HAVE TWO TRACKS FROM SHALAMA ) THEN WE HAVE THREE TRACKS DUG OUT FROM THE GARAGE FROM ( MARVIN GAY, ARETHA FRANKLIN AND DONNIE ALBERT ) FINNISHING OF WITH A COUPLE OF SLOW TRACKS AND MUCH MUCH MORE SIT BACK WITH A GLASS OF SOMETHING AND ENJOY OR DOWNLOAD FOR LATER

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Trve. Cvlt. Pop! Steve and Gaz are in a GRUMPY mood as we delve into our own personal pet peeves in music and discuss the letters I, J, K and L in our A-Z of Atrocities. Expect furious vitriol aimed at classic heavy metal bands, Weller Dads, comedy music, awful Christmas cover songs, poorly placed venues, Leeds based, jaunty indie rock bands and more.Hey, it's not all bad though, we get a "Hoorah!" at the news that Gojira will be playing alongside Celine Dion and Lady Gaga at the Olympics opening ceremony, an "OOOHHH!" at the pretty ace list of Mercury Prize nominees and a "Yesssss!" as we discuss a great, lost classic from soul queen Natalie Cole.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

https://youtu.be/5uzWB0H3AiE Barry LaBov, owner of LaBov and Beyond Marketing, is driven by his passion for originality and helping people achieve their potential. From rock musician to marketing entrepreneur, Barry's journey is marked by creativity and perseverance. He founded his marketing firm to channel his love for creativity into helping companies discover their unique strengths. Barry's five-step brand re-engineering process—Brand Assessment, Technical Immersion, Design Brand Strategy, Execute, and Celebrate & Launch—focuses on leveraging a company's inherent qualities. His book, The Power of Differentiation, aims to inspire companies to win hearts, minds, and market share by engaging their people meaningfully.  --- Help Your People Find Meaning with Barry LaBov Good day, listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint. I'm interviewing today Barry LaBov, the owner of LaBov and Beyond Marketing, helping companies go to market through a dealer or distributor network by training and inspiring their people. He's also the author of the upcoming, The Power of Differentiation. So, Barry, welcome to the show. Steve, thank you. I'm a big fan and it's an honor to be here with you today. So I'm ready to have a lot of fun. Well, hey, we're going to start with a really fun journey that you had because you were a rock musician turned entrepreneur. So, two questions here. One is how the heck a rock musician becomes an entrepreneur, especially in a field different from their own, because some rock musicians are really good entrepreneurs selling their music. And secondly, what is your personal Why and how does that connect to what you do? Well, that's a great question. I wanted as a young boy to be a rock and roll musician. I wanted to write songs. So, at a very early age, I learned how to play drums. Then when I hit maybe 10 years old, I learned how to play keyboards. My dad showed me four different kinds of chords on an organ, and I figured out how to do that. So, I was in a band with my brother. I played drums and keyboards, keyboards with my right hand. And by the way, it did not sound very good, I guarantee it. But I was 14 years old, my brother was 12. He's on guitar, I'm singing, he's singing, and we're playing in a two-man band. From that, I recorded songs, wrote songs of mine, played in bands for the next 10 or so years, had songs on American Bandstand, the Billboard charts, and had songs published by Barry Madelow and Natalie Cole. We had a song on American Bandstand that actually did well that day. So all of that, but I have to say with all humility, my music, Steve, sold well under 1 million copies. So I was not making a killing at that. But what happened was I then started to write jingles, those irritating little ditties. And here's how I went from being a rock musician to running a marketing company. I was writing jingles and doing what's known as audio work, recording work for companies. And North American Van Lines, very large moving company here in the United States, called me up because I had done a little work with them. And they said to me, Barry, we want you to take over our marketing department. We're going to sell it to you and we will give you a three-year contract for all of our marketing. And being the great entrepreneur I was, Steve, I said, no I don't think so. I don't think I'm really a marketing guy. I'm a music guy. But I'm going to give you the names of all these different companies locally to help you out. And they went, okay. Well, they called me again, Steve. And they called me and called me and called me again. Then one day, about a year later, they called me up again and said, Barry, we want you to buy our marketing department and become our marketing agency. Please do it. And I said, I've given you the names of all these other companies. I've begged you to talk to them. Why are you coming back to me? And he said, well, we've talked to those companies, but Barry,

In this episode, Eric sits down with the talented and accomplished singer, songwriter, filmmaker, author, lecturer and photographer... Byron Motley. They discuss his early years; being raised in Kansas Missouri, his early exposure to music and singing and the love that he developed for performance -- to eventually having a musical career, working on Broadway and performing and recording with such luminaries as Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, John Legend and Barry Manilow. They explore the fascinating and rich history of the Negro Baseball League… and how it's draped in a fabric that mirrors America's culture. The celebrated legacy of his late father; Negro League chief umpire Bob Motley. How Byron co-authored his father's memoir — which he made into a documentary entitled THE LEAGUE, the fascinating interviews he conducted with prominent figures including Maya Angelou and how the film is a tribute that honors Byron's late father and is an effort to keep the memory and history of the Negro Baseball League alive — and share it with future generations..! Guest Bio: Byron Motley is a modern day Renaissance Man with diverse interests and talent… An accomplished singer/songwriter/filmmaker/lecturer/author and photographer. As a performer Byron has worked on Broadway and performed and recorded with such luminaries as Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Byron's most recent CD “Jazz & Cocktails” (Cocoa Blu Records) has garnered impressive reviews and received attention both stateside and internationally. His one-man musical show "Hitmakers, Heroes & Homeruns” has dazzled audiences nationwide honoring the Negro Baseball Leagues & Jazz. An avid baseball fan, Byron co-authored his father's memoir THE NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUES: Tales of Umpiring Legendary Players, Breaking Barriers, and Making American History. (Simon & Schuster/Skyhorse/Sports Publishing, LLC).  Byron's documentary, "THE LEAGUE", about the history and legacy of the Negro Baseball League, was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023 in NYC.  The project is now streaming on various platforms including, Apple, Amazon, Vudu, Spectrum Dish and other outlets!  An award-winning photographer, Byron's work has shown in galleries, boutiques and museums in the United States, Europe and Cuba. His exhibit “Viva Cuba Beisbol: A Photographic Journey into the heart and soul of Cuban Baseball” recently enjoyed a six-month gallery exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  Byron's award-winning photographic book, EMBRACING CUBA (University Press of Florida), contains nearly 200 color images (with essays) exploring the richness of the island. His photography has been featured in Vanity Fair, The Advocate, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, 3Sixty magazines and Bruno Gmünder books and have shown in galleries, boutiques and museums in the United States, Europe, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Some of his notable subjects include: Hank Aaron - Baseball Hall of Famer and Dr. Maya Angelou - The People's Poet.For more on Eric's Perspective, visit www.ericsperspective.com#ERICSPERSPECTIVE #AFRICANAMERICAN #ARTSUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/2vVJkDnConnect with us ONLINE: Visit Eric's Perspective website: https://bit.ly/2ZQ41x1Facebook: https://bit.ly/3jq5fXPInstagram: https://bit.ly/39jFZxGX: https://bit.ly/2OMTikTok: https://bit.ly/4cv8zfg

EPISODE 114: Grammy-award winning Will Lee has done it all in the music business. Perhaps best known as bassist for over three decades on The Late Show with David Letterman, he holds the world's record for longest-running bassist on late night television. Will has also lent his considerable talents to well over 2500 Pop, Jazz, Rock, Reggae and Gospel albums including those by Gato Barbieri, The Bee Gees, George Benson, Michael Bolton, David Bowie, The Brecker Brothers, James Brown, Mariah Carey, Cher, Natalie Cole, Christopher Cross, D'Angelo, Ray Davies, Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Michael Franks, Al Green, Go Hiromi, Bob James, Billy Joel, Alicia Keyes, Chaka Khan, Cyndi Lauper, Chuck Loeb, Barry Manilow, Ricky Martin, Pat Metheny, Bette Midler, Laura Nyro, Diana Ross, David Sanborn, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, SMAP, Spyro Gyra, Ringo Starr, Steely Dan, Cat Stevens, Barbra Streisand, Frankie Valli, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Sadao Watanabe, Weather Report, Nancy Wilson, Akiko Yano and more. He has sung and played on an equal number of TV and radio commercials (he was the voice of Teddy Grahams, Stroh's Beer, The US Army “Be All That You Can Be”) as well as many movie soundtracks. willlee.com Contact us: makingsoundpodcast.comFollow on Instagram: @makingsoundpodcastFollow on Threads: @jannkloseJoin our Facebook GroupPlease support the show with a donation, thank you for listening!

In this episode, The Mentors Radio host Dan Hesse talks with David Foster, one of the most illustrious composers of our time. With 16 Grammy Awards, including three for Producer of the Year, an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe and Three Oscar nominations for “Best Original Songs,” Foster has earned a reputation as a keen spotter of new talent, playing a key role in the discovery and career launches of Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé and more. Few other individuals can claim to have their fingerprints on more major moments in all of popular music than David Foster. He has created hit songs for a diverse array of artists including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Seal, Chaka Khan, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Chicago, Hall & Oates, Brandy, 'N Sync, Boz Scaggs and Gloria Estefan, to name a few. Currently, Foster is gearing up to take on Broadway with several projects, including writing the music for a new musical about iconic animated character “Betty Boop.” He is also writing music for a musical based on the Amy Bloom novel and New York Times bestseller Lucky Us. Listen to the show live on Salem Radio in San Francisco or via live-streaming on iHeart Radio worldwide… You can also listen on ANY podcast platform, including Apple podcast, iTunes, Spotify, TuneIN, Stitcher, Google Play and all the others. Sign up for the podcast here. SHOW NOTES: DAVID FOSTER: BIO: https://davidfoster.com/story/ WEBSITE: https://davidfoster.com/ BOOK: Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping the Charts, and Winning Grammys, by David Foster (“EXCELLENT book, can't put it down, includes valuable lessons he's learned along the way, with riveting behind-the-scenes stories, vignettes and experiences. I read the sample in Amazon and bought the Kindle version on the spot to finish reading!” — K.W., producer of The Mentors Radio) NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY: David Foster: Off The Record

Today's episode of the Other Side of the Bell is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass.  Check out all the information for what the shop is bringing to the International Trumpet Guild conference in Anaheim for 2024. This episode's special guest is Brian Swartz. Trumpeter Brian Swartz is a diverse musician with a wide range of influences. He has appeared on multiple Grammy® nominated and winning recordings with artists including The (Dixie) Chicks' Double Platinum "Taking the Long Way" which won 5 Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year in February 2007, John Beasley's Monk'estra which has garnered 6 Grammy® Nominations for it's 3 albums and 1 Grammy® Win for Beasley's arrangement of "Donna Lee," The Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Scott Healy's Tentet and Kim Richmond's Concert Jazz Orchestra. He has also performed or recorded with The Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, Robin Thicke, Smashmouth, Patti Labelle, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Ivan Lins, Tom Harrell, Chucho Valdés, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas, Rickie Lee Jones, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The O'Jays, The Temptations, The Four Tops,  Saint Motel, Azar Lawrence, Buddy Montgomery, Joe Henry, Keb' Mo', Jackie Greene, Josie Cotton, Lisa Loeb, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gerry Gibbs, Connie Han, Taylor Eigsti, Raya Yarbrough, Bob Florence, The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, Francisco Aguabella, JazzAntiqua, The Los Angeles Jazz Collective, Jose Rizo's Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars and many more.  Since 2005, Swartz has proudly held the trumpet chair in Oingo Boingo Former Members.    Brian Swartz has released five jazz albums as a leader: "There's Only Me" (Noir Records 2000), "Live at the Jazz Bakery" (Summit Records 2005), "Three" (Summit Records 2006) and "Portraiture" (Summit Records 2014), "To Be With You" (DistroKid 2020). As an arranger, Brian has written for his own big band, Ruthie Foster's 2021 Grammy® Nominated "Live at the Paramount," Sussan Deyhim with the Pacific Symphony, the Ron Jones Influence Orchestra and has served as staff arranger for The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, John Beasley's Monk'estra, Oingo Boingo Former Members and the ABC TV show, "Duets." Brian's film credits include the 2012 Oscar® Winning Animated Feature "Rango," Jennifer Anniston's "The Break-Up," "The Cooler" starring William H. Macy and "Let Them All Talk" with Meryl Streep. In 2021, Brian appeared with John Beasley's Quintet on the Amazon Prime TV show 'Bosch," Season 7, Episode 1.   Born December 16, 1967, Brian is a second generation trumpeter. His father, CMSgt Lawrence Swartz (1937-1992), was a 30 year trumpeter in the United States AirForce. Brian's early exposure to music made a profound influence on him and he started playing trumpet at the age of ten in Bellevue, Nebraska. As a teenager, his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he attended Armijo High School. He played all through his high school years and won many honors and accolades. He graduated from Armijo in 1986 and began his music education at Solano Community College. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles to attend California State University at Northridge and the University of Southern California where he could further hone his craft. For five years, Brian studied with trumpet guru Bobby Shew. Bobby inspired Brian's passion for teaching and since 1997, Brian has maintained a very busy schedule of private students in the Los Angeles area and beyond. Brian also studied with John Coppola (SFO), Bill Bing (CSUN), John Thomas (USC) and LA studio legend Uan Rasey. Brian's dedication to mastering his craft and continually building upon his knowledge has brought him to prominence in the global jazz scene.

On this week's episode, the hosts dive into a diverse array of topics that are sure to captivate listeners. First up, Professor Aubrey regales us with tales from her recent sun-soaked getaway to the picturesque Puerto Vallarta, sharing her experiences and adventures from this Mexican paradise. Then, Tim the Nerd unleashes his unbridled passion for professional wrestling, dissecting the highly anticipated Wrestlemania 40 Night 2 main event clash between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns. Brace yourself for a heated dissection of every high spot, false finish, and controversial moment. Professor Aubrey, a Wrestlemania newcomer, also weighs in with her fresh perspective on witnessing the spectacle live for the first time. But the real showstopper is the duo's deep dive into the iconic music of 1991. Over the next two weeks, they'll unpack why this year was such a pivotal moment in music history, exploring groundbreaking albums from a diverse range of artists, including the DiVinyls, Gerardo, Queen, REM, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Bolton, Boys II Men, Natalie Cole, Van Halen, Bonnie Raitt, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Get ready to reminisce, discover, and appreciate the lasting impact of these seminal releases. As always, we wish to thank Christopher Lazarek for his wonderful theme song. Head to his ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for information on how to purchase his EP, Here's To You, which is available on all digital platforms. Support our sponsor, Coffee Bros. Head to their ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and when you make an order, put in promo code FTN10 to save 10% on your order. Head to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linktree⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for more information on where to find us online. Friends Talking Nerdy is a proud member of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Deluxe Edition Network⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Head to their website to find out more information about all the shows available on the Network. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ftnerdy/message

I am so honored that Grammy award winning engineer Bill Shcnee stopped by the Alex Garrett Podcast Network. Thanks to Andy Gladding for setting this conversation up with the engineer that worked close with the likes of Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Natalie Cole and so many more! Enjoy this music-driven edition of my podcast and take a look at Bill's website, which features information on the book 'Chairman at the Board', right here: https://www.billschnee.com/Song excerpts from:Your So Vain, Carly SimonAja, Steely DanLowdown , Boz SkaggsUnforgettable, Natalie Cole and Nat King ColeHallelujah, Sweathog

Ninety-eight-year-old Songwriters Hall of Famer Alan Bergman chats with us about a wide-ranging career that started with Johnny Mercer and continues to today. PART ONEPaul and Scott talk about the Abba Voyage virtual concert and scare themselves with the possibilities of digital technology. PART TWOOur in-depth interview with Alan BergmanABOUT ALAN BERGMANAlan Bergman and his late wife Marilyn joined forces professionally in the 1950s to create one of the most successful songwriting teams of all time. Though both musicians, the pair are best known as lyricists, and they found particular success writing for the silver screen. The Bergmans earned eleven Grammy nominations, including four nominations for Song of Year. They won the Song of the Year honor for “The Way We Were” from the Barbra Streisand film of the same name. They received fifteen Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, winning twice for “The Windmills of Your Mind” and “The Way We Were,” and earning a record-setting three nominations in a single year in 1982. The following year they won their third Oscar, for Best Original Song Score, for the Yentl soundtrack, which included Best Original Song nominees “Papa, Can You Hear Me” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel.” Other highlights from the Bergman catalog include “Nice ‘n Easy” performed by Frank Sinatra, “The Summer Knows,” recorded by Sarah Vaughn, “You Don't Bring Me Flowers,” which they wrote with Neil Diamond, “Someone in the Dark,” which Michael Jackson recorded for the E.T. soundtrack, and “I Knew I Loved You,” which was recorded by Celine Dion. Additionally, the four-time Emmy award winners were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and were recipients of the National Music Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award. The Bergmans held a number of executive positions in various organizations, including serving on the executive committee of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and as board members of the National Academy of Songwriters. From 1994-2009 Marilyn served as the president of ASCAP. Their songs have been recorded by Fred Astaire, Johnny Mathis, Sergio Mendes, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, Stan Getz, Dusty Springfield, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Glen Campbell, Sting, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Norah Jones, and countless others. We're thrilled to share this conversation with the now 98-year-old Alan Bergman, recorded at his home back in August. 

We pay tribute to the timeless beauty & singer Natalie Cole was throughout her career. FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @LEGENDSOFS82332 ALL VOICE NOTES & COMMENTS EMAIL ME ROBERTSILVA57@HOTMAIL.COM

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring lead trumpeter Dave Trigg, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. Dave Trigg is a distinguished trumpeter whose career spans over four decades, marked by versatility and collaborations with some of the most iconic names in music. Starting his professional journey in 1979, Dave made a significant mark as the lead trumpeter with the Ringling Bros Circus World House Band in Florida. This early experience set the stage for a series of notable engagements, including the national tour with "Holiday on Ice" and recording with the legendary Maynard Ferguson Band in 1981, contributing to the "Hollywood" release. In the early 1980s, Dave's talent took him to the heart of entertainment at Walt Disney World in Florida, where he performed with various bands at Epcot Center and MGM Studios until 1990. His broad range of musical abilities allowed him to share the stage with luminaries such as Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, Harry Connick Jr., Tina Turner, and many others. Dave's Broadway credentials are equally impressive, featuring performances in productions like "Wonderful Town," "Hot Feet," "Fame Becomes Me," "Promises, Promises," "Pippin," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Legally Blonde," "Gigi," and "Hello Dolly." The 1990s ushered in a new chapter for Dave as he joined Natalie Cole's band, embarking on global tours and performing with major orchestras, including the BBC Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His work with Cole led to four Grammy-winning albums and numerous TV appearances on shows such as The Tonight Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show. Dave also showcased his talent on TV specials like the three Sopranos live concert and was a part of Sheila E's house band for the 1998 ALMA Awards. Dave's move to Los Angeles expanded his repertoire to include recording sessions for artists like Dr. John, Phil Collins, and Mary J. Blige, as well as soundtracks for films like "Miracle on 34th St." and "Shaft." His involvement with the Big Bands of Bill Holman, Bob Florence, and others underscored his versatility and excellence in jazz and big band music. Relocating to New York in 1999, Dave continued to dazzle at jazz festivals worldwide, including Montreux and Newport, and paid tribute to Maynard Ferguson at the New York Brass Conference. His recent performances include a gala with the National Symphony Orchestra and a featured appearance at the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival, maintaining his status as a sought-after musician for both live performances and studio recordings. Dave Trigg's illustrious career, marked by collaborations with a wide array of artists and performances across prestigious venues, underscores his enduring impact on the music industry and his mastery of the trumpet.

EPISODE 106: Tony Pulizzi has been a leading guitarist in the Los Angeles area for over a decade now and enjoys a music career filled with versatility and experience. Within a year after relocating to LA, Tony quickly made his impact on the west coast and became the house guitarist on American Idol. He parlayed that gig into numerous appearances on Dancing With The Stars, The Voice, BET Awards, and other TV network award shows / movie soundtracks. He has performed and/or recorded with top artists such as Smokey Robinson, Robbie Dupree, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Kimball, Dave Koz, Natalie Cole, Tito Jackson, Mickey Thomas, George Benson, Bill Champlin, and Stevie Wonder to name a few. As a bandleader, Tony has released 3 albums of his own including a recent EP.  More studio material including a live album to be released!  See and hear the live footage, guitar studio discography and original music with the links right here at tonypguitar.comContact us: makingsoundpodcast.comFollow on Instagram: @makingsoundpodcastFollow on Threads: @jannkloseJoin our Facebook GroupPlease support the show with a donation, thank you for listening!

Welcome to Episode #112 of "The Other Side of the Bell", a podcast brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. In this episode, John talks with Wayne Bergeron and Jeff Bunnell about their recently released album called "Homage" by the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble.  We hope you'll enjoy their conversation as well as the album. Join us at Dillon Music, November 9-11 for valve alignments and mouthpiece consultations. Email sales@dillonmusic to schedule an appointment! About the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble Album "Homage"  The recording scene in Los Angeles has a long history of great and highly versatile trumpet playing. For the most part, though, these trumpet players rarely get a chance to be featured. In 1957, Tutti Camarata arranged and produced a record called Tutti's Trumpets that featured some of the top session trumpet players in Los Angeles at that time. That was over 60 years ago. Wayne Bergeron and Jeff Bunnell started talking about doing another recording that would feature some of the current session trumpet players here in Los Angeles. Wayne suggested recording a trumpet ensemble CD to Jeff and they loved the idea and thought a choir of trumpets would work well. With that, the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble came into being. In choosing the music Jeff arranged for this CD, he wanted to pay tribute to some of the film composers who are part of the Los Angeles recording scene (and who write so well for the trumpet), and also pay tribute to some of the great trumpet players of the past and present.  Jerry Hey graciously wrote the arrangment for the last track, the iconic Al Jarreau tune "Roof Garden". Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble Members Jeff Bunnell Wayne Bergeron Jon Lewis Dan Fornero Marissa Benedict Dan Rosenboom Rob Schaer Larry Hall Dan Savant About Wayne Bergeron Wayne Bergeron is enjoying a career as one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. Studio sessions, film dates, international touring, jazz concerts, guest appearances, and clinics keep him busy not only in his hometown of Los Angeles but worldwide. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1958, Bergeron came to California at age one. He originally started on French horn but switched to trumpet in seventh grade where he found a natural upper register ability. Bergeron credits his junior high and high school teachers, Ron Savitt and Bob Smith, for molding his talent into practical working skills. Bergeron first caught the ear of many when he landed the lead trumpet chair with Maynard Ferguson's band in 1986. Bergeron can be heard on Maynard's recordings of Body and Soul, Big Bop Nouveau, Brass Attitude, and The One and Only Maynard Ferguson.  Bergeron demonstrates daily why Maynard remarked, “Wayne is the most musical lead trumpet player I've had on my band.” As a sideman, Bergeron's list of recording credits reads like a “who's who” in contemporary jazz and pop, running the stylistic gamut from Ray Charles to Green Day. Other names include Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand, Michael Buble, Indina Menzel, Leslie Oden Jr., Herb Alpert, The Jonas Brothers, Burt Bacharach, The Dirty Loops, Seth MacFarlane, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Seal, Diana Krall, Tito Puente, Christina Aguilera, Dianne Reeves, Michael Bolton, Earth Wind & Fire, The Pussy Cat Dolls, My Chemical Romance, The Mars Volta, Chicago, Rosemary Cloony, Diane Schuur, Barry Manilow, Lee Ann Womack, Lou Rawls, Eric Marienthal, Kenny G., and David Benoit. Bergeron has worked on over 500 TV & motion picture soundtracks. A partial list of film credits includes Red Notice, Turning Red, Soul, Bob's Burgers, Ford vs. Ferrari, Toy Story 4, Frozen 1 & 2, The Lion King (2019), The Secret Life of Pets, Wreck it Ralph 2, Crazy Rich Asians, Sing 1&2, Moana, Frozen 1 & 2, Get On Up, Toy Story 3, Monsters University, High School Musical 3, Get Smart, Superman Returns, The Simpson's Movie, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Mission Impossible 3, Ice Age 2, Spiderman 1 & 2, Team America and South Park. Bergeron's featured trumpet solos can be heard on the motion pictures West Side Story (2021 Steven Spielberg), La La Land, Sing, The Incredibles 1 & 2, Rocky Balboa, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Rough Night, Jazzman's Blues, Vacation Friends, Ted 2, Minions, Minions 2:The Rise of Gru, Spies in Disguise, Jersey Boys, The Green Hornet, The Interview, Despicable Me 1, 2 & 3, Duplicity, Princess & the Frog, The Perfect Game,, Hey Arnold (the movie), The Rat Pack, Child Star, Aladdin King of Thieves and High Crimes and  many others. Numerous TV credits include Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, SAG Awards, NBC, ESPN & TNT sports themes, American Idol (2001-02), Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Animaniacs Reboot, Family Guy, American Dad, Simpson's, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, The Cleveland Show, Green Eggs and Ham,  Jeopardy, America's Funniest Home Videos, Will and Grace, Phineas & Ferb, Emperor's New School, Mouse Works, Have a Laugh, House of Mouse, King of the Hill, Futurama, Buzz Lightyear, Hercules, and Hey Arnold. Bergeron's greatest love is playing lead in big bands. He has recorded and played with some of Los Angeles' most respected bands including Gordon Goodwin, Arturo Sandoval, Pat Williams, Sammy Nestico, Jack Sheldon, Chris Walden, Tom Kubis, John La Barbara, Bob Florence, Joey Sellers, Ray Anthony, Bill Watrous, Bob Curnow, and Quincy Jones. After being behind the scene for so many years, Bergeron stepped out on his own with his first solo effort, You Call This a Living?  This debut project earned him a Grammy nomination in 2004 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, as well as rave reviews from fans and press worldwide. Bergeron's second CD, Plays Well With Others, released on the Concord Jazz label in 2007, was met with the same acclaim. Bergeron's most current (and personal favorite) CD, Full Circle, was released in January of 2016.  Bergeron performs various events for the Hollywood Bowl summer season. He has done guest appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Taiwan Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic. Bergeron is a National Artist for the Yamaha Corporation of America and is co-designer of the YTR-8335LA trumpet and YFH-8315G Flugelhorn. Bergeron also designed a series of trumpet mouthpieces with Gary Radtke of GR Technologies that are available through Bergeron's website. Bergeron was mentored by legends Uan Rasey, Bobby Shew, Warren Luening, Gary Grant, Rick Baptist, and George Graham. Bergeron hopes to inspire a new generation of young players and enjoys his work as a clinician and educator. “Nothing makes me feel more accomplished than hearing a young musician say that I inspired them or had a positive influence on their life. For me, that's the real payday.” Bergeron is currently on faculty at California State University Northridge. Perhaps Grammy winning composer and bandleader, Gordon Goodwin said it best, “Wayne is a once in a lifetime lead trumpet player.” About Jeff Bunnell Trumpeter Jeff Bunnell has enjoyed a successful career in many musically diverse settings. He is an active member of the Los Angeles freelance performing and recording community, and has been for over four decades. The many artists Jeff has worked and recorded with include Mel Torme, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Natalie Cole, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, Seth MacFarlane, Rosemary Clooney, Paul Anka, Lou Rawls, Barry Manilow, Dianna Krall, Frank Sinatra Jr., David Sanborn, Diane Schuur, Brian Wilson, Tom Harrell, Steve Lawrence, Maroon 5, Michael Feinstein, Debby Boone, Andy Williams, Patti Austin, Brian Setzer, Jack Sheldon, Steve Allen, Marilyn McCoo, Engelbert Humperdink and Shirley Bassey. Jeff has toured with Ray Charles, Horace Silver and Poncho Sanchez. He has performed with many of the top big bands in Los Angeles including Tom Kubis, Bill Watrous, Alf Clausen, Johnny Mandel, Bill Holman, Arturo Sandoval, Gordon Goodwin's Phat Band, Les Hooper, Pete Christlieb, Pat Williams, Wayne Bergeron, Steve Spiegl, Carl Saunders and Bernie Dresel. He has recorded with many of these big bands including Ray Charles, Tom Kubis, Bill Watrous, Les Hooper, Pete Christlieb, Jack Sheldon, Brian Setzer, Wayne Bergeron, Steve Spiegl and Bernie Dresel. Jeff played the lead trumpet chair with the Carl Saunders Big Band, the Pete Christlieb Tall and Smail Band, and the Steve Spiegl Big Band. Currently Jeff plays one of the solo chairs with both The Tom Kubis Big Band and Bernie Dresel's BBB. Jeff has worked with many of the orchestras in Southern California including The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Long Beach Symphony, The New West Symphony, The Pacific Symphony and The Pasadena Pops Orchestra. As a session player Jeff has played on hundreds of feature film and television soundtracks. His film credits of note include “Star Trek Beyond”, “Jurassic World”, “The Incredibles”, UP (Oscar winner for Best Soundtrack), and “O.J. Simpson: Made in America” – where Jeff is a featured soloist throughout the film (Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature). His television credits include “Pennyworth”, “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, “Why Women Kill”, “American Dad”, “Parks and Recreation”, “Alias”, and “The Clone Wars” animated series. He has also played on hundreds of television and radio commercials, as well as the Academy Awards and the SAG Awards. As a musical theater pit musician, Jeff has played on more than 60 Broadway shows including “West Side Story”, “Phantom Of The Opera”, “Dream Girls”, “Into the Woods”, “Sophisticated Ladies”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Titanic”. He has studied trumpet privately with Joe Alessi Sr., Boyde Hood, Bobby Shew, Claude Gordon and Uan Rasey. Jeff is currently a faculty trumpet and jazz instructor at The Master's University. Jeff is also a Bach Artist & Clinician. In addition to playing the trumpet, Jeff also works as an arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. He has orchestrated for film and television, as well as other areas of music such as Broadway Shows, cruise ship music and theme park music. His original big band charts can be found in the books of Arturo Sandoval, Bill Watrous, Jack Sheldon, Ron Jones, Emil Richards, Steve Spiegl and Bernie Dresel. He has published three transcribed jazz trumpet solo books through Aebersold Jazz. Links Listen to this episode online: https://bobreeves.com/blog/la-trumpet-ensemble/ Watch the video of this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H2-vc5QQLpk    

Episode 168 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Say a Little Prayer”, and the interaction of the sacred, political, and secular in Aretha Franklin's life and work. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "Abraham, Martin, and John" by Dion. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. Even splitting it into multiple parts would have required six or seven mixes. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. Information about Martin Luther King came from Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. I also referred to Burt Bacharach's autobiography Anyone Who Had a Heart, Carole King's autobiography A Natural Woman, and Soul Serenade: King Curtis and his Immortal Saxophone by Timothy R. Hoover. For information about Amazing Grace I also used Aaron Cohen's 33 1/3 book on the album. The film of the concerts is also definitely worth watching. And the Aretha Now album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick warning before I begin. This episode contains some moderate references to domestic abuse, death by cancer, racial violence, police violence, and political assassination. Anyone who might be upset by those subjects might want to check the transcript rather than listening to the episode. Also, as with the previous episode on Aretha Franklin, this episode presents something of a problem. Like many people in this narrative, Franklin's career was affected by personal troubles, which shaped many of her decisions. But where most of the subjects of the podcast have chosen to live their lives in public and share intimate details of every aspect of their personal lives, Franklin was an extremely private person, who chose to share only carefully sanitised versions of her life, and tried as far as possible to keep things to herself. This of course presents a dilemma for anyone who wants to tell her story -- because even though the information is out there in biographies, and even though she's dead, it's not right to disrespect someone's wish for a private life. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to stay away from talk of her personal life except where it *absolutely* affects the work, or where other people involved have publicly shared their own stories, and even there I've tried to keep it to a minimum. This will occasionally lead to me saying less about some topics than other people might, even though the information is easily findable, because I don't think we have an absolute right to invade someone else's privacy for entertainment. When we left Aretha Franklin, she had just finally broken through into the mainstream after a decade of performing, with a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect" on which she had been backed by her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. "Respect", in Franklin's interpretation, had been turned from a rather chauvinist song about a man demanding respect from his woman into an anthem of feminism, of Black power, and of a new political awakening. For white people of a certain generation, the summer of 1967 was "the summer of love". For many Black people, it was rather different. There's a quote that goes around (I've seen it credited in reliable sources to both Ebony and Jet magazine, but not ever seen an issue cited, so I can't say for sure where it came from) saying that the summer of 67 was the summer of "'retha, Rap, and revolt", referring to the trifecta of Aretha Franklin, the Black power leader Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, a name he later disclaimed) and the rioting that broke out in several major cities, particularly in Detroit: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] The mid sixties were, in many ways, the high point not of Black rights in the US -- for the most part there has been a lot of progress in civil rights in the intervening decades, though not without inevitable setbacks and attacks from the far right, and as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement have shown there is still a long way to go -- but of *hope* for Black rights. The moral force of the arguments made by the civil rights movement were starting to cause real change to happen for Black people in the US for the first time since the Reconstruction nearly a century before. But those changes weren't happening fast enough, and as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", there was not only a growing unrest among Black people, but a recognition that it was actually possible for things to change. A combination of hope and frustration can be a powerful catalyst, and whether Franklin wanted it or not, she was at the centre of things, both because of her newfound prominence as a star with a hit single that couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a political statement and because of her intimate family connections to the struggle. Even the most racist of white people these days pays lip service to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, and when they do they quote just a handful of sentences from one speech King made in 1963, as if that sums up the full theological and political philosophy of that most complex of men. And as we discussed the last time we looked at Aretha Franklin, King gave versions of that speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, twice. The most famous version was at the March on Washington, but the first time was a few weeks earlier, at what was at the time the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, in Detroit. Aretha's family connection to that event is made clear by the very opening of King's speech: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech"] So as summer 1967 got into swing, and white rock music was going to San Francisco to wear flowers in its hair, Aretha Franklin was at the centre of a very different kind of youth revolution. Franklin's second Atlantic album, Aretha Arrives, brought in some new personnel to the team that had recorded Aretha's first album for Atlantic. Along with the core Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Tommy Cogbill and Roger Hawkins, and a horn section led by King Curtis, Wexler and Dowd also brought in guitarist Joe South. South was a white session player from Georgia, who had had a few minor hits himself in the fifties -- he'd got his start recording a cover version of "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor", the Big Bopper's B-side to "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: Joe South, "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"] He'd also written a few songs that had been recorded by people like Gene Vincent, but he'd mostly become a session player. He'd become a favourite musician of Bob Johnston's, and so he'd played guitar on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme albums: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "I am a Rock"] and bass on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, with Al Kooper particularly praising his playing on "Visions of Johanna": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna"] South would be the principal guitarist on this and Franklin's next album, before his own career took off in 1968 with "Games People Play": [Excerpt: Joe South, "Games People Play"] At this point, he had already written the other song he's best known for, "Hush", which later became a hit for Deep Purple: [Excerpt: Deep Purple, "Hush"] But he wasn't very well known, and was surprised to get the call for the Aretha Franklin session, especially because, as he put it "I was white and I was about to play behind the blackest genius since Ray Charles" But Jerry Wexler had told him that Franklin didn't care about the race of the musicians she played with, and South settled in as soon as Franklin smiled at him when he played a good guitar lick on her version of the blues standard "Going Down Slow": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Going Down Slow"] That was one of the few times Franklin smiled in those sessions though. Becoming an overnight success after years of trying and failing to make a name for herself had been a disorienting experience, and on top of that things weren't going well in her personal life. Her marriage to her manager Ted White was falling apart, and she was performing erratically thanks to the stress. In particular, at a gig in Georgia she had fallen off the stage and broken her arm. She soon returned to performing, but it meant she had problems with her right arm during the recording of the album, and didn't play as much piano as she would have previously -- on some of the faster songs she played only with her left hand. But the recording sessions had to go on, whether or not Aretha was physically capable of playing piano. As we discussed in the episode on Otis Redding, the owners of Atlantic Records were busily negotiating its sale to Warner Brothers in mid-1967. As Wexler said later “Everything in me said, Keep rolling, keep recording, keep the hits coming. She was red hot and I had no reason to believe that the streak wouldn't continue. I knew that it would be foolish—and even irresponsible—not to strike when the iron was hot. I also had personal motivation. A Wall Street financier had agreed to see what we could get for Atlantic Records. While Ahmet and Neshui had not agreed on a selling price, they had gone along with my plan to let the financier test our worth on the open market. I was always eager to pump out hits, but at this moment I was on overdrive. In this instance, I had a good partner in Ted White, who felt the same. He wanted as much product out there as possible." In truth, you can tell from Aretha Arrives that it's a record that was being thought of as "product" rather than one being made out of any kind of artistic impulse. It's a fine album -- in her ten-album run from I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You through Amazing Grace there's not a bad album and barely a bad track -- but there's a lack of focus. There are only two originals on the album, neither of them written by Franklin herself, and the rest is an incoherent set of songs that show the tension between Franklin and her producers at Atlantic. Several songs are the kind of standards that Franklin had recorded for her old label Columbia, things like "You Are My Sunshine", or her version of "That's Life", which had been a hit for Frank Sinatra the previous year: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "That's Life"] But mixed in with that are songs that are clearly the choice of Wexler. As we've discussed previously in episodes on Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, at this point Atlantic had the idea that it was possible for soul artists to cross over into the white market by doing cover versions of white rock hits -- and indeed they'd had some success with that tactic. So while Franklin was suggesting Sinatra covers, Atlantic's hand is visible in the choices of songs like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "96 Tears": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "96 Tears'] Of the two originals on the album, one, the hit single "Baby I Love You" was written by Ronnie Shannon, the Detroit songwriter who had previously written "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Baby I Love You"] As with the previous album, and several other songs on this one, that had backing vocals by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn. But the other original on the album, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)", didn't, even though it was written by Carolyn: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] To explain why, let's take a little detour and look at the co-writer of the song this episode is about, though we're not going to get to that for a little while yet. We've not talked much about Burt Bacharach in this series so far, but he's one of those figures who has come up a few times in the periphery and will come up again, so here is as good a time as any to discuss him, and bring everyone up to speed about his career up to 1967. Bacharach was one of the more privileged figures in the sixties pop music field. His father, Bert Bacharach (pronounced the same as his son, but spelled with an e rather than a u) had been a famous newspaper columnist, and his parents had bought him a Steinway grand piano to practice on -- they pushed him to learn the piano even though as a kid he wasn't interested in finger exercises and Debussy. What he was interested in, though, was jazz, and as a teenager he would often go into Manhattan and use a fake ID to see people like Dizzy Gillespie, who he idolised, and in his autobiography he talks rapturously of seeing Gillespie playing his bent trumpet -- he once saw Gillespie standing on a street corner with a pet monkey on his shoulder, and went home and tried to persuade his parents to buy him a monkey too. In particular, he talks about seeing the Count Basie band with Sonny Payne on drums as a teenager: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Kid From Red Bank"] He saw them at Birdland, the club owned by Morris Levy where they would regularly play, and said of the performance "they were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before. What I heard in those clubs really turned my head around— it was like a big breath of fresh air when somebody throws open a window. That was when I knew for the first time how much I loved music and wanted to be connected to it in some way." Of course, there's a rather major problem with this story, as there is so often with narratives that musicians tell about their early career. In this case, Birdland didn't open until 1949, when Bacharach was twenty-one and stationed in Germany for his military service, while Sonny Payne didn't join Basie's band until 1954, when Bacharach had been a professional musician for many years. Also Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell only got bent on January 6, 1953. But presumably while Bacharach was conflating several memories, he did have some experience in some New York jazz club that led him to want to become a musician. Certainly there were enough great jazz musicians playing the clubs in those days. He went to McGill University to study music for two years, then went to study with Darius Milhaud, a hugely respected modernist composer. Milhaud was also one of the most important music teachers of the time -- among others he'd taught Stockhausen and Xenakkis, and would go on to teach Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This suited Bacharach, who by this point was a big fan of Schoenberg and Webern, and was trying to write atonal, difficult music. But Milhaud had also taught Dave Brubeck, and when Bacharach rather shamefacedly presented him with a composition which had an actual tune, he told Bacharach "Never be ashamed of writing a tune you can whistle". He dropped out of university and, like most men of his generation, had to serve in the armed forces. When he got out of the army, he continued his musical studies, still trying to learn to be an avant-garde composer, this time with Bohuslav Martinů and later with Henry Cowell, the experimental composer we've heard about quite a bit in previous episodes: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] He was still listening to a lot of avant garde music, and would continue doing so throughout the fifties, going to see people like John Cage. But he spent much of that time working in music that was very different from the avant-garde. He got a job as the band leader for the crooner Vic Damone: [Excerpt: Vic Damone. "Ebb Tide"] He also played for the vocal group the Ames Brothers. He decided while he was working with the Ames Brothers that he could write better material than they were getting from their publishers, and that it would be better to have a job where he didn't have to travel, so he got himself a job as a staff songwriter in the Brill Building. He wrote a string of flops and nearly hits, starting with "Keep Me In Mind" for Patti Page: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Keep Me In Mind"] From early in his career he worked with the lyricist Hal David, and the two of them together wrote two big hits, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como: [Excerpt: Perry Como, "Magic Moments"] and "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins: [Excerpt: "The Story of My Life"] But at that point Bacharach was still also writing with other writers, notably Hal David's brother Mack, with whom he wrote the theme tune to the film The Blob, as performed by The Five Blobs: [Excerpt: The Five Blobs, "The Blob"] But Bacharach's songwriting career wasn't taking off, and he got himself a job as musical director for Marlene Dietrich -- a job he kept even after it did start to take off.  Part of the problem was that he intuitively wrote music that didn't quite fit into standard structures -- there would be odd bars of unusual time signatures thrown in, unusual harmonies, and structural irregularities -- but then he'd take feedback from publishers and producers who would tell him the song could only be recorded if he straightened it out. He said later "The truth is that I ruined a lot of songs by not believing in myself enough to tell these guys they were wrong." He started writing songs for Scepter Records, usually with Hal David, but also with Bob Hilliard and Mack David, and started having R&B hits. One song he wrote with Mack David, "I'll Cherish You", had the lyrics rewritten by Luther Dixon to make them more harsh-sounding for a Shirelles single -- but the single was otherwise just Bacharach's demo with the vocals replaced, and you can even hear his voice briefly at the beginning: [Excerpt: The Shirelles, "Baby, It's You"] But he'd also started becoming interested in the production side of records more generally. He'd iced that some producers, when recording his songs, would change the sound for the worse -- he thought Gene McDaniels' version of "Tower of Strength", for example, was too fast. But on the other hand, other producers got a better sound than he'd heard in his head. He and Hilliard had written a song called "Please Stay", which they'd given to Leiber and Stoller to record with the Drifters, and he thought that their arrangement of the song was much better than the one he'd originally thought up: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Please Stay"] He asked Leiber and Stoller if he could attend all their New York sessions and learn about record production from them. He started doing so, and eventually they started asking him to assist them on records. He and Hilliard wrote a song called "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters, which Leiber and Stoller were going to produce, and as he put it "they were so busy running Redbird Records that they asked me to rehearse the background singers for them in my office." [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Mexican Divorce"] The backing singers who had been brought in to augment the Drifters on that record were a group of vocalists who had started out as members of a gospel group called the Drinkard singers: [Excerpt: The Drinkard Singers, "Singing in My Soul"] The Drinkard Singers had originally been a family group, whose members included Cissy Drinkard, who joined the group aged five (and who on her marriage would become known as Cissy Houston -- her daughter Whitney would later join the family business), her aunt Lee Warrick, and Warrick's adopted daughter Judy Clay. That group were discovered by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and spent much of the fifties performing with gospel greats including Jackson herself, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But Houston was also the musical director of a group at her church, the Gospelaires, which featured Lee Warrick's two daughters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick (for those who don't know, the Warwick sisters' birth name was Warrick, spelled with two rs. A printing error led to it being misspelled the same way as the British city on a record label, and from that point on Dionne at least pronounced the w in her misspelled name). And slowly, the Gospelaires rather than the Drinkard Singers became the focus, with a lineup of Houston, the Warwick sisters, the Warwick sisters' cousin Doris Troy, and Clay's sister Sylvia Shemwell. The real change in the group's fortunes came when, as we talked about a while back in the episode on "The Loco-Motion", the original lineup of the Cookies largely stopped working as session singers to become Ray Charles' Raelettes. As we discussed in that episode, a new lineup of Cookies formed in 1961, but it took a while for them to get started, and in the meantime the producers who had been relying on them for backing vocals were looking elsewhere, and they looked to the Gospelaires. "Mexican Divorce" was the first record to feature the group as backing vocalists -- though reports vary as to how many of them are on the record, with some saying it's only Troy and the Warwicks, others saying Houston was there, and yet others saying it was all five of them. Some of these discrepancies were because these singers were so good that many of them left to become solo singers in fairly short order. Troy was the first to do so, with her hit "Just One Look", on which the other Gospelaires sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Doris Troy, "Just One Look"] But the next one to go solo was Dionne Warwick, and that was because she'd started working with Bacharach and Hal David as their principal demo singer. She started singing lead on their demos, and hoping that she'd get to release them on her own. One early one was "Make it Easy On Yourself", which was recorded by Jerry Butler, formerly of the Impressions. That record was produced by Bacharach, one of the first records he produced without outside supervision: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "Make it Easy On Yourself"] Warwick was very jealous that a song she'd sung the demo of had become a massive hit for someone else, and blamed Bacharach and David. The way she tells the story -- Bacharach always claimed this never happened, but as we've already seen he was himself not always the most reliable of narrators of his own life -- she got so angry she complained to them, and said "Don't make me over, man!" And so Bacharach and David wrote her this: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"] Incidentally, in the UK, the hit version of that was a cover by the Swinging Blue Jeans: [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "Don't Make Me Over"] who also had a huge hit with "You're No Good": [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "You're No Good"] And *that* was originally recorded by *Dee Dee* Warwick: [Excerpt: Dee Dee Warwick, "You're No Good"] Dee Dee also had a successful solo career, but Dionne's was the real success, making the names of herself, and of Bacharach and David. The team had more than twenty top forty hits together, before Bacharach and David had a falling out in 1971 and stopped working together, and Warwick sued both of them for breach of contract as a result. But prior to that they had hit after hit, with classic records like "Anyone Who Had a Heart": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart"] And "Walk On By": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Walk On By"] With Doris, Dionne, and Dee Dee all going solo, the group's membership was naturally in flux -- though the departed members would occasionally join their former bandmates for sessions, and the remaining members would sing backing vocals on their ex-members' records. By 1965 the group consisted of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, the Warwick sisters' cousin Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. The group became *the* go-to singers for soul and R&B records made in New York. They were regularly hired by Leiber and Stoller to sing on their records, and they were also the particular favourites of Bert Berns. They sang backing vocals on almost every record he produced. It's them doing the gospel wails on "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And they sang backing vocals on both versions of "If You Need Me" -- Wilson Pickett's original and Solomon Burke's more successful cover version, produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me"] They're on such Berns records as "Show Me Your Monkey", by Kenny Hamber: [Excerpt: Kenny Hamber, "Show Me Your Monkey"] And it was a Berns production that ended up getting them to be Aretha Franklin's backing group. The group were becoming such an important part of the records that Atlantic and BANG Records, in particular, were putting out, that Jerry Wexler said "it was only a matter of common decency to put them under contract as a featured group". He signed them to Atlantic and renamed them from the Gospelaires to The Sweet Inspirations.  Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham wrote a song for the group which became their only hit under their own name: [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Sweet Inspiration"] But to start with, they released a cover of Pops Staples' civil rights song "Why (Am I treated So Bad)": [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Why (Am I Treated So Bad?)"] That hadn't charted, and meanwhile, they'd all kept doing session work. Cissy had joined Erma and Carolyn Franklin on the backing vocals for Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"] Shortly after that, the whole group recorded backing vocals for Erma's single "Piece of My Heart", co-written and produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] That became a top ten record on the R&B charts, but that caused problems. Aretha Franklin had a few character flaws, and one of these was an extreme level of jealousy for any other female singer who had any level of success and came up in the business after her. She could be incredibly graceful towards anyone who had been successful before her -- she once gave one of her Grammies away to Esther Phillips, who had been up for the same award and had lost to her -- but she was terribly insecure, and saw any contemporary as a threat. She'd spent her time at Columbia Records fuming (with some justification) that Barbra Streisand was being given a much bigger marketing budget than her, and she saw Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick as rivals rather than friends. And that went doubly for her sisters, who she was convinced should be supporting her because of family loyalty. She had been infuriated at John Hammond when Columbia had signed Erma, thinking he'd gone behind her back to create competition for her. And now Erma was recording with Bert Berns. Bert Berns who had for years been a colleague of Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic. Aretha was convinced that Wexler had put Berns up to signing Erma as some kind of power play. There was only one problem with this -- it simply wasn't true. As Wexler later explained “Bert and I had suffered a bad falling-out, even though I had enormous respect for him. After all, he was the guy who brought over guitarist Jimmy Page from England to play on our sessions. Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, and I had started a label together—Bang!—where Bert produced Van Morrison's first album. But Bert also had a penchant for trouble. He courted the wise guys. He wanted total control over every last aspect of our business dealings. Finally it was too much, and the Erteguns and I let him go. He sued us for breach of contract and suddenly we were enemies. I felt that he signed Erma, an excellent singer, not merely for her talent but as a way to get back at me. If I could make a hit with Aretha, he'd show me up by making an even bigger hit on Erma. Because there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the sisters, this only added to the tension.” There were two things that resulted from this paranoia on Aretha's part. The first was that she and Wexler, who had been on first-name terms up to that point, temporarily went back to being "Mr. Wexler" and "Miss Franklin" to each other. And the second was that Aretha no longer wanted Carolyn and Erma to be her main backing vocalists, though they would continue to appear on her future records on occasion. From this point on, the Sweet Inspirations would be the main backing vocalists for Aretha in the studio throughout her golden era [xxcut line (and when the Sweet Inspirations themselves weren't on the record, often it would be former members of the group taking their place)]: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] The last day of sessions for Aretha Arrives was July the twenty-third, 1967. And as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", that was the day that the Detroit riots started. To recap briefly, that was four days of rioting started because of a history of racist policing, made worse by those same racist police overreacting to the initial protests. By the end of those four days, the National Guard, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville were all called in to deal with the violence, which left forty-three dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a police officer), 1,189 people were injured, and over 7,200 arrested, almost all of them Black. Those days in July would be a turning point for almost every musician based in Detroit. In particular, the police had murdered three members of the soul group the Dramatics, in a massacre of which the author John Hersey, who had been asked by President Johnson to be part of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders but had decided that would compromise his impartiality and did an independent journalistic investigation, said "The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven by our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents" But these were also the events that radicalised the MC5 -- the group had been playing a gig as Tim Buckley's support act when the rioting started, and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided afterwards to get stoned and watch the fires burning down the city through a telescope -- which police mistook for a rifle, leading to the National Guard knocking down Kramer's door. The MC5 would later cover "The Motor City is Burning", John Lee Hooker's song about the events: [Excerpt: The MC5, "The Motor City is Burning"] It would also be a turning point for Motown, too, in ways we'll talk about in a few future episodes.  And it was a political turning point too -- Michigan Governor George Romney, a liberal Republican (at a time when such people existed) had been the favourite for the Republican Presidential candidacy when he'd entered the race in December 1966, but as racial tensions ramped up in Detroit during the early months of 1967 he'd started trailing Richard Nixon, a man who was consciously stoking racists' fears. President Johnson, the incumbent Democrat, who was at that point still considering standing for re-election, made sure to make it clear to everyone during the riots that the decision to call in the National Guard had been made at the State level, by Romney, rather than at the Federal level.  That wasn't the only thing that removed the possibility of a Romney presidency, but it was a big part of the collapse of his campaign, and the, as it turned out, irrevocable turn towards right-authoritarianism that the party took with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Of course, Aretha Franklin had little way of knowing what was to come and how the riots would change the city and the country over the following decades. What she was primarily concerned about was the safety of her father, and to a lesser extent that of her sister-in-law Earline who was staying with him. Aretha, Carolyn, and Erma all tried to keep in constant touch with their father while they were out of town, and Aretha even talked about hiring private detectives to travel to Detroit, find her father, and get him out of the city to safety. But as her brother Cecil pointed out, he was probably the single most loved man among Black people in Detroit, and was unlikely to be harmed by the rioters, while he was too famous for the police to kill with impunity. Reverend Franklin had been having a stressful time anyway -- he had recently been fined for tax evasion, an action he was convinced the IRS had taken because of his friendship with Dr King and his role in the civil rights movement -- and according to Cecil "Aretha begged Daddy to move out of the city entirely. She wanted him to find another congregation in California, where he was especially popular—or at least move out to the suburbs. But he wouldn't budge. He said that, more than ever, he was needed to point out the root causes of the riots—the economic inequality, the pervasive racism in civic institutions, the woefully inadequate schools in inner-city Detroit, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods by urban renewal. Some ministers fled the city, but not our father. The horror of what happened only recommitted him. He would not abandon his political agenda." To make things worse, Aretha was worried about her father in other ways -- as her marriage to Ted White was starting to disintegrate, she was looking to her father for guidance, and actually wanted him to take over her management. Eventually, Ruth Bowen, her booking agent, persuaded her brother Cecil that this was a job he could do, and that she would teach him everything he needed to know about the music business. She started training him up while Aretha was still married to White, in the expectation that that marriage couldn't last. Jerry Wexler, who only a few months earlier had been seeing Ted White as an ally in getting "product" from Franklin, had now changed his tune -- partly because the sale of Atlantic had gone through in the meantime. He later said “Sometimes she'd call me at night, and, in that barely audible little-girl voice of hers, she'd tell me that she wasn't sure she could go on. She always spoke in generalities. She never mentioned her husband, never gave me specifics of who was doing what to whom. And of course I knew better than to ask. She just said that she was tired of dealing with so much. My heart went out to her. She was a woman who suffered silently. She held so much in. I'd tell her to take as much time off as she needed. We had a lot of songs in the can that we could release without new material. ‘Oh, no, Jerry,' she'd say. ‘I can't stop recording. I've written some new songs, Carolyn's written some new songs. We gotta get in there and cut 'em.' ‘Are you sure?' I'd ask. ‘Positive,' she'd say. I'd set up the dates and typically she wouldn't show up for the first or second sessions. Carolyn or Erma would call me to say, ‘Ree's under the weather.' That was tough because we'd have asked people like Joe South and Bobby Womack to play on the sessions. Then I'd reschedule in the hopes she'd show." That third album she recorded in 1967, Lady Soul, was possibly her greatest achievement. The opening track, and second single, "Chain of Fools", released in November, was written by Don Covay -- or at least it's credited as having been written by Covay. There's a gospel record that came out around the same time on a very small label based in Houston -- "Pains of Life" by Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio: [Excerpt: Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio, "Pains of Life"] I've seen various claims online that that record came out shortly *before* "Chain of Fools", but I can't find any definitive evidence one way or the other -- it was on such a small label that release dates aren't available anywhere. Given that the B-side, which I haven't been able to track down online, is called "Wait Until the Midnight Hour", my guess is that rather than this being a case of Don Covay stealing the melody from an obscure gospel record he'd have had little chance to hear, it's the gospel record rewriting a then-current hit to be about religion, but I thought it worth mentioning. The song was actually written by Covay after Jerry Wexler asked him to come up with some songs for Otis Redding, but Wexler, after hearing it, decided it was better suited to Franklin, who gave an astonishing performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] Arif Mardin, the arranger of the album, said of that track “I was listed as the arranger of ‘Chain of Fools,' but I can't take credit. Aretha walked into the studio with the chart fully formed inside her head. The arrangement is based around the harmony vocals provided by Carolyn and Erma. To add heft, the Sweet Inspirations joined in. The vision of the song is entirely Aretha's.” According to Wexler, that's not *quite* true -- according to him, Joe South came up with the guitar part that makes up the intro, and he also said that when he played what he thought was the finished track to Ellie Greenwich, she came up with another vocal line for the backing vocals, which she overdubbed. But the core of the record's sound is definitely pure Aretha -- and Carolyn Franklin said that there was a reason for that. As she said later “Aretha didn't write ‘Chain,' but she might as well have. It was her story. When we were in the studio putting on the backgrounds with Ree doing lead, I knew she was singing about Ted. Listen to the lyrics talking about how for five long years she thought he was her man. Then she found out she was nothing but a link in the chain. Then she sings that her father told her to come on home. Well, he did. She sings about how her doctor said to take it easy. Well, he did too. She was drinking so much we thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. The line that slew me, though, was the one that said how one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but until then she'll take all she can take. That summed it up. Ree knew damn well that this man had been doggin' her since Jump Street. But somehow she held on and pushed it to the breaking point." [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] That made number one on the R&B charts, and number two on the hot one hundred, kept from the top by "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band -- a record that very few people would say has stood the test of time as well. The other most memorable track on the album was the one chosen as the first single, released in September. As Carole King told the story, she and Gerry Goffin were feeling like their career was in a slump. While they had had a huge run of hits in the early sixties through 1965, they had only had two new hits in 1966 -- "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and neither of those were anything like as massive as their previous hits. And up to that point in 1967, they'd only had one -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees. They had managed to place several songs on Monkees albums and the TV show as well, so they weren't going to starve, but the rise of self-contained bands that were starting to dominate the charts, and Phil Spector's temporary retirement, meant there simply wasn't the opportunity for them to place material that there had been. They were also getting sick of travelling to the West Coast all the time, because as their children were growing slightly older they didn't want to disrupt their lives in New York, and were thinking of approaching some of the New York based labels and seeing if they needed songs. They were particularly considering Atlantic, because soul was more open to outside songwriters than other genres. As it happened, though, they didn't have to approach Atlantic, because Atlantic approached them. They were walking down Broadway when a limousine pulled up, and Jerry Wexler stuck his head out of the window. He'd come up with a good title that he wanted to use for a song for Aretha, would they be interested in writing a song called "Natural Woman"? They said of course they would, and Wexler drove off. They wrote the song that night, and King recorded a demo the next morning: [Excerpt: Carole King, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (demo)"] They gave Wexler a co-writing credit because he had suggested the title.  King later wrote in her autobiography "Hearing Aretha's performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can't convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection, and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin." She went on to say "But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It's about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them." And that's correct -- unlike "Chain of Fools", this time Franklin did let Arif Mardin do most of the arrangement work -- though she came up with the piano part that Spooner Oldham plays on the record. Mardin said that because of the song's hymn-like feel they wanted to go for a more traditional written arrangement. He said "She loved the song to the point where she said she wanted to concentrate on the vocal and vocal alone. I had written a string chart and horn chart to augment the chorus and hired Ralph Burns to conduct. After just a couple of takes, we had it. That's when Ralph turned to me with wonder in his eyes. Ralph was one of the most celebrated arrangers of the modern era. He had done ‘Early Autumn' for Woody Herman and Stan Getz, and ‘Georgia on My Mind' for Ray Charles. He'd worked with everyone. ‘This woman comes from another planet' was all Ralph said. ‘She's just here visiting.'” [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"] By this point there was a well-functioning team making Franklin's records -- while the production credits would vary over the years, they were all essentially co-productions by the team of Franklin, Wexler, Mardin and Dowd, all collaborating and working together with a more-or-less unified purpose, and the backing was always by the same handful of session musicians and some combination of the Sweet Inspirations and Aretha's sisters. That didn't mean that occasional guests couldn't get involved -- as we discussed in the Cream episode, Eric Clapton played guitar on "Good to Me as I am to You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Good to Me as I am to You"] Though that was one of the rare occasions on one of these records where something was overdubbed. Clapton apparently messed up the guitar part when playing behind Franklin, because he was too intimidated by playing with her, and came back the next day to redo his part without her in the studio. At this point, Aretha was at the height of her fame. Just before the final batch of album sessions began she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and she was making regular TV appearances, like one on the Mike Douglas Show where she duetted with Frankie Valli on "That's Life": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, "That's Life"] But also, as Wexler said “Her career was kicking into high gear. Contending and resolving both the professional and personal challenges were too much. She didn't think she could do both, and I didn't blame her. Few people could. So she let the personal slide and concentrated on the professional. " Her concert promoter Ruth Bowen said of this time "Her father and Dr. King were putting pressure on her to sing everywhere, and she felt obligated. The record company was also screaming for more product. And I had a mountain of offers on my desk that kept getting higher with every passing hour. They wanted her in Europe. They wanted her in Latin America. They wanted her in every major venue in the U.S. TV was calling. She was being asked to do guest appearances on every show from Carol Burnett to Andy Williams to the Hollywood Palace. She wanted to do them all and she wanted to do none of them. She wanted to do them all because she's an entertainer who burns with ambition. She wanted to do none of them because she was emotionally drained. She needed to go away and renew her strength. I told her that at least a dozen times. She said she would, but she didn't listen to me." The pressures from her father and Dr King are a recurring motif in interviews with people about this period. Franklin was always a very political person, and would throughout her life volunteer time and money to liberal political causes and to the Democratic Party, but this was the height of her activism -- the Civil Rights movement was trying to capitalise on the gains it had made in the previous couple of years, and celebrity fundraisers and performances at rallies were an important way to do that. And at this point there were few bigger celebrities in America than Aretha Franklin. At a concert in her home town of Detroit on February the sixteenth, 1968, the Mayor declared the day Aretha Franklin Day. At the same show, Billboard, Record World *and* Cash Box magazines all presented her with plaques for being Female Vocalist of the Year. And Dr. King travelled up to be at the show and congratulate her publicly for all her work with his organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Backstage at that show, Dr. King talked to Aretha's father, Reverend Franklin, about what he believed would be the next big battle -- a strike in Memphis: [Excerpt, Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech" -- "And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."] The strike in question was the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike which had started a few days before.  The struggle for Black labour rights was an integral part of the civil rights movement, and while it's not told that way in the sanitised version of the story that's made it into popular culture, the movement led by King was as much about economic justice as social justice -- King was a democratic socialist, and believed that economic oppression was both an effect of and cause of other forms of racial oppression, and that the rights of Black workers needed to be fought for. In 1967 he had set up a new organisation, the Poor People's Campaign, which was set to march on Washington to demand a program that included full employment, a guaranteed income -- King was strongly influenced in his later years by the ideas of Henry George, the proponent of a universal basic income based on land value tax -- the annual building of half a million affordable homes, and an end to the war in Vietnam. This was King's main focus in early 1968, and he saw the sanitation workers' strike as a major part of this campaign. Memphis was one of the most oppressive cities in the country, and its largely Black workforce of sanitation workers had been trying for most of the 1960s to unionise, and strike-breakers had been called in to stop them, and many of them had been fired by their white supervisors with no notice. They were working in unsafe conditions, for utterly inadequate wages, and the city government were ardent segregationists. After two workers had died on the first of February from using unsafe equipment, the union demanded changes -- safer working conditions, better wages, and recognition of the union. The city council refused, and almost all the sanitation workers stayed home and stopped work. After a few days, the council relented and agreed to their terms, but the Mayor, Henry Loeb, an ardent white supremacist who had stood on a platform of opposing desegregation, and who had previously been the Public Works Commissioner who had put these unsafe conditions in place, refused to listen. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who could recognise the union, and he wouldn't. The workers continued their strike, marching holding signs that simply read "I am a Man": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowing in the Wind"] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP had been involved in organising support for the strikes from an early stage, and King visited Memphis many times. Much of the time he spent visiting there was spent negotiating with a group of more militant activists, who called themselves The Invaders and weren't completely convinced by King's nonviolent approach -- they believed that violence and rioting got more attention than non-violent protests. King explained to them that while he had been persuaded by Gandhi's writings of the moral case for nonviolent protest, he was also persuaded that it was pragmatically necessary -- asking the young men "how many guns do we have and how many guns do they have?", and pointing out as he often did that when it comes to violence a minority can't win against an armed majority. Rev Franklin went down to Memphis on the twenty-eighth of March to speak at a rally Dr. King was holding, but as it turned out the rally was cancelled -- the pre-rally march had got out of hand, with some people smashing windows, and Memphis police had, like the police in Detroit the previous year, violently overreacted, clubbing and gassing protestors and shooting and killing one unarmed teenage boy, Larry Payne. The day after Payne's funeral, Dr King was back in Memphis, though this time Rev Franklin was not with him. On April the third, he gave a speech which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech", in which he talked about the threats that had been made to his life: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech": “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."] The next day, Martin Luther King was shot dead. James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, pled guilty to the murder, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming from what I've read, but the King family have always claimed that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy and that Ray was not the gunman. Aretha was obviously distraught, and she attended the funeral, as did almost every other prominent Black public figure. James Baldwin wrote of the funeral: "In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“Once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down." Many articles and books on Aretha Franklin say that she sang at King's funeral. In fact she didn't, but there's a simple reason for the confusion. King's favourite song was the Thomas Dorsey gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", and indeed almost his last words were to ask a trumpet player, Ben Branch, if he would play the song at the rally he was going to be speaking at on the day of his death. At his request, Mahalia Jackson, his old friend, sang the song at his private funeral, which was not filmed, unlike the public part of the funeral that Baldwin described. Four months later, though, there was another public memorial for King, and Franklin did sing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at that service, in front of King's weeping widow and children, and that performance *was* filmed, and gets conflated in people's memories with Jackson's unfilmed earlier performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord (at Martin Luther King Memorial)"] Four years later, she would sing that at Mahalia Jackson's funeral. Through all this, Franklin had been working on her next album, Aretha Now, the sessions for which started more or less as soon as the sessions for Lady Soul had finished. The album was, in fact, bookended by deaths that affected Aretha. Just as King died at the end of the sessions, the beginning came around the time of the death of Otis Redding -- the sessions were cancelled for a day while Wexler travelled to Georgia for Redding's funeral, which Franklin was too devastated to attend, and Wexler would later say that the extra emotion in her performances on the album came from her emotional pain at Redding's death. The lead single on the album, "Think", was written by Franklin and -- according to the credits anyway -- her husband Ted White, and is very much in the same style as "Respect", and became another of her most-loved hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Think"] But probably the song on Aretha Now that now resonates the most is one that Jerry Wexler tried to persuade her not to record, and was only released as a B-side. Indeed, "I Say a Little Prayer" was a song that had already once been a hit after being a reject.  Hal David, unlike Burt Bacharach, was a fairly political person and inspired by the protest song movement, and had been starting to incorporate his concerns about the political situation and the Vietnam War into his lyrics -- though as with many such writers, he did it in much less specific ways than a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan. This had started with "What the World Needs Now is Love", a song Bacharach and David had written for Jackie DeShannon in 1965: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "What the "World Needs Now is Love"] But he'd become much more overtly political for "The Windows of the World", a song they wrote for Dionne Warwick. Warwick has often said it's her favourite of her singles, but it wasn't a big hit -- Bacharach blamed himself for that, saying "Dionne recorded it as a single and I really blew it. I wrote a bad arrangement and the tempo was too fast, and I really regret making it the way I did because it's a good song." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "The Windows of the World"] For that album, Bacharach and David had written another track, "I Say a Little Prayer", which was not as explicitly political, but was intended by David to have an implicit anti-war message, much like other songs of the period like "Last Train to Clarksville". David had sons who were the right age to be drafted, and while it's never stated, "I Say a Little Prayer" was written from the perspective of a woman whose partner is away fighting in the war, but is still in her thoughts: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] The recording of Dionne Warwick's version was marked by stress. Bacharach had a particular way of writing music to tell the musicians the kind of feel he wanted for the part -- he'd write nonsense words above the stave, and tell the musicians to play the parts as if they were singing those words. The trumpet player hired for the session, Ernie Royal, got into a row with Bacharach about this unorthodox way of communicating musical feeling, and the track ended up taking ten takes (as opposed to the normal three for a Bacharach session), with Royal being replaced half-way through the session. Bacharach was never happy with the track even after all the work it had taken, and he fought to keep it from being released at all, saying the track was taken at too fast a tempo. It eventually came out as an album track nearly eighteen months after it was recorded -- an eternity in 1960s musical timescales -- and DJs started playing it almost as soon as it came out. Scepter records rushed out a single, over Bacharach's objections, but as he later said "One thing I love about the record business is how wrong I was. Disc jockeys all across the country started playing the track, and the song went to number four on the charts and then became the biggest hit Hal and I had ever written for Dionne." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Oddly, the B-side for Warwick's single, "Theme From the Valley of the Dolls" did even better, reaching number two. Almost as soon as the song was released as a single, Franklin started playing around with the song backstage, and in April 1968, right around the time of Dr. King's death, she recorded a version. Much as Burt Bacharach had been against releasing Dionne Warwick's version, Jerry Wexler was against Aretha even recording the song, saying later “I advised Aretha not to record it. I opposed it for two reasons. First, to cover a song only twelve weeks after the original reached the top of the charts was not smart business. You revisit such a hit eight months to a year later. That's standard practice. But more than that, Bacharach's melody, though lovely, was peculiarly suited to a lithe instrument like Dionne Warwick's—a light voice without the dark corners or emotional depths that define Aretha. Also, Hal David's lyric was also somewhat girlish and lacked the gravitas that Aretha required. “Aretha usually listened to me in the studio, but not this time. She had written a vocal arrangement for the Sweet Inspirations that was undoubtedly strong. Cissy Houston, Dionne's cousin, told me that Aretha was on the right track—she was seeing this song in a new way and had come up with a new groove. Cissy was on Aretha's side. Tommy Dowd and Arif were on Aretha's side. So I had no choice but to cave." It's quite possible that Wexler's objections made Franklin more, rather than less, determined to record the song. She regarded Warwick as a hated rival, as she did almost every prominent female singer of her generation and younger ones, and would undoubtedly have taken the implication that there was something that Warwick was simply better at than her to heart. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Wexler realised as soon as he heard it in the studio that Franklin's version was great, and Bacharach agreed, telling Franklin's biographer David Ritz “As much as I like the original recording by Dionne, there's no doubt that Aretha's is a better record. She imbued the song with heavy soul and took it to a far deeper place. Hers is the definitive version.” -- which is surprising because Franklin's version simplifies some of Bacharach's more unusual chord voicings, something he often found extremely upsetting. Wexler still though thought there was no way the song would be a hit, and it's understandable that he thought that way. Not only had it only just been on the charts a few months earlier, but it was the kind of song that wouldn't normally be a hit at all, and certainly not in the kind of rhythmic soul music for which Franklin was known. Almost everything she ever recorded is in simple time signatures -- 4/4, waltz time, or 6/8 -- but this is a Bacharach song so it's staggeringly metrically irregular. Normally even with semi-complex things I'm usually good at figuring out how to break it down into bars, but here I actually had to purchase a copy of the sheet music in order to be sure I was right about what's going on. I'm going to count beats along with the record here so you can see what I mean. The verse has three bars of 4/4, one bar of 2/4, and three more bars of 4/4, all repeated: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] While the chorus has a bar of 4/4, a bar of 3/4 but with a chord change half way through so it sounds like it's in two if you're paying attention to the harmonic changes, two bars of 4/4, another waltz-time bar sounding like it's in two, two bars of four, another bar of three sounding in two, a bar of four, then three more bars of four but the first of those is *written* as four but played as if it's in six-eight time (but you can keep the four/four pulse going if you're counting): [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] I don't expect you to have necessarily followed that in great detail, but the point should be clear -- this was not some straightforward dance song. Incidentally, that bar played as if it's six/eight was something Aretha introduced to make the song even more irregular than how Bacharach wrote it. And on top of *that* of course the lyrics mixed the secular and the sacred, something that was still taboo in popular music at that time -- this is only a couple of years after Capitol records had been genuinely unsure about putting out the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Franklin's gospel-inflected vocals made the religious connection even more obvious. But Franklin was insistent that the record go out as a single, and eventually it was released as the B-side to the far less impressive "The House That Jack Built". It became a double-sided hit, with the A-side making number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Hot One Hundred, while "I Say a Little Prayer" made number three on the R&B chart and number ten overall. In the UK, "I Say a Little Prayer" made number four and became her biggest ever solo UK hit. It's now one of her most-remembered songs, while the A-side is largely forgotten: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] For much of the