Sunday April 3rd, 2005
New CD's this past week:
- 112 – Pleasure & pain
- Terri Walker – L.O.V.E. (UK release)
Music news headlines this week:
John Legend Proud Of Association With Kanye West
Singer and songwriter John Legend is
faring well with his first studio
album, Get Lifted, which was released on Kanye West's Sony-distributed
G.O.O.D. Music label. The album has been certified platinum on the
strength of two singles thus far: "Used To Love U," which features
co-writer West, and the current ballad, "Ordinary People," which reached
the Number Five position on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart
this week.
Born John Stephens in Springfield, Ohio, Legend had been a piano-playing
choir director who got his feet wet on recordings by Lauryn Hill, Alicia
Keys, Janet Jackson, and others. Recently he explained how he met
collaborator and mentor, West: "Well, we met through his cousin DeVon
Harris, who's also a producer on my album and a good friend of mine from
college. And I was in New York and Kanye moved to New York and we started
working together when DeVon introduced us. And he was working on his demo
at the time. This was long before people knew he could rap, this was
before most people knew he could produce, even."
West's 2004 solo debut, The College Dropout, earned the rapper-producer
two Grammys this year, and West took home another for co-writing Alicia
Keys' "You Don't Know My Name." Legend says he enjoys working with West
and was glad to see his solo work get fully recognized: ["We started
working together and we just kept making good songs together, so we kept
working together. And as he was working on his album I was like, 'Man, you
about to win some Grammys with this album!' This was back in 2002, so it's
good to see it all come to fruition now."
Alicia Keys Love Recreating The 30’s In Her ‘Diary’
Tour
Alicia Keys says she loves recreating a
1930s style nightclub every night
on the stage of her Diary Tour. In a post on her Website, Keys says, "It's
so much fun every night to transform into this time and place. It feels
real. Like I belong in that time, a time of big music and big fun, sensual
songs and real gentlemen and ladies. I like living in that world for an
hour and a half."
Keys is currently in the middle of her tour of smaller theaters in support
of her multi-platinum Diary of Alicia Keys album. She's scheduled to play
three nights in Chicago this weekend, and will move from there to Atlanta
for two shows. Her tour winds up in Atlantic City, New Jersey with three
nights of shows the weekend of May 6th.
Her current single, "Karma," is at Number 26 on the Billboard Top 100
singles chart.
Smokey Robinson Including Bonus DVD With New Hits
Collection
Smokey Robinson, who'll be kicking off a
series of shows on April 15th in
Torrington, Connecticut, at the Warner Theatre will be adding a bonus DVD
to his upcoming double-disc retrospective My World: The Definitive
Collection which comes out on May 3rd.
The DVD includes vintage performance clips of the Miracles performing on
The Ed Sullivan Show, Hollywood a Go-Go and Teen Town, as well as Smokey's
solo performances of "Baby That Backatcha," "The Tracks of My Tears" and
his 1981 Top Ten hit "Being With You." The DVD also includes the videos
for "Just To See Her," "One Heartbeat," "Everything You Touch" and "Ebony
Eyes," which features Smokey's Motown labelmate the late Rick James.
The CD features hits from Smokey's early days with the Miracles including
"The Tears Of A Clown," "Ooo Baby Baby," "I Second That Emotion" and "Shop
Around," as well as Smokey's solo hits "Cruisin'," "Just To See Her" and
"One Heartbeat."
Smokey recorded two new songs for the collection -- "My World" and "Fallin'."