show name | Ally McBeal |
---|---|
genre | Legal Dramedy |
creator | David E. Kelley |
starring | Calista FlockhartCourtney Thorne SmithGreg GermannLisa Nicole CarsonJane KrakowskiVonda ShepardPortia de RossiLucy LiuJames LeGrosRegina HallJulianne NicholsonJames MarsdenJosh HopkinsHayden Panettierewith Peter MacNicolthen Robert Downey Jr.and Gil Bellows |
theme music composer | Vonda Shepard |
opentheme | "Searchin' My Soul" performed by Vonda Shepard |
composer | Danny LuxVonda Shepard |
country | United States |
language | English |
num seasons | 5 |
num episodes | 112 |
list episodes | List of Ally McBeal episodes |
executive producer | David E. KelleyBill D'Elia |
producer | Kayla Alpert(2000–2001)Kim Hamberg(1998–2002)Mike Listo(1997–2000)Jack Philbrick(2000–2002)Steve Robin(1997–2002)Pamela J. Wisne(1997–2002) |
cinematography | Thomas F. DenoveBilly DicksonDavid A. HarpTim Suhrstedt |
camera | Single-camera |
runtime | 45–48 minutes |
company | 20th Century Fox TelevisionDavid E. Kelley Productions |
channel | Fox |
picture format | 4:3 (broadcast)16:9 (seasons 2–5) |
first aired | |
last aired | |
status | Ended }} |
''Ally McBeal'' is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia. The series stars Calista Flockhart in the title role as a young lawyer working in the fictional Boston law firm Cage and Fish, with other young lawyers whose lives and loves were eccentric, humorous and dramatic.
Cage & Fish (which becomes Cage/Fish & McBeal or Cage, Fish, & Associates towards the end of the series), the fictional law firm where most of the characters work, is depicted as a highly sexualized environment, symbolized by its unisex public restroom. Lawyers and secretaries in the firm routinely date, flirt with, or have a romantic history with each other, and frequently run into former or potential romantic interests in the courtroom or on the street outside.
The show had many offbeat and frequently surreal running gags and themes, such as Ally's tendency to immediately fall over whenever she met somebody she found attractive, or Richard Fish's wattle fetish and humorous mottos ("Fishisms" & "Bygones"), or John's gymnastic dismounts out of the office's unisex bathroom stalls, that ran through the series. The show used vivid, dramatic fantasy sequences for Ally's and other characters' wishful thinking; particularly notable is the dancing baby.
The show also featured regular visits to a local bar where singer Vonda Shepard regularly performed (though occasionally handing over the microphone to the characters). The series also took place in the same continuity as David E. Kelley's legal drama ''The Practice'' (which aired on ABC), as the two shows crossed over with one another on occasion, a very rare occurrence for two shows that aired on different networks.
The show was canceled after a significant ratings drop during its fifth season, which saw many regular characters disappear from the series without explanation (also a problem with David E. Kelley's shows ''Boston Public'', ''Chicago Hope'', ''The Practice'' and ''Boston Legal'' [to an extent]).
Due to the popularity of the show and Shepard's music, a soundtrack titled ''Songs from Ally McBeal'' was released in 1998, as well as a successor soundtrack titled ''Heart and Soul: New Songs From Ally McBeal'' in 1999. Two compilation albums from the show featuring Shepard were also released in 2000 and 2001. Other artists featured on the show include Barry White, Al Green, Tina Turner and Elton John. Josh Groban played the role of Malcolm Wyatt in the May 2001 season finale, performing "You're Still You." The series creator, David E. Kelley, was impressed with Groban's performance at The Family Celebration event, and based on the audience reaction to Groban's singing, Kelley created a character for Groban in this finale. The background score for the show was composed by Danny Lux.
!Soundtrack name | !Tk# | ! Release date |
Songs from Ally McBeal | May 5, 1998 | |
Heart and Soul: New Songs from Ally McBeal | November 9, 1999 | |
Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas | November 7, 2000 | |
Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life | April 24, 2001 | |
The Best of Ally McBeal | October 6, 2009 |
20th Century Fox released the complete first season on DVD in Region 1 on October 6, 2009. They also released a special complete series edition on the same day. Season 1 does not contain any special features, the complete series set however does contain several bonus features including featurettes, an all-new retrospective, the episode of ''The Practice'' that Calista Flockhart guest starred in and a bonus disc entitled "''The Best of Ally McBeal Soundtrack''". In addition, both releases contain all of the original music. Season 2 was released on April 6, 2010. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 will all be released on October 5, 2010. Season 1 and 2 are also available on the U.S iTunes Store.
!DVD name | !Ep# | ! Region 1 | ! Region 2 | ! Region 4 |
The Complete First Season | October 6, 2009 | February 21, 2005 | April 26, 2006 | |
The Complete Second Season | April 6, 2010 | February 21, 2005 | April 26, 2006 | |
The Complete Third Season | October 5, 2010 | February 21, 2005 | April 26, 2006 | |
The Complete Fourth Season | October 5, 2010 | May 9, 2005 | April 26, 2006 | |
The Complete Fifth Season | October 5, 2010 | May 9, 2005 | April 26, 2006 | |
The Complete Series | October 6, 2009 | October 30, 2006 | TBA |
!Country | !TV network |
Arab World | MBC4 |
Argentina | Fox Broadcasting Company>Fox |
Australia | Seven Network, FX (TV channel)#Australia>FX (Now W. Channel) 111 Hits and Channel Ten |
Austria | ORF1 |
Belarus | Belsat |
Belgium | 2BE (TV channel)>2 BE, vtm, Plug tv (French), La Deux (French) |
Brazil | Fox Life (cable) |
Bulgaria | BTV (Bulgaria)>BTV and Fox Life |
Canada | CTV Television Network |
Chile | Canal 13, Fox Life (cable) |
Colombia | RCN TV>RCN, Citytv Bogotá, Fox Life (cable) |
Croatia | Nova (Croatian TV) |
Czech Republic | [[Česká televize, Prima love |
Denmark | TV 2 Zulu (Denmark)>TV 2 Zulu |
Estonia | TV3 (Estonia)>TV3 |
Finland | MTV3 |
France | Téva, Métropole 6>M6, Série Club |
Germany | VOX (television)>VOX, Comedy Central, EinsFestival |
Guatemala | Fox Life |
Hong Kong | aTV world |
Hungary | Viasat 3 |
India | STAR World, Zee Cafe |
Indonesia | RCTI |
Ireland | RTÉ Two, repeats air on TV3 Ireland>TV3 |
Israel | Channel 2 (Israel) |
Italy | [[Canale 5, Italia 1, Fox Life, Mya (TV channel) |
Japan | [[NHK |
Kenya | Kenya Television Network |
Latvia | Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija>LNT |
Lebanon | LBCI |
Lithuania | TV3 Lithuania>TV3 |
Macedonia | Fox Life (cable) |
Malaysia | STAR World, NTV7 |
Mexico | Televisa |
Morocco | 2M |
Netherlands | RTL 8 |
New Zealand | TV2 (New Zealand)>TV2, Prime (New Zealand) |
Norway | TV 2 (Norway)>TV 2 |
Pakistan | STAR World |
Philippines | Radio Philippines Network>RPN-9 (1998–2001), 2nd Avenue (2009) |
Poland | Polsat, TV4 (Poland)>TV4, Fox Life |
Portugal | TVI (Portugal)>TVI, Fox Life, SIC |
Romania | PRO TV, Pro Cinema |
Russia | Ren-TV |
Serbia | Radio Television of Serbia>RTS, RTV BK Telecom, Fox Life (cable) |
Slovakia | TV Markiza, Doma |
Slovenia | POP TV, Kanal A, TV Pika |
Singapore | STAR World, MediaCorp TV Channel 5 |
South Africa | SABC 3 |
South Korea | Home CGV |
Spain | Telecinco (former broadcaster), Cuatro TV |
Sweden | TV4 |
Switzerland | TSR 1 |
Taiwan | Eracom |
Thailand | True Series |
Turkey | CNBC-E and Fox Life |
United Kingdom | Channel 4, Paramount Comedy 1, Paramount Comedy 2, TMF UK>TMF, Zone Romantica |
United States | Reelz Channel Fox Broadcasting Company>Fox |
Venezuela | Televen |
Television Critics Association Awards
Category:1997 television series debuts Category:2002 American television series endings Category:1990s American television series Category:1990s American comedy television series Category:2000s American comedy television series Category:American comedy-drama television series Category:Best Musical or Comedy Series Golden Globe winners Category:Boston, Massachusetts in fiction Category:English-language television series Category:Fox network shows Category:Legal television series Category:Peabody Award winning television programs Category:Television series by Fox Television Studios Category:Television shows set in Massachusetts
ar:ألي مكبيل (مسلسل) ca:Ally McBeal cs:Ally McBealová cy:Ally McBeal de:Ally McBeal et:Ally McBeal es:Ally McBeal fr:Ally McBeal hr:Ally McBeal id:Ally McBeal it:Ally McBeal he:אלי מקביל hu:Ally McBeal mn:Элли Макбил nl:Ally McBeal ja:アリー my Love no:Ally McBeal pl:Ally McBeal pt:Ally McBeal ro:Ally McBeal ru:Элли Макбил simple:Ally McBeal sk:Ally McBealová sr:Али Мекбил sh:Ally McBeal fi:Ally McBeal sv:Ally McBeal tr:Ally McBeal zh:艾莉的異想世界This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition ''4′33″'', the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the twentieth century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is ''Sonatas and Interludes'' (1946–48).
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The ''I Ching'', an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, ''Experimental Music'', he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".
Cage's first experiences with music were from private piano teachers in the Greater Los Angeles area and several relatives, particularly his aunt Phoebe Harvey who introduced him to the piano music of the 19th century. He received first piano lessons when he was in the fourth grade at school, but although he liked music, he expressed more interest in sight reading than in developing virtuoso piano technique, and apparently was not thinking of composition. By 1928 Cage was convinced that he wanted to be a writer. That year he graduated from Los Angeles High School as a valedictorian and enrolled at Pomona College, Claremont. However, in 1930 he dropped out, believing that "college was of no use to a writer" by an incident described in the 1991 autobiographical statement:
I was shocked at college to see one hundred of my classmates in the library all reading copies of the same book. Instead of doing as they did, I went into the stacks and read the first book written by an author whose name began with Z. I received the highest grade in the class. That convinced me that the institution was not being run correctly. I left.Cage persuaded his parents that a trip to Europe would be more beneficial to a future writer than college studies. He subsequently hitchhiked to Galveston and sailed to Le Havre, where he took a train to Paris. Cage stayed in Europe for some 18 months, trying his hand at various forms of art. First he studied Gothic and Greek architecture, but decided he was not interested enough in architecture to dedicate his life to it. Cage started travelling, visited various places in France, Germany and Spain, as well as Capri and, most importantly, Majorca, where he started composing. His first compositions were created using dense mathematical formulae, but Cage was displeased with the results and left the finished pieces behind when he left. Cage's association with theatre also started in Europe: during a walk in Seville he witnessed, in his own words, "the multiplicity of simultaneous visual and audible events all going together in one's experience and producing enjoyment."
Following Cowell's advice, Cage travelled to New York City in 1933 and started studying with Weiss as well as taking lessons from Cowell himself at The New School. Cage's routine during that period was apparently very tiring, with just four hours of sleep on most nights, and four hours of composition every day starting at 4 am. Several months later, still in 1933, Cage became sufficiently good at composition to approach Schoenberg. He could not afford Schoenberg's price, however, and when he mentioned it, the older composer asked whether Cage would devote his life to music. After Cage replied that he would, Schoenberg offered to tutor him free of charge.
Cage studied with Schoenberg in California: first at USC and then at UCLA, as well as privately. particularly as an example of how to live one's life being a composer. Schoenberg's methods and their influence on Cage are well documented by Cage himself in various lectures and writings. Particularly well-known is the conversation mentioned in the 1958 lecture ''Indeterminacy'':
After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said, "In order to write music, you must have a feeling for harmony." I explained to him that I had no feeling for harmony. He then said that I would always encounter an obstacle, that it would be as though I came to a wall through which I could not pass. I said, "In that case I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall."Cage studied with Schoenberg for two years, but although he admired his teacher, he decided to leave after Schoenberg told the assembled students that he was trying to make it impossible for them to write music. Much later, Cage recounted the incident: "[...] When he said that, I revolted, not against him, but against what he had said. I determined then and there, more than ever before, to write music."
In 1938, with help from a fellow Cowell student Lou Harrison, Cage became a faculty member at Mills College, teaching the same program as at UCLA, and collaborating with choreographer Marian van Tuyl. Several famous dance groups were present, and Cage's interest in modern dance grew further.
Like his personal life, Cage's artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues. In early 1946 Cage agreed to tutor Gita Sarabhai, an Indian musician who came to the US to study Western music. In return, he asked her to teach him about Indian music and philosophy. Cage also attended, in late 1940s and early 1950s, D. T. Suzuki's lectures on Zen Buddhism, and read the works of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
In early 1951, Wolff presented Cage with a copy of the ''I Ching''—a Chinese classic text which describes a symbol system used to identify order in chance events. The ''I Ching'' is commonly used for divination, but for Cage it became a tool to compose using chance. To compose a piece of music, Cage would come up with questions to ask the ''I Ching''; the book would then be used in much the same way as it is used for divination. For Cage, this meant "imitating nature in its manner of operation": his lifelong interest in sound itself culminated in an approach that yielded works in which sounds were free from the composer's will:
When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic—here on Sixth Avenue, for instance—I don't have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I love the activity of sound [...] I don't need sound to talk to me.
Although Cage had used chance on a few earlier occasions, most notably in the third movement of ''Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra'' (1950–51), the ''I Ching'' opened new possibilities in this field for him. The first results of the new approach were ''Imaginary Landscape No. 4'' for 12 radio receivers, and ''Music of Changes'' for piano. The latter work was written for David Tudor, whom Cage met through Feldman—another friendship that lasted until Cage's death. Tudor premiered most of Cage's works until early 1960s, when he stopped performing and concentrated on composition. The ''I Ching'' became Cage's standard tool for composition: he used it in practically every work composed after 1951.
Despite the fame ''Sonatas and Interludes'' earned him, and the connections he cultivated with American and European composers and musicians, Cage was quite poor. Although he still had an apartment, at 326 Monroe Street (which he occupied since around 1946) his financial situation in 1951 worsened so much that, while working on ''Music of Changes'', he prepared a set of instructions for Tudor as to how to complete the piece in the event of his death. Nevertheless, Cage managed to survive and maintained an active artistic life, giving lectures, performances, etc. In 1952–53 he completed another mammoth project—the ''Williams Mix'', a piece of tape music, which Earle Brown helped to put together. Also in 1952, Cage wrote down the piece that became his most well-known and most controversial creation: ''4′33″''. The score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece—four minutes, thirty-three seconds—and is meant to be perceived as consisting of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed. Cage conceived "a silent piece" years earlier, but was reluctant to write it down; and indeed, the premiere (given by Tudor on August 29, 1952 at Woodstock, New York) caused an uproar in the audience. The reaction to ''4′33″'' was just a part of the larger picture, however: on the whole, it was the adoption of chance procedures that had disastrous consequences for Cage's reputation. The press, which used to react favorably to earlier percussion and prepared piano music, ignored his new works, and many valuable friendships and connections were lost. Pierre Boulez, who used to promote Cage's work in Europe, was opposed to Cage's use of chance, and so were other composers who came to prominence during the 1950s, i.e. Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis.
From 1953 onwards, Cage was busy composing music for modern dance, particularly Cunningham's dances (Cage's partner adopted chance too, out of fascination for the movement of the human body), as well as developing new methods of using chance, in a series of works he referred to as ''The Ten Thousand Things''. In Summer 1954 he moved out from New York and settled in a cooperative community in Stony Point, New York. The composer's financial situation gradually improved: in late 1954 he and Tudor were able to embark on a European tour. From 1956 to 1961 Cage taught classes in experimental composition at The New School, and during 1956–58 he also worked as an art director of a typography. Among the works completed during the last years of the decade were ''Concert for Piano and Orchestra'' (1957–58), a seminal work in the history of graphic notation, and ''Variations I'' (1958).
In 1967, Cage's ''A Year from Monday'' was first published by Wesleyan University Press. Cage's parents died during the decade: his father in 1964, and his mother in 1969. Cage had their ashes scattered in Ramapo Mountains, near Stony Point, and asked for the same to be done to him after his death.
However, also in 1969, Cage produced the first fully notated work in years: ''Cheap Imitation'' for piano. The piece is a chance-controlled reworking of Erik Satie's ''Socrate'', and, as both listeners and Cage himself noted, openly sympathetic to its source. Although Cage's affection for Satie's music was well-known, it was highly unusual for him to compose a personal work, one in which the composer ''is'' present. When asked about this apparent contradiction, Cage replied: "Obviously, ''Cheap Imitation'' lies outside of what may seem necessary in my work in general, and that's disturbing. I'm the first to be disturbed by it." Cage's fondness for the piece resulted in a recording—a rare occurrence, since Cage disliked making recordings of his music—made in 1976. Overall, ''Cheap Imitation'' marked a major change in Cage's music: he turned again to writing fully notated works for traditional instruments, and tried out several new approaches, such as improvisation, which he previously discouraged, but was able to use in works from the 1970s, such as ''Child of Tree'' (1975).
''Cheap Imitation'' became the last work Cage performed in public himself. Arthritis had troubled Cage since 1960, and by early 1970s his hands were painfully swollen and rendered him unable to perform. Nevertheless, he still played ''Cheap Imitation'' during the 1970s, before finally having to give up performing. Preparing manuscripts also became difficult: before, published versions of pieces were done in Cage's calligraphic script; now, manuscripts for publication had to be completed by assistants. Matters were complicated further by David Tudor's departure from performing, which happened in early 1970s. Tudor decided to concentrate on composition instead, and so Cage, for the first time in two decades, had to start relying on commissions from other performers, and their respective abilities. Such performers included Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, Margaret Leng Tan, and many others. Aside from music, Cage continued writing books of prose and poetry (mesostics). ''M (John Cage book)'' was first published by Wesleyan University Press in 1973. In January 1978 Cage was invited by Kathan Brown of Crown Point Press to engage in printmaking, and Cage would go on to produce series of prints every year until his death; these, together with some late watercolors, constitute the largest portion of his extant visual art. In 1979 Cage's ''Empty Words'' was first published by Wesleyan University Press.
Already in the course of the eighties, Cage's health worsened progressively: he suffered not only from arthritis, but also from sciatica and arteriosclerosis. He suffered a stroke that left the movement of his left leg restricted, and, in 1985, broke an arm. During this time, Cage pursued a macrobiotic diet. Nevertheless, ever since arthritis started plaguing him, the composer was aware of his age, and, as biographer David Revill observed, "the fire which he began to incorporate in his visual work in 1985 is not only the fire he has set aside for so long—the fire of passion—but also fire as transitoriness and fragility." On August 11, 1992, while preparing evening tea for himself and Cunningham, Cage suffered another stroke. He was taken to the nearest hospital, where he died on the morning of August 12. According to his wishes, Cage's body was cremated, and the ashes scattered in the Ramapo Mountains, near Stony Point, New York, the same place where Cage scattered the ashes of his parents, years before. The composer's death occurred only weeks before a celebration of his 80th birthday organized in Frankfurt by the composer Walter Zimmermann and the musicologist Stefan Schaedler was due to take place. However, the event went ahead as planned, including a performance of the ''Concert for Piano and Orchestra'' by David Tudor and Ensemble Modern. Merce Cunningham outlived his partner by 17 years, and died peacefully in his home, of natural causes, on July 26, 2009.
Soon after Cage started writing percussion music and music for modern dance, he started using a technique that placed the rhythmic structure of the piece into the foreground. In ''Imaginary Landscape No. 1'' (1939) there are four large sections of 16, 17, 18, and 19 bars, and each section is divided into four subsections, the first three of which were all 5 bars long. ''First Construction (in Metal)'' (1939) expands on the concept: there are five sections of 4, 3, 2, 3, and 4 units respectively. Each unit contains 16 bars, and is divided the same way: 4 bars, 3 bars, 2 bars, etc. Finally, the musical content of the piece is based on sixteen motives. Such "nested proportions", as Cage called them, became a regular feature of his music throughout the 1940s. The technique was elevated to great complexity in later pieces such as ''Sonatas and Interludes'' for prepared piano (1946–48), in which many proportions used non-integer numbers (1¼, ¾, 1¼, ¾, 1½, and 1½ for ''Sonata I'', for example), or ''A Flower'', a song for voice and closed piano, in which two sets of proportions are used simultaneously.
In late 1940s, Cage started developing further methods of breaking away with traditional harmony. For instance, in ''String Quartet in Four Parts'' (1950) Cage first composed a number of ''gamuts'': chords with fixed instrumentation. The piece progresses from one ''gamut'' to another. In each instance the ''gamut'' was selected only based on whether it contains the note necessary for the melody, and so the rest of the notes do not form any directional harmony.
Another series of works applied chance procedures to pre-existing music by other composers: ''Cheap Imitation'' (1969; based on Erik Satie), ''Some of "The Harmony of Maine"'' (1978; based on Belcher), and ''Hymns and Variations'' (1979). In these works, Cage would borrow the rhythmic structure of the originals and fill it with pitches determined through chance procedures, or just replace some of the originals' pitches. Yet another series of works, the so-called ''Number Pieces'', all completed during the last five years of the composer's life, make use of ''time brackets'': the score consists of short fragments with indications of when to start and to end them (e.g. from anywhere between 1′15″ and 1′45″, and to anywhere from 2′00″ to 2′30″).
Cage's method of using the ''I Ching'' was far from simple randomization, however. The procedures varied from composition to composition, and were usually complex. For example, in the case of ''Cheap Imitation'', the exact questions asked to the ''I Ching'' were these: # Which of the seven modes, if we take as modes the seven scales beginning on white notes and remaining on white notes, which of those am I using? # Which of the twelve possible chromatic transpositions am I using? # For this phrase for which this transposition of this mode will apply, which note am I using of the seven to imitate the note that Satie wrote? In another example of late music by Cage, ''Etudes Australes'', the compositional procedure involved placing a transparent strip on the star chart, identifying the pitches from the chart, transferring them to paper, then asking the ''I Ching'' which of these pitches were to remain single, and which should become parts of aggregates (chords), and the aggregates were selected from a table of some 550 possible aggregates, compiled beforehand.
Finally, some of Cage's works, particularly those completed during the 1960s, feature instructions to the performer, rather than fully notated music. The score of ''Variations I'' (1958) presents the performer with six transparent squares, one with points of various sizes, five with five intersecting lines. The performer combines the squares and uses lines and points as a coordinate system, in which the lines are axes of various characteristics of the sounds, such as lowest frequency, simplest overtone structure, etc. Some of Cage's graphic scores (e.g. ''Concert for Piano and Orchestra'', ''Fontana Mix'' (both 1958)) present the performer with similar difficulties. Still other works from the same period consist just of text instructions. The score of ''0'00"'' (1962; also known as ''4'33" No. 2'') consists of a single sentence: "In a situation provided with maximum amplification, perform a disciplined action." The first performance had Cage write that sentence. ''Musicircus'' (1967) simply invites the performers to assemble and play together. The first ''Musicircus'' featured multiple performers and groups in a large space who were all to commence and stop playing at two particular time periods, with instructions on when to play individually or in groups within these two periods. The result was a mass superimposition of many different musics on top of one another as determined by chance distribution, producing an event with a specifically theatric feel. Many Musicircuses have subsequently been held, and continue to occur even after Cage's death. This concept of circus was to remain important to Cage throughout his life and featured strongly in such pieces as ''Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake'' (1979), a many-tiered rendering in sound of both his text ''Writing for the Second Time Through Finnegans Wake'', and traditional musical and field recordings made around Ireland. The piece was based on James Joyce's famous novel, ''Finnegans Wake'', which was one of Cage's favorite books, and one from which he derived texts for several more of his works.
From 1978 to his death Cage worked at Crown Point Press, producing series of prints every year. The earliest project completed there was the etching ''Score Without Parts'' (1978), created from fully notated instructions, and based on various combinations of drawings by Henry David Thoreau. This was followed, the same year, by ''Seven Day Diary'', which Cage drew with his eyes closed, but which conformed to a strict structure developed using chance operations. Finally, Thoreau's drawings informed the last works produced in 1978, ''Signals''.
Between 1979 and 1982 Cage produced a number of large series of prints: ''Changes and Disappearances'' (1979–80), ''On the Surface'' (1980–82), and ''Déreau'' (1982). These were the last works in which he used engraving. In 1983 he started using various unconventional materials such as cotton batting, foam, etc., and then used stones and fire (''Eninka'', ''Variations'', ''Ryoanji'', etc.) to create his visual works. In 1988–1990 he produced watercolors at the Mountain Lake Workshop. The only film Cage produced was one of the Number Pieces, ''One11'', commissioned by composer and film director Henning Lohner who worked with Cage to produce and direct the 90-minute monochrome film. It was completed only weeks before his death in 1992. ''One11'' consists entirely of images of chance-determined play of electric light. It premiered in Cologne, Germany, on September 19, 1992, accompanied by the live performance of the orchestra piece ''103''.
Throughout his adult life, Cage was also active as lecturer and writer. Some of his lectures were included in several books he published, the first of which was ''Silence: Lectures and Writings'' (1961). ''Silence'' included not only simple lectures, but also texts executed in experimental layouts, and works such as ''Lecture on Nothing'' (1959), which were composed in rhythmic structures. Subsequent books also featured different types of content, from lectures on music to poetry—Cage's mesostics.
Cage was also an avid amateur mycologist: he co-founded the New York Mycological Society with four friends, and his mycology collection is presently housed by the Special Collections department of the McHenry Library at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
An article by teacher and critic Michael Steinberg, ''Tradition and Responsibility'', criticized avant-garde music in general:
The rise of music that is totally without social commitment also increases the separation between composer and public, and represents still another form of departure from tradition. The cynicism with which this particular departure seems to have been made is perfectly symbolized in John Cage's account of a public lecture he had given: "Later, during the question period, I gave one of six previously prepared answers regardless of the question asked. This was a reflection of my engagement in Zen." While Mr. Cage's famous silent piece [i.e. 4′33″], or his ''Landscapes'' for a dozen radio receivers may be of little interest as music, they are of enormous importance historically as representing the complete abdication of the artist's power.Cage's aesthetic position was criticized by, among others, prominent writer and critic Douglas Kahn. In his 1999 book ''Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts'', Kahn acknowledged the influence Cage had on culture, but noted that "one of the central effects of Cage's battery of silencing techniques was a silencing of the social."
While much of Cage's work remains controversial, his influence on countless composers, artists, and writers is undeniable. After Cage introduced chance, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis remained critical, yet all adopted chance procedures in some of their works (although in a much more restricted manner); and Stockhausen's piano writing in his later Klavierstücke was influenced by Cage's ''Music of Changes'' and David Tudor. Other composers who adopted chance procedures in their works included Witold Lutosławski, Mauricio Kagel, and many others. Music in which some of the composition and/or performance is left to chance was labelled ''aleatoric music''—a term popularized by Pierre Boulez. Helmut Lachenmann's work was influenced by Cage's work with extended techniques.
Cage's rhythmic structure experiments and his interest in sound influenced an even greater number of composers, starting at first with his close American associates Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff (and other American composers, such as La Monte Young), and then spreading to Europe. For example, almost all composers of the English experimental school acknowledge his influence: Michael Parsons, Christopher Hobbs, John White, Gavin Bryars, who studied under Cage briefly, and even Howard Skempton, a composer seemingly very different from Cage, and one whose work has been described as "the emancipation of consonance." Cage's influence is also evident in the Far East: one of Japan's most prominent classical composers of the 20th century, Tōru Takemitsu, was influenced by his music.
Cage's influence was also acknowledged by rock bands, such as Sonic Youth (who performed some of the Number Pieces) and Stereolab (who named a song after Cage), composer and rock and jazz guitarist Frank Zappa, and various noise music artists and bands: indeed, one writer traced the origin of noise music to ''4′33″''. The development of electronic music was also influenced by Cage: in the mid-1970s Brian Eno's label Obscure Records released works by Cage. Prepared piano, which Cage popularized, is featured heavily on Aphex Twin's 2001 album ''Drukqs''. Cage's work as musicologist helped popularize Erik Satie's music, and his friendship with Abstract expressionist artists such as Robert Rauschenberg helped introduce his ideas into visual art. Cage's ideas also found their way into sound design: for example, Academy Award-winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom cited Cage's work as a major influence.
==Archives==
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ca:John Cage cs:John Cage cy:John Cage da:John Cage de:John Cage et:John Cage el:Τζων Κέιτζ es:John Cage eo:John Cage fa:جان کیج fr:John Cage fy:John Cage gl:John Cage ko:존 케이지 io:John Cage it:John Cage he:ג'ון קייג' ka:ჯონ ქეიჯი lv:Džons Keidžs li:John Cage hu:John Cage nl:John Cage ja:ジョン・ケージ no:John Cage nn:John Cage oc:John Cage pl:John Cage pt:John Cage ro:John Cage ru:Кейдж, Джон scn:John Cage simple:John Cage sk:John Cage sh:John Cage fi:John Cage sv:John Cage tl:John Cage th:จอห์น เคจ tr:John Cage uk:Джон Кейдж vi:John Cage zh:約翰·凱吉This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Barry White (The Maestro) |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Barry Eugene Carter |
Born | September 12, 1944Galveston, Texas, U.S. |
Died | July 04, 2003Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Instrument | PianoKeyboardsVocalsDrums |
Genre | R&B;SoulFunkDisco |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter Record producer Arranger |
Years active | 1972–2003 |
Label | 20th Century RecordsUnlimited Gold RecordsCasablancaA&M;Eagle Records |
Associated acts | Love UnlimitedThe Love Unlimited OrchestraIsaac HayesGerald LeVert, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson |
Website | }} |
A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring soul, funk, and disco songs such as his two biggest hits, "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe."
Worldwide, White had many gold and platinum albums and singles, with combined sales of over 100 million, according to critics Ed Hogan and Wade Kergan. His influences include southern soul artists like Isaac Hayes, Clarence Carter, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin plus Motown artists The Supremes, The Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. Along with Isaac Hayes, White is considered by Allmusic.com as the first singer who played disco music before the actual period of the late 1970s.
While in jail, White listened to Elvis Presley singing "It's Now or Never" on the radio, an experience he later credited with changing the course of his life.
The marginal success he had to that point was as a songwriter. His songs were recorded by rock singer Bobby Fuller and TV bubblegum act The Banana Splits. He was also responsible in 1963 for arranging "Harlem Shuffle" for Bob & Earl, which became a hit in the UK in 1969. He discovered disco artists, Viola Wills and Felice Taylor in 1965 and signed them to Mustang/Bronco Records, for which he was working as A&R; manager for Bob Keane.
White produced, wrote and arranged their classic soul ballad, "Walking In The Rain With The One I Love", which climbed to #14 in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop chart and #6 on the Billboard R&B; chart in late 1972. This single also reached #12 in the UK chart. White's voice can clearly be heard debuting in this piece as he plays the lover who answers the phone call of the female lead.
Soon after, Regan left Uni for 20th Century Records. Without Regan, White's relationship with Uni soured. With his relationship with Uni over and Love Unlimited contract-bound with the label, White was able to switch both his production deal and the group to 20th Century Records. (They recorded several other hits throughout the 1970s, including "I Belong To You," which spent over five months on the Billboard R&B; chart in 1974 including a week at #1. White also married the lead singer of the group, Glodean James, on July 4, 1974.)
He then wrote several other songs and recorded them for what eventually became an entire album of music. He was going to use the name "White Heat," but decided on using his given name instead. White was still hesitating up to the time the label copy was made. It eventually became the first solo White album, 1973's "I've Got So Much to Give". It included the title track and his first solo chart hit, "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby", which also rose to #1 on the Billboard R&B; charts as well as #3 on the Billboard Pop charts in 1973 and stayed in the top 40 for many weeks.
Other chart hits by White included "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" (#2 R&B;, #7 Pop in 1973), "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" (# 1 Pop and R&B; in 1974), "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (#1 R&B;, #2 Pop in 1974), "What Am I Gonna Do with You" (#1 R&B;, #8 Pop in 1975), "Let the Music Play" (#4 R&B; in 1976), "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me" (#1 R&B;, #4 Pop in 1977) and "Your Sweetness is My Weakness" (#2 R&B; in 1978). White also had a strong following in the United Kingdom where he scored five Top 10 hits and one number 1 for "You're The First."
White is sometimes credited with ushering in the "disco" sound, seamlessly combining R&B; music with classical music. Some also regard the song as the first hit in the actual "disco era", but Nino Tempo & the 5th Ave Sax Band's song "Sister James" had already reached the Billboard Hot 100 a few months before and had a disco sound in its own right.
He would continue to make albums with the Orchestra, but never achieved the same kind of success with his debut album. The Orchestra ceased to make albums in 1983, but continued to support White as a backing band.
After four years he signed with A&M; Records, and with the release of 1987's "The Right Night & Barry White," the single titled "Sho' You Right" made it to the Billboard R&B; charts, peaking at #17.
In 1989 he released "The Man Is Back!" and with it had three top 40 singles on the Billboard R&B; charts: "Super Lover", which made it to #34, "I Wanna Do It Good to Ya", which made it to #26, and "When Will I See You Again", which made it to #32.
In 1994 he released the album ''The Icon Is Love'' which went to #1 on the Billboard R&B; album charts, and the single "Practice What You Preach" gave him his first #1 on the Billboard R&B; singles chart in almost 20 years, and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best R&B; Album category (it lost to TLC's "CrazySexyCool").
In 1996, White recorded the duet "In Your Wildest Dreams" with rock icon Tina Turner. 1996 also saw the release of Space Jam and its soundtrack, on which White had a duet with Chris Rock, called "Basketball Jones," a remake of Cheech & Chong's "Basketball Jones" from 1974.
His final album, 1999's ''Staying Power'', resulted in his last hit song "Staying Power," which placed #45 on the Billboard R&B; charts. The single won him two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B; Vocal Performance.
He was featured in several episodes of ''The Simpsons'', and most importantly the episode "Whacking Day" in which Bart and Lisa used his famously deep bass singing voice, played through loudspeakers placed on the ground, to lull and attract snakes. White was a fan of the show, and had reportedly contacted the staff about wanting to make a guest appearance.
He played the role of a bus driver for a Prodigy commercial in 1995, and he also portrayed the voice of a rabbit in a Good Seasons salad dressing mix commercial, singing a song called "You Can't Bottle Love."
In addition, he did some work for car commercials, most famously for Oldsmobile, and later on, Jeep.
He also provided voice over for Arby's Restaurant commercials on TV and Radio to promote their 'Market Fresh' menu.
Also his voice can be heard in Apple's first iBook commercial.
He made two guest appearances on the comedy-drama TV series ''Ally McBeal'', as his music was often featured on the show in dream sequences.
He suffered a stroke in May 2003, after which he was forced to retire from public life. On July 4, 2003, he died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering from complete renal failure. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered by his family off the California coast. His last words were,"Leave me alone, I'm fine".
On September 20, 2004, he was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York.
Category:1944 births Category:2003 deaths Category:African American record producers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:American bandleaders Category:American basses Category:American Christians Category:Stroke survivors Category:American dance musicians Category:American male singers Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American soul singers Category:Deaths from renal failure Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Galveston, Texas
az:Barri Uayt bg:Бари Уайт ca:Barry White cs:Barry White da:Barry White de:Barry White es:Barry White eo:Barry White fr:Barry White gl:Barry White io:Barry White id:Barry White it:Barry White he:בארי וייט ka:ბარი უაიტი hu:Barry White mk:Бери Вајт nl:Barry White ja:バリー・ホワイト no:Barry White oc:Barry White pl:Barry White pt:Barry White ro:Barry White ru:Уайт, Барри simple:Barry White fi:Barry White sv:Barry White th:แบร์รี ไวต์ tr:Barry White yo:Barry WhiteThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Josh Groban |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Joshua Winslow Groban |
born | February 27, 1981Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
instrument | Vocals, piano, drums, percussion, flute |
genre | Easy listening, Classical crossover, vocal, operatic pop, pop rock |
occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician, actor, record producer |
years active | 1997–present |
label | 143, Reprise |
website | }} |
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban (born February 27, 1981) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country. To date, he has sold over 24 million albums worldwide, and is the top selling classical artist of the 2000s in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Groban originally studied acting, but as his voice changed, it developed into a "significant instrument". Groban attended the Los Angeles High School for the Arts, a free public school where students received a conservatory-style education. His life changed when his vocal coach, Seth Riggs, submitted a tape of Josh singing "All I Ask of You", from ''The Phantom of the Opera'', to Riggs' friend, producer, composer and arranger David Foster. Foster called him to stand in for an ailing Andrea Bocelli to rehearse a duet, "The Prayer," with Celine Dion at the rehearsal for the Grammy Awards in 1998. Rosie O'Donnell immediately invited him to appear on her talk show. Foster asked him to sing at the California Governor's Gray Davis' 1999 inauguration. He was cast on ''Ally McBeal'' by the show's creator, David E. Kelley, performing "You're Still You" for the 2001 season finale.
Groban debuted as a singer in the fifth grade. His music teacher chose him to sing a solo of "S'wonderful" at the school's Cabaret Night, where he sang alone on stage for the first time. At this time, he was more focused on theatrical arts. In the summers of 1997 and 1998, he also attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts Camp in Michigan, majoring in music theatre, and began taking vocal lessons. Groban went on to attend the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a theatre major and graduated in 1999. He was admitted to Carnegie Mellon University, intending to study drama, but he left four months into his first semester. Offered a recording contract, he decided to pursue his singing career.
Groban was offered a recording contract at Warner Bros. Records through Foster's 143 Records imprint. Avnet told HitQuarters that Warner initially proved resistant to the deal because "They were afraid they wouldn’t be able to get a voice like that on radio." Explaining his reasons for signing the artist, Foster said: "I love his natural ability in the pop and rock arena, but I love his sense of classics even more. He's a true musical force to be reckoned with." Under Foster's influence, Groban's first album focused more on classics such as "Gira Con Me Questa Notte" and "Alla Luce Del Sole."
Groban performed "There For Me" with Sarah Brightman on her 2000–01 ''La Luna World Tour'', and was featured on her "La Luna" concert DVD. He recorded "For Always" with Lara Fabian on the movie soundtrack to ''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'' (2001). Groban performed in many benefit shows, including: "The Andre Agassi Grand Slam Event For Children," singing alongside Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Don Henley, and Robin Williams; "Muhammad Ali's Fight Night Foundation" which honored Michael J. Fox and others; "The Family Celebration" (2001), which was co-hosted by President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and David E. Kelley and his wife, Michelle Pfeiffer; and Michael Milken's CapCure event, which raises funds for cancer research.
The singer's self-titled debut album ''Josh Groban'' was released on November 20, 2001. Over the next year, it went from gold to double-platinum.
On February 24, 2002, Groban performed "The Prayer" with Charlotte Church at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and by November, he had his own PBS special, "Josh Groban In Concert" (2002). In December 2002, he performed "To Where You Are" and sang "The Prayer" in a duet with Sissel Kyrkjebø at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. He joined The Corrs, Ronan Keating, Sting, Lionel Richie, and others for a Christmas performance at the Vatican in Rome, Italy. In 2003, Groban performed at the David Foster concert for World Children's Day, singing "The Prayer" with Celine Dion and the finale song, "Aren't They All Our Children?" with artists including Yolanda Adams, Nick Carter, Enrique Iglesias, and Celine Dion.
Groban's second album ''Closer'', produced and written by Foster, was released on November 11, 2003. Groban said that he believed that this second album was a better reflection of him, and that his audience would be able to get a better idea of his personality from listening to it. "What most people know about me, they know through my music. This time, I've tried to open that door as wide as possible. These songs are a giant step closer to who I really am and what my music is all about. Hence the title."
Two months after ''Closer'' was released, it rose on the ''Billboard'' charts from number 11 to number one. His cover of Brian Kennedy's "You Raise Me Up" became very popular on the adult contemporary charts. Groban also performed the song "Remember" (with Tanja Tzarovska) on the ''Troy'' soundtrack, "Believe" on the soundtrack to the 2004 animated film ''The Polar Express'', and a cover of Linkin Park's "My December".
In the summer of 2004, Groban returned to Interlochen, performing and discussing his earlier experiences with local residents and campers. On November 30, 2004, his second live DVD, ''Live At The Greek'', was released; it was also shown as a ''Great Performances'' special on PBS. Also in 2004, Groban performed "Remember When It Rained," backed by a full orchestra, at the American Music Awards, where he was nominated for Favorite Male Artist in the pop category; he was also nominated for a People's Choice Award in that year. His recording of "Believe" secured a 2005 Academy Award nomination for the song's two writers, Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri, and earned them a Grammy in the category Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the ceremony held in February 2006.
Groban has appeared on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' six times, as well as on ''The Ellen Degeneres Show'', ''Larry King Live'', ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'', ''Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'', ''The Jay Leno Show'', ''20/20'', ''Today'', Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, the Rockefeller Tree Lighting, and ''Glee''.
Groban earned his first Grammy nomination in 2005 for his single "You Raise Me Up", in the category of "Best Male Vocal Performance". During the first week of September 2006, Groban's single entitled "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" was released exclusively on AOL's First Listen. His third studio album ''Awake'' was officially released on November 7, 2006. Groban performed "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" as well as two other tracks from ''Awake'' at his recording session for ''Live from Abbey Road'' at Abbey Road Studios on 26 October 2006. On that album, Groban also collaborated with British musician and songwriter Imogen Heap, on the single "Now or Never". He performed two tracks with the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, "Lullaby" and "Weeping." Groban's "Awake" world tour visited 71 cities between February and August 2007, and travelled further to Australia and the Philippines with Lani Misalucha as his special guest in October 2007. He performed a duet with Barbra Streisand ("All I Know of Love") and with Mireille Mathieu ("Over the Rainbow"). As to his future, Groban is open to a plethora of possibilities. He said, "I am fortunate enough to have had many really big moments in my career. I think the mistake a lot of people in my position make is to always search for the next big thing. I am looking forward to playing some small theaters. I'm looking forward to writing more. I want to delve further into my acting career and explore some of the film and TV opportunities that I haven't had time for. My outlook is to expect the unexpected. And when the next step comes, I'm prepared to take it." Groban has also expressed an interest in performing on Broadway.
Groban has twice appeared on hit British TV Music Quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. His first appearance was as a guest on Omid Djalili's team and the second appearance was as the host/quiz master of an episode.
On Tuesday, May 24, 2011, Groban appeared as a mystery guest star on the season 12 finale of Dancing With the Stars to surprise Petra Nemcova by singing "You Raise Me Up" to her dance. When she saw that it was he who was actually singing the song and not one of the usual performers, she momentarily was too stunned to continue dancing.
On April 14, 2008, Groban joined Idina Menzel for a PBS ''Soundstage'' taping. The next day, he held his own taping for the same PBS TV series at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall at Jazz in New York City.
In June 2007, Groban recorded a Christmas album in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Magdalen College Choir, which he discussed on the DVD from "The Making of ''Noël''". It was released on October 9, 2007, and is titled ''Noël''. The album has been highly successful in the US, breaking numerous records for a Christmas album, as well as becoming the best selling album of 2007 in only its tenth week of release, at sales of 3.6 million.
On July 1, 2007, Groban performed with Sarah Brightman at the ''Concert for Diana'' at Wembley Stadium; it was broadcast to over 500 million homes in 140 countries.
On February 10, 2008, Groban performed at the 2008 Grammy Awards with Andrea Bocelli in a tribute to Luciano Pavarotti.
On May 12 and 13, 2008 At Royal Albert Hall, London, Groban performed as "The Russian" Anatoly Sergievsky; joining with Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal in "''Chess in Concert''" a live concert version of the musical Chess composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame. This performance has since been made into a DVD and CD recording.
On September 21, 2008, Groban performed a comical medley of well-known TV theme songs at the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
In December 2008, Groban appeared on ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks''. He performed a duet with Only Men Aloud! at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium for the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
On January 18, 2009, Groban performed as part of the Presidential Inauguration ceremonies, performing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in duet with Heather Headley.
On January, 19. 2009, Groban performed with Herbie Hancock as part of Feeding America's Rally Against Hunger in Washington DC. The event was also attended by Martin Luther King III and actor Ben Affleck.
Two days later he made the first of two appearances on ''Glee'', playing himself. His second appearance was in the Season 1 finale Journey to Regionals.
At the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, he performed the ''Star Spangled Banner'' on Jan. 7, 2010, with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, at the historic Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.
On December 21, 2010, Groban returned to BBC Two's ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', this time as guest host and ending the show duetting with Michael Ball in a version of "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''Les Miserables''.
On March 4, 2011, Groban filled in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, where he interviewed Heather Locklear and LaToya Jackson and performed "Higher Window" from his latest CD "Illuminations".
Under the guidance of his mentor David Foster, Groban performed for many charity events that included VH1 Save the Music (2005), Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope (2005), Fifth Annual Adopt-A-Minefield concert (2005), 2nd Annual Grammy Jam (2005), Live 8 (2005), The Heart Foundation Gala (2005), and David Foster and Friends Charity Gala (2006). He also sang a solo on the recording of We Are The World 25 for Haiti (2010). Inspired by a visit with Nelson Mandela during a 2004 trip to South Africa, he established the Josh Groban Foundation to help children in need through education, healthcare and the arts. Mandela appointed Groban as an Official Ambassador for Mandela's Project 46664, a campaign to help raise Global awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa. On April 25, 2007, Josh Groban performed with the African Children's Choir on ''American Idol'''s "Idol Gives Back" episode. Also on September 2, 2007, Groban donated $150,000 to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to fund music education. On February 28, 2008, he appeared in One Night Live at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada with Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden and RyanDan in aid of the Sunnybrook Hospital Women and Babies Program. In honor of his 27th birthday, his fans set out to raise $27,000 in a project called "Raise 27". They ended up raising a total of $44,227 for the Josh Groban Foundation, to benefit the Noah's Ark children's orphanage called Siyawela in South Africa. Groban has since referred to this donation as "the best birthday present ever". For those who could afford the $1500 ticket, Josh Groban performed at the The Angel Ball on October 21, 2010. Proceeds went to the Gabrielles Angel Foundation for cancer research.
He was named the #1 Best Selling Artist of All Time on Barnes & Noble in 2007. Groban has sold more than 20 million albums in less than ten years.
In 2002, Groban was listed as "100 Sexiest Newcomer" and in 2008, he became one of People's "100 Most Beautiful People".
Category:1981 births Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:American male singers Category:American pop pianists Category:American pop singers Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni Category:English-language singers Category:Latin-language singers Category:Italian-language singers Category:Opera crossover singers Category:French-language singers Category:Living people Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Warner Music Group artists
ar:جوش غروبان bg:Джош Гробан cs:Josh Groban da:Josh Groban de:Josh Groban es:Josh Groban fa:جاش گروبن fr:Josh Groban id:Josh Groban it:Josh Groban he:ג'וש גרובן jv:Josh Groban lb:Josh Groban hu:Josh Groban mk:Џош Гробан mn:Жош Гробан nl:Josh Groban ja:ジョシュ・グローバン no:Josh Groban pl:Josh Groban pt:Josh Groban ru:Гробан, Джош simple:Josh Groban sk:Josh Groban fi:Josh Groban sv:Josh Groban tl:Josh Groban th:จอช โกรแบน tr:Josh Groban vi:Josh Groban zh:喬許·葛洛班This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Joni Mitchell |
---|---|
genre | Folk-rock, folk-jazz/jazz, pop |
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Roberta Joan Anderson |
born | November 07, 1943Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada |
origin | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
instrument | Vocals, piano, guitar, ukulele, dulcimer |
occupation | Singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, musician, painter, guitarist, pianist |
label | Reprise (1968–1972; 1994–2001)Asylum (1972–1981)Geffen (1982–1993)Nonesuch (2002)Hear Music (2007) |
associated acts | Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Graham Nash, Joan Baez, Charles Mingus, Mary Travers, David Crosby, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, Mama Cass |
website | }} |
Joni Mitchell, CC, (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto. In the mid-1960s she left for New York City and its rich folk music scene, recording her debut album in 1968 and achieving fame first as a songwriter ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "Woodstock") and then as a singer in her own right. Finally settling in Southern California, Mitchell played a key part in the folk rock movement then sweeping the musical landscape. ''Blue'', her starkly personal 1971 album, was voted #30 in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list of 2003. Mitchell also had pop hits such as "Big Yellow Taxi", "Free Man in Paris", and "Help Me", the last two from 1974's best-selling ''Court and Spark''.
Mitchell's distinctive harmonic guitar style and piano arrangements all grew more complex through the 1970s as she was deeply influenced by jazz, melding it with pop, folk and rock on experimental albums like 1976's ''Hejira''. She worked closely with jazz musicians including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, and on a 1979 record released after his death, Charles Mingus. From the 1980s on, Mitchell reduced her recording and touring schedule but turned again toward pop, making greater use of synthesizers and direct political protest in her lyrics, which often tackled social and environmental themes alongside romantic and emotional ones.
Mitchell's work is highly respected both by critics and by fellow musicians. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever," while Allmusic said, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century." Mitchell is also a visual artist. She created the artwork for each of her albums, and in 2000 described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance." A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell stopped recording over the last several years, focusing more attention on painting, but in 2007 she released ''Shine'', her first album of new songs in nine years.
Her mother's ancestors were Scottish and Irish; her father's were Norwegian and Sami. Her paternal grandmother was born on the farm Farestveit in Modalen, Hordaland, Norway. Her paternal grandfather was from Sømna, Sør-Helgeland, Nordland, Norway.
At the age of eight, Mitchell contracted polio during a Canadian epidemic, but she recovered after a stay in hospital. This was the same polio epidemic (1951) in which singer Neil Young, then aged five, also contracted the virus. It was during this time that she first became interested in singing. She describes her first experience singing while in hospital during the winter in the following way:
"They said I might not walk again, and that I would not be able to go home for Christmas. I wouldn't go for it. So I started to sing Christmas carols and I used to sing them real loud ... The boy in the bed next to me, you know, used to complain. And I discovered I was a ham."She began smoking at the age of nine as well, a habit which is arguably one of the factors contributing to the change in her voice in recent years (Mitchell herself disputes this in several interviews).
As a teenager, Joni taught herself ukulele and, later, guitar. She began performing at parties and bonfires, which eventually led to gigs playing in coffeehouses and other venues in Saskatoon. After finishing high school at Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, she attended the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary for a year, during which she made the acquaintance of another budding singer-songwriter, Harry Chapin, but Mitchell then left, telling her mother: "I'm going to Toronto to be a folksinger."
After leaving art college in June 1964, Mitchell left her home in Saskatoon to relocate to Toronto. She found out that she was pregnant by her college ex-boyfriend, and in February 1965 she gave birth to a baby girl. A few weeks after the birth, Joni Anderson married folk-singer Chuck Mitchell, and took his surname. A few weeks later she gave her daughter, Kelly Dale Anderson, up for adoption. The experience remained private for most of her career, but she made allusions to it in several songs, most notably a very specific telling of the story in the 1971 song "Little Green". Mitchell's 1982 song "Chinese Cafe", from the album ''Wild Things Run Fast'', includes the lyrics "Your kids are coming up straight / My child's a stranger / I bore her / But I could not raise her."
Mitchell's daughter, renamed Kilauren Gibb, began a search for her as an adult. In 1997 Gibb mentioned her search to the girlfriend of a man with whom she had grown up. By coincidence, this woman knew a third person who had once told her that he knew Joni Mitchell years earlier "when she was pregnant." Mitchell and her daughter were reunited shortly thereafter.
Folk singer Tom Rush had met Mitchell in Toronto and was impressed with her songwriting ability. He took "Urge For Going" to popular folk act Judy Collins but she was not interested in the song at the time, so Rush recorded it himself. Country singer George Hamilton IV heard Rush performing it and recorded a hit country version. Other artists who recorded Mitchell songs in the early years were Buffy Sainte-Marie ("The Circle Game"), Dave Van Ronk ("Both Sides Now"), and eventually Judy Collins ("Both Sides Now", a top ten hit, and Michael From Mountains, both included on her 1967 album ''Wildflowers''). Collins also covered "Chelsea Morning", a recording which again eclipsed Mitchell's own commercial success early on.
While she was playing one night in "The Gaslight South", a club in Coconut Grove, Florida, David Crosby walked in and was immediately struck by her ability and her appeal as an artist. He took her back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends. Crosby convinced a record company to agree to let Mitchell record a solo acoustic album without all the folk-rock overdubs that were in vogue at the time, and his clout earned him a producer's credit in March 1968, when Reprise Records released her debut album, alternately known as ''Joni Mitchell'' or ''Song to a Seagull''.
Mitchell continued touring steadily to promote the LP. The tour helped create eager anticipation for Mitchell's second LP, ''Clouds'', which was released in April 1969. It finally contained Mitchell's own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists: "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", and "Tin Angel." The covers of both LPs, including a self-portrait on ''Clouds'', were designed and painted by Mitchell, a marriage of her art and music which she would continue throughout her career.
''Ladies of the Canyon'' was an instant smash on FM radio and sold briskly through the summer and fall, eventually becoming Mitchell's first gold album (selling over a half million copies). Mitchell made a decision to stop touring for a year and just write and paint, yet she was still voted "Top Female Performer" for 1970 by ''Melody Maker'', the UK's leading pop music magazine. On the April 1971 release of James Taylor's ''Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon'' album, Joni Mitchell is credited with backup vocals – along with Carole King – on the track "You've Got A Friend". The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience would appear on her next album, ''Blue'', released in June 1971. Of ''Blue'' and in comparing Joni Mitchell's talent to his own, David Crosby said, "By the time she did ''Blue'' she was past me and rushing toward the horizon" (A 65th Birthday Tribute to Joni Mitchell, 2008).
''Blue'' was an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking in the top 20 in the Billboard Album Charts in September and also hitting the British Top 3. Lushly produced "Carey" was the single at the time, but musically, other parts of ''Blue'' departed further from the sounds of ''Ladies of the Canyon'' in favor of simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowing a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions ("All I Want", "A Case of You"), while others such as "Blue", "River" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard" were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. In its lyrics, the album was regarded as an inspired culmination of her early work, with depressed assessments of the world around her serving as counterpoint to exuberant expressions of romantic love (for example, in "California"). Mitchell later remarked, "At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong."
Mitchell made the decision to return to the live stage after the great success of ''Blue'', and she presented many new songs on tour which would appear on her next album. Her fifth album, ''For the Roses'', was released in October 1972 and immediately zoomed up the charts. She followed with the single, "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio", which peaked at #25 in the Billboard Charts in February 1973, becoming her first bonafide hit single. The album was critically acclaimed and earned her success on her own terms, though it was somewhat overshadowed by the success of ''Blue'' and by Mitchell's next album.
''Court and Spark'', released in January 1974, would see Mitchell begin the flirtation with jazz and jazz fusion that marked her experimental period ahead, but it was also her most commercially successful recording, and among her most critically acclaimed. ''Court and Spark'' went to #1 on the Cashbox Album Charts. The LP made Joni Mitchell a widely popular act for perhaps the only time in her career, on the strength of popular tracks such as the rocker "Raised on Robbery", which was released right before Christmas 1973, and "Help Me", which was released in March of the following year, and became Joni's only Top 10 single when it peaked at #7 in the first week of June. "Free Man in Paris" was another hit single and staple in her catalog.
While recording ''Court and Spark'', Mitchell had tried to make a clean break with her earlier folk sound, producing the album herself and employing jazz/pop fusion band the L.A. Express as what she called her first real backing group. In February 1974, her tour with the L.A. Express began, and they received rave notices as they traveled across the United States and Canada during the next two months. A series of shows at L.A.'s Universal Amphitheater from August 14–17 were recorded for a live album release. In November, Mitchell released a live album called ''Miles of Aisles'', a two-record set including all but two songs from the L.A. concerts (one selection each from the Berkeley Community Center, on March 2, and the LA Music Center, on March 4, were also included in the set). The live album slowly moved up to #2, matching ''Court and Sparks'''s chart peak on Billboard. "Big Yellow Taxi", the live version, was also released as a single and did reasonably well (Mitchell would ultimately release yet another recording of "Big Yellow Taxi" in 2007).
In January 1975, ''Court and Spark'' received four nominations for Grammy Awards, including Grammy Award for Album of the Year, for which Mitchell was the only woman nominated. She won only the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)
The new song cycle was released in November 1975 as ''The Hissing of Summer Lawns''. The album was initially a big seller, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, but it received mixed reviews at the time of its release. A common legend holds that ''Rolling Stone'' magazine declared it the "Worst Album of the Year"; in truth, it was called only the year's worst album ''title''. However, Mitchell and ''Rolling Stone'' have had a contentious relationship, beginning years earlier when the magazine featured a "tree" illustrating all of Mitchell's alleged romantic partners, primarily other musicians, which the singer said "hurt my feelings terribly at the time." During 1975, Mitchell also participated in several concerts in the Rolling Thunder Revue tours featuring Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and in 1976 she performed as part of ''The Last Waltz'' by The Band. In January 1976, Mitchell received one nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the album ''The Hissing of Summer Lawns'', though the Grammy went to Linda Ronstadt.
In early 1976, Mitchell traveled with friends who were driving cross country to Maine. Afterwards, Mitchell drove back to California alone and composed several songs during her journey which would feature on her next album, 1976's ''Hejira''. She states, "This album was written mostly while I was traveling in the car. That's why there were no piano songs..." ''Hejira'' was arguably Mitchell's most experimental album so far, due to her ongoing collaborations with legendary jazz virtuoso bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius on several songs including the first single, "Coyote", the atmospheric "Hejira", the disorienting, guitar-heavy "Black Crow," and the album's last song "Refuge of the Roads." The album climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard Charts, reaching gold status three weeks after release, and received airplay from album oriented FM rock stations. Yet "Coyote", backed with "Blue Motel Room", failed to chart on the Hot 100. While the album was greeted by many fans and critics as a "return to form", by the time she recorded it her days as a huge pop star were over. However, if ''Hejira'' "did not sell as briskly as Mitchell's earlier, more "radio friendly" albums, its stature in her catalogue has grown over the years." Mitchell herself believes the album to be unique. In 2006 she said, "I suppose a lot of people could have written a lot of my other songs, but I feel the songs on ''Hejira'' could only have come from me."
In the summer of 1977, Mitchell began work on new recordings, what would become her first double studio album. Close to completing her contract with Asylum Records, Mitchell felt that this album could be looser in feel than any album she'd done in the past.''Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'' was released in December 1977. The album received mixed reviews but still sold relatively well, peaking at No. 25 in the US and going gold within three months. The cover of the album created its own controversy; Mitchell was featured in several photographs on the cover, including one where she was disguised as a black man (this is a reference to a character in one song on the album). Layered, atmospheric compositions such as "Overture / Cotton Avenue" featured more collaboration with Pastorius, while "Paprika Plains" was a 16-minute epic that stretched the boundaries of pop, owing more to Joni's memories of childhood in Canada and her study of classical music. "Dreamland" and "The Tenth World", featuring Chaka Khan on backing vocals, were percussion dominated tracks. Other songs continued the jazz-rock-folk collisions of ''Hejira''. Mitchell also revived "Jericho", written but never recorded years earlier (a version is found on her 1974 live album).
A few months after the release of ''Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'', Mitchell was contacted by jazz great Charles Mingus, who had heard the orchestrated song, "Paprika Plains", and wanted her to work with him. Mitchell began a collaboration with Mingus, who died before the project was completed in 1979. She finished the tracks (most were her own Mingus-inspired compositions, though "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a Mingus instrumental standard to which Joni composed lyrics) and the resulting album, ''Mingus'', was released in June 1979, though it was poorly received in the press. Fans were confused over such a major change in Mitchell's overall sound, and though the album topped out at No. 17 on the Billboard album charts—a higher placement than ''Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'' – ''Mingus'' still fell short of gold status, making it her first album since the 1960s to not sell at least a half-million copies.
Mitchell's summer tour to promote ''Mingus'' began in August 1979 in Oklahoma City and concluded six weeks later with five shows at Los Angeles' Greek Theater, where she recorded and filmed the concerts. It was her first tour in several years, and with Pastorius, jazz guitar great Pat Metheny, and other members of her band, Mitchell also performed songs from her other jazz-inspired albums. When the tour ended she began a year of work, turning the tapes from the Los Angeles shows into a two-album set and a concert film, both to be called ''Shadows and Light''. Her final release on Asylum Records and her second live double-album, it was released in September 1980, and made it up to No. 38 on the Billboard Charts. A single from the LP, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?", Mitchell's duet with The Persuasions (her opening act for the tour), bubbled under on Billboard, just missing the Hot 100.
As 1983 began, Mitchell began a world tour, visiting Japan, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and then back to the United States. A performance from the tour was videotaped and later released on home video (and later DVD) as "Refuge Of The Roads." As 1984 ended, Mitchell was writing new songs, when she had a suggestion from Geffen that perhaps an outside producer with experience in the modern technical arenas they wanted to explore might be a worthy addition. British synth-pop performer and producer Thomas Dolby was brought on board. Of Dolby's role, Mitchell later commented: "I was reluctant when Thomas was suggested because he had been asked to produce the record [by Geffen], and would he consider coming in as just a programmer and a player? So on that level we did have some problems... He may be able to do it faster. He may be able to do it better, but the fact is that it then wouldn't really be my music."
The album that resulted, ''Dog Eat Dog'', released in October 1985, received a mostly negative critical response. It turned out to be only a moderate seller, peaking at No. 63 on Billboard's Top Albums Chart, Mitchell's lowest chart position since her first album peaked at No. 189 almost eighteen years before. One of the songs on the album, "Tax Free", created controversy by lambasting "televangelists" and what she saw as a drift to the religious right in American politics. "The churches came after me", she wrote, "they attacked me, though the Episcopalian Church, which I've described as the only church in America which actually uses its head, wrote me a letter of congratulation."
Mitchell continued experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers for the recordings of her next album, 1988's ''Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm''. She also collaborated with artists including Willie Nelson, Billy Idol, Wendy & Lisa, Tom Petty, Don Henley and Peter Gabriel. The album's first official single, "My Secret Place", was in fact a duet with Gabriel, and just missed the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song "Lakota" was one of many songs on the album to take on larger political themes, in this case the deadly battle between Native American activists and the FBI on the Lakota Sioux reservation in the previous decade. Musically, several songs fit into the trend of world music popularized by Gabriel during the era. Reviews were mostly favorable towards the album, and the cameos by well-known musicians brought it considerable attention. ''Chalk Mark'' ultimately improved on the chart performance of ''Dog Eat Dog'', peaking at No. 45.
After its release, Mitchell, who rarely performed live anymore, participated in Roger Waters' The Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990. She performed the song, "Goodbye Blue Sky" and also was one of the performers on the concerts ending song, "The Tide Is Turning" along with Waters, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison and Paul Carrack.
Throughout the first half of 1990, Mitchell recorded songs that would appear on her next album. She delivered the final mixes for the new album to Geffen just before Christmas, after trying nearly a hundred different sequences for the songs. The album ''Night Ride Home'' was released in March 1991. In the United States, it premiered on Billboard's Top Album charts at No. 68, moving up to No. 48 in its second week, and peaking at No. 41 in its sixth week. In the United Kingdom, the album premiered at No. 25 on the album charts. Critically, it was better received than her '80s work and seemed to signal a move closer to her acoustic beginnings, along with some references to the style of ''Hejira''. This album was also Mitchell's first since Geffen Records was sold to MCA Inc., meaning that ''Night Ride Home'' was her first album not to be initially distributed by WEA (now Warner Music Group).
In 1996, Mitchell agreed to release a greatest ''Hits'' collection when label Reprise also allowed her a second ''Misses'' album to include some of the lesser known songs from her career. ''Hits'' charted at No. 161 in the US, but made No. 6 in the UK. Mitchell also included on ''Hits'', for the first time on an album, her first recording, a version of "Urge for Going" which preceded ''Song to a Seagull'' but was previously released only as a B-side.
Two years later, Mitchell released her final set of "original" new work before nearly a decade of other pursuits, 1998's ''Taming the Tiger''. She promoted ''Tiger'' with a return to regular concert appearances, most notably a co-headlining tour with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. On the album, Mitchell had played a "guitar synthesizer" on most songs, and for the tour she adapted many of her old songs to this instrument, and reportedly had to re-learn all her complex tunings once again.
It was around this time that critics also began to notice a real change in Mitchell's voice, particularly on her older songs; the singer later admitted to feeling the same way, explaining that "I'd go to hit a note and there was nothing there." While her more limited range and huskier vocals have sometimes been attributed to her smoking (she has been described as "one of the world's last great smokers"), Mitchell believes the changes in her voice that became noticeable in the nineties were due to other problems, including vocal nodules, a compressed larynx, and the lingering effects of having had polio. In an interview in 2004, she denied that "my terrible habits" had anything to do with her more limited range and pointed out that singers often lose the upper register when they pass fifty. In addition, she contended that in her opinion her voice became a more interesting and expressive alto range when she no longer could hit the high notes, let alone hold them like she did in her youth.
The singer's next two albums featured no new songs and, Mitchell has said, were recorded to "fulfill contractual obligations", but on both she attempted to make use of her new vocal range in interpreting familiar material. ''Both Sides, Now'' (2000) was an album composed mostly of covers of jazz standards, performed with an orchestra, featuring orchestral arrangements by Vince Mendoza. The album also contained remakes of "A Case of You" and the title track "Both Sides Now", two early hits transposed down to Mitchell's now dusky, soulful alto range. It received mostly strong reviews and spawned a short national tour, with Mitchell accompanied by a core band featuring Larry Klein on bass plus a local orchestra on each tour stop. Its success led to 2002's ''Travelogue'', a collection of re-workings of her previous songs with lush orchestral accompaniments.
During the next few years, the only albums Mitchell released were compilations of her earlier work. In 2003, Mitchell's Geffen recordings were collected in a remastered, four-disc box set, ''The Complete Geffen Recordings'', including notes by Mitchell and some previously unreleased tracks. A series of themed compilations of songs from earlier albums were also released: ''The Beginning of Survival'' (2004), ''Dreamland'' (2004), and ''Songs of a Prairie Girl'' (2005), the last of which collected the threads of her Canadian upbringing and which she released after accepting an invitation to the Saskatchewan Centennial concert in Saskatoon. The concert, which featured a tribute to Mitchell, was also attended by Queen Elizabeth II. In ''Prairie Girl'' liner notes, she writes that the collection is "my contribution to Saskatchewan's Centennial celebrations."
In the early 1990s, Mitchell signed a deal with Random House to publish an autobiography. In 1998 she told ''The New York Times'' that her memoirs were "in the works", that they would be published in as many as four volumes, and that the first line would be "I was the only black man at the party." In 2005, Mitchell said that she was using a tape recorder to get her memories "down in the oral tradition."
As well in the early 2000s, Joni Mitchell worked with artist Gilles Hebert. Joni visited the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, where she and Giles produced a book called 'Voices'. The book received international attention and extended her fame, and the fame of Gilles Hebert.
Although Mitchell stated that she would no longer tour or give concerts, she has made occasional public appearances to speak on environmental issues. Mitchell divides her time between her longtime home in Los Angeles, and the property in Sechelt, British Columbia that she has owned since the early 1970s. "L.A. is my workplace", she said in 2006, "B.C. is my heartbeat." According to interviews, today she focuses mainly on her visual art, which she does not sell and which she displays only on rare occasions.
In February 2007, Mitchell also returned to Calgary and served as an advisor for the Alberta Ballet Company premiere of "The Fiddle and the Drum", a dance choreographed to both new and old songs. Mitchell also filmed portions of the rehearsals for a documentary she's working on. Of the flurry of recent activity she quipped, "I've never worked so hard in my life."
In summer 2007, Mitchell's official fan-run site confirmed speculation that she had signed a two-record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music label. ''Shine'' was released by the label on September 25, 2007, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, her highest chart position in the United States since the release of ''Hejira'' in 1976, over thirty years previously, and at number 36 on the United Kingdom albums chart.
On the same day, Herbie Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Mitchell's, released ''River: The Joni Letters'', an album paying tribute to Mitchell's work. Among the album's contributors were Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell herself, who contributed a vocal to the re-recording of "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)" (originally on her album ''Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm''). On February 10, 2008, Hancock's recording won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. It was the first time in 43 years that a jazz artist took the top prize at the annual award ceremony. In accepting the award, Hancock paid tribute to Mitchell as well as to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. At the same ceremony Mitchell won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Pop Performance for the opening track "One Week Last Summer" from her album ''Shine''.
On February 12, 2010, "Both Sides, Now" was performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Mitchell is currently receiving treatment for the controversial condition called "Morgellons syndrome". Mitchell spoke to the ''Los Angeles Times'' on April 22, 2010 about the disease, saying, "I have this weird, incurable disease that seems like it's from outer space, but my health's the best it's been in a while." She described Morgellons as a "slow, unpredictable killer" but said she is determined to fight the disease. "I have a tremendous will to live: I've been through another pandemic – I'm a polio survivor, so I know how conservative the medical body can be." According to Mitchell, Morgellons is often misdiagnosed as "delusion of parasites," and sufferers of the disease are offered psychiatric treatment. Mitchell said she plans to leave the music industry to work toward giving people diagnosed with Morgellons more credibility. In the same interview, Mitchell made the statement that singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with whom she had worked closely in the past, was a fake and plagiarist. The controversial remark was widely reported by other media. Mitchell did not explain the contention further, but it may have related to the allegations of plagiarism surrounding some lyrics on Dylan's 2006 album ''Modern Times''.
Mitchell's longtime archivist, the San Francisco-based Joel Bernstein, maintains a detailed list of all her tunings, and has assisted her in relearning the tunings for several older songs.
Mitchell was also highly innovative harmonically in her early work (1966–72) using techniques including modality, chromaticism, and pedal points.
In 2003 ''Rolling Stone'' named her the 72nd greatest guitarist of all time; she was the highest-ranked woman on the list.
For instance, Prince's song "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" on the album ''Sign 'O' the Times'' (1987), pays tribute to Mitchell, both through his evocative Mitchell-like harmonies and through the use of one of Mitchell's own techniques: as in Mitchell's song "This Flight Tonight", Prince references a song in his lyrics (Joni's own "Help Me") as the music begins to emulate the chords and melody of that song. Another Mitchell reference left by Prince can also be seen on the back cover of his 1981 ''Controversy'' record, where one of the headlines reads "★JONI★." His song "Raspberry Beret" also references "McGee's general store" from Joni's song "Paprika Plains".
Madonna has also cited Mitchell as the first female artist that really spoke to her as a teenager; "I was really, really into Joni Mitchell. I knew every word to ''Court and Spark''; I worshipped her when I was in high school. ''Blue'' is amazing. I would have to say of all the women I've heard, she had the most profound effect on me from a lyrical point of view."
Steve Hogarth, Steve Rothery and Mark Kelly of Marillion all cite Mitchell as a favorite artist.
A number of artists have enjoyed success covering Mitchell's songs. Judy Collins's 1967 recording of "Both Sides Now" reached No. 8 on Billboard charts and was a breakthrough in the career of both artists (Mitchell's own recording did not see release until two years later, on her second album ''Clouds''). This is Mitchell's most-covered song by far, with 587 versions recorded at latest count. Hole also covered "Both Sides Now" in 1990, renaming it ''Clouds'' and changing the lyrics. Pop group Neighborhood in 1970 and Amy Grant in 1995 scored hits with covers of "Big Yellow Taxi", the second most covered song in Mitchell's repertoire (with 223 covers). Recent releases of this song have been by Counting Crows in 2002 and Nena in 2007. Janet Jackson used a sample of the chorus of "Big Yellow Taxi" as the centerpiece of her 1997 hit single "Got 'Til It's Gone", which also features rapper Q-Tip saying "Joni Mitchell never lies." Rap artists Kanye West and Mac Dre have also sampled Mitchell's vocals in their music. In addition, Annie Lennox has covered "Ladies Of The Canyon" for the B-side of her 1995 hit "No More I Love You's." Mandy Moore covered "Help Me" in 2003. In 2004 singer George Michael covered her song "Edith And The Kingpin" for a radio show. "River" has been of the most popular songs covered in recent years, with versions by Dianne Reeves (1999), James Taylor (recorded for television in 2000, and for CD release in 2004), Allison Crowe (2004), Rachael Yamagata (2004), Aimee Mann (2005), and Sarah McLachlan (2006). McLachlan also did a version of "Blue" in 1996, and Cat Power recorded a cover of "Blue" in 2008. Other Mitchell covers include the famous "Woodstock" by both Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Matthews Southern Comfort, "This Flight Tonight" by Nazareth, and well-known versions of "Woodstock" by Eva Cassidy and "A Case of You" by Tori Amos, Michelle Branch, Jane Monheit, Prince, and Diana Krall. A 40th anniversary version of "Woodstock" was released in 2009 by Nick Vernier Band featuring Ian Matthews (formerly of Matthews Southern Comfort).
Prince's version, "A Case of U", appeared on ''A Tribute to Joni Mitchell'', a 2007 compilation released by Nonesuch Records, which also featured Björk ("The Boho Dance"), Caetano Veloso ("Dreamland"), Emmylou Harris ("The Magdalene Laundries"), Sufjan Stevens ("Free Man in Paris") and Cassandra Wilson ("For the Roses"), among others. Some of the recordings were made in the late 1990s when a project entitled ''A Case of Joni'' was developed but left incomplete. Among those who recorded tracks for the first tribute album, which remain unreleased, were Janet Jackson, Steely Dan, and Sheryl Crow. Chaka Khan recorded "Ladies Man" from Mitchell's LP ''Wild Things Run Fast'' on her 2007 CD titled ''Funk This''. Cassandra Wilson recorded "Black Crow" from Mitchell's ''Hejira'' on her ''Blue Light 'Til Dawn'' CD.
Several other songs reference Joni Mitchell. The song "Our House" by Graham Nash refers to Nash's brief affair with Mitchell at the time Crosby, Stills Nash and Young recorded the Déjà Vu album. Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" was said to be written about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's infatuation with Mitchell, a claim that seems to be borne out by the fact that, in live performances, Plant often says "Joni" after the line "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar and cries and sings." Jimmy Page uses a double dropped D guitar tuning similar to the alternative tunings Mitchell uses. The Sonic Youth song "Hey Joni" from their acclaimed ''Daydream Nation'' album is named for Mitchell. Sonic Youth also uses a wide variety of alternate guitar tunings. Alanis Morissette also mentions Joni in one of her songs, "Your House." British folk singer; Frank Turner mentions Joni in his song 'Sunshine State'. Fellow Canadian songwriter Ferron invokes Mitchell to open the song "Maya": "Last night I dreamed Joni Mitchell cut her hair and changed her name to Gaia. And she spoke to me in a confident air and said...'You better push the edge of Maya.'"
Melody Green wrote in "No Compromise, the life story of Keith Green", that her husband Keith Green and some friends found Joni's Southern California home security gate was open and they sang in her front lawn until she came out. She invited them all in and Green entertained her for a while on her piano.
Also, on the 2004 album ''eMOTIVe'' by A Perfect Circle, Maynard James Keenan covered Mitchell's song ''Fiddle and the Drum.''
She has received eight Grammy Awards during her career, with the first coming in 1969 and the most recent in 2008. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, with the citation describing her as "one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era" and "a powerful influence on all artists who embrace diversity, imagination and integrity."
In fitting tribute to Joni Mitchell, the TNT network presented an all-star celebration at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, April 6, 2000. Many legendary performers sang Mitchell's songs, including James Taylor, Elton John, Wynonna Judd, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Krall, and Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention fame. Mitchell herself ended the evening with a rendition of "Both Sides Now" with a full 70 piece orchestra. The version was featured on the soundtrack to the hit movie, ''Love Actually''.
Regarding her as a national treasure, Mitchell's home country Canada has bestowed a number of honours on her. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. In 2002 she became only the third popular Canadian singer/songwriter (Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen being the other two), to be appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour. She received an honorary doctorate in music from McGill University in 2004. In January 2007 she was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. In June 2007 Canada Post featured Mitchell on a postage stamp.
In November 2006, the album ''Blue'' was listed by ''TIME'' magazine as among the "All-Time 100 Albums."
In 1999 Mitchell was listed as fifth on VH1's list of "The 100 Greatest Women of Rock N' Roll." In 2010, Vh1 would name her the #44 Greatest Artist of All Time.
In the 2010 film ''The Kids Are All Right'', the character Joni is supposed to have been named after Joni Mitchell since the character Nic, Joni's mother, declares to be a fan of Mitchell.
Year !!Category !! Work!! Result | ||||
1969 | Best Folk Performance | Clouds (Joni Mitchell album)>Clouds'' | ||
1974 | Album of the Year| | ''Court and Spark'' | Nomination | |
1974 | Record of the Year| | Help Me (Joni Mitchell song)>Help Me" | Nomination | |
1974 | Pop Female Vocalist| | ''Court and Spark'' | Nomination | |
1974 | Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)| | "Down To You" | Won | |
1976 | Pop Female Vocalist| | ''The Hissing of Summer Lawns'' | Nomination | |
1977 | Best Album Package| | Hejira (album)>Hejira'' | Nomination | |
1988 | Pop Female Vocalist| | ''Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm'' | Nomination | |
1995 | Best Pop Album| | ''Turbulent Indigo'' | Won | |
1995 | Best Album Package| | ''Turbulent Indigo'' | Won | |
2000 | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance| | ''Both Sides, Now'' | Nomination | |
2000 | Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album| | ''Both Sides, Now'' | Won | |
2002 | Lifetime Achievement Award| | – | Won | |
2007 | Album of the Year| | ''River: The Joni Letters'' | Won* | |
2007 | Best Pop Instrumental Performance | | | "One Week Last Summer" | Won |
;Studio releases
Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Alberta Category:Appalachian dulcimer players Category:Canadian female guitarists Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian people of Norwegian descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian people of Scottish descent Category:Companions of the Order of Canada Category:Crossover (music) Category:Female rock singers Category:Feminist musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Juno Award winners Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Southern California Category:People from Saskatoon Category:People from Willow Creek, Alberta Category:Musicians from Saskatchewan Category:Sami people
af:Joni Mitchell ca:Joni Mitchell cs:Joni Mitchell da:Joni Mitchell de:Joni Mitchell el:Τζόνι Μίτσελ es:Joni Mitchell fr:Joni Mitchell id:Joni Mitchell it:Joni Mitchell he:ג'וני מיטשל nl:Joni Mitchell ja:ジョニ・ミッチェル no:Joni Mitchell nn:Joni Mitchell pl:Joni Mitchell pt:Joni Mitchell ro:Joni Mitchell ru:Джони Митчелл sc:Joni Mitchell simple:Joni Mitchell sk:Joni Mitchellová sh:Joni Mitchell fi:Joni Mitchell sv:Joni Mitchell th:โจนี มิตเชลล์ tr:Joni Mitchell uk:Джоні Мітчелл zh:琼尼·米歇尔This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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