Lenny Kravitz

Friday, 23 November 2012

Lenny Kravitz crashes the VOP Choir in New Orleans for

Lenny Kravitz - Many Rivers To Cross (Jimmy Cliff Cover)

Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over Til It's Over

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Anaheim
Anaheim (pronounced /ˈænəhaɪm/) is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 336,265, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States. The city anticipates that the population will surpass 400,000 by 2014 because of rapid development in its Platinum Triangle area as well as in Anaheim Hills. The Platinum Triangle is the fastest growing area in Orange County. Anaheim is the second largest city in Orange County in terms of land area (after Irvine), and is known for its theme parks, sports teams and convention center.
Founded by fifty German families in 1857 and incorporated as the second city in Los Angeles County on February 10, 1870, Anaheim developed into an industrial center, producing electronics, aircraft parts and canned fruit. It is the site of the Disneyland Resort, a world-famous grouping of theme parks and hotels which opened in 1955, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Honda Center and Anaheim Convention Center, the largest convention center on the West Coast. Its name is a blend of "Ana", after the nearby Santa Ana River, and "heim", a common German place name compound originally meaning "home".

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Argentina
Argentina ⁱ/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.

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Brasília
Brasília (pronounced [bɾaˈziʎɐ] nationwide, in both colloquial and educated speech) is the federal capital of Brazil and the seat of government of the Federal District. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city is located in the Federal District, and is in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,562,963 (3,716,996 in the metropolitan area) as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the fourth largest city in Brazil. However, as a metropolitan area, it ranks lower at sixth. It is listed as a World Heritage Site UNESCO.
As the national capital, Brasília is the seat of all three branches of the Brazilian government. The city also hosts the headquarters of many Brazilian companies. Planning policies such as the location of residential buildings around expansive urban areas, as well as building the city around large avenues and dividing it into sectors, have sparked a debate and reflection on life in big cities in the 20th century. The city's design divides it into numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector or the Embassy Sector. Brasília hosts 124 foreign embassies.

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Brazil
Brazil ⁱ/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.

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Brixton Academy
The Brixton Academy, officially called O2 Academy, Brixton, is one of London's leading music venues, nightclubs and theatres. Situated in Brixton, South London, England, the building has hosted a range of leading rock acts since becoming a music venue in 1983. The maximum capacity is 4,921 (3,760 standing downstairs; 1,083 seated and 78 standing in the circle), alternatively the all-seated capacity is 2,391.
The venue started life as a cinema and theatre in 1929 on the site of a private garden in Stockwell Road. It was built at a cost of £250,000 as an "Astoria" theatre. The opening show was the Al Jolson film The Singing Fool, followed by a variety act, including Heddle Nash and Derek Oldham which was broadcast by the BBC. The building still retains many of its original features, including the proscenium arch and Art Deco interior.
The Astoria eventually closed its doors as a cinema on 29 July 1972. It was then converted into the Sundown Centre rock venue in September 1972, but was not a success and the Sundown closed down some four months later. In May 1974 planning permission was sought to demolish the Grade II listed building and replace it with a motor showroom and petrol station. However the redevelopment scheme was scrapped. The building was kept heated after it closed, and was used as an equipment store by the Rank Organisation.

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Brooklyn
Coordinates: 40°41′34″N 73°59′25″W / 40.69278°N 73.99028°W / 40.69278; -73.99028
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with approximately 2.5 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after New York County (Manhattan). It is also the westernmost county on Long Island.
Brooklyn was an independent city until it was annexed by New York City in 1898. It continues to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves where particular ethnic groups and cultures predominate.
Brooklyn's official motto is Eendraght Maeckt Maght. Written in the (early modern spelling of the) Dutch language, it is inspired by the motto of the United Dutch Provinces and translated "Unity makes strength". The motto is displayed on the borough seal and flag, which also feature a young robed woman bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of republicanism. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.

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Colombia
Colombia ( /kəˈlʌmbiə/ kə-LUM-biə, or /kəˈlɒmbiə/ kə-LOM-biə), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia has maritime borders with Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, with the fourth largest economy in Latin America, and the third largest in South America. Colombia is famous for the production of coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. All of these products make up the primary sector of economy.

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Connecticut
Connecticut (ⁱ/kəˈnɛtɨkət/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south (with which it shares a water boundary in Long Island Sound).
Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately bisects the state. Its capital city is Hartford. Much of southern and western Connecticut (along with the majority of the state's population) is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties are statistically included in the New York City combined statistical area, the same area is widely referred to as the Tri-State area. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, which is also located within the Tri-State area.
Connecticut is the 3rd least extensive, the 29th most populous, and 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Called the Constitution State, Nutmeg State, and "The Land of Steady Habits", Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States.

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Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken (/ˈhoʊboʊkən/ ho-bo-ken;Lenape: Hupokàn ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region. Hoboken is also the location of the first recorded baseball game in the United States and of the Stevens Institute of Technology, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.
Hoboken was first settled as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland colony in the 17th century. During the early 19th century the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens, first as a resort and later as a residential neighborhood. It became a township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Its waterfront was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey and home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from a blue collar town to one of upscale shops and condominiums. Hoboken is part of the New Jersey Gold Coast.

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Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances. It is the largest natural amphitheater in the United States, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its band shell, a distinctive set of concentric arches that graced the site from 1929 through 2003, before being replaced with a somewhat larger one beginning in the 2004 season. The shell is set against the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills and the famous Hollywood Sign to the Northeast.
The "bowl" refers to the shape of the concave hillside the amphitheater is carved into. The bowl is owned by the County of Los Angeles and is the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the host of hundreds of musical events each year.
It is located at 2301 North Highland Avenue, north of Hollywood Blvd and the Hollywood & Highland subway station and south of Route 101.
The site of the Hollywood Bowl was chosen in 1919 by William Reed and his son H. Ellis Reed, members of the newly formed Theatre Arts Alliance who were dispatched to find a suitable location for outdoor performances.

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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق‎ al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.

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Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (/lɑːs ˈveɪɡəs/) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its consolidated casino–hotels and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 28th-most populous city in the United States, with a population at the 2010 census of 583,756. The 2010 population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 1,951,269.
Established in 1905, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in that century (a distinction held by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and this image has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs. There are numerous outdoor lighting displays on Fremont Street, as well as elsewhere in the city.

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Manhattan
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/) is the most densely populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northward, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2010 population of 1,585,873 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km²), or 69,464 residents per square mile (26,924/km²), more dense than any individual American city. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 per capita income above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in land area.

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Milan
Milan (Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] ( listen); Lombard: [miˈlan]; Latin: Mediolanum) is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy as well as of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area is the 5th largest in EU and the largest in Italy with an estimated population of approximately 5 million. The growth of many suburbs and satellite settlements around the city proper, following the Italian economic miracle of 1950s–60s and massive commuting flows, suggest that socioeconomic linkages have expanded well beyond the boundaries of its administrative limits and its agglomeration, creating a region of approximately 9,3 million people. It has been suggested that the Milan metropolitan area is part of the so-called Blue Banana, the area of Europe with the highest population and industrial density. Its health care and education system is considered one of the best of Europe.

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Russia
Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.

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The Bahamas
The Bahamas ⁱ/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km² (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.

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Uncasville
Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut. The area traditionally known as Uncasville is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the east end of Montville, which is the area served by the Uncasville ZIP code, including the Mohegan reservation in northeastern Montville that is the site of the Mohegan Sun casino resort and the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Uncasville takes its name from Uncas, the 17th-century Mohegan sachem. Uncas established a fortified village for defense against the Pequot, now known as Fort Shantok, on an elevated site next to the Thames River near what is now the Mohegan Sun resort. He later was to welcome English colonial settlers to the Mohegan lands.
The village of Uncasville was the site of the first woolen mill in the United States, established by brothers John and Arthur Schofield. Their carding and spinning mill was located at the outlet of the Oxoboxo River.
In the 1950s the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation established a large manufacturing facility in the Sandy Desert section in northeastern Montville where Olin, and later the United Nuclear Corporation, produced nuclear reactor fuel components. After United Nuclear ceased its operations in about 1990, the site was cleaned up and released for unrestricted use. After the U.S. Department of the Interior granted federal recognition to the Mohegan tribe and the U.S. Congress passed the Mohegan Nation (Connecticut) Land Claim Settlement Act in 1994, the United Nuclear site became Mohegan reservation lands, transferred to the United States in trust, making the land available for Mohegan gaming operations. The Mohegan Sun casino opened there on October 12, 1996.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park. The ZIP codes included in this neighborhood are 10021, 10022, 10028, 10075, 10128, 10029 and 10065.
Once known as the 'Silk Stocking District', it retains its position as one of the most affluent neighborhoods of New York City.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the mouths of streams that eroded gullies in the East River bluffs are conjectured to have been the sites of fishing camps used by the Lenape, whose controlled burns once a generation or so kept the dense canopy of oak-hickory forest open at ground level.

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Valencia, Spain
Valencia (Spanish: [baˈlenθja]) or València (Valencian: [vaˈlensia]) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona, with around 809,000 inhabitants in the administrative centre. It is the 15th most populous municipality in the European Union. Valencia is also Spain's third largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.3 million. The Port of Valencia is the 5th busiest container port in Europe and the largest on the Mediterranean Sea, with a trade volume of 4.21 million TEU's.
Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC. The city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. Its historic centre is one of the largest in Spain, with approximately 169 acres; this heritage of ancient monuments, views and cultural attractions makes Valencia one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. Major monuments include Valencia Cathedral, the Torres de Serranos, the Torres de Quart, the Llotja de la Seda (declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996), and the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela. The Museu de Belles Arts de València houses a large collection of paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries, including works by Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya, as well as an important series of engravings by Piranesi. The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) houses both permanent collections and temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and photography.

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World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 in the September 11 attacks. The site is being rebuilt with five new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks. As of November 2011^[update], only one skyscraper has been completed; the other four are expected to be completed before 2020. One World Trade Center will be the lead building for the new complex, reaching more than 100 stories at its completion. It became the tallest building in New York City on April 30, 2012, and is expected to be finished by 2013. A sixth tower is awaiting confirmation.
At the time of their completion, the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), known collectively as the Twin Towers, were the tallest buildings in the world. The other buildings included 3 WTC (the Marriott World Trade Center), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC (which housed United States Customs), and 7 WTC. All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985.

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Adriana Lima
Adriana Lima (born June 12, 1981) is a Brazilian model and actress who is best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009. At the age of 15, Lima finished first in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition, and took second place the following year in the Ford "Supermodel of the World" competition before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City. Since 2005, Lima has ranked in the top five of Forbes' lists of the 20 highest-earning models in the world, and in 2006 ranked No.99 on the Forbes Celebrity 100. She is married to Serbian basketball player Marko Jarić.
Lima never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and did not want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford "Supermodel of the World" contest and finished in second place. Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio quickly began to expand, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As a runway model, she has walked the catwalks for designers such as Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani and Valentino, among others. Lima became a GUESS? girl in 2000, appearing in that year's fall ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A Second Decade of Guess? Images.

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Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, originally in a band together called the Jam Band, met up with singer Steven Tyler, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarist Ray Tabano, and formed Aerosmith. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston. Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop,heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists.
They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972, and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album, followed by their 1974 album Get Your Wings. In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars. The band released two more albums, toured extensively, and charted a string of Hot 100 singles. By the end of the 1970s, they were among the most popular hard rock bands in the world and developed a loyal following of fans, often referred to as the "Blue Army". However, drug addiction and internal conflict took their toll on the band, which resulted in the departures of Perry and Whitford in 1979 and 1981, respectively; they were replaced by Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing a lone album, Rock in a Hard Place, which went gold but failed to match their previous successes.

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Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together". In 2005, Rolling Stone named him #66 in their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. The nomination stated that "people are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music." Green has sold more than 20 million records.
Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.

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Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint (IPA: /ˈtuːseɪnt/; born January 14, 1938) is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.
Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)", "Southern Nights," "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "I'll Take a Melody" and "Mother-in-Law".
Toussaint grew up in a shotgun house in the New Orleans neighborhood of Gert Town, where his mother welcomed and fed all manner of musicians as they practiced and recorded with her son. After a lucky break at age 17 in which he stood in for Huey Smith at a performance with Earl King's band in Prichard, Alabama, Toussaint was introduced to a group of local musicians who performed regularly at a night club on LaSalle street Uptown; they were known as the Dew Drop Set. Initially, he recorded for RCA Victor as Al Tousan and recorded an album of instrumentals, including the song "Java", which years later became a big hit for Al Hirt (also on RCA).

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Angie Stone
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been most successful on the R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, including a number one album, and ten singles, including a Top 10. She has sold over 1.4 millions albums in the U.S. and over 5 millions albums worldwide.
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott.
She has a daughter and son. Her daughter Diamond (born 1984) is from her marriage to Rodney Stone (also known as Lil' Rodney C!, from the hip hop group Funky Four Plus One). Diamond contributed background vocals to her 2007 song "Baby", and gave birth to Stone's grandson in 2008. During the 1990s Stone dated neo soul singer D'Angelo. Their son Michael was born in 1998. Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Michael and fiancé Ashanti, an airline auditor who has two children of his own.

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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist. In a recording career that has spanned over half a century, Franklin's repertoire has included gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, rock and funk. Franklin is known as one of the most important popularizers of the soul music genre and is referred to as the Queen of Soul, a title she was given early in her career. Franklin, the daughter of prominent Baptist minister and activist C. L. Franklin, began her singing career singing in her father's church at the age of ten and started recording four years later. After several years in the gospel circuit and with her father's blessing, she formed a secular pop music career at the age of eighteen, signing with Columbia Records, where she was branded by its CEO John Hammond as his most important act since Billie Holiday. Franklin's Columbia period wasn't as successful as hoped and in late 1966, Franklin switched over to Atlantic Records, where she began recording a string of popular hits including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Think", "Chain of Fools" and what later became her signature song, "Respect".

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Bill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded a number of hits such as "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". His life was recently the subject of the documentary film Still Bill.
Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. Raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia, Withers was twelve years old when his father died. He enlisted with the United States Navy at age eighteen and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs. Soon after his discharge from the Navy in 1965, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career.
Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to resign his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other acts.

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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan ( /ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

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Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers (1963–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.
Marley's music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica. His best-known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Get Up Stand Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, "Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album Legend (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten times Platinum which is also known as one Diamond in the U.S., and selling 25 million copies worldwide.

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Brian Transeau
Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971) is a Grammy-nominated American music producer, composer, audio technician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter better known by his stage name, BT. He is an artist in the electronic genre. BT has produced and written for artists such as Paul Van Dyk, Peter Gabriel, 'N Sync, Sting, Blake Lewis, Tori Amos, and Tiesto. As a film composer he has worked on films such as The Fast and the Furious and Monster.
BT is known for using a production technique he calls the stutter edit. This technique consists of taking a small fragment (or fragments) of sound and then repeating it rhythmically. BT was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for his song "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)". This song was recognized as using the largest number of vocal edits in a song (6,178 edits). BT's work with stutter edit techniques led to the formation of software development company, Sonik Architects, and the development of the sound-processing software plug-in Stutter Edit. The company also released a music remix app for iPhone called Sonifi.

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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

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Chris Willis
Christopher "Chris" Willis is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Although initially a gospel singer, he later received international attention for his collaborations with house music artist David Guetta, including on the songs "Just a Little More Love", "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away), "Love Is Gone", "Tomorrow Can Wait", "Everytime We Touch" (with Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso) and "Gettin' Over You", all with Guetta.

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Count Basie
William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother first taught him piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and improvised to accompany silent films at a local theater in his town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them for years, until Moten's death in 1935.
That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump," developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and "April In Paris".

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Craig Ross
Craig David Ross is an American guitarist best known for performing and recording with Lenny Kravitz.
Craig Ross was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He has two daughters named Mia and Devon. His wife's name is Anna. Anna modeled in the mid '90s in South Beach Miami, FL under the name Anna Bauer.
Craig Ross picked up the guitar at age 8, following a path that he hasn't deviated from since. That first guitar, borrowed from a neighbor's garage, was his foray into the world of the Beatles and Chuck Berry, his early influences. Before the age of 16, he started playing the L.A. clubs and eventually formed the band The Broken Homes in high school. They opened for the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan, INXS, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among others, while doing clubs gigs with bands such as Guns N' Roses and Jane's Addiction. The band made three records for MCA records in the 80's, working with producers such as Andy Johns of Zeppelin and Stones fame. This seminal period gave Craig his education in studio work.

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Cree Summer
Cree Summer Francks (born July 7, 1969), best known as Cree Summer, is a Canadian actress, musician and voice actress.
She is perhaps best known for her role as college student Winifred "Freddie" Brooks on the NBC sitcom A Different World. As a voice actress Summer is best known for voicing Penny in Inspector Gadget during Season 1, Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures, Susie Carmichael on Rugrats and All Grown Up, Princess Kida in Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Numbuh 5 in Codename: Kids Next Door, and Cleo the Poodle in Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Summer (born Los Angeles, California on July 7, 1969) grew up on the Red Pheasant Reserve in Saskatchewan. She is the daughter of Canadians Don Francks and Lili Red Eagle, a member of the Plains Cree First Nations. Her brother, Rainbow Sun Francks, is a former MuchMusic VJ.
Summer's career began in 1983 when she was cast as the voice of niece Penny on the original cartoon version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to casting agents (as well as viewers even today), who began frequently casting her in animated programs. Many of these were part of cult franchises, like The Care Bears Movie (1985) and Ewoks (1985, part of the Star Wars franchise).

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David Bowie
David Bowie ( /ˈboʊ.i/ BOH-ee; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.

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Doug Nichol
Doug Nichol is an American filmmaker and commercials/music video director.
A graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, he started his career as a cinematographer working with David Bowie, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and U2 and was director of photography on Madonna’s infamous Truth or Dare (documentary). He has also directed campaigns for Levi's, Mercedes-Benz, Heineken, Virgin Mobile, Smirnoff, Toyota, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, Peugeot, and American Express among others.
He won a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for Sting’s Ten Summoner's Tales and also received two other Grammy nominations for work with Aerosmith and NKOTB. He has won several MTV awards including Best Rock Video for Aerosmith’s Pink (song). His epic music video for This is Hardcore by Pulp has consistently been listed as one of the top music videos of all time.

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Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington." A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.

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Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday School.

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Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

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Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Domino was French Creole and Creole was his first language. Domino was delivered at home by his midwife grandmother who was born into enslavement in 1857. Like most families in the Lower Ninth Ward, Domino's family were new arrivals from the sugar and cotton plantations. His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his Uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five Gold (million selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American Hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles or Bass, Piano, Electric Guitar, Drums, and Saxophone.
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a strong back beat. "The Fat Man" sold one million copies by 1953. Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That A Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles.

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Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 — 2 August 1997), or simply Fela ([feˈlæ]), was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.

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Fred Wesley
Fred Wesley (born July 4, 1943) is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s.
Wesley was born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in Mobile, Alabama, the son of a high school teacher and big band leader. As a child he took piano and later trumpet lessons, and at around the age of 12 his father brought a trombone home, whereupon he switched to trombone.
During the 1960s and 1970s he was a pivotal member of James Brown's bands, playing on many hit recordings including "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn" and co-writing tunes such as "Hot Pants". His slippery riffs and pungent, precise solos, complementing those of saxophonist Maceo Parker, gave Brown's R&B, soul, and funk tunes their instrumental punch. In the 1970s he also served as band leader and musical director of Brown's band the J.B.'s and did much of the composing and arranging for the group. His name was credited on 'Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s' recording of "Doing It to Death", which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in July 1973. He left Brown's band in 1975 and spent several years playing with George Clinton's various Parliament-Funkadelic projects, even recording a couple of albums as the leader of a spin-off group, The Horny Horns.

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Gamble and Huff
Kenneth Gamble (born August 11, 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Leon A. Huff (born April 8, 1942, Camden, New Jersey) are an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced over 170 gold and platinum records. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International Records label. On March 10, 2008 the team was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category.
Kenneth Gamble's childhood in Philadelphia shaped his adult life: he recorded himself on various arcade recording machines, assisted the morning show DJs on WDAS, operated a record store, and sang with The Romeos. In 1964, before there was "Gamble & Huff" there was "Gamble & Ross." Gamble was discovered and managed by Jerry Ross when Gamble was only 17 years old and they collaborated for many years. Gamble teamed up with Leon Huff (keyboards) for the first time on a recording for Candy & The Kisses. Ross then signed Gamble to Columbia Records in 1963 as a solo recording artist, releasing "You Don't Know What You Got Until You Lose It". Gamble & Ross & Huff collaborated on the hit song "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", recorded by Dee Dee Warwick and later by Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations.

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Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈmaːlɐ]; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.
As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

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James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.
In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in music history, and one of the most influential musicians of his era despite mainstream exposure limited to just three years. After initial success in Europe with his group The Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, he headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. He often favored raw overdriven amplifiers with high gain and treble and helped develop the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback.
Hendrix helped to popularize use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, which he often used to deliver tonal exaggerations in his solos, particularly with high bends, complex guitar playing, and use of legato. As a record producer, he also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic phasing effects for rock recording.^{[citation needed]} He was influenced by blues artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Elmore James,rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper, and the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Hendrix began dressing and wearing a moustache like Little Richard when he performed and recorded in his band from March 1, 1964 through to the spring of 1965. In 1966, he stated, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice".

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John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.

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Karl Denson
Karl Denson (born 1956) is a funk and jazz saxophonist, flutist and vocalist from San Diego, California. He was a member of Lenny Kravitz's band and has co-founded and led The Greyboy Allstars. Denson has recorded with artists including Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blackalicious, Stanton Moore, and Jon Foreman of the rock band Switchfoot. As of 2007 he continues to lead his own Karl Denson's Tiny Universe and Karl Denson Trio (KD3).
Members of Karl Denson's Tiny Universe include Denson (saxophone, flute), Ron Johnson (bass), Chris Littlefield (trumpet), Brian Jordan (guitar), David Veith (keyboards) and John Staten (drums).
Newest guitar player D.J. Williams joins summer of 2011
KD3 is Denson with keyboardist Anthony Smith (Global Funk, Giant People) and drummer Brett Sanders (brother of John Staten).
Steve Winwood, About Time (album), Different Light (song) (2005

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Kazem Al Saher
Kadim Al Sahir (Arabic: كاظم الساهر‎; born September 12, 1957 in Mosul, Iraq), is an Iraqi singer, composer, and poet. He has been dubbed the "Caesar of Arabic Song", and "Iraq’s Ambassador to the world".
Kadim Al Sahir, whose first name is also written alternatively as Kazem, Kadhem, Kathem, Kazim and his family name alternatively as Saher, El Saher and Al Saher, has established himself as one of the most successful singers in the history of the Arab World, having sold more than 100 million albums worldwide since the start of his career. Ranging from big romantic ballads to more political work, from pop to Arab classical music.
Al Sahir was born in Mosul in 1957 to a Shiaa mother from Najaf and a Sunni father from Samarra. His father lived in Baghdad, but was a Samarra native from the tribe of Albu Daraj. He grew up and spent a large part of his life in Alhurrya city in Baghdad. He is the son of a palace worker and has nine siblings.
Apart from his mother, Al Saher's family were never supportive of his direction in becoming a musician. They had no faith in him that he would become successful, and instead wanted him to become a doctor or a lawyer. Sahir's brother once took him to a different places where people sing, and told him it's your choice to sing a respectful way and choose the good or the bad way. He said that the only way to achieve success is if you respect your music and respect yourself, He has two sons (Omar & Wissam).

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Marc Webb
Marc Preston Webb (born August 31, 1974) is an American music video, short film and major motion picture director. He made his directorial debut with the 2009 romantic comedy-drama (500) Days of Summer and has recently directed the upcoming 2012 Spider-Man reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.
Webb was born in Bloomington, Indiana, the son of Margaret Ruth (née Stocker) and Norman Lott Webb, who works in math education at the University of Wisconsin. When he was eighteen months old, Webb's family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was raised. He graduated from Madison West High School, and subsequently attended Colorado College, from which he graduated with an English degree.
His feature length debut, (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, was released in July 2009 to an extremely positive critical reception. In January 2010, Columbia Pictures hired Webb to direct The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise, scheduled to be released in 2012 and starring Andrew Garfield.

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Maria McKee
Maria Luisa McKee (born August 17, 1964, Los Angeles, California) is an American singer and songwriter. She is best known for her work with Lone Justice and her 1990 UK solo chart-topping hit, "Show Me Heaven".
McKee was a founding member of the cowpunk/country rock band, Lone Justice, in 1982, with whom she released two albums. Several compilations of both previously released and unreleased material and a BBC Live In Concert album have been released since their demise. Her band opened for such acts as U2.
When she was 19, she wrote Feargal Sharkey's 1985 UK number one hit "A Good Heart", a song she has since recorded herself and released on her album Late December. The song was originally written about her failed relationship with musician Benmont Tench. Sharkey would later go on to also cover "To Miss Someone" from her self-titled solo debut, on his third solo album "Songs From The Mardi Gras".
In 1987 she was featured in the Robbie Robertson video "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and contributed back-up vocals to his debut solo album, which included the song. She released her first solo, self-titled album in 1989. Her song "Show Me Heaven", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Days of Thunder, was a number one single in the United Kingdom for four weeks in 1990. She refused to perform this song in public up until recently, when she sang it for the first time in eighteen years, at Dublin Gay Pride.

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Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek (born September 18, 1959) is an American filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and commercials.
He wrote and directed the critically acclaimed 2002 film One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams. His most notable music videos include "Hurt" (Johnny Cash), "Closer" (Nine Inch Nails), "Criminal" (Fiona Apple), and "Scream" (Michael & Janet Jackson). His music videos have garnered 20 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Direction for Jay-Z's "99 Problems" in 2004. He has also won three Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video — more than any other director.
Romanek was born in Chicago, Illinois. He credits seeing Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, at the age of nine, and again during its re-release in 1973, with inspiring him to become a film director. Romanek experimented with Super 8 and 16mm film as a teenager while attending New Trier East, a progressive public high school north of Chicago that offered a four-year film production and theory program. At New Trier, Romanek studied first with Kevin Dole, a local filmmaker who was already creating a form of music video on his own in the mid-1970s; and then with Peter Kingsbury, a filmmaker who had studied with experimentalists Owen Land, John Luther Schofill and Stan Brakhage at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both teachers had studied at SAIC and they exposed students to works by significant figures of the American avant-garde cinema such as Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Owen Land and Paul Sharits. Romanek subsequently attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from its Roy H. Park School of Communications with a degree in cinema and photography.

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Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.

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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.

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Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician.
Kamen was born in New York City, USA. He was the second of four sons. His father Saul Kamen was a dentist, and his mother was a teacher.
While attending the The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Michael Kamen met and became friends with Martin Fulterman (later known as Mark Snow, who composed the theme music for The X-Files among other projects). While studying the oboe, he formed a rock classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, together with classmates Fulterman and Dorian Rudnytsky. The group performed their music while dressed in tuxedos. In the middle of the concert, Fulterman and Kamen would play an oboe duet. The group backed up friend and classmate Janis Ian in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in late 1967.
After graduating high school, Kamen attended The Juilliard School, also in New York City.

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Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of The Rolling Stones.
Jagger's career has spanned over fifty years. Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". His distinctive voice and performance, along with Keith Richards' guitar style, have been the trademark of The Rolling Stones throughout the career of the band. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Rolling Stones.
Jagger gained much press notoriety for admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a counterculture figure. In the late 1960s Jagger began acting in films (starting with Performance and Ned Kelly), to mixed reception. In 1985, Jagger released his first solo album, She's the Boss, and was knighted in 2003. In early 2009, he joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy.
Jagger was born into a middle class family at Livingstone Hospital, in Dartford, Kent, England. His father, Basil Fanshawe ("Joe") Jagger (13 April 1913 – 11 November 2006), and his grandfather David Ernest Jagger were both teachers. His mother, Eva Ensley Mary (née Scutts; 6 April 1913 – 18 May 2000), born in New South Wales, Australia, was a hairdresser and an active member of the Conservative Party. Jagger is the elder of two sons (his brother Chris Jagger was born on 19 December 1947) and was raised to follow in his father's career path.

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Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.
Miles Dewey Davis was born on May 26, 1926, to an affluent African American family in Alton, Illinois. His father, Dr. Miles Henry Davis, was a dentist. In 1927 the family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois. They also owned a substantial ranch in northern Arkansas, where Davis learned to ride horses as a boy.
Davis' mother, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, wanted her son to learn the piano; she was a capable blues pianist but kept this fact hidden from her son. His musical studies began at 13, when his father gave him a trumpet and arranged lessons with local musician Elwood Buchanan. Davis later suggested that his father's instrument choice was made largely to irk his wife, who disliked the trumpet's sound. Against the fashion of the time, Buchanan stressed the importance of playing without vibrato; he was reported to have slapped Davis' knuckles every time he started using heavy vibrato. Davis would carry his clear signature tone throughout his career. He once remarked on its importance to him, saying, "I prefer a round sound with no attitude in it, like a round voice with not too much tremolo and not too much bass. Just right in the middle. If I can’t get that sound I can’t play anything."Clark Terry was another important early influence.^{[citation needed]}

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Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her second studio album, Folklore, was released. It was less commercially successful in the US but produced three international singles: "Powerless (Say What You Want)", "Try", and "Força" (the theme of the 2004 European Football Championship). Her third studio album, Loose was her biggest success worldwide. It produced the number-one hits "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". After a three-year break, she released her first full-length Spanish album, Mi Plan. For Mi Plan, Furtado received the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. Furtado's fourth English-language studio album, The Spirit Indestructible, is set for release on September 18, 2012.

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Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award–winning American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona (1987), The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Adaptation (2002), National Treasure (2004), Lord of War (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).
Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964 in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, a professor of literature, and his mother, Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer, divorced in 1976. He was raised in a Catholic family. Cage's mother is of German descent and his father was of Italian descent. His paternal grandparents were composer Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Pennino, and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata. Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy.

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Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer, film producer, and humanitarian. Kidman began her career in 1983, starring in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Kidman followed this with other successful films in the late 1990s. It was her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) which earned Kidman her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf the following year in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005), and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades including a subsequent Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. Kidman's work has earned her a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor, and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.

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P. Diddy
Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy have been used as nicknames, but never as recording names). In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy", but continues to use the name P. Diddy in the UK as the result of a lawsuit. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He formed and recorded with the group Diddy – Dirty Money.
Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records and then founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. His business interests—under the umbrella of Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide—include Bad Boy Records, the clothing lines Sean John and "Sean by Sean Combs", a movie production company, and two restaurants. He has taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. In 2011, Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop.

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Pee Wee Ellis
Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (born April 21, 1941) is an American saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was an important member of James Brown's band in the 1960s and appeared on many of Brown's most notable recordings. He also worked closely with Van Morrison.
In later years, he became a resident of England, living in the town of Frome in the county of Somerset.
Born in Bradenton, Florida, Ellis's family moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1949, where he was given his nickname "Pee Wee". He gave his first public performance in 1954 at Dunbar Junior High School. In 1955 he moved with his family to Rochester, New York. While attending Madison High School he played professionally with jazz musicians like Ron Carter and Chuck Mangione. In 1957 he moved to New York City, where he attended Manhattan School of Music and had regular lessons with Sonny Rollins. In 1960 he moved back to Florida working as a bandleader, musical director and writer.
Ellis played with the James Brown Revue from 1965 to 1969. While with Brown he arranged and co-wrote hits like "Cold Sweat" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". In 1969 he returned to New York City. He worked as an arranger and musical director for CTI Records' Kudu label, collaborating with artists like George Benson, Hank Crawford and Esther Phillips. In the late 1970s he moved to San Francisco and formed a band with former Miles Davis sideman David Liebman. Between 1979 and 1986 he worked with Van Morrison's band as an arranger and musical director and then again from 1995 through 1999. He also gave occasional performances in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2006 as guest appearances.

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Pharell Williams
Pharrell Williams (born April 5, 1973), commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music. He is also the lead vocalist and drummer of hip-hop band N.E.R.D, which he formed with Hugo and childhood friend Shay Haley. He released his first single "Frontin'" in 2003 and followed up with his first album In My Mind in 2006.
As part of The Neptunes, Williams has produced numerous hit singles for various musicians. The two have earned three Grammy Awards amongst ten nominations. He is also the co-founder of the clothing brands Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Clothing. He is a member of the supergroup V.A. Playaz with Fam-Lay, Clipse, Skillz, Missy Elliott, and Timbaland & Magoo.
Pharrell Williams was born on April 5, 1973, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the eldest of three sons of Carolyn, a teacher, and Pharaoh Williams, a handyman. He met Chad Hugo in a seventh-grade summer band camp where Williams played the keyboards and drums and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were also both members of a marching band; Williams played the snare drum while Chad was student conductor. With Hugo, Williams attended Princess Anne High School where they played in the school band; there he got the name Skateboard P.

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Pharrell
Pharrell Williams (born April 5, 1973), commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music. He is also the lead vocalist and drummer of hip-hop band N.E.R.D, which he formed with Hugo and childhood friend Shay Haley. He released his first single "Frontin'" in 2003 and followed up with his first album In My Mind in 2006.
As part of The Neptunes, Williams has produced numerous hit singles for various musicians. The two have earned three Grammy Awards amongst ten nominations. He is also the co-founder of the clothing brands Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Clothing. He is a member of the supergroup V.A. Playaz with Fam-Lay, Clipse, Skillz, Missy Elliott, and Timbaland & Magoo.
Pharrell Williams was born on April 5, 1973, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the eldest of three sons of Carolyn, a teacher, and Pharaoh Williams, a handyman. He met Chad Hugo in a seventh-grade summer band camp where Williams played the keyboards and drums and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were also both members of a marching band; Williams played the snare drum while Chad was student conductor. With Hugo, Williams attended Princess Anne High School where they played in the school band; there he got the name Skateboard P.

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Roxie Roker
Roxie Albertha Roker (August 28, 1929 – December 2, 1995) was an American actress, best known for her groundbreaking role as Helen Willis on the sitcom The Jeffersons, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television. She is the mother of musician Lenny Kravitz, the grandmother of actress Zoe Kravitz and the cousin of NBC's Today Show's Al Roker.
Roker was born in Miami, Florida. Her mother, Bessie (née Mitchell), was from Georgia and worked as a domestic, and her father, Albert Roker, was a native of The Bahamas and a porter.
She grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She attended and graduated from Howard University, where she was a member of the drama club and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Roker began her professional career with the Negro Ensemble Company and became a successful stage actress. She won an Obie Award in 1974 and was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of Mattie Williams in The River Niger.
She was a reporter on WNEW-TV in New York in the 1970s and hosted a public affairs show for the station known as Inside Bed-Stuy, dealing with events in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

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Sean Combs
Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy have been used as nicknames, but never as recording names). In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy", but continues to use the name P. Diddy in the UK as the result of a lawsuit. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He formed and recorded with the group Diddy – Dirty Money.
Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records and then founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. His business interests—under the umbrella of Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide—include Bad Boy Records, the clothing lines Sean John and "Sean by Sean Combs", a movie production company, and two restaurants. He has taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. In 2011, Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop.

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Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop. She has won nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
She has performed with The Rolling Stones and has sung duets with Mick Jagger,Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Michelle Branch, and Sting among others. She has performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle. She also sang as part of the back up vocals for the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary celebrating Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist. Crow has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and a live album, and has contributed to film soundtracks. She has sold 16 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide and her newest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released on July 20, 2010. Recently she appeared on NBC's 30 Rock, ABC's GCB and Cougar Town, Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

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Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N' Roses, Slash formed the side project Slash's Snakepit. He then co-founded the supergroup Velvet Revolver, which re-established him as a mainstream performer in the mid to late 2000s. In 2010, Slash released his eponymous debut solo album, featuring an all-star roster of guest musicians. His second album, Apocalyptic Love, recorded with his band, was released on May 22, 2012.
Slash has received critical acclaim as a guitarist. Time named him runner-up on their list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009, while Rolling Stone placed him at No. 65 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011.Guitar World ranked his solo in "November Rain" No. 6 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos" in 2008, and Total Guitar placed his riff in "Sweet Child o' Mine" at No. 1 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Riffs" in 2004.

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Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler (born Steven Victor Tallaricco; March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his high-energy performances, he usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand. In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the frontman of Aerosmith, which released such milestone hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had a heavy drug and alcohol addiction, and the band's popularity waned.
He completed drug rehabilitation in 1986 and subsequently maintained sobriety for years, but had a relapse with prescription painkillers in the late 2000s, for which he successfully received treatment in 2009. After Aerosmith launched a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the albums Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip, Tyler became a household name and has remained a relevant rock icon. As a result, he has since embarked on several solo endeavors including guest appearances on other artists' music, film and TV roles (including as a judge on American Idol), authoring a bestselling book, and solo work (including a Top 40 hit single in 2011). However, he has continued to record music and perform with Aerosmith, after more than 41 years in the band. He is included among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers. He was also ranked 3rd on Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2001 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Aerosmith, and he was the presenter when AC/DC was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.

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Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

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Sy Kravitz
Seymour "Sy" Kravitz (December 10, 1924 – October 29, 2005) was an American filmmaker and NBC TV news producer.
Kravitz was of Russian Jewish descent. He was married to actress Roxie Roker from 1962 to 1985. Kravitz and Roker had a son together, rock musician Lenny Kravitz. Lenny, born on May 26, 1964, was named after Sy's brother, PFC Leonard Harold Kravitz, who was killed in action in the Korean War while defending against a Chinese attack and saving most of his platoon, and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Sy was a Hollywood producer and his environment of celebrities and up-and-coming stars was influential on his son's musical career. He died of leukemia in New York City one and a half months before his 81st birthday when Lenny Kravitz was playing his first concert in the all-US tour with Aerosmith. The Let Love Rule singer paid tribute to his father in front of fans at a Mohegan Sun Casino Arena show in Connecticut on October 31, 2005.

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Wisin & Yandel
Wisin & Yandel are a Puerto Rican reggaeton duo, consisting of Juan Luis Morera Luna (Wisin) and Llandel Veguilla Malavé (Yandel). They started their career in 1998 and have been together since, winning several awards during that time.
Their biggest hits are "Rakata", "Llamé Pa' Verte (Bailando Sexy)", "Pam Pam", "Sexy Movimiento", "Pegao", "Síguelo", "Abusadora","Zun Zun Rompiendo Caderas","Gracias a Tí","Tu Olor". Wisin & Yandel have collaborated with internationally known artists such as R. Kelly on "Burn It Up", Paris Hilton on the reggaeton remix to her debut single "Stars Are Blind", Ja Rule on "Rakata (Remix)", Lenny Kravitz on "Breathe" (a promotional song for Absolut Vodka), Mexican Pop group RBD on "Lento (Yandel)", compatriots La Secta AllStar on "Llora Mi Corazón", Fat Joe on "Jangueo", Nelly Furtado on "Sexy Movimiento (Remix)", 50 Cent on "Mujeres In The Club", "No Dejemos Que Se Apague" and "Así Soy" along with G-Unit, Akon on "All Up 2 You" along with Aventura, Enrique Iglesias on "No Me Digas Que No" and "Gracias a Tí", Gloria Estefan on "No Llores (Remix)", T-Pain on "Imaginate", "No Dejemos Que Se Apague," and in a remix for "Reverse Cowgirl", and Jennifer Lopez on "Follow the Leader.

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Zoë Kravitz
Zoë Isabella Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress, singer and model. She is the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet. She has appeared in the films The Brave One (2007) with Jodie Foster, and No Reservations (2007) with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Kravitz played Pearl on the fourth season of the Showtime television series Californication, and appeared as Angel Salvadore in the 2011 film X-Men: First Class.
Kravitz was born in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, at the canal-front home of her parents, actress Lisa Bonet and musician Lenny Kravitz. Her paternal grandmother, actress Roxie Roker, was of African American and Bahamian descent (and a second cousin of meteorologist Al Roker), and her maternal grandfather, Allen Bonet, is African American. Her paternal grandfather, Sy Kravitz, and maternal grandmother, Arlene Litman, were both Jewish. Zoë Kravitz identifies as a secular Jew.
Kravitz's parents married in 1987 and divorced six years later, in 1993, when she was five. She lived with her mother until age eleven, and then lived with her father, while spending summers with her mother. Kravitz attended Miami Country Day School in Miami, Florida, and then Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan, New York, where she graduated in 2007. Kravitz began studying that year at the acting conservatory at the State University of New York at Purchase. She left college after a year and moved to Brooklyn to work in films.

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Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away

Music video by Lenny Kravitz performing Fly Away....

published: 03 Dec 2007

author: virginrecords

Lenny Kravitz - Again

Music video by Lenny Kravitz performing Again....

published: 03 Dec 2007

author: virginrecords

Lenny Kravitz - I'll Be Waiting

Music video by Lenny Kravitz performing I'll Be Waiting....

published: 09 Jan 2008

author: CapitolMusic

Lenny Kravitz - American Woman

Music video by Lenny Kravitz performing American Woman....

published: 25 Feb 2008

author: CapitolMusic

Lenny Kravitz crashes the VOP Choir in New Orleans for "Fly Away"

Update: the choir is The Voice of Praise Choir from First Baptist Church in Lewisville. Ye...

published: 26 Jun 2010

author: lennykravitz

Lenny Kravitz - Many Rivers To Cross (Jimmy Cliff Cover)

beautiful version of this song!...

published: 11 Mar 2008

author: Mauro Juliano

Lenny Kravitz on 'The Hunger Games'

This handsome rock star was here to tell Ellen about his exciting role in the new film, "T...

published: 06 Mar 2012

author: TheEllenShow

Lenny Kravitz - If You Can't Say No

With Milla Jovovich Album: 5 (1999)...

published: 04 Jun 2007

author: joghth

Lenny Kravitz - Calling All Angels

Boski Lenny w Boskim teledysku :) Calling all angels I need you near to the ground I miss ...

published: 10 Jan 2008

author: elaaaelaaa

Lenny Kravitz "Thinking Of You" Acoustic 2010 Tribute To Mother Roxie Roker

Happy Birthday Mama. Lenny. Filmed by at home in the Bahamas, August 28, 2010. "Thinking O...

published: 29 Aug 2010

author: lennykravitz

Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over Til It's Over

published: 06 May 2011

author: LennyKravitzVEVO

Lenny Kravitz - Always On The Run

Music video by Lenny Kravitz performing Always On The Run....

published: 25 Feb 2008

author: CapitolMusic

Lenny Kravitz Live Rock in Rio Lisboa

Lenny Kravitz Live Rock in Rio Lisboa Portugal 30.05.2008 1. Back in Vietnam 2. Bring it o...

published: 04 May 2011

author: kartagina86

Lenny Kravitz - Stand

published: 18 Jul 2011

author: RoadrunnerRecords

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photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza

FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2008 file photo, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the accused gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India.

India hangs gunman from 2008 Mumbai attack

Herald Tribune

21 Nov 2012

MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)

photo: AP

On March 10, 1973, more than one week after seizing Wounded Knee, S.D., and starting a standoff with federal authorities, members of the Oglala Sioux tribe march to the cemetery where their ancestors were buried following the 1890 massacre at the site.

Amerindians and Politics of Thanksgiving and Black Friday

WorldNews.com

23 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. I was fortunate to have been raised near an American Indian archaeological spot located on the Great Plains. In elementary school, a fellow classmate would periodically bring and show grinding stones, arrow- and spearheads, stone farming implements, and pictures of what the excavated site may have...(size: 7.1Kb)

photo: AP / Emilio Morenatti

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry arrives at the Supreme Court compound in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

Pakistan's powerful military under scrutiny

Al Jazeera

22 Nov 2012

A new battle is underway in Pakistan with its powerful military front-and-centre, but the fight is not against armed insurgents or ideological extremists - this opponent is a muscle-flexing Supreme Court. For the first time in decades, the military's iron grip over the South Asian country has been challenged, and it remains to be seen if it will...(size: 23.7Kb)

photo: AP / Melanie Gouby

People walk past as M23 rebel soldier's take positions near the Heal Africa hospital in the center of Goma, Congo, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012.

DR Congo soldiers surrender to M23

Al Jazeera

21 Nov 2012

Hundreds of government soldiers and police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to rebels at a stadium in Goma, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri has reported from the scene. The M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million...(size: 18.7Kb)

photo: UN / Logan Abassi

Hurricane Sandy passed to the west of Haiti on 25 October, 2012, causing heavy rains and strong winds, flooding homes and overflowing rivers. A woman walks through a flooded market in Port-au-Prince.

UN says carbon cuts too slow to curb dangerous warming

BBC News

21 Nov 2012

A report by the UN says global attempts to curb emissions of CO2 are falling well short of what is needed to stem dangerous climate change. The UN's Environment Programme says greenhouse gases are 14% above where they need to be in 2020 for temperature rises this century to remain below 2C. The authors say this target is still technically...(size: 3.5Kb)

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Populist: Items of interest this week

The Guardian

24 Nov 2012

From Seinfeld's 20 year masturbation anniversary to Steve Coogan's reverse endorsing of Hacked Off Is that a gun in your pocket … The Seinfeld gang...(size: 2.1Kb)

The waters and the wild

Irish Times

24 Nov 2012

LENNY ANTONELLI��encounters a trout river and deceiving mushrooms The terrain between the northern end of Lough Corrib and the mountains of Connemara is tough to categorise. It��s a place where flat lakeland meets quartzite peaks, yet it doesn��t belong to either. The region��s folding plateaus are softer and greener than the neighbouring...(size: 3.5Kb)

Lenny Kravitz To Play Marvin Gaye In Julien Temple's Midnight Love

IMDb

23 Nov 2012

British director Julien Temple has carved an admirable niche for himself, 1988 effort Earth Girls Are Easy standing as...(size: 0.8Kb)

Lions get robbed, Redskins beat Cowboys, Jets shoot selves in foot

The Examiner

23 Nov 2012

Related topics Top NewsNFLCowboyslionsRedskinsKirsten McDowell Advertisement The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys play NFL games every Thanksgiving against a rotation of opponents. In 1945, the Lions started having a permanent Thanksgiving day presence. The Cowboys began their long tradition in 1966 when they were only 6 years old. If memory...(size: 7.2Kb)

Cellar Door Takeover listings

Skiddle

23 Nov 2012

The Nest, Dalston, London Fri 23rd November 2012 Cellar Door are back to take over The Nest and again have unearthed some real live music treats for you. Date: Friday 23rd November 2012 Venue: The Nest » Location: London » Doors: 8:00am til 4:00am (last entry 4:00am) Short url: http://www.skiddle.com/events/11760550/ event info venue news Cellar...(size: 3.1Kb)

Mitt Romney, Wife Ann Give Thanksgiving Wishes In Facebook Post (PHOTO)

Huffington Post

23 Nov 2012

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann shared a tender moment on Facebook on Friday, posting a picture of the two of them smiling in a kitchen around the Thanksgiving holiday....(size: 4.8Kb)

Chinese references 'digitally removed from Red Dawn' remake

Digital Spy

23 Nov 2012

Negative references to China have been removed from new film Red Dawn to "avoid antagonising Beijing", it has been claimed. According to Sky News, film studio MGM decided to edit "Chinese villains" out of the film when they realised the plot "would offend Beijing". The invading country in the film has now been changed to North Korea. Red Dawn,...(size: 8.5Kb)

Red Bull fly out new upgrades just in time for the season-ending Brazilian GP

Sky Sports

23 Nov 2012

Signalling their determination to win both of this year's World Championships, Red Bull have flown last-minute car updates from their Milton Keynes base to Interlagos ahead of Sunday's season-ending Brazilian GP....(size: 2.0Kb)

Don't bite on colorful phishing lures! (Black Friday deals you can do without)

The Examiner

23 Nov 2012

Related topics phishingBlack FridaymalwareAppleiTunes Advertisement Today (November 23, 2012), several good sources report the appearance of a new Black Friday phony invoice/phishing scam that's related to Apple iTunes purchases. The email message that you receive appears to be an authentic message from Apple, notifying you of a $699.99 credit card...(size: 7.6Kb)

WPIAL Class A Championship: Going bear hunting

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

23 Nov 2012

Sto-Rox has won all three of its WPIAL playoff games by at least two touchdowns and averaged 35 points. But now, the Vikings have a meeting with a totally different animal. The Bears are coming for breakfast. Sto-Rox (11-1) takes on the mighty Clairton Bears (12-0) in the WPIAL Class A championship at 11 this morning at Heinz Field. While Sto-Rox...(size: 5.5Kb)

Lewis Hamilton topped tight Practice One for title-deciding Brazilian GP

Sky Sports

23 Nov 2012

Lewis Hamilton has got his attempts to end his McLaren career with back-to-back victories off to the perfect start by setting the pace in Practice One in Brazil - but there was little to choose between them and Red Bull.ne The opening timesheet of the title-deciding weekend was skewed somewhat by teams having access to an additional set of tyres,...(size: 2.9Kb)

Lewis Hamilton topped an incredibly tight first practice session for the Brazilian GP

Sky Sports

23 Nov 2012

Mr Lenny Makes a Comeback At the Guiness Football Challenge

All Africa

23 Nov 2012

[The Star]Football fans who turned up...(size: 0.3Kb)

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Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Leonard Albert Kravitz
Also known as	Lenny Kravitz, Lenny, Romeo Blue (former)
Born	(1964-05-26) May 26, 1964 (age 48) New York City, United States
Genres	Rock, funk rock, hard rock, neo-psychedelia, neo soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, lyricist, record producer, arranger, actor, interior designer, clothing designer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, sitar, piano, synthesizer
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Virgin, Roadrunner, Atlantic
Associated acts	Karl Denson, Danny Dyer, Vanessa Paradis, Madonna, Slash, Aerosmith, Mick Jagger, Sheryl Crow, Guns N' Roses, Baha Men, Michael Kamen, Angie Stone, Cree Summer, Lionel Richie, Zoro, Craig Ross, Jay-Z, Jazzanova, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Draco Rosa, Wisin & Yandel, Erykah Badu
Website	www.lennykravitz.com
Notable instruments
Guitars: Gibson Flying V Gibson Les Paul White Gibson SG

Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose “retro” style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos.

He won the Grammy Award for "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance" four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category and most consecutive wins in one category for a male. He has been nominated for and won other awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, BRIT Awards and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. On December 1, 2011, Kravitz was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He played the role of Cinna in the film The Hunger Games.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Books-biography
5 Discography
6 Filmography
7 Tours
8 Awards
9 See also
10 References
11 Sources
12 Further reading
13 External links

Early life [link]

Kravitz was born in New York City on May 26, 1964. He is the son of Roxie Roker, an actress known for her character Helen Willis in the 1970s hit television sitcom The Jeffersons, and Sy Kravitz, an NBC television news producer. His father was Jewish (from a family with origins in Russia); his mother was of Bahamian and African-American descent, and was from a Christian family.^[1]^[2] Kravitz was named after his uncle, Private First Class Leonard Kravitz, who was killed in action in the Korean War at age 20 while defending against a Chinese attack and saving most of his platoon; he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.^[3] Kravitz grew up spending weekdays on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his parents, attending P.S.6 for elementary school, and weekends at his grandmother Bessie Roker's house in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Kravitz began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three. At the age of five, he wanted to be a musician. He began playing the drums and soon added guitar. Kravitz grew up listening to the music his parents listened to: R&B, jazz, classical, opera, gospel, and blues. "My parents were very supportive of the fact that I loved music early on, and they took me to a lot of shows," Kravitz said.^[4] Around the age of seven, he saw The Jackson 5 perform at Madison Square Garden, which became his favorite group.^[5] His father, who was also a jazz promoter, was friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis and other jazz greats. Ellington even played "Happy Birthday" for him one year when he was about 5.^[6] He was exposed to the soul music of Motown, Stax, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, The Isley Brothers and Gamble and Huff growing up who were key influences on his musical style. Kravitz often went to see New York theater, where his mother worked. His mother encouraged his dreams of pursuing music.

In 1974, the Kravitz family relocated to Los Angeles when Kravitz's mother landed her role on The Jeffersons. At his mother's urging, Kravitz joined the California Boys Choir for three years, where he performed a classical repertoire, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera. He took part in Mahler's Third Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl. It was in Los Angeles that Kravitz was first introduced to rock music, listening to Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Cream, and The Who.^[5] "I was attracted to the cool style, the girls, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle," Kravitz said.^[5] Kravitz's other musical influences at the time included Fela Kuti, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye and Miles Davis;^[5] John Lennon and Bob Marley proved later to be influential as well. Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School. Maria McKee and actor Nicolas Cage were his classmates. In 1978, Kravitz was accepted into the school's well-respected music program. He taught himself to play piano and bass, and made friends with Zoro who would later become his long-time collaborator.^[7] Kravitz wanted to be a session musician. He also appeared as an actor in television commercials during this time.

Career [link]

1989–1990: Sexload Records and the career debut [link]

With record labels still telling him his music wasn't "black enough" or "white enough," Kravitz decided to record an album on his own. Kravitz had met recording engineer/keyboardist/bassist Henry Hirsch in 1985 when recording a demo at his Hoboken, New Jersey recording studio. The two shared an interest in using real instruments and vintage recording equipment, as well as a love of R&B, jazz, and rock. Kravitz would go on to collaborate with Hirsch on most of his albums. Kravitz began working on his debut album with Hirsch over the next year and a half, with Kravitz's father paying for the studio time. Kravitz met saxophonist Karl Denson and invited him to play on the song, "Let Love Rule." Kravitz was so impressed with his playing that Denson played on much of the album. Denson toured with Kravitz for the next five years. In October 1988, after completing most of the recording, Kravitz approached friend Stephen Elvis Smith who had served as the Music Supervisor on Lisa Bonet's spin-off of The Cosby Show, "A Different World." Smith had also worked with Kravitz' mother Roxie Roker, on the hit sitcom "The Jeffersons." Kravitz urged Smith to manage his career and assist him in finding a record deal. In less than a month of shopping the recordings, five labels (Warner Bros, Elektra, Geffen, Capitol and Virgin) were in a bidding war for Kravitz. Eventually a deal was made with Virgin Records in January 1989, and signed by Virgin A & R executive Nancy Jeffries. The label was excited about the music he was making, music inspired by his relationship with wife Bonet and their new daughter, Zoe. On Smith's urging, Kravitz dropped the name Romeo Blue and reclaimed the Lenny Kravitz moniker. About his time as Romeo Blue, Kravitz said, "Ultimately, it got me back to myself. And when I finally did accept myself for myself, music started flowing out of me."^[4]

Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule on September 6, 1989, a combination of rock and funk with a general 1960s vibe. Music critics were mixed: some felt Kravitz was a gifted new artist, others felt he was overpowered by his musical influences. The album was a moderate success in the United States, but became an instant hit outside of the US, especially in Europe. Lisa Bonet directed the debut music video for the title track, "Let Love Rule." Stephen Smith signed Kravitz with talent booking agency CAA, who soon were fielding offers for Kravitz, first on a club tour, and then in opening slots for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. Having played essentially all of the instruments on the album, Kravitz had to quickly assemble a touring band to support the Let Love Rule release. They included a childhood friend, Zoro on drums (formerly of Bobby Brown's band), Adam Widoff (guitar), Lebron Scott (bass guitar, recruited out of Curtis Mayfield's band after seeing them perform in a NYC club), Kenneth Crouch (keyboards) and Karl Denson on saxophone.

In May 2009, a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of "Let Love Rule" was released worldwide by Virgin. The double disk includes a booklet with rare photos, and 18 additional demos, bonus tracks and live recordings. Kravitz launched a LLR(20) tour of Europe and the United States in support of the re-release.

1991–2001: Popularity established [link]

In 1990, Kravitz co-wrote with Ingrid Chavez and produced the song "Justify My Love" for Madonna. The song, which appeared on her greatest hits album The Immaculate Collection and created controversy because of its explicit video, went to #1 for two consecutive weeks. When MTV banned the video, the video was quickly made available for sale at record stores, and immediately sold over 500,000 copies. Kravitz separated from Lisa Bonet in 1991,^[8] amid rumors of an affair between him and Madonna. Kravitz has denied any infidelity.^[8] Kravitz and Bonet divorced in 1993.

In 1991, Kravitz produced the self-titled album Vanessa Paradis for French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis. He played most of the instruments and co-wrote most of the songs on the album. He also released his second album, Mama Said, which was his first album to reach the Top 40. The songs on the album were about Bonet and dedicated to her, documenting his depression over their breakup.^[6] Kravitz's biggest single yet, "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over," went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single "Always on the Run," a tribute to his mother,^[6] featured Slash on guitar. "Stand By My Woman" and "What Goes Around Comes Around" followed. Sean Lennon co-wrote and played piano on the song, "All I Ever Wanted". In 2001, Kravitz participated in a benefit auction for the Red Hot Organization, in conjunction with Amazon.com to increase public AIDS awareness, which ran from February 28 until April 11, 2001. The event featured rare RHO memorabilia and the work of Rolling Stone photographer Mark Seliger.

In 1993, Kravitz wrote "Line Up" for Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, and appeared on Mick Jagger's solo album, Wandering Spirit, in a cover of the Bill Withers' soul classic, "Use Me," and played guitar on the title track of David Bowie's The Buddha of Suburbia. That year Kravitz also got to work with idols Al Green and Curtis Mayfield.

In 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 and Kravitz earned a BRIT Award for best international male artist in 1994. The title track won a MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video for the video produced by Mark Romanek, in which Kravitz slung his dreadlocks and wore high-heeled platform boots. During the presentation of the MTV Video Music Awards, he performed the song with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass. Several singles from the album would follow including, "Believe," "Is There Any Love In Your Heart," and "Heaven Help/Spinning Around Over You." This album was the first to feature guitarist Craig Ross, who has also played on all his subsequent albums.^[9] One song, "Eleutheria," was influenced by the island Eleuthera in The Bahamas where Kravitz built a house and recording studio at that time.^[6] In 1993, he also released the EP, Spinning Around Over You, which included four live tracks from his "Universal Love Tour." A feature documentary about his 1994 tour entitled "Alive From Planet Earth" was directed by Doug Nichol and released.

In 1994, Kravitz recorded a funk-rock version of the song "Deuce," for the KISS cover album KISS My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved. The track featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica and background vocals. This song was one of three radio singles from the album, and was also the album's lead-off track.

Roxie Roker, Kravitz's mother, died in California on December 2, 1995 of breast cancer at the age of 66.

In 1995, Lenny Kravitz released the album Circus, which went to number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement. However, the album only had two hit singles: "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and "Can't Get You Off My Mind."

With 5 (1998), Kravitz embraced digital technology such as Pro Tools and samplers for the first time. 5 introduced his music to an even wider audience thanks to the hit single "Fly Away" being featured prominently in both car manufacturer and airline commercials. 5 would reach #28 on the Billboard 200, with "Fly Away" reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in the United Kingdom. He would win the first of his four consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1999. Other hits from the album included "If You Can't Say No", that was also remixed by dance producer Brian Transeau, and "I Belong to You." For the I Belong to You video Lenny can be seen without his signature dreadlocks. In 1999 he produced and sang with Cree Summer on her solo album Street Faerie.

File:LennyKravitz.jpg

Lenny Kravitz's 1998 multi-platinum release 5 that earned him his first two Grammys.

His cover version of The Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and helped The Guess Who's song reach a new audience. Kravitz's version of the song originally came from the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was added to 5 as a bonus track in 1999.

Lenny worked on two songs for Michael Jackson's Invincible album released in 2001; a snippet of "Another Day" has leaked, and the full version was officially released on the album Michael in 2010 .^[10]

Kravitz released a Greatest Hits album in 2000. It proved to be his most successful album, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 and selling nearly 11 million copies worldwide and ultimately becoming one of the most commercially successful albums of the decade. The single "Again" earned him his third consecutive Grammy for the Best Male Rock Vocal in the Grammy Awards of 2001 and peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Kravitz also co-wrote the song "God Gave Me Everything" with Mick Jagger in this period, appearing on Jagger's 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway and in the film Being Mick.

[edit] 2001–05: Lenny and Baptism

Kravitz in Brasília, Brazil on March 19, 2005

Kravitz released his sixth album Lenny in October 2001. The album was recorded in Miami. Kravitz wrote the song "Bank Robber Man" after the Miami Police Department detained and cuffed him while walking to the gym with his trainer because police stated that he matched the description of a bank robber. Kravitz did not have any identification with him at the time and the police on the scene did not believe that he was indeed Lenny Kravitz. The bank teller who was robbed was then brought to the scene and said Kravitz was not the bank robber. Miami Police later sent officers to Kravitz's home to apologize for the detention. When asked if he thought the incident was a case of racial profiling, Kravitz said he wasn’t sure although some of the lyrics in the song suggest otherwise. The first single from the album, "Dig In", went to number 1 in Argentina and the top 10 in Italy and Portugal. The video for "Dig In" was originally supposed to be shot at the top of the Empire State Building on September 12, 2001 but the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 caused the location to be moved. The video was later shot off the coast Miami. He won his fourth Grammy in 2002. "Stillness of Heart", "Believe in Me", and "If I Could Fall In Love" were subsequent singles from the album.

Kravitz was the subject of a photo book by former chief photographer for Rolling Stone, Mark Seliger. Published in November 2001, Seliger captures Kravitz on tour, with family, with friends and in posed portraits.

Jay-Z invited Kravitz to appear on the track "Guns and Roses" on his 2002 The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse. Kravitz would also join P. Diddy, Pharrell and Loon on the track "Show Me Your Soul" from the Bad Boys II Soundtrack.

In September 2002, Kravitz appeared alongside other rock stars in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" of The Simpsons. In early 2003, Kravitz released the track "We Want Peace" as a download-only track as a protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he performed this alongside famous Iraqi singer Kazem Al Saher at Rock The Vote. The track reached #1 on the world internet download charts and MP3.com download chart. Kravitz also appeared on Unity, the official album of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and performed a cover of "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)" on the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.

In late 2004, Kravitz dated actress Nicole Kidman and reportedly dedicated his hit song "Lady" to her. They split in 2005.

Kravitz's seventh album Baptism was released in May 2004. The first single was "Where Are We Runnin'?". The single "California" failed to be commercially successful, but "Storm", featuring Jay-Z, reached the charts. "Calling All Angels" was successful in various countries and a huge hit in Brazil, however it was "Lady" that became the album's surprise hit, making the US Top 30 and propelling Baptism to gold status. Also in 2004, he appeared on N.E.R.D's album Fly or Die. From March 2005, Kravitz toured all over the world with the tour Electric Church, which ended at the Brixton Academy, London in July 2005. Kravitz served as the opening act for Aerosmith who are long term friends of Kravitz on their fall 2005 tour. The tour began on October 30 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The night before that tour started, October 29, 2005, Lenny's father TV Producer Sy Kravitz died. During that first show, Lenny broke the news to the stunned crowd and stated it was not a time to be sad but rather a time to celebrate because he is now in Heaven. Lenny then dedicated Let Love Rule to his father. That tour was so successful that it was extended through February 25, 2006 and ended in Anaheim, California.

[edit] 2006–2009: Live Earth, charity work, and It Is Time for a Love Revolution

In January 2006, Kravitz contributed "Breathe" to absoluttracks, a project sponsored by Absolut Vodka. This song was re-mixed by ten musical producers and distributed via the internet.

Kravitz appeared in the audience of Madonna's Confessions Tour (2006) during numerous shows. He would later join Madonna live on stage to play guitar on the song, "I Love New York," at the last of four Paris shows.

Lately, Kravitz has founded a design firm named Kravitz Design, stating if he hadn't been a musician he would have been a designer. Kravitz Design, focused on interior and furniture design, has designed residential spaces, as well as a chandelier for the crystal company Swarovski, named "Casino Royale."^[11]

On July 7, 2007, Kravitz performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth in Rio de Janeiro,^[12] making him one of three major international rock stars to perform two huge free concerts at the world-famous Copacabana Beach along with Macy Gray and the Rolling Stones. Kravitz had already played there on March 21, 2005, drawing 300,000 people on a concert of his own. The Live Earth concert, with eight other acts on the bill, including Pharrell and Macy Gray, took 400,000 to the beach.

Also in 2007, Kravitz released a version of "Cold Turkey" by John Lennon on the charity CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Kravitz also spent time recording his latest album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, released February 5, 2008.^[13]

On September 25, 2007, the Fats Domino tribute album "Goin' Home ; A Tribute To Fats Domino" was released. Kravitz was on the song "Whole Lotta Lovin'" along with Rebirth Brass Band, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker.^[14]

Kravitz performed at the Grey Cup halftime show in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007, where the Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19.^[15]

The original video for "I'll Be Waiting" was shot in Central Park in New York City with Marc Webb directing but that video was later shelved and a new version, which Kravitz co-directed with Philip Andelman, was filmed in Lenny's New York City recording studio. The video premiered on VH1's Top 20 Countdown at number 3.

On January 17, 2008, Kravitz embarked on a 9 city mini-tour to promote his new album It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The tour started in Santa Monica, California and ended in New York City on February 1. The tour was done in association with Myspace and called the "Get on the Bus" tour. At each stop on the tour, they would pick up one contest winner and their guest and they rode on the "Love Revolution" bus until the end of the tour. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, a close friend of Lenny's would appear at The Orpheum Theater in Boston. The New York City winner, Tyrone Good was presented a train ticket from Penn Station to travel to Philadelphia and rode with the tour the rest of the way starting in Philadelphia (The Electric Factory), Boston (The Orpheum Theater), and finally New York City (The Hammerstein Ballroom). The winners were featured in the YRB February Edition alongside Lenny Kravitz in a magazine pull-out. The photo shoot took place at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia on stage. The winner's pull out was featured in another issue of YRB which had Lil' Wayne on the cover.

On February 11, 2008, Kravitz was admitted to Miami Hospital suffering from severe bronchitis. He had been suffering from a series of severe respiratory tract infections since mid-January, and the illness developed into bronchitis.

Kravitz's illness had forced him to postpone Canadian dates and his trip to Europe to promote his album It Is Time for a Love Revolution. On March 19, 2008 he canceled the South American part of his tour due to the same illness. The decision affected planned concerts in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. In Argentina Kravitz had a performance in the biggest rock festival there, Quilmes Rock Fest.^[16]

On July 15, 2008, Lenny was honored in Milan, Italy with the key to the city in a special toast ceremony for his work with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to end world poverty.^[17]^{[dead link]}

Kravitz made his feature film acting debut in Precious^[18] which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.^[19]

Kravitz performing in Valencia on May 2, 2009.

During the Italian leg of his 53 date Let Love Rule (20)09 European tour, Kravitz had been instructed to cancel some shows due to a bad bout of bronchitis. Under strict orders from his doctor, the singer was told to rest so that he could make a quick recovery and return to the stage for the rest of his tour. Shows scheduled for Rome on June 5 and Brescia on June 6 were postponed to late July.

[edit] 2009–present: U2 tour and Black and White America

Kravitz's next album, tentatively titled Funk, was tentatively re-titled Negrophilia and was due out sometime in 2010. This is believed to be a project that Kravitz has been working on since 1997. Some of the original tracks for Funk were recorded while he was in New Orleans at Allen Toussaint's studio while taking a break for several months from recording in New York City. A video on Kravitz's Twitter page shows him working on one of the songs for the album, called "Super Love", in his GTS studios in the Bahamas. Another video shows him working on another track titled "Life Ain't Never Been Better Than It Is Now" in his GTS Studios. On his Twitter page, Kravitz said that the album title was Negrophilia but then "felt like something else". Eventually the album was later named Black and White America. The album was released on August 22, 2011 in Europe and August 30, 2011 in the U.S.^{[dated info]} On February 20, 2011 the first single "Come on Get It" was released. On June 6, 2011 the second single "Stand" was released.

It was announced that Kravitz would be supporting U2 on their highly successful 360 Tour on the second North American leg in 2010. Kravitz agreed to support them for four shows. Though the shows were postponed until 2011, Kravitz remains committed for four of the shows.^{[dated info]}

In June 2010 it was announced that Kravitz would guest star on an episode of the upcoming season of Entourage.^[20]

On May 23, 2011, Lionsgate announced that Kravitz would be joining the cast and crew of The Hunger Games, as Katniss' creative stylist, Cinna.^[21] The movie was released on March 23, 2012.

On December 1, 2011, Kravitz was honored with one of the highest cultural awards in France when he was made an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand in Paris. Kravitz stated he was "particularly touched" to receive the award in France as his success in the country pre-dated his success in the United States and still enjoys great record sales in the country today.^[22] Kravitz joins other American recipients such as Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, and Bob Dylan.

On February 26, 2012, he performed at the Daytona International Speedway (several songs carried live on Fox) for the Daytona 500, the opening race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

A sample of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" was used in American singer Chris Willis's single "Too Much In Love, released on August 16, 2011^[23]

Personal life [link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2010)

In 1985, Kravitz's parents divorced, which had a profound impact on him. His relationship with his father became extremely strained. Kravitz focused on his music to help him get through this period. That year, Kravitz met actress Lisa Bonet backstage at a New Edition concert. Bonet worked on The Cosby Show, the number one rated show on television. They were close friends for two years before falling in love. Kravitz moved back to New York City where The Cosby Show was produced in 1987, moving in with then girlfriend Bonet. Kravitz and Bonet eloped to be married on November 16, 1987, her 20th birthday, in a Las Vegas ceremony. Kravitz, still known as Romeo Blue at the time, suddenly found himself in the headlines of tabloid newspapers. They had a daughter, Zoë Isabella Kravitz, born on December 1, 1988.^[24] Kravitz and Bonet divorced in 1993.^{[citation needed]} In 2002, Adriana Lima claimed she was engaged to Kravitz sporting a diamond ring, although he denied that.^[25]

Kravitz identifies himself as a Christian, "through choice but I'm also a Jew, it's all the same to me".^[26] During another interview Kravitz stated, "I'm half Jewish, I'm half black, I look in-between."^[27] He also notes that spirituality "has been an important issue in my growth", given his upbringing by parents of different faiths.^[28] Such spirituality is prominently featured on many of his songs, such as the lyrics on his album Baptism, and having his back inscribed with a tattoo stating, "My Heart Belongs to Jesus Christ."^[29]

Books-biography [link]

Two books in Italian language on Lenny Kravitz and his deep spirituality: "Let Love Be / Che Amore Sia" Arcana editions, author Davide Caprelli, 1999, series Rock People / "Between Funk and Faith / Tra Funk e Fede" Fazi editions, author Davide Caprelli, 2004, series Teen Spirit. A third book, in Italian language, should be finished and published by September 2012 tentatively titled "God Is Love; Mystical rock of Lenny Kravitz" Chinaski editions, author Davide Caprelli.

Discography [link]

Main article: Lenny Kravitz discography

Let Love Rule (1989)
Mama Said (1991)
Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993)
Circus (1995)
5 (1998)
Lenny (2001)
Baptism (2004)
It Is Time for a Love Revolution (2008)
Black and White America (2011)

Filmography [link]

1998	The Rugrats Movie	Newborn baby	Voice role, minor
2001	Zoolander	Himself	Cameo role
2001	Being Mick	Himself	Supporting role
2004	Rebelde	Himself	Guest Star
2007	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	Himself	Cameo role
2009	Precious	Nurse John	Supporting role Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2011	Selma	Himself	Cameo role
2012	The Hunger Games	Cinna	Supporting role

Tours [link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Let Love Rule Tour (1990)
There Is Only One Truth Tour (1991)
Universal Love Tour (1993)
Circus Tour (1995–96)
The Freedom Tour (1998–99)
Lenny Tour (2002)
The Baptism Tour (2004)
Celebration Tour (2005)
Electric Church Tour: One Night Only (2005)
Get On The Bus Mini-Tour (2008)
Love Revolution Tour (2008)
LLR 20(09) Tour (2009)
Black and White Europe Tour 2011 (2011)

Awards [link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

MTV Video Music Awards
- 1993 – Best Male Video ("Are You Gonna Go My Way?")
Brit Awards
- 1994 – International male
VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards
- 1998 – Most Fashionable Artist, Male Award
Grammy Awards
- 1993 – Best Rock Vocal Solo Performance ("Are You Gonna Go My Way" – Nominee only.)
- 1995 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("Rock and Roll Is Dead" – Nominee only.)
- 1999 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("Fly Away")
- 2000 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("American Woman")
- 2001 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("Again")
- 2002 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("Dig In")
- 2003 – Best Male Rock Vocal Performance ("If I Could Fall In Love" – Nominee only.)
Radio Music Awards
- 2001 – Artist of the Year/Pop Alternative Radio
My VH1 Awards
- 2001 – Favorite Male Artist
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
- 2001 – Favorite Male Artist – Rock
American Music Awards
- 2002 – Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
Microsoft Windows Media Innovation Awards
- 2002 – Microsoft Windows Media Innovation Award^[30]
- 2009 – Nominated – Screen Actors' Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast (Precious)
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- 2011 – Officer

References [link]

^ Heawood, Sophie (January 25, 2008). "The face". The Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3245845.ece. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
^ Marlow Stern (2011-08-29). "Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Black & White’ Album: Funk, Soul & R&B, With Jay-Z". The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/29/lenny-kravitz-s-black-white-album-funk-soul-r-b-with-jay-z.html. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
^ shahar masori. "2001-04-13: Leonard Kravitz Act". Jewishsightseeing.com. http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/usa/wash_dc/capitol_building/sd4-13leonard_kravitz_act.htm. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Henderson. (2002).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hodgkinson, Will (July 5, 2002). "Lenny Kravitz". The Guardian.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Norment, Lynn (June 1994). "Lenny Kravitz: brother with a different beat – musician." Ebony. Retrieved on August 19, 2007
^ Evans, Mia "The Faith of Zoro". CBN.com. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
^ ^a ^b "Behind The Music: Lenny Kravitz." (1999).
^ Craig Ross Official Site
^ [1]^{[dead link]}
^ Marin, Rick (July 21, 2005). "But What I Really Want to Do Is Design". The New York Times. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
^ "Live Earth on MSN: The Concerts For A Climate In Crisis". Liveearth.msn.com. http://liveearth.msn.com/artists/lennykravitz. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
^ Vozick-Levinson, Simon (July 13, 2007). "Back In Action: Lenny Kravitz". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on August 19, 2007.
^ Tipitina's Foundation
^ CFL 2007 Grey Cup official site^{[dead link]}
^ Press release from Evempro regarding concerts cancellation in Colombia and South America^{[dead link]}
^ "Cause And Effect"^{[dead link]}
^ Fleming, Michael (October 29, 2007). "Lee Daniels to direct 'Push'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117974944.html?categoryid=13&cs=1.
^ McCarthy, Todd (December 3, 2008). "Sundance unveils competition lineup". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2470&articleid=VR1117996739&cs=1.
^ "Diddy and Lenny Kravitz Book Appearances on Entourage". TVGuide.com. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Diddy-Kravitz-Entourage-1019723.aspx.
^ "Lenny Kravitz cast as Cinna in The Hunger Games". hunger-games.net. http://hunger-games.net/?p=1882&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter.
^ "BBC News - Lenny Kravitz accepts French honour". Bbc.co.uk. December 1, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15981419. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
^ "iTunes - Music - Too Much In Love - Single by Chris Willis". Itunes.apple.com. 2011-08-16. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/too-much-in-love-single/id457816163. Retrieved 2012-04-14.
^ "Zoe Kravitz. Alternate Name: Zoe Isabella Kravitz" at All Movie Guide via The New York Times
^ "Movie Moguls Let Fur Fly, Too". New York Post. November 17, 2002. http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:NYPB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F775010F849D222&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0D0CB579A3BDA420. Retrieved March 7, 2009.
^ Stevenson, Jane (February 5, 1996). "Bursting rock's balloon". Jam!/Canoe. http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/K/Kravitz_Lenny/1996/02/05/746706.html. Retrieved November 29, 2007.
^ Pepper, Tracey (1998). "Lenny's 5". Deep Joy. http://www.lenny-kravitz.com/interviewdeepjoy.html. Retrieved November 29, 2007.
^ Simon, Scott (February 12, 2005). "Lenny Kravitz Takes Spiritual Turn on 'Baptism'". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4495463. Retrieved November 29, 2007.
^ Breimeier, Russ (2004). "Glimpses of God: Lenny Kravitz / Baptism". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071114192343/http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/glimpses/2004/baptism.html. Retrieved November 29, 2007.
^ "Microsoft Unveils Windows Media Innovation Award, Honors Lenny Kravitz as First Recipient". Microsoft.com. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/may02/05-06LennyKravitzPR.mspx. Retrieved September 25, 2011.

Sources [link]

Blanc, Michael la (Ed.). Contemporary musicians, Vol. 5, Gale Research, 1991.
Gregory, Hugh. 1000 Great Guitarists. Rock, Jazz, Country, Funk ..., Balafon Books, 1994.
Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness Publishing, 1992.
Martino, Dave di. Singer-songwriters, pop music's performer-composers, from A to Zevon, Billboard Books, 1994.
Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard book of top 40 hits, 5th edition, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1992.

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lenny Kravitz

Awards and achievements
Grammy Award
Preceded by Bob Dylan for "Cold Irons Bound"	Best Male Rock Vocal Performance 1999 for "Fly Away"	Succeeded by Lenny Kravitz for "American Woman"
Preceded by Lenny Kravitz for "Fly Away"	Best Male Rock Vocal Performance 2000 for "American Woman"	Succeeded by Lenny Kravitz for "Again"
Preceded by Lenny Kravitz for "American Woman"	Best Male Rock Vocal Performance 2001 for "Again"	Succeeded by Lenny Kravitz for "Dig In"
Preceded by Lenny Kravitz for "Again"	Best Male Rock Vocal Performance 2002 for "Dig In"	Succeeded by Bruce Springsteen for "The Rising"
MTV Video Music Awards
Preceded by Eric Clapton for "Tears in Heaven"	Best Male Video 1993 for "Are You Gonna Go My Way"	Succeeded by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers for "Mary Jane's Last Dance"

Preceded by Nelly Furtado	Grey Cup Halftime Show 2007	Succeeded by Theory of a Deadman

v t e Lenny Kravitz

Studio albums	Let Love Rule (1989) Mama Said (1991) Are You Gonna Go My Way (1993) Circus (1995) 5 (1998) Lenny (2001) Baptism (2004) It Is Time for a Love Revolution (2008) Black and White America (2011)

Compilations	Greatest Hits

Extended plays	Is There Any Love in the World Maximum Kravitz

Video albums	Video Retrospective Lenny Kravitz: Alive From Planet Earth Greatest Hits: Limited Tour Edition (2004) Lenny LIVE (2002) "Where Are We Runnin'? (2004) It Is Time For A Love Revolution: Deluxe Edition (2008)

Promos	"The Soul of Lenny Kravitz" (1999) "Super Soul Fighter" (1999)

Tours	Universal Love (1993-1994) Circus (1996) The Freedom Tour (1998) Lenny (2002-2003) Baptism (2005) Electric Church (2006) Get On The Bus Mini-Tour (2008) Love Revolution (2008-2009)

Filmography	The Rugrats Movie (1998) Precious (2009) The Hunger Games (2012)

Related articles	Discography Videography Virgin Records America Roxie Roker Sy Kravitz Zoë Kravitz Al Roker Lisa Bonet

v t e Lenny Kravitz singles discography

Let Love Rule	"Let Love Rule" (1989) "I Build This Garden for Us" (1990) "Freedom Train" (1990) "Does Anybody Out There Even Care" (1990) "Mr. Cab Driver" (1990) "Be" (1990)

Mama Said	"Always on the Run" (featuring Slash) (1991) "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" (1991) "Fields of Joy" (1991) "Stand by My Woman" (1991) "What the Fuck Are We Saying" (1991) "Stop Draggin' Around" (1991) "What Goes Around Comes Around"

Are You Gonna Go My Way	"Are You Gonna Go My Way" (1993) "Believe" (1993) "Heaven Help" (1993) "Is There Any Love in Your Heart" (1993) "Heaven Help" / "Spinning Around Over You" (1994)

Circus	"Rock and Roll Is Dead" (1995) "Circus" (1995) "Can't Get You Off My Mind" (1996) "The Resurrection" (1996)

5	"If You Can't Say No" (1998) "Thinking of You" (1998) "I Belong to You" (1998) "Fly Away" (1999) "American Woman" (1999) "Black Velveteen" (2000)

Greatest Hits	"Again" (1999) "Black Velveteen" (2000)

Lenny	"Dig In" (2001) "Stillness of Heart" (2002) "Believe in Me" (2002) "If I Could Fall in Love" (2002) "Yesterday Is Gone" (2002)

Baptism	"Where Are We Runnin'?" (2004) "California" (2004) "Storm" (featuring Jay-Z) (2004) "Calling All Angels" (2005) "Lady" (2005)

It Is Time for a Love Revolution	"Bring It On" (2007) "I'll Be Waiting" (2008) "Love Love Love" (2008) "Dancin' Til Dawn" (2008)

Black and White America	"Come On Get It" (2011) "Stand" (2011) "Rock Star City Life" (2011) "Push" (2011)

Soundtracks	"Spinning Around Over You" (1994) "American Woman" (1999) "Show Me Your Soul" (featuring P. Diddy, Pharell Williams, Loon) (2004)

Other singles	"Deuce" (featuring Stevie Wonder) (1994) "We Want Peace" (2003) "Breathe" (2006) "(I Can't Make It) Another Day" (featuring Michael Jackson) (2010)

Promotional singles	"The Soul of Lenny Kravitz" (1999) "Super Soul Fighter" (1999)

Persondata
Name	Kravitz, Lenny
Alternative names	Kravitz, Leonard Arbert
Short description	American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
Date of birth	May 26, 1964
Place of birth	New York City, United States
Date of death
Place of death

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Kravitz

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Kravitz, Lenny Filmography

Lenny

Cast

Famous quotes by Lenny Kravitz:

"I identify with women more than men. I guess I have a strong feminine side."

"[Curiously Absent From This Collection: Iggy Pop's] Beside You, ... Is There Any Love In Your Heart."

"Are You Gonna Go My Way?"

"In my environments, lighting is always very important."

"My dream is to become a farmer. Just a Bohemian guy pulling up his own sweet potatoes for dinner."

"A dramatic thing, the first time you stand up to your dad."

Make changes yourself !

Contents

[edit] 2001–05: Lenny and Baptism

[edit] 2006–2009: Live Earth, charity work, and It Is Time for a Love Revolution

[edit] 2009–present: U2 tour and Black and White America

Related pages: