There are very few people in the music industry to whom the terms genius and legend apply unequivocally. One of those people most certainly is Mr. Burt Bacharach, who is celebrating his 80th birthday today.

Happy Birthday Burt!

What is so amazing about Burt Bacharach’s long and illustrious career is that there are so many songs that we all have come to know and love over the years and a good portion of them emanated from just one man. It is a rare day that somehow, somewhere, somebody does not hear a Burt Bacharch song.

This is just a brief list of songs performed by other artists that were written by Burt Bacharach:

The Beatles - Baby, It’s You
The Carpenters - (They Long to Be) Close to You
Aretha Franklin - Say A Little Prayer
Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head
Tom Jones -What’s New, Pussycat
Dusty Springfield - The Look of Love
Christopher Cross - Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)
Neil Diamond - Heartlight
Michael McDonald with Patti Labelle - On My Own
That’s What Friends Are For - Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & Elton John
Naked Eyes - (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me

Oh and to top it all off, what does he do in his late 70’s? He works with Dr. Dre!

Here is an amazing series of clips from PBS TV’s Great Performances in 1995 that show Burt’s entire career. It is just mind boggling the amount of artists he has worked with, the amount of songs he has written and the long lasting effect his songs have had on us for years and years. This is the story of a genius and a legend!

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 1

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 2

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 3

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 4

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 5

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 6

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 7

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 8

Burt Bacharach - Great Performances - Part 9

You may be asking yourself…..who the hell is Paul David Hewson? Well maybe you know him better by his stage name, Bono. Today is Bono’s 48th birthday and he has brought so much enjoyable music to us over the last 28 yes 28 years.

U2 is one of the few bands that has managed to keep the same members from day 1. It all began on September 25th, 1976 when Bono, The Edge (David Howell Evans), Dick Evans, and Adam Clayton responded to an advertisement by fellow student Larry Mullen Jr. to form a rock band.

Bono is the only person to have been nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy, and Nobel Peace Prize.

We can only hope that Bono and U2 will continue to make groundbreaking music and tour for years to come.

Here are some highlights of Bono & U2’s career from their first US television appearance to some very unique duets….

U2 on Tom Snider Show 06/04/1981

U2 featuring Mary J Blige - One

U2 & Bruce Springsteen - I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

U2 & Paul McCartney - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Bono & Pavarotti & - Ave Maria

Robert Johnson was born on May 8th, 1911 and passed away on August 13th 1938 at the too young age of 27. With today being what would have been Robert johnson’s 97th birthday, I thought I would take a look at the influence that his music still has to this day.

If you had any doubts about how much Robert Johnson influenced modern music, read the following passage from his Wikipedia page:

When Keith Richards was first introduced to Johnson’s music by his band mate Brian Jones, he replied, “Who is the other guy playing with him?”, not realizing it was all Johnson playing on one guitar. Clapton described Johnson’s music as “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.”

He is ranked #5 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, ahead of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana.

Just a few Robert Johnson originals that we have come to know and love from versions by modern rock & blues artists:

George Harrison (with Eric Clapton & Leon Russell) - Come on in My Kitchen

Rolling Stones - Love In Vain

Gov’t Mule - 32-20 Blues

ZZ Top - Dust My Broom

Red Hot Chili Peppers - They’re Red Hot

From David Byrne’s Journal:

Thanks to the folks at Creative Time, this installation will finally open in NYC at the end of this month. Here is the press release:

Playing the Building, a 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation by David Byrne, will transform the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play.” Byrne’s project will consist of a retrofitted antique organ placed in the center of the building’s cavernous second-floor gallery that will control a series of devices attached to its structural features—metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes. These machines will vibrate, strike, and blow across the building elements, triggering unique harmonics and producing finely tuned sounds. As Byrne explains, it is an elaborate system for “activating the sound-producing qualities that are inherent in all materials.”

Playing the Building marks the first time in decades that the second floor of the Battery Maritime Building will be accessible to the public. The space will be open and free to all visitors on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday throughout the summer of 2008. Everyone will be invited to sit at the organ, tap on the keys, and create a unique array of sounds that travel through the space. In addition, David Byrne and Creative Time will invite guest musicians to challenge his creation through a series of performances and jam sessions.

A new page on davidbyrne.com contains more info on this project, including the location and hours, pictures, videos, interviews, and all that.

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), SONY BMG and EMI Music today announced that they will bring back the music of hundreds of highly coveted out-of-print albums on CD through CreateSpace “Disc on Demand” and to offer these titles on Amazon.com. Formerly out-of-print albums now available to Amazon customers include “Hatari Soundtrack” by Henry Mancini, “Earthquake Weather” by Joe Strummer and “Motorcade of Generosity” by Cake as well as albums from the legendary Blue Note catalog, such as “Telepathy” by Bill Stewart, “Foreign Intrigue” by Tony Williams and “Carryin’ On” by Grant Green. The new CDs will be manufactured on-demand and shipped when customers place an order.

“This is an exciting day for music fans and Amazon customers. Through our partnerships with SONY BMG and EMI music, Amazon customers have an even greater selection of music to choose from today,” said Peter Faricy, vice president of music and movies at Amazon.com. “CreateSpace ‘Disc on Demand’ is not only making out-of-print albums available once again, but it’s also enabling digital-only titles and international titles that haven’t been released in the U.S. to be made available on CD. Music lovers and artists can now share and discover new music more easily on Amazon.”

In addition to reviving out-of-print music titles, record labels and content providers are also using CreateSpace “Disc on Demand” to exclusively release new titles on Amazon.com, including the next title in the popular KCRW “Sounds Eclectic” series and the Wind-up Records soundtrack to the ESPN program “World’s Strongest Man.”

Notable record labels including, Rhino Records, Wind-up Records, Vanguard Records and Naxos, are also using CreateSpace “Disc on Demand” to offer their wide selection of music albums on-demand to millions of Amazon.com customers.

To find out more about CreateSpace and “Disc on Demand,” please visit www.createspace.com. To browse Amazon’s continuously growing selection of music titles, visit www.amazon.com/music.

Business Wire via Coolfer

Trent Reznor is not only breaking the old distribution model, he’s even breaking the newest, like Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want: Nine Inch Nails’ latest album—The Slip—is 100% free, no payment required in any case, not even when you download the whooping 1.2GB version—which includes high definition WAVE 24/96 files (better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHz audio.) You can also choose from high-quality MP3s, FLAC lossless and M4A lossless. Note to record labels: drop dead. [NIN]

via: Gizmodo

Jazzfest is still a high priority on my life “to do” list and it sounds like this year would have been a good year to finally check it off.  New York Times ArtsBeat has some nice coverage of the duel weekend festivities.

“The finale of Jazzfest was piled with symbolism: the return of the Neville Brothers to their old headlining slot and, more important, to New Orleans itself. It was a family of siblings (and two of their sons, Ivan and Ian) reuniting with their family of listeners, fellow New Orleanians and fans.”

Check out ArtsBeat here.

Streamzy is simple to use: Search for music using the artist or song name, and select how many search results you’d like. The service goes out, grabs music from sites that host the music and make it available for streaming, and cleans up any bad results before you click Play. From there, you can click any of the songs in the search results to start streaming it, or drag it to the playlist window at the bottom of the page. The service starts you off with a default playlist; to add more you’ll have to sign up for a Streamzy account (free).

The service’s goal is to give you one place to search for music, stream it immediately, and save it for the future. Once you’re signed up, you can create multiple playlists and add as much music to them as you like.

Streamzy is a brainchild of Seeqpod, the same folks behind Songerize.

Part of what makes Streamzy so special is the fact that it draws upon Seeqpod’s broad database of music sources. You can find just about anything you might want to hear, and because you can save it all to playlists that you can return to, it’s almost like owning the music. In order to stay legal, the service doesn’t allow you to buy or download the music, so you can’t take your tunes offline.

Full story on Appscout

Bruce Springsteen posted the eulogy he delivered at Danny’s funeral on April 21 in Red Bank, New Jersey on his website today along with a video tribute.

Fresh off a UK tour, veteran art-funk outfit Was (Not Was) is getting ready to traverse the US to support its first studio album in nearly 20 years.The outing is set to get under way tonight (4/30) in Somerville, MA, and visit more than a dozen clubs and theaters from coast to coast through mid-May. The band will also drop by NBC-TV’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” this Thursday (5/1).

Tour Dates

April 2008
30 - Somerville, MA - Johnny D’s

May 2008
1 - New York, NY - Blender Theatre at Gramercy
2 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
3 - Annapolis, MD - Rams Head
6 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere
7 - Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theatre
8 - Columbus, OH - Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
9 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre
10 - Chicago, IL - Abbey Pub
12 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
13 - Minneapolis, MN - Cabooze
15 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre
17 - Portland, OR - Wonderland Ballroom
18 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern

Full Story on Live Daily

jroxx note: Boo! is a great album with top notch musicians. They took almost 20 years to make a follow up to their last album and it was well worth the wait.