FUNERAL HELD FOR WIFE, GRANDSON OF TIMOTHY WRIGHT: Rev. remains hospitalized in critical condition.
*Family and friends from around the country gathered at a Brooklyn church Monday to say goodbye to the wife and grandson of the Rev. Timothy Wright.
While the pastor remains in critical condition at a Pennsylvania hospital, a funeral was held for Betty Wright and grandson Daniel "D.J." Wright at the Washington Temple Church of God in Christ in Bedford-Stuyvesant. During the service, a 120-strong choir performed Rev. Wright's song, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."
The Rev. Al Sharpton and bishops from across the U.S. were among the mourners in attendance, reports Newsday. "You won't have to make excuses for Betty, you won't have to make excuses for D.J.," Sharpton told the applauding congregation. "We're not at a crack funeral."
Betty Wright and her grandson died after their car was hit head-on the night of July 4 by a vehicle going the wrong way on eastbound Interstate 80. That driver also died. Timothy Wright, founding pastor of Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and who lives in Roosevelt, was critically injured in the crash.
Pastor fights to recover as wife & grandson mourned
BY KHADIJAH RENTAS DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday, July 28th 2008, 12:36 AM
Family, friends and congregants celebrated the life of the Rev. Betty Wright and her grandson Sunday as her husband, the Brooklyn pastor known as the "Godfather of Gospel," struggled to recover from the crash that killed them.
"It's a double whammy for us because my father is still in the hospital and we have to be strong for him," said Donny Wright, son of the Grammy-nominated Rev. Timothy Wright.
Grace Tabernacle Christian Center in Crown Heights, the church Wright founded, was packed for the viewing of Betty Wright, 58, and 14-year-old D.J. Wright, who were killed July 4.
"We have to celebrate her life," Donny Wright said. "She didn't live a life of being sorry. She lived a life of praising God."
All five of the Wrights' sons were there: Danny, David, Derrick, Dwayne and Donny. A funeral will be held today at 10 a.m. at Washington Temple Church of God in Christ, 1372 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn.
Adrienne McCleod, 19, said Betty Wright was "like my second mother." "I'm thanking the Lord it's two funerals - it could have been three," she said.
Timothy Wright, 61, remains in critical condition at a Pennsylvania hospital.
The Wrights were returning from a religious convention in Detroit when their car was hit head-on by a car driving the wrong way on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. The wrong-way driver also died.
D.J. had just graduated from the eighth grade at Roosevelt Middle School. The road trip with his grandparents - his first time away from his parents - was a graduation gift.
CONTEMPORARY GOSPEL CHANGING THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC IN NIGERIA: Mainstream Evangelists turn to Hip-Hop flavored Gospel.
The music business in Nigeria is changing as Evangelists turn from traditional gospel music to mainstream to ensure that the Gospel itself is spread to as many as possible through Hip-Hop.
One of the acts involved in this new wave of Gospel is the Rooftop MC’s, which consist of two young men called Kunie Adeyoola (Soulsnatcha) and Olaitan Hughes (Sokleva).
Both grew up with spiritual influences that made them gravitate towards the music industry, and they decided that their sound would be Hip-Hop and their lyrics Gospel.
They started performing together in 2000 when they formed a group at the University of Lagos, Akoka, called G-Force. Initially the group had six members, but four of the six left and the group disbanded.
In 2002 the surviving members formed Rooftop MC’s. Their first single, Shock Therapy,” was released in 2004. They later signed a record deal with West Side Music and re-released the single.
They believe many associate Gospel by its style of music, but they believe that Gospel and Hip-Hop can complement each other.
“If we call our music Hip-Hop, how do you want us to reach the unbeliever, who will not go to the Gospel stand to buy a Gospel song, says member Adeyoola. “But when we call it Hip-Hop, we can reach them easily. Our music is Hip-Hop ... we preach Jesus. We sing Hip-Hop just like Jay-Z, but we don’t use the kinds of words Jay-Z uses.”
They are working on two projects one will be launched in August, 2008 and the other in September. They are also working on a clothing line called Jesu Christi. (Source: The Punch/Black Christian News)
Johnny Griffin, a tenor saxophonist from Chicago whose speed, control and harmonic acuity made him one of the most talented American jazz musicians of his generation yet who spent most of his career in Europe, died Friday at his home in Availles-Limouzine, a village in France. He was 80 and had lived there for 24 years.
Skip to next paragraph
Steve Berman/The New York Times
Johnny Griffin at the Blue Note in New York in 1997.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Miriam, who did not give a cause. He played his last concert on Monday in Hyères, France.
Mr. Griffin’s modest height earned him the nickname the Little Giant; his speed in bebop improvising marked him as the Fastest Gun in the West; a group he led with his fellow saxophonist Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis was informally called the Tough Tenor band, a designation that was eventually applied to a whole school of hard-bop tenor players. And in general, Mr. Griffin suffered from categorization.
In the early 1960s, embittered by the critical acceptance of free jazz, he stayed true to his identity as a bebopper. Feeling that the American marketplace had no use for him (at a time when he was also having marital and tax troubles), he left for Europe, where he became a celebrated jazz elder.
“It’s not like I’m looking to prove anything anymore,” he said in a 1993 interview. “At this age, what can I prove? I’m concentrating more on the beauty in the music, the humanity.”
Indeed, Mr. Griffin’s work in the 1990s, with an American quartet that stayed constant whenever he revisited his home country to perform or record, had a new sound, mellower and sweeter than in his younger days.
Johnny Griffin was born in Chicago on April 24, 1928, and grew up on the South Side. He attended DuSable High School, where he was taught by the famed high school band instructor Capt. Walter Dyett, whose other students included the singers Nat (King) Cole and Dinah Washington and the saxophonists Gene Ammons and Von Freeman.
Mr. Griffin’s career started in a hurry: at age 12, attending his grammar school graduation dance at the Parkway Ballroom in Chicago, he saw Ammons play in King Kolax’s big band and decided what his instrument would be. By 14 he was playing alto saxophone in a variety of situations, including a group called the Baby Band with schoolmates, and occasionally with the blues guitarist and singer T-Bone Walker. At 18, three days after his high school graduation, Mr. Griffin left Chicago to join Lionel Hampton’s big band, where he switched from alto to tenor. From then until 1951 he was based in New York City but mostly on the road.
By 1947 he was touring with the rhythm-and-blues band of the trumpeter Joe Morris, a fellow Chicagoan, with whom he made the first recordings for the Atlantic label. He entered the United States Army in 1951; stationed in Hawaii, he played in an Army band.
Mr. Griffin was of an impressionable age when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie became forces in jazz. He heard them both with Billy Eckstine’s band in 1945 and, having first internalized the more balladlike saxophone sound earlier popularized by Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster, became entranced by the lightning-fast phrasing of bebop, as the new music of Parker and Gillespie was known. In general his style remained brisk but relaxed, his bebop playing salted with blues tonality.
Beyond the 1960s his skill and his musical eccentricity continued to deepen, and in later years he could play odd, asymmetrical phrases, bulging with blues honking and then tapering off into state-of-the-art bebop, filled with passing chords.
In the late 1940s he befriended the pianists Elmo Hope, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk; he called these friendships his “postgraduate education.” After his Army service he went back to Chicago, where he worked with Monk for the first time, a job that altered his career. He became interested in Monk’s brightly melodic style of composition, and he ended up as a regular member of Monk’s quartet in New York in 1958. In 1967 he toured Europe with a Monk octet.
Mr. Griffin joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers for a short stint in 1957. The following year he began recording a series of albums as a leader for the Riverside label. On “Way Out!,” “The Little Giant” and other Riverside albums, his rampaging energy got its moment in the sun on tunes like “Cherokee,” famous vehicles for testing a musician’s mettle.
A few years later he hooked up with Davis, a more blues-oriented tenor saxophonist, with whom he made a series of records that act as barometers of taste: listeners tend to find them either thrilling or filled with too many notes. The Griffin-Davis combination was a popular one, and the two men would sporadically reunite through the ’70s and ’80s.
Mr. Griffin left the United States in 1963, settling in Paris and recording mostly for European labels — sometimes with other American expatriates, like the drummer Kenny Clarke, and sometimes with European rhythm sections. In 1973 he moved to Bergambacht, the Netherlands. He moved to the Côte d’Azur with his second wife, Miriam, in 1980, and then in 1984 to Availles-Limouzine, near Poitiers in midwestern France, where he lived thereafter.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Griffin’s survivors include four children: his daughters Jo-Onna and Ingrid and a son, John Arnold Griffin, all of the New York City area, and another daughter, Cynthia Griffin of Bordeaux, France.
Mr. Griffin stayed true to the small-group bebop ideal with his American quartet, including the pianist Michael Weiss and the drummer Kenny Washington. The record he made with this group for the Antilles label in 1991, “The Cat,” was received warmly as a comeback.
Every April for many years, Mr. Griffin returned to Chicago to visit family and play during his birthday week at the Jazz Showcase. During those visits he usually also spent a week at the Village Vanguard in New York, before returning home to his quiet house in the country
Johnny Griffin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Johnny Griffin
Background information
Birth name
John Arnold Griffin III
Also known as
"Little Giant"
Born
April 24, 1928(1928-04-24)
Origin
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died
July 25, 2008 (aged 80)
Genre(s)
Bop Hard Bop Post-bop
Occupation(s)
Saxophonist, Bandleader
Instrument(s)
Tenor saxophone
Label(s)
Blue Note Records
Associated acts
John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk
John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928– July 25, 2008) was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.
Like many other successful musicians from Chicago, he studied music at DuSable High School under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe, alto sax and finally, shortly after joining Lionel Hampton's Orchestra, the tenor saxophone alongside Arnett Cobb. While still at high school, at 15 Griffin was playing with T-Bone Walker in a band led by Walker's brother.
He worked in Lionel Hampton's Orchestra (first appearing on a Los Angeles recording in 1945, at the age of 17), leaving to join fellow Hampton band member Joe Morris's Orchestra from 1947 to 1949.
As a leader of his own band, his first Blue Note album Introducing Johnny Griffin in 1956, also featuring Wynton Kelly on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums, brought him critical acclaim. A 1957 Blue Note album A Blowing Session featured him with fellow tenor players John Coltrane and Hank Mobley. He played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for a few months in 1957, and in the Thelonious Monk Sextet and Quartet (1958). During this period, he recorded a very smooth and stylish set with Clark Terry on Serenade To a Bus Seat featuring the rhythm trio of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones.
At this stage in his career, Griffin was known as the "fastest tenor in the west", for the ease with which he could execute fast note runs with excellent intonation. Subsequent to his three albums for Blue Note, Griffin did not get alone with the label's house engineer Rudy Van Gelder, he recorded for the Riverside label. From 1960 to 1962 he and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis led their own quintet, recording several albums together.
[edit]Move to Europe
He went to live in France in 1963, moving to the Netherlands in 1978. Apart from appearing regularly under his own name at jazz clubs such as London's Ronnie Scott's, Griffin became the "first choice" sax player for visiting US musicians touring the continent during the 60s and 70s. He briefly rejoined Monk's groups (an Octet and Nonet) in 1967.
Griffin and Davis met up again in 1970 and recorded Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again, and again with the Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1965 he recorded some albums with Wes Montgomery. From 1967 to 1969, he formed part of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, and in the late 70s, recorded with Peter Herbolzheimer And His Big Band, which also included, among others, Nat Adderley, Derek Watkins, Art Farmer, Slide Hampton, Jiggs Whigham, Herb Geller, Wilton Gaynair, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Rita Reys, Jean "Toots" Thielemans, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Grady Tate, and Quincy Jones as arranger. He also recorded with the Nat Adderley Quintet in 1978, having previously recorded with Adderley in 1958.
His last concert, July 21, 2008 was played in Hyères, France. Johnny Griffin died in Availles-Limouzine, France, where he had lived for the past 24 years.
[edit]Selected discography
Introducing Johnny Griffin (1956)
A Blowing Session (1957)
The Congregation (1957)
Johnny Griffin Sextet (1958)
The Little Giant (1959)
The Big Soul Band (1960)
White Gardenia (1961; Riverside Records)
The Kerry Dancers and Other Swinging Folk (1961)
Tough Tenor Favourites (1962)
Grab This! (1962)
The Man I Love (1967)
Tough Tenors Again 'n' Again, with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (1970)
Bush Dance (1978)
That Old Feeling (Rita Reys, Trio Pim Jacobs ft. Johnny Griffin (1979)
Art continues to explore new horizons to reach out to the public. The latest attempt in this ongoing struggle is an effort to marry the performing and visual arts.
World musician and producer Richard Kawesa and painter Daudi Karungi have formed music art, a new form of expression that will blend art and music. The Paint the Music project, as this collaboration is called, brings a new way of appreciating art.
"We would like to use painting and music to produce a single artistic language that will be understood by the whole world," says Kawesa.
The project, he says, aims at fundraising for the construction of the first Museum of Modern Art in Uganda and East Africa. The museum will be constructed at the Akright City on Entebbe Road.
The project involves painters working with musicians to produce work based on selected songs. The painters first internalise the message in a song, before producing a painting based on the message.
Through all this, the painters work with the film director and actors to film edit the entire painting process before making a music video out of it. A completed painting will then be sold with a CD copy of the song that inspired it.
The project has been piloted with some impressive results. Three of Uganda's leading painters; Maria Naita, Henry Mzili and Daudi Karungi have painted works based on some of Kawesa's hit songs; Ms Uganda, Train Train, Mam's Speech and Lullaby (Ani Akuba Baby Wange?).
One of the works, a painting by Karungi, was recently presented to Judith Rodin and James Orr, the president and chairman of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation respectively.
Another painting by Karungi, based on Ms Uganda, will be unveiled on Tuesday next week at the Serena Hotel in Kampala.
Celebrated American musician, Vanessa Williams, is expected at the occasion, where the project will be launched to Uganda's top businessmen.
Nigeria: Praise And Holiness Bring Down God's Power - Musician
Leadership (Abuja)
COLUMN 20 July 2008 Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Chika Otuchikere
The story of Miss Chioma Emekowa has once again brought to the fore, the trauma young talented women go through in their attempt to breakthrough in life.
The story has also presented another angle of the raging issue of rape and sexual harassment which the national assembly is presently debating.
Chioma Emekowa recently launched a new gospel album into the Nigerian music industry and was full of gratitude to God for seeing her through what she described as "likened to a Carmel passing through the eyes of a needle". According to her, the experience has proven to her that "with God all things are possible".
The Alaenyi-Ogwa in Mabitoli Local Government Area (LGA) songstress revealed how it all started it all started. In year 2005, I joined the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) in their 70 days prayer and fasting programme. During the programme, I found out that I started getting inspiration for new songs, but I did not take it as anything until I travelled to my village to see my mum. During a morning devotion with my family, my mother noticed that I was singing some new songs, so, she brought a write note book and told me to any song I got. That was how I started composing new songs.
Chioma who said that although as a child, she had nursed the ambition to play music and always wished that she could become like other gospel artistes, she never made any effort to go into music before the MFM programme. "During the MFM programme, I also had a dream where I saw myself singing to a large crowd and healing people through my song. So, that year after jotting down all the songs, went to peolpe that would help me but when I approached them, they all failed me. Just because I would not go into the production of the music I had to drop the songs; I took the book and put it inside my big bag. For three years I kept it.
"In 2007, there was another MFM 70 days fasting and prayer programme, I participated in it. I wrote a prayer point to God, asking God that if he will make it possible for me to produce the music, I am going to serve him all the days of my life. So, in January 2008, I started making a move, this time, without seeking help from anybody. I believed that God could do it for me. With the support of my mother and my sisters, God has done it for me. I did not believe that I could do it when I started. When God is with you no one can be against you."
Chioma, who was full of joy for accomplishment recalled that the journey through the studio was not an easy one as she had to go through days without food in order to achieve success.
"It was really a very tough job. During the production, it was very tough to the extent that I would go to the studio without having money in my hand. I would starve myself for three days and still continued. God is wonderful, He is indeed a miraculous God. Because ordinarily if I want to fast, I would find it difficult to fast but in studio, I would stay without food for days just because I did not have money. The money involved is much just as the stress. I never believed I could accomplish all those things.
Asked if in the face of the difficulties and lack of money, she was ever tempted to do anything immoral to make ends meets, Chioma exclaimed. "Woah! Even when I met some people whom I thought were just good friends and I wanted them to assist me, they would agree to help me but on the condition that I give them my body. Do not always answer them if they say something like that, I just walk out on them, because already I had made a vow in 2007 during the MFM programme that I will serve only my God and I will not give my body to any person. So because of that I ignored them and did not go to them again. My two sisters, Mrs Hegan and Mrs Ogbonna gave me job as home lessons so I started doing lessons teacher. This was the money I used in producing my music and the one my mother gave me later." She said.
Chioma affirms that gospel music has prospects and is a source of blessing to both the singer and the listener. According to her, when a person praises God, blessing are poured down from heaven. "when you play gospel music with your whole heart and keep yourself holy, God is able to do everything for you, Chioma enthused.
She spoke about the seven track album title Okpu Eze, pointing out that the title which literarily means a "Kings Crown" shows that God has finally crowned her since having given her life to Jesus Christ she automatically becomes the child of a king.
One of the tracks, "Power Must Change Hand" also caught the attention of this reporter. Chioma gave an insight into the reason for the tractk. It simply means that as human beings we go through difficulties, but once you give your life to Christ and keep on praying things will begin to change. Whatever difficultiy you thin you are going through as a person or family, the only thing you need to do is to give your life to Jesus Christ, become a new creature and at that moment power has change hands"
Chioma who said she was in need of marketers to help her finance her new album which is already enjoying favourable comments and airtime was full of thanks to her producer Kosy Asikwo, MFM Utako, the Christian Power Centre (CPC), Dawaki and all members of her family".
Joseph E. Fields, Conductor, Composer and Pianist, Is Dead at 53
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: July 21, 2008
Joseph E. Fields, a pianist, conductor and composer who was a former music director and principal conductor of Dance Theater of Harlem, died on July 4 in Scranton, Pa. He was 53 and had homes in Scranton and New York City.
John Fetsock, a family spokesman, said he died after a short illness.
Joseph E. Fields, DMA Associate Professor of Music jefields@marywood.edu
Joseph E. Fields, DMA, is Associate Professor of Music, Music Department Administrator and Conductor of the Marywood University Orchestra. He is formerly Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, an internationally recognized ballet company. Dr. Fields has conducted professional orchestras on four continents, including the Royal Birmingham Sinfonia (London), Victoria State Orchestra (Melbourne), Prague Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Broadcast Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Fields has performed as conductor and/or pianist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, City Center for the Performing Arts, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City; the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles; the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC; the Weinbrennersaal in Baden-Baden, Germany; as well as other national and international venues. As a result of his piano recital in Baden-Baden, Dr. Fields was invited to record for Südwestfunk, the German National Radio Station.
Dr. Fields received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a Doctoral Fellow. He received his Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was the recipient of a two-year teaching assistantship during his graduate degree and was a nine-time winner of scholarships and prizes during his undergraduate years, graduating summa cum laude.
Recent creative projects have included the arrangement, orchestration and composition of new music for “St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet” for Dance Theatre of Harlem; the original soundtrack for “My Last Fall,” a film by Jerry Melichar; three songs to poems of e.e. cummings; collaboration with writer/director Nathaniel Merchant on “Tudor,” a new musical; and the completion of the first Kyrie of a planned Mass for five-voice choir and soloists.
Jo Stafford, Wistful Voice of WWII Era, Dies at 90
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: July 19, 2008
Jo Stafford, the wistful singing voice of the American home front during World War II and the Korean War, died on Wednesday at her home in Century City, Calif. She was 90.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Associated Press
Jo Stafford, a singer who was a favorite of American servicemen during World War II.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, her son, Tim Weston, said Friday.
A favorite of American servicemen, Ms. Stafford earned the nickname G.I. Jo for her recordings in which her pure, nearly vibrato-less voice, with perfect intonation, conveyed steadfast devotion and reassurance with delicate understatement.
She was the vocal embodiment of every serviceman’s dream girl faithfully tending the home fires while he was overseas. First as a member of the Pied Pipers, who sang with Tommy Dorsey and accompanied the young Frank Sinatra, and later as a soloist, Ms. Stafford enjoyed a stream of hits from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. Her biggest hit, “You Belong to Me,” in 1952, sold two million copies.
Ms. Stafford sang everything from folk songs to novelties to hymns. Her gift for hilarious musical parody was first revealed in the 1947 novelty sensation “Temptation” (“Tim-Tayshun”), a hillbilly spoof recorded under the name of Cinderella G. Stump with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. It reached No. 1 on the music charts.
Adecade later, a party act with which she and her husband, the arranger and conductor Paul Weston, had amused their friends became a secondary comedy career, in which they impersonated Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, an excruciatingly bad New Jersey lounge act “presented by Jo Stafford and Paul Weston.”
While Mr. Weston played the wrong chords and fudged the rhythm, Ms. Stafford sang a half-tone sharp. Mr. Stafford won her only Grammy, for best comedy album (“Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris”), in 1961. The Edwardses records, the last of which was a hilariously inept 1977 single of “Stayin’ Alive,” with their version of “I Am Woman” on the flip side, rank as classic pop spoofs alongside those of Spike Jones and Weird Al Yankovic.
But it was as a balladeer interpreting standards like “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “Haunted Heart,” “All the Things You Are” and “The Nearness of You” that Ms. Stafford distilled as pure a vocal essence of romantic nostalgia as any pop singer of the 1940s and ’50s.
Jo Elizabeth Stafford was born on Nov. 12, 1917, in Coalinga, Calif., near Fresno and brought up in Long Beach. As a child she studied voice and hoped to become an opera singer, but because of hard times decided to join her older sisters Christine and Pauline in a country-and-western singing group, the Stafford Sisters, who performed on the radio in Los Angeles.
After the Stafford Sisters broke up, Ms. Stafford, with seven male singers from two other groups, formed the Pied Pipers, an octet that caught the attention of Mr. Weston and Axel Stordahl, arrangers for the Dorsey band. Reduced to a quartet, the group joined Dorsey and quickly gained fame as the backup singers for Sinatra.
In 1940, the No. 1 hit “I’ll Never Smile Again” established the creamy Dorsey-Sinatra-Pied Pipers sound.
Ms. Stafford recorded her first solo record with Dorsey, “Little Man With a Candy Cigar,” in 1942. Her first husband, John Huddleston, whom she later divorced, was a singer in the group.
Two years later, she left the band to sign with Capitol Records, the new label established by Johnny Mercer. Along with Margaret Whiting and Peggy Lee, Ms. Stafford became one of Capitol’s three female pop mainstays. Mr. Weston became Capitol’s musical director and Ms. Stafford’s arranger and conductor. They married in 1952. Weston died in 1996.
Besides their son, Tim, of Topanga, Calif., Ms. Stafford is survived by their daughter, Amy Wells of Calabasas, Calif.; a younger sister, Betty Jane; and four grandchildren.
During the early Capitol years, Ms. Stafford’s U.S.O. tours and V-Discs (recordings specially made for servicemen) earned her the nickname G.I. Jo. In 1945, “Candy,” in which she and Pied Pipers accompanied Mr. Mercer, went to No. 1.
From the mid- ’40s on, Ms. Stafford was a major radio star, who sometimes used her show, “The Chesterfield Supper Club,” to acquaint the public with Southern Appalachian folk music. She recorded a groundbreaking album, “Jo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs” and followed it with “Songs of Scotland.”
The folk-pop singer Judy Collins has credited Ms. Stafford’s version of “Barbara Allen” as an important inspiration for her early folk career. In the late 1940s and early ’50s, Ms. Stafford and Gordon McRae teamed for a series of hit duets, including “My Darling, My Darling,” from the Broadway musical “Where’s Charley?” and the devotional song “Whispering Hope.” When Mr. Weston left Capitol Records for Columbia, Ms. Stafford followed him.
Her Columbia albums, like “Swingin’ Down Broadway,” “Ski Trails,” “Ballad of the Blues” and “Jo + Jazz” (with the arranger Johnny Mandel) foreshadowed the modern concept album. Her biggest hits for the label included “Make Love to Me,” a pop version of Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya,” and “Shrimp Boats.”
On several hits she was teamed with Frankie Laine, the most popular of which was their duet of another Williams song, “Hey, Good Lookin’.” After a falling out with Columbia in the late 1950s, Ms. Stafford returned to Capitol, then joined Sinatra’s label Reprise.
In 1966, Ms. Stafford went into semiretirement, and after “Stayin’ Alive,” she retired completely. She re-appeared once, in 1990, at an event honoring Sinatra. Many of her hits have been reissued on Corinthian Records, a record company Mr. Weston founded as a religious label.
Many years after her retirement, Ms. Stafford looked back happily on her musical life with Weston. “Our talents — his and mine — fit the music of the time,” she said. “And the music fit us. We were very fortunate, because if both of us were starting out today, we’d starve to death!”
Jo Stafford (November 12, 1917 – July 16, 2008[1]), born Jo Elizabeth Stafford, was an American jazz singer whose career spanned the late 1930s through the early 1960s. Stafford is greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era. She was also viewed as a pioneer of modern musical parody, having won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1961 (with husband Paul Weston) for their album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris.
Contents[hide]
1Early years
2The Pied Pipers
3Solo career
4Comedy career
5Retirement
6Discography
6.1Chart hits
6.2Albums
7Notable songs
7.1Solo
7.2With Frankie Laine
7.3With Gordon MacRae
7.4With Johnny Mercer
8References
9External links
[edit]Early years
Stafford was born in Coalinga, California to Grover Cleveland Stafford and Anna York Stafford, a distant cousin of Sergeant Alvin York. Originally, she wanted to become an opera singer and studied voice as a child. However, because of the economic Great Depression, she abandoned that idea and joined her sisters Christine and Pauline in a popular vocal group, "The Stafford Sisters", which performed on Los Angeles radio station KHJ.
[edit]The Pied Pipers
When her sisters married, the group broke up and Stafford joined a new vocal group, The Pied Pipers. This group consisted of eight members: John Huddleston (who was Stafford's husband at the time), Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill, besides Stafford. The group became very popular, working on local radio and movie soundtracks, and caught the attention of two of Tommy Dorsey's arrangers, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston.
In 1938, Weston persuaded Dorsey to sign The Pied Pipers for his radio show, and they went to New York for a broadcast date. Dorsey liked them enough to sign them for ten weeks, but after the second broadcast the sponsor heard them and disliked them, firing the group. They stayed in New York for three months, but landed only a single job that paid them just $3.60 each, though they did record four sides for RCA Victor Records.
Half the members of the Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles, but they had a difficult time trying to make a living until they got an offer from Dorsey to join his big band in 1939. This led to success for the whole group, but especially for Stafford, who was also featured in solo performances. The group also backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings.
In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left, but in 1943 it became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. Capitol's music director was the same Paul Weston who had been instrumentalin introducing Stafford to Dorsey. Weston and Stafford married in 1952. They went on to have two children, Tim and Amy.
[edit]Solo career
In 1944, Stafford left the Pied Pipers to go solo. Her tenure with the USO, in which she gave countless performances for soldiers stationed overseas, acquired her the nickname "GI Jo."
Beginning in 1944, she hosted the Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of an NBC musical variety radio program — The Chesterfield Supper Club.
In 1948 Stafford and Gordon MacRae had a million-seller with their version of "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart" and in 1949 repeated their success with "My Happiness".
In 1950, she left Capitol for Columbia Records, then returning to Capitol in 1961. At Columbia, she was the first recording artist to sell twenty-five million records. During her second stint at Capitol, Stafford also recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label. These albums were released between 1961 and 1964, and were mostly retrospective in nature. Stafford left the label when Sinatra sold it to Warner Bros.
In the 1950s, she had a string of popular hits with Frankie Laine, six of which charted; their duet of Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'" making the top ten in 1951. It was also at this time that Stafford scored her best known hits with huge records like "Jambalaya," "Shrimp Boats," "Make Love to Me," and "You Belong to Me". The last song was Stafford's all-time biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart).
[edit]Comedy career
Stafford briefly experimented with comedy under the name "Cinderella G. Stump" with Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. She recorded a mock hillbilly version of Temptation, which she pronounced "Tim-tayshun."[2] True success in the comedy genre, though, would come about almost accidentally.
Throughout the 1950s, Stafford and Paul Weston would entertain guests at parties by putting on a skit in which they assumed the identities Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, a bad lounge act. Stafford, as Darlene, would sing off-key in a high pitched voice; Weston, as Jonathan, played an untuned piano off key and with bizarre rhythms.
Finding that she had time left over following a 1957 recording session, Stafford, as a gag, recorded a track as Darlene Edwards. Those who heard bootlegs of the recording responded positively, and later that year, Stafford and Weston recorded an entire album of songs as Jonathan and Darlene, entitled Jo Stafford and Paul Weston Present: The Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edwards, Vocals by Darlene Edwards. As a publicity stunt, Stafford and Weston claimed that the Edwardses were a New Jersey lounge act that they had discovered, and denied any personal connection. The ruse triggered a national sensation as the public tried to identify the brazenly off-key singer and the piano player of dubious ability. (Some guessed Margaret and Harry Truman, Time magazine noted.)[3] Much time would pass before people realized (and Stafford and Weston admitted) that they were in fact the Edwardses. The album was followed up with a "pop standards" album, on which the pair intentionally butchered popular music. The album was a commercial and critical success; it proved to be the first commercially successful musical parody album, laying the groundwork for the careers of later "full time" musical parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic.
The couple continued releasing Jonathan and Darlene albums, with their 1961 album, Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris winning that year's Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album (they "tied" with Bob Newhart, as the Grammys decided, in a rare move, to issue two comedy awards that year. Newhart was given an award for "Spoken Word Comedy.") It was the only major award that Stafford ever won.
The couple continued to release Jonathan and Darlene albums for several years, and in 1977 released a final, one-off single, a cover of The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" backed with "I Am Woman." The same year also saw a brief resurgence in the popularity of Jonathan and Darlene albums when their cover of "Carioca" was featured as the opening and closing theme to The Kentucky Fried Movie.
[edit]Retirement
In 1966, Stafford went into semi-retirement, retiring completely from the music business in 1975. Except for the 1977 Jonathan and Darlene Edwards version of "Stayin' Alive," Stafford wouldn't perform again until 1990, at a ceremony honoring Frank Sinatra.
Stafford won a breach-of-contract lawsuit against her former record label in the early 1990s, which won her the rights to all of her old recordings, including the Jonathan and Darlene recordings. Following the lawsuit, Stafford, along with son Tim, reactivated the Corinthian Record label which began life as a religious label the deeply religious Paul Weston had started. With Paul Weston's help, she compiled a pair of Best of Jonathan and Darlene albums, which were released in 1993. In 1996, Paul Weston died of natural causes. Stafford continued to operate Corinthian Records. In 2006, she donated her library and her husband's to the University of Arizona.
She died in Century City, California of congestive heart failure on July 16, 2008 at the age of 90.[1
Discography[edit]Chart hits
Please help expand this singles chart.
Year
Title
Chart Positions
US Pop
UK
1944
"Long Ago (and Far Away)"
6
—
"It Could Happen to You"
10
—
1945
"That's for Me"
9
—
1950
"Goodnight, Irene"
26
—
"No Other Love"
10
—
1951
"Shrimp Boats"
2
—
"Pretty-Eyed Baby" (w/ Frankie Laine)
13
—
"Gambella (The Gamblin' Lady)" (w/ Frankie Laine)
19
—
"Hey, Good Lookin'" (w/ Frankie Laine)
9
—
1952
"Hambone" (w/ Frankie Laine)
6
—
"Settin' the Woods on Fire" (w/ Frankie Laine)
21
—
"Chow Willy" (w/ Frankie Laine)
25
—
"You Belong to Me"
1
1
"Jambalaya"
3
11
"Keep It a Secret"
6
—
1953
"(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I"
20
—
"Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" (w/ Frankie Laine)
THREE IN FIVE CHRISTIAN RADIO LISTENERS TUNE IN FOR MUSIC: Only forty percent of believers are tuning in to Gospel radio for the sermons.
According to a new survey by Wilson Research Strategies, more Christians are tuning in to Gospel radio for the music. Fifty-six percent tune in to listen to Christian music and forty percent tune in for the sermons and teachings.
"There is a much higher demand for teaching programs than what the conventional wisdom might expect," commented Rick Dunham, president and CEO of Dunham & Company, which commissioned the survey.
Those primarily driven to listen to Christian music are predominantly women aged 18-44 and are more likely to attend church less frequently, while those who tune in for the sermons and teachings tend to be older men and women and attend church more frequently.
Forty six percent of Christian adults (which represent 69 million people) tune in to Gospel radio compared to the ninety one percent who tune into general radio.
The sample surveyed for the Wilson Research Strategies' study represents seventy-two percent of U.S. adult population - which is equal to roughly 150.5 million people that call themselves Christians. Christians in this study is defined as people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing He died for their sins have eternal life. The study was conducted by phone from May 27-29, 2008.
Attitudes and Behaviors of Christian Adults Towards Christian Radio
Wilson Research Strategies was commissioned by Dunham+Company to conduct a research study of 1000 Christian adults nationwide. A sample of n=1000 has a margin of error of ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level. The study was conducted by telephone May 27-29, 2008. This sampling represents 72% of the United States population, which is equal to roughly 150.5 million people who call themselves Christians. Christians in this study were defined as people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing He died for their sins they have eternal life.
All respondents were contacted via Random Digit Dialing methodology. The sample was stratified by key demographics including age, gender, and area in order to representatively measure the United States Christian population at large.
Attractiveness of Christian radio
46% of Christian adults—representing over 69 million people— tune in to Christian radio
For those who don't listen to Christian programming, nearly 1 in 4 (23%) say they are not interested in listening to Christian content while 1 in 5 (20%) say they prefer other content, such as news and sports
11% (8.4 million) say they prefer to get their Christian content elsewhere
65% of those who listen to Christian radio do so at least several times per week
Nearly 1 in 3 (29%) say they tune in every day, which represents approximately 20 million people who listen to Christian radio every day
Profile of Those Who Tune in to Christian Programming
Women 45-54 years of age
Pentecostal/Charismatic (with non-denominational and Baptists also highly represented)
Living in the South (inclusive of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida)
Politically conservative
Activists
71% of listeners say they attend church frequently
1 in 10 say they never attend church, representing nearly 7 million people
Programming Preference
The single greatest reason for tuning in to Christian radio given by respondents was to listen to Christian music (56%), which represents over 38 million listeners
The second highest reason given was to listen to teaching/sermons (40%), or 27.6 million listeners
16% of respondents (11 million) said “Talk” was their primary motivation for tuning into Christian programming
Listener Profile by Programming Choice
Of critical importance is the difference in the profile between those who tune in to Christian radio in order to listen to Christian music and those who are tuning in to listen to teaching/sermons.
Those who are primarily driven to listen to Christian music are:
Younger, predominately women 18-44
More likely to attend church less frequently (although frequent church attenders do tune in)
More likely to be single than those who listen to teaching programs
Less likely to listen to Christian radio on a frequent basis
Those who tune in to Christian radio to listen to teaching/sermons are:
An even split of older men and women (55+) with a very high incidence of those who are 65+
Much more likely to be retirees
Those who attend church more frequently than those who seldom attend church
Much more likely to be loyal listeners to Christian radio
Other Findings
Christians want more variety and choice in Christian radio stations, particularly when it comes to music.
The core and most active audience of Christian radio listeners is demanding sermons and teaching.
It is true that the music industry in Botswana is gaining momentum by the day if the number of revellers who flocked the BBS mall in Gaborone recently is any yardstick.
Music lovers came to witness a battle of gospel heavyweights between Tebogo Sethomo (Tebbie) and Kebabonye Phiri (Keba). Gospel sensation, Sethomo was backed by Dr Vom while Phiri performed with either Tipidex or a new cultural troupe called Bomadala. Sethomo staged her show in front of Furnmart Furnishers while Phiri was at the nearby Lewis Furnishers. The proximity made life difficult for gospel music lovers who faced a dilemma over which show to attend.
Phiri has already released three albums and she played a couple of songs from her latest offering. From the reaction, it was clear the album was well appreciated. Recently, Phiri cast doubts on Sethomo's talent on the local music entertainment show, Mokaragana. She said she was not certain if Sethomo's songs were sung by her or somebody else. Sethomo has two albums under her belt, Khubama being the latest. Word has it that the two women are the fiercest of rivals.
Sethomo proved beyond doubt why she was part of the international band that was sent to represent the country in China where she reportedly did well to sell Botswana's gospel music. The winner of the 2006 Botswana Music Union (BOMU) Best Gospel Artist Award has now self-styled herself the 'Queen of Gospel'.
As for the rivalry between her and Phiri, Sethomo said: "I do not have anything against her and I am applying every means possible to be kind to her but Phiri is not willing to cooperate". She said Phiri once went around spreading word that she had beaten her while in actual fact she was beaten by another gospel artist (name withheld). Sethomo added that before the show at BBS mall, Phiri had called her saying she would be performing in Mochudi. But upon hearing that she, Sethomo would be at BBS, Phiri came and set up her equipment a few metres from where she was performing. Sethomo termed the move as unprofessional.
Phiri admitted that there is rivalry between her and Sethomo. But she blames Sethomo for the state of affairs. She explained that it was mere coincidence that they happened to perform simultaneously at BBS.
"Sethomo is the one who is always following me wherever I perform. She once followed me to Francistown (Ellerines Furnishers) and Thamaga where I was invited but she was never invited," Phiri charged.
Ellerines manager Amos Ben Mabuku denied that Sethomo wanted to hijack Phiri's show. He said the two artistes performed on the same week but on different days. Despite the rivalry, the two women put up impressive and breathtaking performances at BBS. There seemed to be an equal number of revellers on both shows. But as Dr Vom took to the stage, the situation changed as he attracted the crowd from Phiri's show. The talented young man started by playing his hit track Thobane, which left fans yelling for a replay. When he played Molekane, almost the entire crowd was on its feet.
All of sudden in what seemed to be a dramatic turn of events, the group before Furnmart split up on hearing Gong Master and Ditiro's song, Makanyane a ja pitse, blaring from the stage nearby. But they soon came back disappointed because the song was being performed by the new cultural troupe Bomadala. The four-strong group of two men and two women put up a very thrilling performance much to the delight of the fans who treated them to ululation.
Tipidex, the most noteworthy artist in front of Lewis, took to the stage and got back the crowd. All in all, the day was a success as fans had an opportunity to win themselves CDs and DVDs or buy them at a give away price of only P20.
Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerRev. Lawrence C. Roberts of the First Baptist Church of Nutley at a banquet honoring his 36 years of service to the First Baptist Church in 1995.
Founder of Savoy Records passes away
Renowned gospel producer and baritone Lawrence C. Roberts has died, according to a report in the Newark, NJ Star-Ledger. Roberts was founder of Savoy Records, a Gospel label based in Newark.
Lawrence became the first African-American producer of a major recording company. He worked with other Gospel icons including James Cleveland, Doris Duke, Albertina Walker and many others.
His Angelic Choir of Nutley worked with James Cleveland to produce 11 of Gospel’s greatest albums, including “Peace Be Still” and “Stood on the Banks.”
Roberts was pastor of First Baptist Church on Nutley. He died in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where he retired after serving as pastor of First Baptist Church. (Source: Star-Ledger/The Baltimore Sun)
Lawrence C. Roberts, gospel icon, Newark native, dies at 77 by Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Lawrence C. Roberts, a world-renowned gospel producer, gifted baritone and former Nutley pastor who taught the reclusive tobacco heiress Doris Duke how to sing spirituals, is dead. He was 77.
The Newark native died at his home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where he moved about a decade ago after retiring in 1995 as the long-time pastor of the First Baptist Church of Nutley.
It was while he was building his church that Mr. Roberts also built the premiere gospel label, the Newark-based Savoy Records, and became the first African-American producer of a major U.S. recording company.
His Angelic Choir of Nutley, which once included Doris Duke as a member, recorded 29 records and teamed with the Rev. James Cleveland to produce 11 of gospel's greatest albums, including ''Peace Be Still'' and ''Stood on the Banks.''
For his efforts, he received the key to Newark and three other cities, including New Orleans, and won two Grammy awards.
"The gospel world has lost an icon. He was a man known for his charisma and his love of people," said the Rev. Kyle Abercrombie, the associate minister of the First Baptist Church of Nutley.
"But we will not weep. We will rejoice because of his life. God has reassigned him to a new place, and we will meet him again," Abercrombie said.
Roberts is survived by his wife, Delores, a renowned singer in her own right who Roberts credited with inspiring him to pursue his gospel career. He also is survived by three children, a son, Derrick Roberts, and two daughters, Vanessa Walker and Renee Whitney.
Roberts had already become famous for his work with a number of gospel stars, including James Cleveland, Albertina Walker, the Roberta Martin Singers and the Banks Brothers, when Duke contacted him in the 1960s, asking for private tutoring. Too busy at the time building up his church, raising a family and running a record label, Roberts invited her instead to sing with the church choir -- and she accepted.
She toured with Roberts for nearly a decade, beginning in 1968, joining the choir in concerts at the Apollo Theater and Duke Ellington's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in 1971. But she stopped in the mid-1970s, Roberts told The Star-Ledger in a 1996 interview, because her visibility with the all-black choir started attracting the media and curious on-lookers outside his church on Harrison Street.
But she never forgot Roberts, the man she credited for teaching her how to sing.
The recluse, who died in 1993, left her more than $1 billion estate to benefit a wide array of charities and individuals, including Roberts, whom she left $1 million.
"If you touch someone's life with God's goodness, that same touch will come back to you," Roberts told The Star-Ledger in a 1996 interview after a New York judge settled challenges that arose over the Duke estate.
A year earlier, Roberts' achievements were celebrated at a retirement dinner in Newark that was attended by many of the gospel singers who got their start with the reverend. At the time, he toldThe Star-Ledger how he grew up in the city and, while a young boy, first approached Lee Warrick, mother of singer Dionne Warwick, at the Zion Hill Baptist Church in 1949 asking to join her family' singing group, the Warrick Singers.
He didn't get the job that day, but the Warrick Singers eventually took him in. By 1957, Roberts became a minister and, two years later, took over as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, which he once said he initially found to be a ''log cabin with a pot-belly stove for our heat."
With the financial help of attorney Marvin Fish and the support of his congregation, he rebuilt the old church, paying off the mortgage by traveling the country and singing with his Angelic Choir.
Funeral arrangements are still being made for Roberts in Georgia.
Gospel Legend, Savoy Records’ producer, Rev. Lawrence C. Roberts passed away on July 14, 2008 at 5:22 pm. We were advised by his granddaughter, Dawn Miles that Rev. Roberts was with his family at the kitchen table when he was stricken with a massive heart attack.
Rev. Roberts is credited with changing the course of Gospel music history by being the first to perfect the “Live” recording experience in the Gospel genre with The King Of Gospel Rev. James Cleveland’s “Volume I”. In a conversation with Rev. Roberts, he shared with me how he met with Rev. James Cleveland and advised him that he wanted to record him “live,” in church, in service and just let the machine run. He stated, “no one at that time could see how that could work because the industry was only use to studio recordings; take one, take two, go back and clean it up and if you have to clean up a song too much you lose some of the fervor that the original interpretation may have had.”
That historic recording took place in October, 1960. Rev. Roberts went on to produced 14 albums for The King Of Gospel, Rev. James Cleveland, which included the classics “Peace Be Still”, “I Stood On The Banks Of Jordan”, “Christ Is The Answer” and the list goes on and on.
Rev. Lawrence C. Roberts’ legendary career came full circle just as he and Malaco began to reestablish a working relationship before his untimely death.
In memory of Rev. Lawrence C. Roberts, The Malaco Music Group will release his final contribution to this historic label, a compilation he entitled, “Bridging The Past, Blessing The Present In Song.”
We've lost another legend!!!
To listen to clips of this Gospel Legend, visit www.malaco.com
Funeral arrangements are as follows:
Friday, July 18, 2008, 6-8pm (viewing) at Levitte Funeral Home N. Clarendon Ave. Scottdale GA.
Funeral will be held Saturday July 19, 2008, 11am at Victory Baptist Church 1170 N. Hairston Road Stone Mountain GA.
Natalie Cole Singer Natalie Cole has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, she revealed
Cole, 58, the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole, is thought to have contracted the potentially deadly virus from past drug use.
The disease was discovered during a routine examination, the US star's spokesman said.
Cole was addicted to LSD, cocaine and heroin before becoming clean of drugs in 1984 following a long stay in rehab.
Her doctors said she is suffering from fatigue, muscle aches and dehydration - side effects from the treatment for Hepatitis C.
The Grammy Award-winning singer said: "I've been so fortunate to have learned so much from my past experiences. I am embraced by the love and support of my family and friends.
"I am committed to my belief in myself and in my abiding faith to meet this challenge with a heartfelt optimism and determination."
The star, whose father died of lung cancer when she was 15, said: "This is how I intend to deal with this current challenge in my life."
Dr Graham Woolf, associate clinical professor of medicine at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in the US, said: "Natalie has had a terrific response to her medication and is now virus negative.
"This gives her an increased chance of cure. But, she has also suffered significant side effects from the anti-viral medicine".
Natalie Cole says she has hepatitis C
NEW YORK — Grammy-winning singer Natalie Cole has been diagnosed with hepatitis C, her publicist said in a statement Wednesday.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood. The statement said the disease was revealed during a routine examination and was likely caused by her drug use years ago.
(enlarge photo)
American singer Natalie Cole poses during a photocall at the 57th International Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 22, 2004. Cole has been diagnosed with hepatitis C, her publicist said in a statement Wednesday July 16, 2008. The statement said the disease was revealed during a routine examination and was likely caused by her drug use years ago. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours, FILE)
"I've been so fortunate to have learned so much from my past experiences," said Cole. "I am embraced by the love and support of my family and friends; I am committed to my belief in myself and in my abiding faith to meet this challenge with a heartfelt optimism and determination. This is how I intend to deal with this current challenge in my life."
Her physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Graham Woolf, said Cole has had a "terrific response to her medication and is now virus negative."
"This gives her an increased chance of cure," he said. Woolf said Cole is recovering from side effects of the medicine she's taking, including fatigue, muscle aches and dehydration.
Cole, 58, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, has sold millions of records over her long career. She is due to release "Still Unforgettable," the follow-up to 1991's Grammy-winning, multi-platinum CD "Unforgettable ... With Love," on which she remade some of her father's classics, in September.
Did Bruce help bring down the Berlin Wall?
His comments at 1988 concert helped fed East Germans' discontent
BERLIN - When Bruce Springsteen spoke out against the Berlin Wall at the biggest concert in East German history in 1988, no one in the crowd of 160,000 had the faintest idea that the symbol of the Cold War would soon be history.
Dave Hogan / Getty Images
In 1988, Bruce Springsteen told East Germans,“ I’m not here for or against any government ... I came to play rock ’n’ roll for you East Berliners in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.”
But now -- 20 years after the American rock star went behind the Iron Curtain -- organizers, historians and people who witnessed it say his message came at a critical juncture in German history in the run-up to the Wall’s collapse.
It was not the only show that summer with political fallout. In June, a concert for Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday in London was beamed to millions worldwide. Two years later he was freed from an apartheid jail and later elected South Africa's president.
Such concerts for a cause remain part of the summer music calendar, even if their impact is diluted in the internet age.
Springsteen, an influential songwriter and singer whose lyrics are often about people struggling, got permission at long last to perform in East Berlin in 1988.
Even though his songs are full of emotion and politics, East Germany had welcomed him as a “hero of the working class.” The Communists may have unwittingly created an evening that did more to change East Germany than Woodstock did to the United States.
Annoyed at the billing “Concert for Nicaragua” that Communist East German leaders stamped on his July 19 performance, Springsteen stopped halfway through the three-hour show for a short speech -- in heavily accented German:
“I want to tell you I’m not here for or against any government,” Springsteen said, as he pointedly introduced his rendition of the Bob Dylan ballad “Chimes of Freedom.”
“I came to play rock ’n’ roll for you East Berliners in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.”
The words fed the discontent building in East Germany and added to a restless mood in the country severed from the West after World War Two -- and especially in the city split by the Wall, built during the darkest hours of the Cold War in 1961.
Taste of freedom The East German organizer told Reuters hardline leaders only reluctantly endorsed the plan by the Communist party’s FDJ youth group to let Springsteen in. It was an era of change sparked by the “perestroika” reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
“It obviously wasn’t easy and we had to fight hard to get permission but we eventually succeeded,” Roland Claus, an ex-FDJ leader and now a member of parliament, said in an interview. East German hardliners were skeptical of Gorbachev.
Slide show
The week in celebrity sightings Jessica and Tony share a night out; Pam joins ‘Big Brother Australia,’; Bon Jovi rocks Central Park.
more photos
“The higher-ups understood that rock music was international and if East Germany wanted to do something to improve the lot of young people, we’d have to try it,” he said. ”We were proud we got him and had great hopes it’d help modernize East Germany.”
Instead, the open-air concert at a cycling arena only seemed to make East Germans long more for the freedoms that Springsteen sang and spoke about in a show also broadcast on TV and radio.
“We were interested in opening the country up,” said Claus,
53. “No one thought the Wall would be gone a year later. Anyone in the East or West who said that would have been considered insane. It was a great concert with a special atmosphere.”
Americans in Berlin Other Americans had spoken out against the Wall in Berlin.
But both presidents John F. Kennedy in 1963 (”Ich bin ein Berliner”) and Ronald Reagan in 1987 (”Tear down this Wall”) gave their addresses in West Berlin.
Springsteen delivered his words in the heart of East Berlin, where Communist East Germany had long portrayed the United States as a decadent and belligerent “class enemy.”
“Springsteen’s concert and speech certainly contributed in a larger sense to the events leading up to the fall of the Wall,” said Gerd Dietrich, a historian at Berlin’s Humboldt University.
“It was a paradoxical situation. Before Springsteen, the FDJ had always cursed Western rock artists like Springsteen. And then all of a sudden they were welcoming him. It looked like they were caving in to the shifting values of young people.”
Memories of how Springsteen rocked Berlin
07/15/2008 7:00 PM, Reuters Erik Kirschbaum
When Bruce Springsteen spoke out against the Berlin Wall at the biggest concert in East German history in 1988, no one in the crowd of 160,000 had the faintest idea that the symbol of the Cold War would soon be history.
But now -- 20 years after the American rock star went behind the Iron Curtain -- organizers, historians and people who witnessed it say his message came at a critical juncture in German history in the run-up to the Wall's collapse.
It was not the only show that summer with political fallout. In June, a concert for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday in London was beamed to millions worldwide. Two years later he was freed from an apartheid jail and later elected South Africa president.
Such concerts for a cause remain part of the summer music calendar, even if their impact is diluted in the internet age.
Springsteen, an influential songwriter and singer whose lyrics are often about people struggling, got permission at long last to perform in East Berlin in 1988.
Even though his songs are full of emotion and politics, East Germany had welcomed him as a "hero of the working class." The Communists may have unwittingly created an evening that did more to change East Germany than Woodstock did to the United States.
Annoyed at the billing "Concert for Nicaragua" that Communist East German leaders stamped on his July 19 performance, Springsteen stopped halfway through the three-hour show for a short speech -- in heavily accented German:
"I want to tell you I'm not here for or against any government," Springsteen said, as he pointedly introduced his rendition of the Bob Dylan ballad "Chimes of Freedom."
"I came to play rock 'n' roll for you East Berliners in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down."
The words fed the discontent building in East Germany and added to a restless mood in the country severed from the West after World War Two -- and especially in the city split by the Wall, built during the darkest hours of the Cold War in 1961.
TASTE OF FREEDOM
The East German organizer told Reuters hardline leaders only reluctantly endorsed the plan by the Communist party's FDJ youth group to let Springsteen in. It was an era of change sparked by the "perestroika" reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
"It obviously wasn't easy and we had to fight hard to get permission but we eventually succeeded," Roland Claus, an ex-FDJ leader and now a member of parliament, said in an interview. East German hardliners were skeptical of Gorbachev.
"The higher-ups understood that rock music was international and if East Germany wanted to do something to improve the lot of young people, we'd have to try it," he said. "We were proud we got him and had great hopes it'd help modernize East Germany."
Instead, the open-air concert at a cycling arena only seemed to make East Germans long more for the freedoms that Springsteen sang and spoke about in a show also broadcast on TV and radio.
"We were interested in opening the country up," said Claus, 53. "No one thought the Wall would be gone a year later. Anyone in the East or West who said that would have been considered insane. It was a great concert with a special atmosphere."
AMERICANS IN BERLIN
Other Americans had spoken out against the Wall in Berlin.
But both presidents John F. Kennedy in 1963 ("Ich bin ein Berliner") and Ronald Reagan in 1987 ("Tear down this Wall") gave their addresses in West Berlin.
Springsteen delivered his words in the heart of East Berlin, where Communist East Germany had long portrayed the United States as a decadent and belligerent "class enemy."
"Springsteen's concert and speech certainly contributed in a larger sense to the events leading up to the fall of the Wall," said Gerd Dietrich, a historian at Berlin's Humboldt University.
"It was a paradoxical situation. Before Springsteen, the FDJ had always cursed Western rock artists like Springsteen. And then all of a sudden they were welcoming him. It looked like they were caving in to the shifting values of young people."
Dietrich, 63, said Communist party hopes that a small taste of Springsteen might pacify youths backfired. There was even a positive advance review in the Neues Deutschland daily: "He attacks social wrongs and injustices in his homeland."
"But it didn't work out as planned," Dietrich said. "It made people eager for change. The organizers wanted to demonstrate their openness. But Springsteen aroused a greater interest in the West. It showed people how locked up they really were."
Cherno Jobatey, now a well-known German TV anchorman, was another witness to the East Berlin Springsteen concert, writing about it as a young reporter for the West Germany weekly Die Zeit under a headline "Born in the DDR."
He wrote Springsteen had longed to put on a concert in East Berlin since he paid a visit there in 1981. Jobatey described a rowdy mood beforehand -- surprising in a country where security police clampdowns were usually quick and ruthless.
Jobatey, 42, reported the crowd erupted when Springsteen called for "the barriers" to be torn down. "There was thunderous applause from the crowd endorsing that proposal," he wrote.
Jobatey told Reuters recently it was hard to know if Springsteen had helped set in motion the chain of events leading to the Berlin Wall's fall 16 months later. But he said it was a magical evening just before the upheaval gained momentum.
"The music was great and he showed people a different experience, a different way life, a different world," Jobatey said. "There was an incredible vibe to it all. It was an amazing thing to experience in the middle of East Berlin."
He said the concert probably affected East Germany more thoroughly than the 1969 Woodstock Festival did America.
"People didn't want to leave when it was over," he said. "The police gave up after a while. I walked back across town for about two hours and everywhere everyone was happy and on a real high. But it didn't feel like a revolution, just yet anyhow."
COMMUNIST BOSSES GET SCARED
Claus, who organized the concert, acknowledged there was some chaos -- remarkable in a country with such an omniscient and oppressive security apparatus -- as 160,000 people arrived at a venue with a 120,000 capacity; 100,000 tickets were sold.
"We had to take down all the crush barriers, gates and fences to the concert because so many people showed up," he said. "We had to resort to the best instrument we had: anarchy."
After Springsteen there were many other Western artists eager to come despite modest fees -- Springsteen tickets were 20 East German marks (or about $1).
"Word of the huge crowd and great enthusiasm in East Berlin spread," Claus said. "A lot of international stars wanted to come after that. I spent a lot of time working on plans for a U2 concert in East Berlin that we wanted to do in August 1989."
But the U2 concert never happened. By that point thousands of East Germans were streaming out of the country to the West, the final act that led to the Berlin Wall's opening on November 9.
"I was trying to organise a parallel East-West concert with U2 in East Berlin and Duran Duran in West Berlin," Claus said. "But I couldn't get approval anymore from the higher-ups. They were too afraid. There was so much turmoil by that point."
12 Days in July 07/12/2008 establish 6:25:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time Rest Honor Bless Him establish
Established !wk,Kuwn
to be firm, be stable, be established
(Niphal)
to be set up, be established, be fixed 1a
to be firmly established 1a
to be established, be stable, be secure, be enduring 1a
to be fixed, be securely determined
to be directed aright, be fixed aright, be steadfast (moral sense)
to prepare, be ready
to be prepared, be arranged, be settled
Fix me Oh God and know my heart today. Establish me in the ways of righteousness. Establish me in your presence from this day on. Captain Jesus fix the sail, chart the course, Of fix me.....
Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; “Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work
Verse 1:] Without a doubt He is my savior My strength along life's way. In deep waters He is my anchor, and through faith, He'll be my stay.
[Verse 2:] My soul is anchored in Jesus though sea billows roll. Satan has so many temptations, but God, He is the captain of my soul.
Without God I could do nothing, without Him I would fail. Without Him my life would be rugged, so rugged like a ship without a sail.
[Chorus:] I tell you without God I could do nothing, be nothing. Without God life would be rugged, so rugged...
[Sopranos/Altos:] Like a ship without a sail, [All:] I could, could do nothing.
[Sopranos/Altos:] Like a ship without a sail, [All:] my life would be, be so rugged.
[Ending:] Like a ship without a sail, I could, could do nothing.
Like a ship without a sail, my life be, be so rugged.
