ORNETTE COLEMAN IS THIS YEAR’S MELTDOWN FESTIVAL DIRECTOR FOR JUNE 2009
March 29, 2009 by Your Way To Music
Filed under Music Soundbites
Ornette Coleman, saxophonist, violinist, metaphysician has been announced as director of this year’s Meltdown festival.
Coleman pioneered the idea of improvising without chord changes in the late-1950s, giving birth to the free jazz revolution and forever changing the musical landscape. From landmark releases in his early career including The Shape of Jazz to Come, Free Jazz and This Is Our Music to the award-winning Sound Grammar in 2006, he has innovated and challenged convention throughout his entire career.
His radical, uncompromising approach to his art has made him a hero to generations of avant-garde artists from John Coltrane, John Zorn and Pat Metheny to Leonard Bernstein, Frank Zappa, Mike Patton, Patti Smith, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Spiritualized and Lou Reed.
One of the most anticipated music events of the year, Meltdown offers a guest director the chance to curate their own personal festival, revealing their interests and influences.
The festival’s eclectic mix of music, art, performance and film brings together a diverse range of artists, resulting in unique collaborations and historic one-off events. Now in its 16th year, the illustrious list of Meltdown directors includes David Bowie, Patti Smith, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave, John Peel and Massive Attack.
The line-up is to be announced in the coming weeks.
source: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/meltdown
MORRISSEY’S ‘YEARS OF REFUSAL’ FEATURES JEFF BECK
January 24, 2009 by Your Way To Music
Filed under New Releases - CD's
Morrissey will release “Years of Refusal” in the UK on February 16 and the US February 17, 2009 on Attack/Lost Highway. “Years of Refusal” will be Morrissey’s first studio album since 2006’s UK #1 “Ringleader of the Tormentors”. In February, Morrissey will begin the US leg of his world tour that includes rare intimate club dates.
The late Jerry Finn, who previously worked on 2004’s critical and commercial smash “You Are the Quarry”, produced “Years of Refusal” which is the last album he worked on. The single “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”, which Morrissey debuted during his sold out 2007 world tour, will precede the album. Long time band members Boz Boorer, Jesse Tobias, Matt Walker, and Solomon Walker play on the album, which also features a contribution from Jeff Beck on the track “Black Cloud”.
Morrissey is often recognized as the most important British musician of his generation. The New York Times recently stated, ”Morrissey isn’t just any singer: he has become one of the defining rock stars of the past few decades by virtue of his grand voice, his grander songs, and his charming habit of playing with melodrama”. His influence is felt worldwide through the countless artists that cite him as their primary inspiration. “Years of Refusal” is a masterful work that finds Morrissey and the band at their best with a muscular sound and the inimitable voice and lyrics of a legend.
Years of Refusal Tracklist
1. Something Is Squeezing My Skull
2. Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed
3. Black Cloud
4. I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
5. All You Need Is Me
6. When Last I Spoke to Carol
7. That’s How People Grow Up
8. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
9. It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore
10. You Were Good In Your Time
11. Sorry Doesn’t Help
12. I’m OK By Myself
Buy your copy here
Buy your copy here
Buy the “Years of Refusal [CD/DVD] [DELUXE EDITION]” here.
Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of “Morrissey” and the “Smiths” (Ebury Press)
December 4, 2008 by Your Way To Music
Filed under Books
Steven Patrick Morrissey is one of the most original and controversial voices in the history of popular music. With The Smiths, he led the most influential British guitar group of the 1980s, his enigmatic wit and style defining a generation. As a solo artist, he has continued to broach subjects no other singer would dare. Worshipped by some, vilified by others, Morrissey is a unique rock and roll creation. The 300,000 words of “Mozipedia” make this the most intimate and in-depth biographical portrait of the man and his music yet. Bringing together every song, album, collaborator, key location, every hero, book, film and record to have influenced his art, it is the summation of years of meticulous research. Morrissey authority Simon Goddard has interviewed almost everybody of any importance, making “Mozipedia” the last word on Morrissey and The Smiths.
Simon Goddard is a regular contributor to Q Magazine and has also written for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Herald and Uncut. Dubbed ‘the Smiths authority’ by NME, his 2002 book The Smiths – Songs That Saved Your Life was described as a mighty achievement’ by both Time Out and Mojo and is recognised as one of the key works on the group by fans and critics. It is also the only Smiths book to earn the approval of group founder and guitarist Johnny Marr.
Due August 2009
Buy your copy here
Buy your copy here
