Tony Bennett Celebrates 90, and We Celebrate Him With His December 16 Releasing Album

Tony Bennett celebrated his 90th birthday in August and this milestone occasion continues with the Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 album on December 16 from RPM Records / Columbia Records. TONY BENNETT CELEBRATES 90 will be released as a Standard edition as a companion to the forthcoming NBC prime-time TV special, "Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet To Come," which airs on December 20th at 9pm ET/9pm PT. The special was filmed in front of a live audience at Radio City Music Hall on September 15th and features performances by Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Kevin Spacey, Tony Bennett and many others. Additionally, performances by Billy Joel and Elton John were taped at alternate locations and will appear in the broadcast and on the CD. The CD also includes an extended 28-page booklet featuring appreciation essays contributed by President Bill Clinton, Martin Scorsese, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mandel, Bill Charlap and Everett Raymond Kinstler.

In addition to the new CDs and NBC special, Tony's fifth book, JUST GETTING STARTED, will be released on November 15th. Bennett collaborates with renowned journalist Scott Simon to celebrate the people and places who have helped, influenced and steered him along the way, among them his parents, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lady Gaga, Pablo Picasso, the city of San Francisco, among others. JUST GETTING STARTED also features over 80 color images of Tony's original artwork and is being released by HarperCollins.

David Bowie's New Album "Blackstar" Available to Order

David Bowie’s new album ★ (pronounced Blackstar) is now available for pre-order.  The ★ album will be released January 8, 2016 on Iso/Columbia Records on CD, and a stunning die-cut vinyl LP package;  a video of the vinyl LP can be seen below. 

 

The album’s title track and first single released globally yesterday, November 19, 2015 and the single and film will premiere worldwide today in venues ranging from special theatrical premiere screenings presented in cooperation with Noisey at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn to a USA broadcast premiere on Palladia. 

 

The full ★ short film was made available as well.  Check it out-
 

 

photo - Jimmy King

David Bowie Plans "Blackstar" January 2016 Release

Classic rocker, and icon David Bowie is planning the release of a new album in January 2016, called “Blackstar,” according to reports.

Bowie put together the seven-tune collection at New York City’s Magic Shop studio with the assistance of several local jazz musicians, according to the Times.  It will be out on January 8, 2016 via ISO/Columbia.  The lead single, also called “Blackstar,” will release on November 19.  The song will be featured in “Lazarus,” a musical the Thin White Duke is co-writing with Enda Walsh.  The track is also used as the theme for UK crime series “The Last Panthers”.

The Times classifies the new LP as “an album of long, jazzy jams mixed with the kind of driving beat pioneered by Seventies German bands Can and Kraftwerk.”  The album is also said to include influences of “Gregorian chants, a soul section, various electronic beats and bleeps and Bowie’s distinctive vocals,” making for a record that a quoted Bowie insider describes as “completely bonkers.”

Bowie’s last full-length album, “The Next Day,” released in 2013.  The timing of  “Blackstar” January 8 release coincides with Bowie’s 69th birthday, January 16, 2016.

Bruce Springsteen ‘The Ties That Bind: The River Collection’ Box Set Announced

Columbia Records will release Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Ties That Bind: The River Collection’ on December 4th. A comprehensive look at ‘The River’ era, the set contains 52 tracks on 4 CDs with a wealth of unreleased material, and four hours of never-before-seen video on 3 DVDs. It is comprised of the original ‘The River’ double album; the first official release of 'The River: Single Album;' a CD of 1979/80 studio outtakes; a two-DVD film of never-released, newly edited multi-camera footage from Springsteen’s famed 1980 show in Tempe, AZ, long rumored but never-before-seen; rare tour rehearsal footage; a brand new documentary “The Ties That Bind" about 'The River;' and a coffee table book of 200 rare or previously unseen photos and memorabilia with a new essay by Mikal Gilmore.

The River,’ Springsteen’s fifth album, was released on October 17, 1980 as a double album and reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. In his notes, Gilmore calls ‘The River’ Springsteen’s “pivotal album—[the] hinge between the ambitious commotions that had preceded it and the more succinct musical riots, and sometimes terrifying storytelling, that followed.” (Two CDs, recently re-mastered).

‘The River: Single Album’ is the 10-track album that Springsteen recorded in 1979 as a follow up to 1978’s ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ but never released. “The songs lacked the kind of unity and conceptual intensity I liked my music to have. So we went back in the studio,” he wrote in the lyrics/photo book “Songs.” The early sessions marked the beginning of a prolific 18-month long journey of writing and recording. Seven of the 10 titles on ‘The River: Single Album’ eventually appeared on ‘The River,’ some with alternate lyrics and arrangements, with outtakes like “Cindy" and a rockabilly version of "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" never released. Now for the first time ‘The River: Single Album’ will be officially available.

Tony Bennett Reveals "The Silver Lining : The Songs of Jerome Kern" Album

RPM/Columbia Records is proud to announce the release of The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, a new album from American musical legend Tony Bennett and acclaimed jazz pianist Bill Charlap, arriving Friday, September 25, 2015.

Following the enormous success of his #1, Grammy-Award winning album with Lady Gaga, Cheek To Cheek, this new release continues the classic series of Tony Bennett album releases celebrating the essentials of the Great American Songbook. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern is an appreciation of the genius of Jerome David Kern (1885-1945), one of the 20th century's most important American composers of musical theater and popular music.

Tony Bennett is the only artist to successfully bridge the worlds of pop music and jazz on an international scale for over 60 years. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern become parts of a timeless legacy of recordings that Bennett has done throughout his career that have embraced both genres, in particular the revered piano jazz albums that he recorded with the late Bill Evans in 1975 and 1977. Tony has become synonymous with the pop/jazz connection and in recent years has been a mentor to contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga and the late Amy Winehouse in encouraging them to embrace jazz music. With his 90th birthday less than a year away, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern defines what makes Tony Bennett unique in the pantheon of great singers and is a testament to the legacy that he continues to create as a recording artist and influence in the music industry.

Over the course of his career, Kern composed more than 700 songs, creating musical elements used in more than 100 stage works, collaborating with the greatest lyricists and librettists of the era including P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, E.Y. Harburg and many others on a seemingly limitless repertoire of classic songs including "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Long Ago and Far Away" and many more.

Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Announces September "Rattle That Lock" CD Release

David Gilmour, Pink Floyd guitarist, has announced that his new solo album Rattle That Lock will be released worldwide on Friday, September 18, 2015 on Columbia Records. The album will be available to order and the first single, also titled "Rattle That Lock" will be released on Friday, July 17, 2016.

Additionally David Gilmour's first North American concert dates in ten years were announced. The "David Gilmour Live 2016" concert appearances will take place in March & April of 2016 with stops in Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago and New York City.

The "Live 2016" appearances will be David Gilmour's first live concert dates since the "On An Island" tour in 2006, and will follow his UK and European tour this September/October. All tickets for the North American Tour dates go on sale Friday, July 17, 2015

March 24, 2016 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles – on sale 12p(PST)
March, 31 2016 – Air Canada Center, Toronto – on sale 10am (EST)
April 8, 2016 – United Center, Chicago – on sale 12pm (CST)
April 11, 2016 – Madison Square Garden, New York – on sale 10am (EST)

George Ezra's "Wanted on Voyage" Album Out Now

It's full speed ahead for breakout UK singer-songwriter George Ezra, whose Columbia Records USA album debut, Wanted on Voyage, is available in the USA today, January 27. The new CD is already basking in global success, earning double-platinum sales in the UK and multiple turns at the #1 slot, (charting Top 5 in 8 countries) with Ezra recently nominated for four prestigious Brit Awards, including Best Male Solo Artist and Best British Album.

The 21-year-old musician has been riding high on his catchy single "Budapest." The unique song spent several months in the upper tier of the UK charts, one of the most streamed songs of 2014, recently passing the 100 million stream milestone on Spotify.  First embraced stateside by multiple channels on Sirius XM, and quality indie radio, the song has soared at radio

The in-demand Ezra continues to gather steam generated by his tours across the United States. He is currently on tour with Grammy-nominated Sam Smith, and will join Grammy-nominated label-mate Hozier on his sold out run on March 2 in Toronto,

Bob Dylan Announces New Studio Album, Shadows In The Night

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan's new studio album, Shadows In The Night, will be released on February 3, 2015. Featuring ten tracks, the Jack Frost-produced album is the 36th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012's worldwide hit Tempest.

Upon Columbia's announcement of the album's forthcoming release, Bob Dylan commented, "It was a real privilege to make this album. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That's the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day."  Not a "Frank Sinatra" tribute album though it certainly features many tunes made famous by ole blue eyes.

Bob Dylan's five previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist. The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while "Love and Theft" continued Dylan's Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.

Modern Times, released in 2006, became one of the artist's most popular albums, selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and earning Dylan two more Grammys. Together Through Life became the artist's first album to debut at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK, as well as in five other countries, on its way to surpassing sales of one million copies. Tempest received unanimous worldwide critical acclaim upon release and reached the Top 5 in 14 countries, while the artist's globe-spanning concert tours of the past few years have heavily emphasized that album's singular repertoire.

These five releases fell within a 15-year creative span that also included the recording of an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning composition, "Things Have Changed," from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001; a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles Vol. 1, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005. Bob Dylan also released his first collection of holiday standards, Christmas In The Heart, in 2009, with all of the artist's royalties from that album being donated to hunger charities around the world.

In recent years, Bob Dylan was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor. He was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." He was also the recipient of the Officier de la Legion d'honneur in 2013, Sweden's Polar Music Award in 2000, Doctorates from the University of St. Andrews and Princeton University, as well as numerous other honors. 

 

BOB DYLAN SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT TRACK LISTING:

1.  I'm A Fool To Want You  
2.  The Night We Called It A Day  
3.  Stay With Me  
4.  Autumn Leaves  
5.  Why Try to Change Me Now  
6.  Some Enchanted Evening  
7.  Full Moon And Empty Arms  
8.  Where Are You?   
9.  What'll I Do  
10.  That Lucky Old Sun