Robbie Dupree and Bill LaBounty live in Paris : September 30th, 2006 feat. Larry Hoppen (from the band Orleans).
This is exclusive... We are very proud to announce you that our longtime friend Robbie Dupree and the great Bill LaBounty will play in Paris:
on September 30, 2006
at the Casino de Paris
and also on October 3rd, 2006
in Paris
at the Bus Palladium.
Ten years after his last concert in France at Disneyland Paris for the Westcoast Music Festival, Robbie Dupree will share the bill and the stage with his friend Bill Labounty. Bill Labounty is now working on a new CD. The other band members are David Sancious, Larry Hoppen (from the legendary band Orleans), Leslie Smith, Rick Chudacoff and Peter Bunetta.
French concerts will be set up by Richard Benhaim as the french promoter.
There will be possibly another concert dates in Europe for the same band around these french dates. Stay tuned for more informations!
Robbie Dupree website is here. Bill LaBounty website can be visited here and Larry Hoppen website is here.
Rupert Holmes (born February 24, 1947 in Northwich, Cheshire) is a composer and writer who grew up in the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, and attended nearby Nyack High School. Though he is best known for the 1979 novelty hit "Escape" (later subtitled "The Piña Colada Song"), he has had a varied and distinguished career in several media. That one song is so strongly associated with him that, in one interview, he reflected that his tombstone might well be a giant pineapple.
As a recording artist, he broke through with 1974's "Widescreen" on Epic Records, which introduced him as a presenter of highly romantic, lushly orchestrated "story songs" that told a witty narrative punctuated by clever rhymes and a hint of comedy writing talent. His second, self-titled album led Rolling Stone to compare him to Bob Dylan in the sense of being an artist of unprecedented originality that commanded attention.
"Escape" was included on his fifth album, "Partners in Crime," and reached the Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1979. The song hit #1 the late December, 1979 becoming the last song to top the pop chart in the 1970's. The song fell to #2 for the first week of January, 1980 and then rebounded to #1 the next week, making Rupert Holmes the only artist to ascend to the #1 spot with the same song in different decades. "Him" was second and last top 10 hit making #6 in march '80.
Rupert Holmes "Him" from "Partners In Crime" album (1979).
Air Supply is a duo of pop musicians, consisting of English guitarist/vocalist Graham Russell (b. 1 June 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham, England) and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (b. 15 June 1949, Melbourne, Australia), who had a succession of soft-rock ballad hits throughout the English-speaking world through the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The duo met in May 1975 when performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Later that year, the duo, along with Chrissie Hammond, formed Air Supply as a five-man group. Hammond left the band, to be replaced by Jeremy Paul in time for the group's first Australian hit single, "Love and Other Bruises." This single was followed by a self-titled debut album that reached Gold status in Australia, and their second album, "The Whole Thing's Started". Singles during this period included "Empty Pages" and "Do What You Do". The group were invited to open for Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia, and he was so impressed by their performance that he invited them to be the opening act during his tour of the United States. During this tour, Jeremy Paul left the band.
Eager to prove that they could still succeed as a duo, the group released the album "Love and Other Bruises", which included re-recordings of many of their earlier hits.
Hitchcock and Russell effectively started out fresh again in 1978, and the band that was to record almost all of the hit records was formed. It featured Frank Esler-Smith (arranger and keyboardist), David Moyse and Rex Goh (guitars) and the rhythm section of David Green (bass) and Ralph Cooper (drums).
In 1979 the band released "Life Support," a concept album that included a picture disc on its first printing. Produced by Charles Fisher, it was recorded in the tiny Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, where, as Graham recalls on the 2005 DVD, he had half an inch between the end of his guitar and the studio wall, it was so small. It was on this album that a five-and-a-half minute version of "Lost in Love" was introduced to Australian audiences. Written by Graham Russell in fifteen minutes, the song caught the attention of music mogul Clive Davis, and his record label Arista remixed the song and released it as a single in the United States.
Their 1980 album "Lost In Love" released their music to an American audience for the first time, and contained three US Top Five singles, including the title track, "Every Woman In The World", and "All Out of Love" (sample). It was quickly followed by three more hit albums, "The One That You Love", "Now and Forever", and "Greatest Hits".
Air Supply "Lost In Love" from "Lost In Love" album (1980). Live in Hawaii.
Last month, I met LOMAX at the "California Spirit" Party at l'Alcazar (Paris). LOMAX is a french talented musician and singer who find his inspiration through the best of soul music & Rythm'n blue. Don't wait to discover his first album "Les good vibes" available at fnacmusic.com & virginmega.fr.
Fourplay has just completed their tenth studio album, Fourplay X, which is scheduled to be released in US stores on August 8, 2006. Each artist contributed two songs to this new release, rounding it out with a Steve Winwood composition,”My Love’s Leavin,” featuring the unmistakable vocals of Michael McDonald. This album offers another perspective of how Fourplay continues to grow, writing and performing collectively, with excellence.
I had the idea to do another collection of cover songs after going through some old tapes and finding all my original demos for "Reflections", my 1994 collection of covers. Together with those demos were a dozen or so songs that never made it to that CD. I had honestly forgotten that there were any outtakes from those days.
"For The Love Of You" was one of those unused songs that sounded good to me, so I wondered if just maybe there was a whole other album waiting to be made- a sort of follow up to the Reflections" CD. I started putting together tracks based on the arrangements on the tape, but soon I had to go on tour with Richard Elliot, Rick Braun and Jonathan Butler on a tour that we called Jazz Attack. Not missing a beat, I packed up my laptop computer and a microphone and resolved to continue the recording process on the road. I realized that here was a perfect opportunity to record my musician friends in their natural habitat.
I ambushed Richard Elliot backstage at the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach, Florida and asked him to play the melody of "You Are Everything" on my improvised laptop studio. He had never played the song before and I tried to reassure him by saying that it was just an experiment, to see what the sax would sound like. His uncertainty about how to play the melody matched perfectly the lack of confidence in the song lyric. I ended up keeping that run through for the final mix. Thanks Richard! I set up another session with Richard backstage at the Fraze Pavilion in Kettering Ohio, just half an hour before a Jazz Attack show. We were working away in the dressing room when my road manager came in to tell us that the show was about to begin! Richard kept right on blowing until show time.....the sax intro and rousing solo on that song comes straight from that evening in Ohio. We tried to redo the melody of the 2nd verse that we had originally recorded in W. Palm Beach but the confidence that Richard now had was at odds with the tender, introspective way he had first played it before, so we kept the original performance.
Milwaukee.
All these songs represent something to me from my adolescence. Romantic, exciting, soothing- they all have stayed with me through the years. Who over the age of 30 can say that the hauntingly beautiful "Look Of Love" hasn't touched them at some point? I hope my rendition does the song justice, (with a lovely horn arrangement by Jerry Hey). And the song that started this whole ball rolling, "For The Love Of You". I eschewed the romanticism of the Isley's version for straight down and dirty groove. Funny thing is, I did the opposite on my version of "Who's That Lady", (from my Glow CD) substituting the Isleys frantic all-out rock and roll blitz-krieg for a much gentler approach. This approach- to take a well-known song and do it in a unique and different way, was my purpose on this album. Only exception is "What Does It Take", where we couldn't really find any other way to do it than to faithfully copy the original groove. Then again, the Jr. Walker saxophone lines on this song have never to my knowledge been played on acoustic guitar! Finally, Paul Brown came up with the title for the CD "Playing Favorites". I favoured the English spelling of "Favourites" but I was outvoted by the entire staff of Sony Music/ Legacy. Any way you spell it, it really does say everything about what this CD represents to me.
These are some of my favourite things!
Songs :
1. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) featuring Sam Riney on Saxophone
2. The Look Of Love
3. Deja Vu featuring Boney James on Saxophone
4. Mister Magic featuring Bob James on Fender Rhodes
5. Lovely Day featuring Jonathan Butler on vocal
6. Crazy Love (Van Morrison's)
7. Sunny
8. For The Love Of You
9. Hit The Road Jack
10. You Are Everything featuring Jeffrey Osborne on vocal and Richard Elliot on saxophone
11. One On One featuring Rick Braun on flugelhorn
Bobby Caldwell "What You Won't Do for Love" video.
Bobby Caldwell (born August 15, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, despite a prolific musical output over his more than 25-year career, is still best known for his 1978 hit single "What You Won't Do for Love." While he has always maintained a devoted fan base in the United States, a more legendary status has been bestowed upon him in Japan.
Bobby Caldwell was born in Manhattan, New York City to Bob and Carolyn Caldwell, the hosts of Suppertime, an early television variety show. Living in Memphis and, chiefly, Miami (which he has called an influential "dumping ground" for all kinds of music), he took up piano and guitar as a preteen. Forming his own band at 17, he took the group on the road, later recording an album entitled Kathmandu.
Caldwell's first performances were more rock-oriented than the bulk of his career would indicate; early dates had him playing Jimi Hendrix and Cream covers in small clubs.
Ten years later, Bobby Caldwell recorded his double platinum-attaining self-titled solo album, scoring hits with the singles "What You Won't Do for Love", "My Flame" and, in Britain, "Down for the Third Time". In order to ensure significant airplay on the African American-dominated R&B radio format of the time, Caldwell's management took certain steps—such as portraying the artist only in silhouette on the cover and in advertisements—to hide the fact that he was white. The secret was, for obvious reasons, shattered by his first live appearances.
After the tracks were first recorded and the record was considered "complete," the head of the label said that he enjoyed the album but couldn't hear a hit. Attempting to address this issue, Caldwell and his band re-entered the studio, laying down the song's now-familiar rhythm tracks. After he quickly penned a set of lyrics, "What You Won't Do for Love" was born.
"What You Won't Do for Love" in its novelty vinyl incarnation. Reaching the top ten on both the pop and R&B charts, the song proved to be a success, though a bit of a surprise due to the fact that Bobby Caldwell assumed "My Flame", the LP's second track ("What You Won't Do for Love" is the sixth), would wind up as the standout single. The album which contained it was later re-released under the song's title. The single was also marketed in the form of a distinctive red heart-shaped 45-RPM vinyl record (advertised as "the single that gets to the heart of the matter"). "The What You Won't Do for Love" album also received a novelty release on yellow vinyl.
While the original song still receives frequent airplay today, it has been covered, re-made (once, in 1998, by Bobby Caldwell himself) and sampled many times since 1978.
Bobby Caldwell "What You Won't Do for Love" from the album "What You Won't Do for Love" (1978).
In 1982, for Micky Most's RAK label and Geffen Records in the USA Adrian Gurvitz recorded "Classic". A true classic it charted the top ten in the UK and Europe and became one of the most played ballads in England and Europe. Enjoy!
Benjamin Orr (1947-2000) was a bass guitar player and one of the lead vocalists for the New Wave band The Cars. He was born Benjamin Orzechowski on September 8, 1947 in Lakewood, Ohio to Russian and Czechoslovakian parents. He grew up in Cleveland, and dropped out of high school to pursue music full time in a local band, The Grasshoppers. Unlike many other musicians' families, his parents were both singers and actively supported his musical endeavors. He became proficient in several instruments including the guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and drums, yet his talents in The Cars were mostly in playing the bass and lead vocals for several of their most popular hits, including "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go", and "Drive".
By the mid-70's Orr was working in a Boston night club band, Cap'n Swing, with other members including future Cars frontman Ric Ocasek and guitarist Elliot Easton. When the group broke up in 1975, the three of them joined up with the other two members to form The Cars by 1976.
With several top hits and multi-platinum albums under their belts, Benjamin Orr in 1986 issued his only solo project, "The Lace", where he co-wrote all music and lyrics, and included one Top-40 hit, "Stay The Night." The album had a very familiar rhythm and feel of The Cars but was also free of Ocasek's frequently cryptic lyrics.
After the break up of The Cars, Orr as well as the other members pursued solo work. From 1998 he led three bands, including Orr, The Voices of Classic Rock, and Big People.
In April 2000 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, yet continued to perform in concerts with his all-star band, Big People, at summer music festivals and state fairs. He also reunited with all the former members of The Cars for the only time in Atlanta, Georgia for an interview used in a Rhino Records video and DVD of a German concert performed in 1978, "The Cars Live".
His final scheduled appearance was on September 27, 2000, and he died at his home in Atlanta, on Tuesday night, October 3, 2000 at the age of 53, surrounded by his fiancee and Big People band members. The bands Orr and Big People still perform his classic Cars hits.
