October 10, 2008

Motown 50th boxed set unveiled

The march to Motown's 50th anniversary continues to pick up pace. Universal Music will announce details next week for Motown's anniversary showpiece, "Motown: The Complete #1s" -- a 10-disc, 191-song boxed set to be released Dec. 8.

ON DETROIT.METROMIX.COM

T-Baby at the Crofoot Ballroom

The misunderstood rapper talks about her huge YouTube buzz video “It’s Cold in the D” and is prepping for her very first live performance.

SHINING LIGHT AWARDS

Opera founder David DiChiera's vision brought life to the city

When David DiChiera, a young professor at Oakland University, talked about creating an opera company in Detroit in the 1960s, the natives laughed. But then he founded Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971 and the giggles stopped, at least until he said he planned to build an opera house downtown.

October 9, 2008

Celtic Thunder ready to roll into Detroit

As an accountant in the village of Moy in Northern Ireland, Ryan Kelly cultivated a part-time music career playing local pubs and similar gigs on the weekends.

California Guitar Trio plucks gold from acoustic guitars

With a name like California Guitar Trio, at least three things are for sure. The band has ties to the Golden State. It features three members, and the instruments of choice are guitars. The group's music, though, is a surprise.

MARK STRYKER

National tour for Sphinx Chamber Orchestra

Detroit's Sphinx Organization has won national acclaim for its pioneering work to boost the number of minority musicians in classical music.

Brian McCollum's Big Gigs: The Misfits, Ben Folds, Def Leppard and more

The piano-pop craftsman makes a fine return to form with "Way to Normal," his third full-length album since breaking up Ben Folds Five at the turn of the decade. Expect a typically loose and lively set from the 42-year-old veteran.

Ben Folds plays the Fillmore Detroit

The piano man talks about writing fake songs and ripping off Elton John.

Enter to win tickets for Marsalis Brasilianos

Marsalis Brasilianos plays Detroit's Music Hall at 8 p.m. Oct. 23. What's that?

October 7, 2008

Vibe names Eminem Best Rapper Alive

Eminem — remember him? Vibe magazine’s readers certainly do. Despite an extended absence from the scene, the Detroit rapper handily won the magazine’s just-completed Best Rapper Alive competition.

Alanis Morissette at the Michigan Theatre

The angry young woman of the ‘90s reveals a happier side on a new album and tour.

October 6, 2008

Messiaen's haunting 'Quartet' soars

Messiaen's masterpiece, one of the great chamber works, formed the centerpiece of Saturday's Chamber Music Society of Detroit concert by the well-matched ensemble of clarinetist John Bruce Yeh, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, cellist Gary Hoffman and pianist Christopher Taylor.

October 5, 2008

Jay-Z building buzz for Obama

The Barack Obama presidential campaign charged ahead Saturday with its latest get-out-the-vote effort, giving free concert tickets to see Grammy Award-winning MC and music mogul Jay-Z at Cobo Center on Saturday night to those who registered to vote.

• Jay-Z performs at Cobo Arena
• Free Press Q&A; with Barack Obama
• Michelle Obama at Chippewa Valley H.S. in Clinton Twp.
• Barack Obama rally at MSU campus

Box set celebrates the other man in black

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Twenty years after he died, Roy Orbison still can touch people with his piercing tenor.

PLAYLIST

Fresh thoughts on new music

A treasure trove for Bob Dylan fans both casual and obsessive, "Tell Tale Signs" is filled with a ton of previously unreleased material taken from the past 20 years of the iconic singer-songwriter's career.

October 4, 2008

Kid Rock to sell his music online

Kid Rock has said farewell to some rarefied company -- including the Beatles, Bob Seger and Garth Brooks -- and ended his holdout from the online music world.

THE SATURDAY LIST

Free Press critics' picks for this weekend

"Masterpiece: The Last Enemy," Sunday, 9 p.m., WTVS-TV, Channel 56, PBS. Two brothers grew up as opposites. Stephen, worried and withdrawn, became a math genius. Michael, open and zestful, aided refugees in Afghanistan. Now, hearing that his brother was killed, Stephen returns from years in China.

October 3, 2008

Slick Rick gets all-star tribute at VH1's Hip Hop Honors

While most of the country tuned into the Vice Presidential debate last night and wondered what the future holds, the crowd at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom looked back at rap history at VH1’s Fifth Annual Hip Hop Honors.

Check out Kid Rock's new video for his song 'Roll On'

“Roll On” is the latest single and video from Kid Rock’s hit album “Rock N Roll Jesus.” Shot in Detroit last month and it’s debuting today on networks such as MTV and VH1.

• Kid Rock films in Studio A
• Kid Rock films video in Detroit

October 2, 2008

Brian McCollum's Big Gigs: Rocktoberfest, Ani DiFranco, Carrie Underwood and more

Enduring alt-rock from a British cult favorite. 8 p.m., the Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac. 248-858-9333. $12.

My Morning Jacket's eclectic sound takes a step forward

It's not often that a band's audience gets treated to a three-hour set these days, a time when shorter performances and a handful of opening bands are the norm. But fans of My Morning Jacket, the Louisville, Ky., outfit that always seems to sell more concert tickets than albums, are in luck.

RACHEL MAY

New CD is Al-Saadi's birthday gift to himself

There are two reasons for blues guitarist Laith Al-Saadi to celebrate Sunday. He's rolling out a new disc at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, and he's turning a year older.

MARK STRYKER

All-star quartet to play Messiaen masterwork

Given the extraordinarily communicative power of Olivier Messiaen's 20th-Century masterpiece "Quartet for the End of Time," it's a shame that the piece has been played so infrequently in metro Detroit.

Five questions with Caleb Dillon

The Web site of Ann Arbor quartet Starling Electric proclaims the group "Proud Purveyors of Pomp and Pop!" but this barely begins to describe the wondrous kaleidoscope of influences that infuse the band's music.

R&B; legend is on the road again -- with his piano

That New Orleans R&B; is among the most significant influences in American music is a given. Precisely where it ranks among the other influencers is subject to long and entertaining debate. Beyond argument, however, is the influence Allen Toussaint has had on New Orleans R&B; over the past 50 years.

LOCAL MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

Lola Morales' music reflects different influences

The lowdown: Lola Morales adopted Detroit as her home in 2006, when she moved here at the behest of her stepfather. She's always been something of an itinerant, with extended tours in such far corners of the world as London, Indonesia and Turkey.

October 1, 2008

Jay-Z to give free concert for voter registration at Cobo Hall on Saturday

Jay-Z, the mega-rapper who last visited Detroit for a General Motors Style event in January 2007 where he was driven down the runway by GM President Richard Wagoner, will give a free concert for thousands of Michigan voters.

• Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige at the Palace

Springsteen, Jay-Z to headline Obama rallies

LANSING — With just a handful of days left to register voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was traveling to Michigan and sending in his wife, hip-hop star Jay-Z and rock star Bruce Springsteen to push the registration message.

Enter to win tickets to see Madonna

Now's your chance to welcome Madonna back to Michigan. Enter to win two tickets to see Madonna at Ford Field on Nov. 18, along with a limo ride and one night’s hotel accommodations.

• Madonna the queen of pop kicks off world tour
• Best of pop singer Madonna

September 30, 2008

Janet Jackson is hospitalized

NEW YORK — A representative for Janet Jackson says the singer has been hospitalized after falling ill shortly before a concert.

Hudson makes no secret of her goals

NEW YORK - When Jennifer Hudson was cast in the film version of “Dreamgirls,” “all I wanted to do was get my lines right,” she says. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”

September 29, 2008

Bruce Springsteen to play Super Bowl halftime

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa, Fla., the NFL and NBC announced Sunday night.

September 28, 2008

Concerto puts DSO soloist in spotlight

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has been showering more solo opportunities on the high-caliber players in its ranks in recent years, a rewarding trend that new music director Leonard Slatkin promises to intensify in the future.

PLAYLIST

Fresh thoughts on new music

It's impossible to overstate how authoritative Sonny Rollins sounds on the 1965 Copenhagen concert included in the new DVD "Sonny Rollins: Live in '65 and '68" (FOUR STARS out of four stars, Jazz Icons).

September 27, 2008

Tonight's Janet Jackson show canceled

Planning to attend Janet Jackson's scheduled concert at the Palace tonight? Let's wait awhile, says the pop star. The show has been postponed to Oct. 28, Jackson's camp announced late Friday, citing what they would describe only as "production constraints."

September 26, 2008

Funeral to be held Saturday for Motown Records songwriter-producer Norman Whitfield

Arrangements have been set for Norman Whitfield, the Motown Records songwriter-producer who died Sept. 16.

Marsalis' new work snappy, satisfying

EAST LANSING -- Even Wynton Marsalis would admit that brevity has never been his strong suit as a composer.

Janet Jackson's Palace show is off

Janet Jackson’s scheduled concert Saturday at the Palace of Auburn Hills has been postponed to Oct. 28. Officials with the Palace and promoter Live Nation said they were unable to give a reason for the postponement, which was announced this afternoon.

September 25, 2008

Janet Jackson, at 42, back on the road with a dance-heavy show

Seven months after her album "Discipline" debuted atop the Billboard chart, Janet Jackson is on the concert trail with the Rock Witchu tour, which will bring her Saturday night to the Palace of Auburn Hills.

• Janet Jackson

MARK STRYKER

Classical, jazz groups trade batons

This column generally separates its entries under the individual headings of "classical" and "jazz," but the interesting thing about the major new compositions by Wynton Marsalis and Wayne Shorter that will be performed locally this weekend is that they blur the boundaries between idioms.

Jessica Simpson takes walk on the country side

Jessica Simpson has been in the public eye for nine years. That has given her enough time to be a pop princess, a reality-TV goddess, a newlywed, a divorcée, a movie star and a tabloid headline linked with famous boyfriends (the latest: football star Tony Romo).

Brian McCollum's Big Gigs

Anyone doubtful that the country audience would embrace perky tabloid star Jessica Simpson need only glance at the Billboard charts, where her first Nashville album, "Do You Know," debuted last week atop the country list.

FIVE QUESTIONS5

Robin Thicke

It's never a dull moment for bedroom crooner Robin Thicke.

September 22, 2008

3rd time's a charm for Remmereit and DSO

There's a truism in the orchestra business that the day you hire a music director is the day you start looking for the next one.

September 21, 2008

Feds: Crew of jet with drummer thought tire blew out

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Federal officials say the doomed crew of a Learjet that crashed in South Carolina thought a tire on the plane blew as they started down the runway.

Compositions by Marsalis and Shorter a seductive blend

Composers have been marrying elements of jazz and classical music for a century with drastically uneven results. The aesthetic bliss promised by the union is too seductive for many composers to ignore, but the challenge is daunting. So if you're Wynton Marsalis, you seek advice from a master.

• Opening Night at the Met

Five contemporary takes on the jazz-classical dialogue

Mark-Anthony Turnage, "Blood on the Floor" (Argo). The English-born Turnage is the rare classical composer who can capture the authentically raw scrape and rumble of contemporary jazz, including electric guitar, in the context of an impeccably deployed traditional orchestra.

PLAYLIST

Fresh thoughts on new music

It has been two years since moviegoers watched Jennifer Hudson bring down the house in "Dreamgirls," more than four since "American Idol" viewers watched her sweep into the finals.

Catching up with reunited Eagles

If most bands were to go nearly 30 years between albums, they might agonize over the direction and tenor their new music should take, how time has changed them individually and collectively, and whether they will still be considered relevant.

September 18, 2008

Motown songwriter Norman Whitfield known for his genius

He could be thorny and ornery, a real pain in the neck. But when you walked into Norman Whitfield's world, you rubbed elbows with genius.

RACHEL MAY | LOCAL MUSIC SCENE

Fans to remember Spitting Nickels' Furtaw

Having fun and raising funds. That's the theme running rampant through three music fund-raisers set for this week. First up is the Tom Furtaw Benefit set for Thursday at the Atwater Block Brewery in Detroit.

MARK STRYKER | CLASSICAL+JAZZ HIGHLIGHTS

Ehnes opens 65th chamber music season

Still in his early 30s, Canadian violinist James Ehnes' star continues to rise on the international scene. His gifts include a richly burnished tone and impeccable technique.

Loyal fans view Peacemakers as well-kept secret

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, a band from Tempe, Ariz., plays a Southwestern blend of mariachi-surf-rock that's distinguished by Latin guitar riffs, catchy pop hooks and occasional reggae rhythms.

ROBERTA JASINA

Great stuff for families

Real Live Raptors: It's "Hawkfest" this weekend at Lake Erie Metropark. Expect a primo festival celebrating birds of prey including eagles, falcons, owls and hawks. There will be live birds, educational games, workshops and crafts. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 32481 W.

Brian McCollum's Big Gigs

On record, French Kicks' silken, highbrow indie pop often verges on gorgeous; onstage, the music gets kicked up with an extra punch of energy.

September 17, 2008

Plans in the works to celebrate Motown's 50th

Behind the scenes, organizers have been quietly ramping up for the 50th anniversary of Motown Records, the Detroit institution that stands as the city's most famous export behind the automobile.

• Spotlight on Motown

Revered Motown producer Norman Whitfield dies

Norman Whitfield, a producer and songwriter whose work propelled Motown Records into more ambitious musical territory, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 67.

September 16, 2008

Royal Oak man's videos help deaf people connect to pop culture

Sean Forbes, partially deaf since infancy, had a can't-miss party trick: interpreting hit songs for his friends, using sign language to convey lyrics in time to the beat.

WHAT'S AHEAD

U-M seeks high-tech connection to music

In the early days of recorded music and pop concerts, deaf people devised makeshift techniques for connecting to sounds: holding a balloon to feel subtle vibrations, for instance, or standing barefoot on a wooden floor.

Ne-Yo: Gentleman calling

Shaffer Smith, the artist known as Ne-Yo, was born late -- about 50 years late, he figures. "I always refer back to the days of the Rat Pack, because that's when I should have been around," Ne-Yo says. "I know how to dress the part."