Results for “fame”

An Appreciation From Your Long Time Travelling Correspondent…

There was discussion among the British contingent that founder and director Graziano Uliani might choose to call time on his long-running Porretta Soul Festival when he reached 30 editions.  Having brought so many soul legends to town over the past four decades, and faced with an ever-shrinking pool of veteran talent to choose from, one couldn’t blame him if he did.  But Graziano gave more than an inkling that there would be another next year, at a delightful post-Festival concert in nearby Vergato on Monday evening, and  the Festival’s bandleader/musical director Anthony Paule confirmed to me on Tuesday morning that Graziano has re-engaged the services of his Soul Orchestra for next year. I’ve therefore taken it as read that I could be confident in rebooking my hotel for Porretta Soul 2018.

The world of popular music has rightly been shaken by the death of Tina Turner, at the age of 83. 

Even though she had not performed in public for many years, Tina remained one of the most iconic artists of the 20^th Century and will be remembered long after the majority of her peers (and indeed, today’s female singers) have passed into history.  Everybody likes some of Tina’s records, even if they don’t like all of them. Ace has been responsible for keeping some of the very best in print for decades, either through licensing or via its long term ownership of the Kent-Modern catalogue, on which some of Tina and ex-husband Ike’s very best singles of the mid-60s appeared. It’s only right and proper that we pay our respects via this small tribute.

Both myself and Ace Records were deeply saddened to hear of the recent passing of Ron Kavana, one of the label's former recording artists and compiler of a series of heritage Irish CDs for the company's Globestyle imprint.

 I very much regret not having had any thoughts of interviewing the man during the twenty or so years I followed his music and got to know him to some extent, so the following piece as the heading suggests is written largely from memory with more than a little help from album notes and credits and retained scraps of conversations with the man himself. The likes of Wikipedia have been purposely avoided. It also helps that I was privileged to work at both Rock On and Ace Records.

Memphis Soul Legends fly in for Two Exclusive European Dates in the UK. 

Harold Battiste, the warm, articulate New Orleans record man, died on June 19 in his hometown after a long illness, at age 83.