The 60s Psychedelic Rock Music Era Comes to Life in Bill Graham Exhibit at CJM
Rock & roll history comes to vivid life in an incredible exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. “Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution” chronicles the life and times of rock’s most influential promoter, a man whose work with legendary bands including the Grateful Dead, The Who, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, The Doors and the Rolling Stones cemented his place in music...
Feeling the Earth Move in Carole King Documentary
Carole King is having a moment. This month marks the 45th anniversary of the release of acclaimed singer-songwriter’s landmark solo album, “Tapestry,” one of the biggest selling records of all time. To honor the occasion, PBS is unspooling a new documentary, “Carole King: Natural Woman,” in which King tells her own story interspersed with previously unseen footage, rare performance videos and home movies along with interviews with...
Beethoven in Beverly Hills: It’s Winter at the Wallis, East/West Style
It’s safe to say that souls were stirred Saturday night at the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. As part of the “Winter @ The Wallis” classical concert series which began earlier in January, the Shanghai Quartet, one of the world’s foremost chamber music ensembles, performed a repertoire of early and late Beethoven string quartets. The aim of the program, dubbed East/West: Merging Music...
Miley, Kanye, Taylor and Beyonce Head For MTV VMAs
Even as the stock market was crashing Monday, Van Toffler’s spirits were heading in the other direction. “This is my favorite week,” he told me by phone from New York, referring to the days leading into MTV Video Music Awards this coming Sunday. Toffler is an executive producer of the show who has worked on the VMAs since 1987, just three years after its inception, when Madonna set the standard for opening performances with her...
Riveting Documentary Chronicles the Life of Amy Winehouse
It will soon be four years to the day the tragic news came down that singer Amy Winehouse had died at age 27, a death in her London flat that was later ruled as accidental alcohol poisoning. Her brief and tumultuous life is harrowingly chronicled in a new feature-length documentary, “Amy,” which utilizes home movies of her childhood and young adulthood, studio rehearsal footage and interviews with friends, family and people in the...