Displaying items by tag: New York

© Words Matteo Sedazzari

The origin of the 12” single originated from Jamaica in the late 50’s, and developed further into the sixties with the birth of ska, rocksteady, early reggae and sound systems, where party goers would dance to the beat of home grown talent that was longer than the three minute single. Furthermore, with the birth of disco in the 70’s, with the clubs of New York and such like, soul, funk and r ‘n’ b influenced tunes, in 4/4 time, with the bass pumping the music along, the disco dancers needed the groove to go on forever, beyond conventional airtime. 

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
It would unfair to say that Nile Rodgers is having a renaissance, as his music has never gone away nor has it aged, be it Sister Sledge or Chic, timeless classics that still enthral and pulsate any dance floor,  regardless of age.  I remember back in my days of clubbing, late eighties to early nighties, that Sister Sledge’s Thinking of You  became a club anthem, the smiles on the dancers faces were truly beautiful,

© Words – Matteo Sedazzari

What he said must be spoken quickly, for most of them had no patience. What he said must be put strongly, more acted than spoken, for they had to be hooked to stand and hear.
The Warriors - Sol Yurick

It is late January 1964 and the kids from Bayonne, New Jersey are excited as they travel to Central Park Zoo in New York City on the yellow school bus. The vehicle is filled with the laughter of children, as they swap baseball cards, display the contents of their Rocky and Bullwinkle, Bugs Bunny lunch boxes. A few of the kids start to sing the theme tune to Rawhide. A dark haired kid occasionally joins in with a smile, as he picks up his comic book and he wishes he could be bitten by a radioactive spider, or get caught in a nuclear explosion and become a superhero.

While it’s somewhat incongruous to imagine a Beatle aged 70, 2010 indeed marks the seven decades since John Winston Ono Lennon first saw daylight. Things have already got off to a quick start; Sam Taylor-Wood’s critically applauded “Nowhere Boy” has done brisk business in these first few days of the year, while a host of documentaries will no doubt emerge on and around October 9th to celebrate Lennon’s auspicious birthday. To all intents and purposes, “Nowhere Boy” was a smart move, with Lennon’s childhood undeniably the only element of his life not entirely dissected over the years.

Madonna has always held a unique fascination for me: the myth, the legend, but not the truth. Who cares about Madonna "the person"? Her impending divorce is only of interest in terms of how she packages it into the Madonna Myth.

CBGB (actually the full name is ‘CBGB and OMFUG’ that stands for Country, Blue Grass and Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers – where Gormandizers according to Hilly Kristal means ‘a voracious eater of music’) was a music club situated at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street of Manhattan, New York. The club was founded in 1973 by Hilly Kristal.

John Lennon, an English rock musician was a singer, song writer as well as an actor who became famous as one of the founding members of The Beatles. Some of his most famous solo hits were songs such as Imagine and Give Peace a Chance. This article is about Lennon’s relationship with May Pang, his one time assistant. John later termed this relationship with Pang as his Lost Weekend.

I’ve been trying in vain to write an article for ZANI for well over a year, I had several attempts at in depth journo type stuff only to fail miserably at the composition stage; the fault lay with the subject matter and not the author (phew). The problem was I had taken on a subject that I knew little or nothing about, did loads of “interweb” type browsing,

All You Need Is love maybe the greatest lyric ever, No one you can save that can't be saved.
© Words Alan McGee