Page 20 - Michael Sembello News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

SHARE Why are we here? What is it that we want to achieve? Are we creating something that matters? This is the series of questions Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Dawn Elder asks aspiring and seasoned artists when they enlist her services. It also forms the outlook of a three-decade career that ushered in the sounds of the Arab world to US stages and Hollywood studios. “The music from the Middle East and North Africa is so vibrant, rich and exciting,” Elder tells The National. “Those who come from that region understand this. But I wanted to share these treasures with everyone...

For 88 episodes, NBC’s feel-good family sitcom Punky Brewster reigned as one of the leading comedies of the 1980s. From the moment Soleil Moon Frye ambled through an open window of an abandoned apartment, she exuded a can-do spryness that kids wanted to emulate and adults couldn’t resist. Her mismatched shoes and Day-Glo fashions were nothing short of iconic, and her lovable smile and unrestrained affection made short work of stoic curmudgeon Henry Warnimont’s (George Gaynes) hardened heart. With charisma to spare, Punky Brewter catapulted to the kind of cultural relevance that has d...

Maniac [Re-Recorded]

CREDIT: Bandcamp/Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah In 1969, folk trio Crosby, Stills & Nash recorded and released a cryptic chestnut entitled “Guinnevere.” The next year, two jazz masters tried their hands at the tune: flautist Herbie Mann emerging with a faithful instrumental cover, and trumpeter Miles Davis reinterpreting it as an intergalactic, unrecognizable epic that neared the 20-minute mark. For the live version appearing on Axiom, New Orleans bandleader Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is most interested in Davis’ vision of the song. Electric piano, sitar and a hepcat languor are out ...

Michelangelo Matos's 'Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster Year.' (Jay Gabler/MPR) Michaelangelo Matos and I are almost exactly the same age, and we both grew up in Minnesota, but his childhood was privileged in a way mine wasn't: in 1984, he had a cassette deck that could record straight off the radio. Until I finally got a boom box in '87, I was consigned to holding our tape player up to the TV if I wanted to record the theme to Knight Rider or In the summer of '84, Matos writes in his new book Can't Slow Down (buy now), he hit record and decided to keep the t...