Renee Olstead live at “Ti Lascio Una Canzone”, an italian TV show May 16th, 2009. She performed “Christmas in Love” and “Midnight Man”.

 
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New Whitney Houston Album Set for September Release
Management confirms the diva is back this fall with a new material

From softpedia.com:

Talk of a new album from one of the best-selling female performers of all times, Whitney Houston, has been going strong since the beginning of the year, but it’s just now that anything official is made public. “Undefeated,” Whitney’s comeback album, will hit music stores worldwide on September 1, her record label tells People magazine.

“Houston’s seventh studio album – rumored to be titled ‘Undefeated’ – will include the Diane Warren-penned ‘I Didn’t Know My Own Strength’.” People writes, citing speculation in the US and international media. Although the record label is yet to make the official name of the comeback album public, chances are it will most likely go by the one just mentioned above, as it will mark a new stage in the singer’s life, one where she is no longer tied to former husband Bobby Brown and she is a different woman.

As fans must know, although she no longer performed for wide audiences and has not come out with anything new in terms of studio material since the 2003 “One Wish: The Holiday Album,” in recent months, Whitney has been keeping a relatively higher profile than before. Aside from performing at Clive Davis’ renowned Pre-Grammy Party, which is also the one event where he introduces the upcoming stars of tomorrow, Whitney has also been doing photo spreads for various magazines to start promoting the album when the time comes.

“The same way her debut album took a while to put together, you just don’t do it by going into a computer. You wait for the material to justify a new album. Pretty much, it’s come in.” Davis was telling the media back in February this year, confirming speculation that she was gearing up for a major comeback. “You wait for the great songs to be written. The great hits Whitney has given to the public for so many years – you keep encouraging and setting the bar. R. Kelly and Whitney just went into the studio with a great song called ‘I Look to You’.” Davis further explained.

Also then, Davis confirmed that the yet-untitled album would include the love ballad “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” that the diva recorded with the help of hitmaker David Foster.

 
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From filmmusicsociety.org:

Pop hit songwriters gather to help disadvantaged students reach college goals
by Jon Burlingame

LOS ANGELES—An all-star cast of songwriters performing their hits – many of them written for films and TV – raised more than $200,000 for the pro-education Fulfillment Fund at a benefit concert Monday, June 1, at the Wadsworth Theatre in West Los Angeles.

A capacity crowd of more than 900 watched as songwriters David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Richard Sherman, Kenny Loggins, Paul Williams, Jeff Barry, Charles Fox and Bob Crewe sang “The Songs of Our Lives,” as the program was called.

This was the second annual event, produced by Fox and directed by Joel Zwick, to raise money for the program that mentors and counsels disadvantaged young people and makes it possible for them to attend college.

Actor-singers Jason Alexander and Ilene Graff opened the three-hour show with a rendition of “They’re Playing Our Song,” the title tune of the Marvin Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager Broadway smash of 1979.

Foster, at the piano, performed a funny series of medleys arranged in order of the three ex-wives who effectively took half of all his royalties in each divorce. Songs included “After the Love Is Gone” (first wife), “The Glory of Love” (second) from The Karate Kid, Part II and the love theme from St. Elmo’s Fire (third). He also introduced his latest protégé, 16-year-old Filipino singing sensation Charice (who sang “I Have Nothing” from The Bodyguard); she was joined by another Foster protégé, Cody Karey, for a duet on Foster’s Oscar-nominated song, “The Prayer” from Quest for Camelot.

Sager did a 20-minute set that included a remarkable number of familiar tunes including “Groovy Kind of Love,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “Nobody Does It Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me, her Oscar-winning theme from the movie Arthur, “Midnight Blue,” “Heartlight,” “They’re Playing Our Song” and her HIV-AIDS benefit anthem “That’s What Friends Are For.”

Sherman – who with his brother Robert penned dozens of songs for Walt Disney movies and TV shows – performed a suite from their Oscar-winning score for Mary Poppins (including “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Chim-Chim-Cheree” and Disney’s favorite “Feed the Birds”) as well as title songs from the Winnie the Pooh film series, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and others. He surprised the crowd performing his Disneyland favorite “It’s a Small World” at a much slower tempo than usual and explained its origins as a “prayer for peace.”

Loggins, on the guitar and joined by another guitarist and bassist, played “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack and his environmental anthem “Conviction of the Heart” as well as “Return to Pooh Corner.” He was followed by Williams, who sang “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” his Oscar-nominated Muppet Movie song “The Rainbow Connection” and two songs written with Fox: the theme from TV’s The Love Boat and “My Fair Share” from the basketball movie One on One.

Fox, the driving force behind these events, played “Ready to Take a Chance Again” from Foul Play and the Jim Croce classic “I Got a Name,” written for The Last American Hero but which Lena Horne also adopted for her Broadway show years later.

Crewe brought down the house with a finale that had him singing many of his 1960s and ’70s hits, among them “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man” and “Lady Marmalade.”

Fox returned to the stage to talk briefly about the Fund, which helps an estimated 2,000 students a year through mentoring, classroom instruction, college counseling and scholarships. The organization works to motivate students to overcome barriers, graduate from high school and attend college.

From philstar.com:
SOUNDS FAMILIAR By Baby A. Gil Updated June 10, 2009 12:00 AM

This is not about age. Michael Bublé is young but he has what it takes. Nor about race. Rod Stewart who does those songs well is British. Some Pinoys have it. I was fortunate to hear the late rapper FrancisM do some and he certainly had it. I still regret he was never able to record those songs. So it is either they have it or they don’t.

I am referring to singers who like to sing the standards, which is how we now refer to those songs from the pre-rock and roll era in the great American songbook. It takes a certain sensibility for a singer to be able to immerse himself inside those songs. Very few have what it takes and if the singers don’t, the results can be abominable.

Renee Olstead is one of those who has it. She was only 13 and an actress in the sitcom Still Standing when the famous David Foster heard her sing. You know Foster. He made hits for Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, mentored Bublé, Josh Groban and is now doing the same to our Charice. It was he who decided then that Renee was matured enough to record her own album of standards.

The result was titled Renee Olstead and was released in 2004. It was an ambitious effort. Imagine a teenager taking on Summertime and Taking A Chance on Love and Someone to Watch Over Me and On A Slow Boat to China and lots more of the same. I thought that she did quite well considering her age but could still gain from the ripening process that only age can bring. I am glad she now gets to show that off in her new CD Skylark.

Skylark is even more ambitious but Renee now has the necessary chops. Standards like Stars Fell on Alabama; My Baby Just Cares for Me; You’ve Changed; Ain’t We Got Fun; When I Fall in Love, a duet with the romantic wizard of the trumpet, Chris Botti are featured together with the unlikely. Think of the bouncy Hit the Road Jack, which I remember from Ray Charles in the ’60s and new originals which are beautiful, Midnight Man, but at times detract from the mood.

But this album is not about the songs. It is about Renee whose vocal range and depth of expression now ranks her alongside the great divas of these songs. Krall, Monheit, Peyroux, please welcome your little sister to the fold.

From news.com.au:

NICK HOPTION
June 12, 2009 11:30pm

Not many global superstars get to have more than one defining moment in their careers.

Seal, 46, has probably had at least two, though many men would say marrying beautiful German supermodel Heidi Klum would leave any other achievement in the shade.

The English singer/songwriter’s first seachange occasion occurred in 1995 when Kiss From A Rose, the third single from second album Seal II, was making little chart impact.

But when it appeared underneath the credits for film Batman Forever, the complex song with a joyous chorus became a Grammy Award-winning hit.

Seal’s second life-changing moment took place when then-US presidential hopeful Barack Obama asked Seal to perform the Sam Cooke classic A Change Is Going To Come at a mid-year rally before last November’s elections.

The success of that cover, which perfectly captured the mood for modification sweeping the US and the planet, led to Seal releasing Soul, an album of a dozen soulful covers in union with uber producer David Foster (The Corrs, Michael Buble).

Seal, in Australia for a promotional tour ahead of a national tour in November, which unfortunately misses Adelaide, is typically humble about last year’s moment.

He says the process for Soul, which was recorded in a heady four weeks, “all started with A Change Is Going To Come, which I heard on the radio and I just thought it was quite an appropriate song for the moment, you know”.

Was the song just for Obama?

“Well, not so much Obama, but the social climate,” Seal says. “It was more I kinda wanted to do it as a contribution to the cause.

“People in general were feeling that they needed some kind of change, and were indeed on the brink of change, and I sort of did it because I was literally inspired by the moment and then, of course, one thing led to another. President Obama, I think it was at the time, he heard it and asked me if I would perform it, and I did.

“And then David and I enjoyed working with each other so much that we ended up just recording because we love each other’s company so much. We ended up with this great, great album, y’know, an album of these great songs.”

On the question of whether Seal himself considers A Change is Going To Come a defining moment, he replies: “I guess so. I’m glad that you think that. It’s certainly been a journey and one of the more enjoyable parts of my career, which has been filled with many, many great experiences and great moments, and many enjoyable ones but that definitely is going to be right up there.”

Soul also contains James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Stand By Me (Ben E. King), Al Green’s I’m Still In Love With You and 1972’s If You Don’t Know Me By Now, by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, better known for its lush treatment by Simply Red in 1989.

“They’re songs I’ve known pretty much, growing up as a child,” says Seal, who once studied to be an architect in his home town of London. “My mother always played these songs so I’m familiar with pretty much all of them.

“It was something I was very comfortable with and I’ve always felt are a natural part of my DNA, as it were.

“So yeah, when the opportunity came up to do more of them and sing them . . . to tell you the honest truth mate, it was more I just really loved working with David Foster. He’s amazing.” Did Seal have a soul hero, such as Sam Cooke?

“There isn’t one person whose music is on the album who hasn’t really been an influential part of, not just my life, but everyone’s life at some point. So it was a real pleasure to be in a position where I could now sing the songs of these great artists.”

Asked if he set out to give If You Don’t Know Me By Now a lighter touch than Simply Red’s lush treatment, he says: “(Foster’s) main priority was to showcase my voice and so we went for a kind-of “less is more” approach on a lot of the songs, on the arrangements.

“So that would be the reason for that – for that more structured, stripped-down approach.

“I find I actually like music better when there’s a lot of space, when there’s a lot of negative space surrounding my voice. I tend to thrive better that way.”

Would some people find that statement incongruous with the techno beats and wall-of-sound approach of, say, his breakthrough 1990 dance-floor hit Killer (produced by Adamski)?

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a wall of sound,” Seal says. “One of the things David is brilliant at is pretty much the same thing that (former producer) Trevor (Horn) used to be pretty conscious of when we were making records, which is arrangements.

“You can have a lot of, if you like, a wall of sound, but at the same time, if one pays careful attention to arrangement, then you can still enjoy that same space around the voice that I am talking about.”

What is Seal’s personal definition of soul music? “If you take the basic, literal translation, music that comes from the soul,” he says. “I consider people like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, some of the greatest soul singers of all time. It’s not necessarily R&B but it’s certainly soul.”

Soul is out now.

David Foster produced the song “Eternity” on Lionel Richie’s new album “Just Go”. The beautiful ballad was previously released on the “Yes We Can” official album.

 
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This beautiful video comes from YouTube, the soundtrack is “Night Music” an instrumental by David Foster from his first solo album “The Best of Me”. Very melodic, enjoy !

 
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Contante & Sonante ’s new release “Fly Away - the Songs of David Foster”, is now available for the japanese market including some changes in the tracklist.

Fly Away / The Songs of David Foster is produced and arranged by Tomi Malm and the concept has been to bring new life to some of the brighter gems in David Foster´s immense catalogue. Featuring a spectacular cast of vocalists, including Bill Champlin, Jeff Pescetto, Cecily Gardner, Robbie Dupree, Bill LaBounty, Joe Pizzulo, Ole Borud, Bill Cantos, Arnold McCuller, Frank Adahl, Lisa Lovbrand, and the unforgettable Warren Wiebe, backed-up by an elite group of studio musicians, including David Foster himself, Jay Graydon, John Robinson, Michael Landau, Paul Jackson Jr, Nathan East, Abe Laboriel, Neil Stubenhaus, Dan Warner, Jeremy Lubbock, Tollak Ollestad, Ramon Stagnaro, Brandon Fields and many others, this is a once-in-a-lifetime record that will not fail to live up to the expectations of the most demanding Foster fans.

In advance of the release of the full-length album, Contante & Sonante released a limited edition 3-song EP previewing two of the album’s songs, “In The Stone” and “No Explanation”, plus a BONUS TRACK,”After All”, performed by the soulful Leslie Smith, which is available only on this EP release.

CD track listing:
1. Prelude (Tomi Malm –feat. D. Foster)
2. In The Stone (Bill Champlin)
3. No Explanation (Bill LaBounty)
4. Jojo (Arnold McCuller)
5. The Colour Of My Love (Frank Adahl)
6. Heart To Heart (Jeff Pescetto)
7. Fly Away (Robbie Dupree)
8. Look What You’ve Done To Me (Cecily Gardner –feat D. Foster)
9. Through The Fire (Ole Borud)
10. The Best Of Me (Lisa Lovbrand)
11. Nothin’ You Can Do About It (Frank Adahl)
12. Whatever We Imagine (Bill Cantos)
13. When Will The World Be Like Lovers (J. Pescetto, R. Dupree, B. Cantos, A. McCuller, J. Pizzulo and F. Adahl)
14. Live Each Day (Warren Wiebe)

The Japanese version (out on May 20th by JVC/Victor) includes different tracks than the EU release. Adahl’s “Colour of My Love” is replaced by Courtney Blooding’s version, feat. Robbie Buchanan and Ole Borud’s version on “Through The Fire” is done by Joe Pizzulo. Additionally there’ll be a bonus track, “For Just a Moment -theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” sung by Danish Bjarne Langhoff.

Order it at amazon.jp

This is a video interview from ET Canada:

 
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Multi-Grammy award winning Michael Buble is scheduled to release a new DVD/CD Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden on June 16, it was confirmed today by 143/Reprise Records. The DVD/CD documentary will include a masterful Buble performance, which breathlessly captures all the elements surrounding the show including an intimate and complex portrayal of the Canadian singing sensation in the days, minutes and seconds leading up to this historic event.

Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden also shows footage of Buble’s emotional visit to the famed Blue Note Club where he first performed in New York City over six years ago before exploding onto the music scene. In addition, fans get to observe Buble in action backstage at the Garden with his band along with heartfelt moments with his family.

Highlights on the performance element of the DVD and accompanying CD include Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” the classic romance song “Me and Mrs. Jones,” the swinging “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and the haunting Buble penned love letter and No. 1 hit single, “Home.”

“The cavernous Garden felt like an intimate nightclub,” raved the NY Times critic Stephen Holden of Buble’s performance that evening. The Michael Buble Tour lasted two years and played to one million fans worldwide including 80 sold out appearances in the US.

Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden was directed and produced by Jason Hehir on the documentary side with concert footage directed by Dick Carruthers.

Buble’s albums have sold over 15 million copies. His most recent CD, the Grammy winning Call Me Irresponsible (2007) was a number one album all around the globe including the US. His previous album, It’s Time (2005) sold six million copies worldwide and holds the record as the longest running title to remain on the Billboard Traditional Jazz charts for two full years. It remained in the number one position for over 80 weeks. In Australia, Michael Buble is the biggest selling artist of the decade.

Michael Buble is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on his new 143/Reprise Records CD, produced by David Foster and Bob Rock, which is scheduled for a fall release.