The heart wants what it wants. And Michael Buble’s heart just wasn’t in it anymore.
Despite the massive success of his first three albums, the Vancouver crooner had fallen out of love — not with the music he was making, but with the way he was making it.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he says from the Left Coast. “I’m really proud of my first three records. But they were done in a very slick way. They sound really good; sonically, they’re beautiful. They’re all about perfection — everything is recorded onto ProTools, and if something isn’t perfect, you pull it out and fix it. There are no mistakes.
“And as much as I liked them,” he confesses, “there was something missing for me.”
So, before he set out to make album No. 4 — the romantically themed Crazy Love, which comes out later this week — Buble did some soul-searching. And like a lot of guys looking for a new spark, he started off by trying to rekindle a few old flames.
“I would listen to my records and study them,” he says. “And then I would put on a Beatles record or a Frank (Sinatra) record, an old Elvis record or a Motown record. And I would feel something — I can’t really explain it, but there was a great presence in some of those records. I kept wondering why they had this great presence and why I didn’t always feel that when I was listening to myself, or to other records that are made today. And one of the first things I realized was that we live in a ProTools, American Idol generation. We’ve become used to listening to this absolutely perfect music, but the heart and the soul are gone. It’s so antiseptic.”
At the same time, he admits, he was getting slightly tired of hearing an eternal refrain from fans and critics: That his live shows — which feature his easygoing humour and personality almost as prominently as his music — are more enjoyable than his studio albums. Putting the two ideas together led to his eureka moment. “I realized that maybe I could meet somewhere in the middle and capture the energy and the raw excitement that comes from doing it in a live setting.”
His idea: To record Crazy Love the way his favourite old records were cut — live off the floor, with all the musicians playing at once, aiming for a great groove instead of a perfect take. But he knew changing his tune at this stage of his career would be easier said than done. After selling 21 million copies of his first three albums, he wasn’t sure his Grammy-winning producer David Foster — who met Buble in 2000 when the latter sang at the wedding of Brian Mulroney’s daughter, Caroline — would be willing to redefine their relationship.
But Buble went in anyway to have The Talk: You know, the one that starts with, ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’
“I said, ‘I need to do this in a different way. It has to be far more organic. I don’t want to record to a click track. I don’t want to tape everything separately. I want to shove those microphones in the room and I want the band just to go in there and play. I don’t care if the tempo speeds up or slows down. I just want it to feel great. I want those drums to be bleeding into the bass, and the bass bleeding into the strings, and them bleeding into my vocals. I want this to have some real edge.’ ”
Foster’s response? “He said, ‘That’s not what I do.’ But eventually he said, ‘OK, we’ll give it a shot.’ ”
So Buble went into Vancouver’s Warehouse studio with his band and longtime engineer Humberto Gatica, whose credits include sessions with Sinatra and samba master Antonio Carlos Jobim.
“I got my 18-piece big band, threw them in a room, chucked up the microphones, set up a little vocal booth, and we did Stardust with (a cappella septet) Naturally 7. My rhythm section was 10 feet away, and nobody wore (headphone) cans, and we played. We played the song three times and we ended up using the first take. It was so satisfying.”
Sadly, it wasn’t love at first sight for everyone.
“I remember taking Stardust to Foster and I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he said, ‘Dude, it’s pitchy.’ And it makes you second-guess yourself. But I kept listening to the record and saying to myself, ‘I’m not crazy. If this feels so good to me, if it feels this soulful, other people have got to feel what I’m feeling. I’m not alone.’ ”
Buble stuck to his guns and eventually won out. The result is the 13-track Crazy Love, which includes a mixed bag of tunes about romance — everything from a bombastically punchy version of Cry Me a River to a hard-swinging take on Eagles’ Heartache Tonight and a gritty revamp of the Dinah Washington/Brooke Benton classic Baby (You’ve Got What it Takes) with Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings (who double as Amy Winehouse’s backing band).
“There are songs that are happy and songs that are sad and songs that are longing,” says the 34-year-old bachelor, who has been romantically linked to singer-actress Emily Blunt and, more recently, Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato. “But I chose the songs because I knew I could bring a lot to them. I knew I could dig deep. Basically, I was going into the corner and putting my head down and trying to be authentic.”
Between that authenticity and the immediacy of the recordings, Crazy Love is his favourite album, he says. And he’s so head over heels about the way it was made, he’s willing to make a long-term commitment — for richer or poorer.
“You know, I’ve had commercial success. I’ve sold 21 million records. Now I feel I have a responsibility to myself to take a risk and not worry as much about this being commercially successful. I want to have a lot more artistic integrity. I said to everyone, ‘If this doesn’t sell as many copies, I’m sorry.’ And that was a hard thing, obviously, because you want both. But I erred on the side of integrity. I tried to make a record that really moved me. And I hoped that if it moved me it would move other people.
“It isn’t perfect,” he admits. “But it feels better than anything I’ve ever done before. And now that it’s done, I don’t think I’ll ever make a record again the old way.”
Michael Buble may be crazy, but he’s not an idiot.
While his fourth studio CD, Crazy Love, is a deliberate attempt to move forward, he doesn’t want to leave any of his old fans behind.
“I need to show growth without alienating 21 million people who were kind enough to support me and buy the records and go to the shows. I think that would be a very stupid thing,” he admits. “When I was 16 years old, I started singing and working in the clubs. And I sang standards and loved it. After all that work, and getting signed 10 years later, and working harder and harder and harder for the success, I wouldn’t want to just turn around and say, ‘Now I’m going to make a pop record.’ ”
So even though he continues to expand his repertoire, don’t expect him to quit singing standards.
“I love the American songbook, and I love interpreting those songs. I would really miss interpreting some great songs. I’m proud to do what I do. I’m proud to be one of the lucky ones who gets to continue the legacy of my idols.
“But one of the reasons I feel lucky to be in the position I’m in is that I get to be a little bit schizophrenic. I get to do everything from R&B to pop to rock to big band to the American standards stuff. And I get to put it all onto one record and hope that thematically it works.”
Not everything works for everybody, he admits — neither his manager, Bruce Allen, nor producer Bob Rock like his cover of Eagles’ Heartache Tonight.
“My manager just keeps saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ And Bob said the same thing: ‘That’s the Eagles, man. I just can’t get my head around it.’ But a lot of my friends that are a lot younger, it’s their favourite song on the record.”
There are also plenty of songs Buble can’t get his head around.
“There’s thousands of songs that are brought to me, and I go, ‘No! No! Never.’ Like Sinatra’s My Way — I can’t tell you how many people have come to me with that. I’ll never touch that. I’m 34 years old; I’m not ready to sing that song. And even when I am ready, I don’t know that I’ll touch it.”
Certain voices stand like monuments upon the landscape of 20th century pop, defining the architecture of their times, sheltering the dreams of millions and inspiring the climbing careers of countless imitators. Whitney Houston owns one of those voices.
When she was at her best, nothing could match her huge, clean, cool mezzo-soprano — not Madonna’s canny chirp, not Bono’s stone church wail nor Bruce Springsteen’s ramshackle growl. No, it was Houston who best embodied the feminine but gym-toned, black-inspired but aspirationally post-racial sound of global crossover pop. Like a Trump skyscraper, Houston the singer was as showily dominant as corporate capitalism itself.
Then, like many a glorious edifice, Houston’s voice fell into disrepair. Drug abuse and a rocky marriage to New Jack jerk Bobby Brown made her a tabloid staple. More tragically (for listeners, at least), her excesses trashed her instrument, which age and normal wear and tear would have imperiled anyway.
The pain and, frankly, disgust that so many pop fans felt during Houston’s decline was caused not so much by her personal distress as by her seemingly careless treatment of the national treasure that happened to reside within her.
“I Look to You,” the singer’s comeback after nearly a decade of ignominy, is a costly renovation overseen by her mentor, Clive Davis, and enacted by the best craftspeople money can buy, including the producers Akon, Stargate and Nate “Danja” Hills and the songwriters Diane Warren and Alicia Keys. It’s not unsuccessful: This is a habitable set of songs. But there’s a limit to what Houston can accomplish, and operating within limits becomes the album’s overriding theme.
This happens beneath the music’s surface, which balances inspirational balladry with bubblicious club pop, as Houston’s music always has done. Houston’s songwriters and producers provide her with top-notch tools; she wields them cautiously and almost humbly, never falling because she never reaches too high.
The best giant ballad is the Warren-penned, David Foster-produced “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength,” an exhibition of battle scars that’s richer for the weary, injury-protecting quality of Houston’s vocal. If she does earn the Grammy she’s virtually been promised for a song from this set, it should be for this one.
R. Kelly’s contributions — the megachurchy title track and “Salute,” a sort of rewrite of Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” — are less convincing, mostly because Houston can’t muster the giant ego that’s made similar songs golden for Kells himself.
On most of the album, platinum beats overshadow any vocal pyrotechnics, and Houston interacts with her backing tracks with the muscle memory of a dance-floor veteran. It’s rewarding when she really settles into her rougher midlife tone, especially on the Danja-produced “Nothin’ But Love,” perhaps the most pugnacious thank-you note ever recorded.
When she aims for sweet, as in the hooky “Worth It,” or spirited, as on the disco-fab climax of the Leon Russell cover “A Song for You,” she gets there with effort.
But should we begrudge the fact that Whitney Houston now has to work at singing? It’s all to her credit. What’s hard to give up is the dream of painless perfection that the young Houston represented, back in the yuppie era, when her voice sounded like the easy money that was flowing everywhere. Of course, that didn’t turn out so well for anyone else, either.
Though “I Look to You” doesn’t soar like the old days, it’s fine to hear Houston working on her own recovery plan.
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 FYI Music News:
ROBIN LEACH (LUXELIFE @ Las Vegas Weekly)
Pint-sized Charice entered the stage through a video screen of Whitney Houston’s blockbuster Bodyguard soundtrack medley. Charice’s extraordinary voice morphed out and over Whitney’s brilliant perfection and to be honest with you I couldn’t tell where Whitney ended and Charice began. It brought the audience to tears and their feet for an unbelievable standing ovation!
At the stars’ after-party in Wolfgang Puck’s Lupo Italian restaurant at Mandalay Bay tiny Charice told me: “This was the biggest day of my life. I can’t believe I was on stage with all those superstars. This is all more excitement than I can think of and I don’t know where it is going to lead to but I’d like to stay here and have Mr. Foster make me into one of his stars.”
Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Michael Bublè were just three of the $20 million worth of superstar talent who came to sing the praises of their Grammy winning songwriter record producer David Foster. It took more than three years to organize the never-to-be-repeated musical tribute at Mandalay Bay with Andre Agassi, Brian McKnight, Kenny G, Katharine McPhee, Boz Scaggs, Blake Shelton, Peter Cetera and Cheryl Lynn.
In the end it was a 16-year-old Filipino singer who was discovered by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey on MySpace that stole the show.
Said David: “I got a call from Oprah about this 16-year-old girl and when Oprah calls you pay attention. Oprah has been monitoring this girl and is in love with this girl, as we all are. She is an extraordinary talent and became a MySpace sensation. Listen to her and you understand why immediately, she is a heaven sent angel who is one-day going onto super stardom.”
Even Josh Groban was blown away: “There is nothing like a great musical surprise. When you hear or see something that blows your mind for the first time is great. I was waiting to go on after her, which wasn’t a good thing but I was standing there with my jaw on the floor. She has one of the most beautiful voices I have heard in a long time.”
Over his tremendously successful more than three-decade music career my longtime pal David is a 14-time Grammy winner from 42 nominations. “In 35-years this is my proudest moment- my greatest achievement. This was the biggest of the biggest.”“In 35-years this is my proudest moment- my greatest achievement. This was the biggest of the biggest.” David told me at the after party. “It all came off perfectly, we succeeded better than we ever dreamed possible.” He also executed the soundtracks of the Ghostbuster and Footloose movies in addition to writing and producing hits for Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, and Madonna.
Backstage he explained to us the three-hour tribute concert which was taped by PBS cameras for an edited 90-minute TV special this December and an eventual DVD and CD release. “I think we sent out the invitations at the turn of the millennium! It’s like a memorial to me while I’m still alive, a tribute concert after my death. Three of our previous dates collapsed on our attempt to do this. Originally we were going to do it at Lake Las Vegas with Celine, but now she’s on a world tour unable to be here. Everybody’s schedule is so crazy so trying to get all them together under one roof was pretty impossible but thanks to the artists and their managers we pulled it off. We are missing Chaka Kahn, Kenny Loggins, and Natalie Cole. Michael Bublè is on vacation after six years of touring and a hundred million in the bank, so I don’t feel too bad for him. Andrea flew from Italy just to be here. Everybody has given and given. There is someone here for everyone. You won’t get a lot of them, but enough, unless your favorite artist is me, then you have me all night. I love PBS. Most of the people up here have done specials for PBS.”
Three days of rehearsals went into the spectacular production and Josh Groban explained why they all wanted to pay tribute: “Everybody here has been affected by David’s genius. He’s like the patriarch to us younger ones who look up to him. David found me when I was 17 and he allows singers to let their unique voice show through. He has watched all of us through our specials and concerts and we take the applause for so much of the work that we do with David, so we are honored and thrilled to honor him. “
Michael Bublè explained David’s brilliance: “There is always room to grow as an artist, and to give the fans what they like about you too. I am not different than anyone else up here, but I am Canadian. David Foster is an icon to us. I was so nervous. When you are a kid in Canada and you tell your parents you want to be a singer, everyone tells you the same thing, we need to get you to David Foster.”
Tennis champion Andre Agassi who recruited David as his musical director for his annual Vegas Grand Slam benefit concerts added: “ He made it possible for us to raise $75-million over 12 years and from that we are recapturing public education. I’m just grateful; that he and I hit it off so many years ago. How do you not comer to honor him? He goes out there to alter the world, has raised millions and millions of dollars, he is an inspiration to me and the work that I am doing. “ David chimed in: “ I have asked Andre at least 5 times to sing 5 bars. He is a music junkie, he cannot sing and will not sing. “ Retorted Andre: I would be a good singer if I wasn’t tone deaf.”
“I don’t know how to work with singers that can’t sing.” David continued. “ They are 95 percent there without my help; I can push them that much more. Andrea Bocelli to me is Mozart.”
That meant I just had to ask Bocelli how David had added that 5 percent to his career. “I learned a lot. David loves music and especially in pop music I had a lot to learn and he has a huge energy said Bocelli. “I go around the world and I am tired and when he arrives I feel something in my body changing. He spent time at my house, we work all day, and then we have dinner and do music again. I am here for him and tonight will be a beautiful night of music.”
Kenny G added: “One thing we don’t want to overlook, David helps Andrea out here in Vegas, and he does hundreds of things for charity. We are not here because he helped us in our career and we are more famous and made more money, we are looking at a guy who does so much charity work, I am here to help him.”
Among the VIP’s at the after-party for the historic once-in-a-lifetime concert were celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, TV stars Suzanne Somers and her husband Alan Hamel, MGM head honcho Terry Lanni, Oprah’s producer Lisa Erspamer and a host of heavyweight music and TV executives.
David who is currently working on a new Katharine McPhee album summed up: “I selected some songs for Josh and Andrea that maybe they wouldn’t have selected, but the whole body of work is mine, I broke the rules at least two or three times tonight. My life is flashing before my eyes. Do other recorded producers get to do this? I don’t know why everyone is here, but it’s a great show.”
With those words, Grammy-award winning composer and producer David Foster officially welcomed Charice to the musical world. And with those words, Charice made it to the consciousness of the audience inside the jampacked concert hall, who trooped to Vegas to watch a tribute to the musical genius that is Foster.
The event was the star-studded David Foster & Friends concert held Friday, May 23 at the Mandalay Bay Event Center. It was an almost fourhour musical extravaganza that featured tour de force performances from Foster’s friends such as Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Katharine McPhee, Peter Cetera, Brian McKnight, Babyface, and Boz Scaggs.
Charice, a day after the once in a lifetime show, was still on a natural high the following day when we had a chance to chat. She was the penultimate performer to take the stage and Foster introduced her as someone whose talent “you’ve never seen before”. She sang a medley of I Have Nothing and I Will Always Love You, from the movie TheBodyguard.
After her stellar performance, the audience rose to its feet and awarded her with a standing ovation. Trying to contain her tears, Charice exchanged high-fives with Foster.
Only three other performers received a standing ovation when they performed, and rightly so.
Foster received his the moment he entered the stage, Bocelli got his in each and every song he did and Groban got his standing ovation after his four-song set.
After her medley, Charice performed And I Am Telling You, the song that catapulted her into world-wide YouTube fame. With such poise, grace and precision, the young singer belted her way out of the Dreamgirls song and earned yet another standing ovation from the audience. Charice approached Foster and they hugged.
This was when the audience got up on their feet and cheered for the young singer. “That was just incredible. I can’t think of anybody who can top that,” Foster said, “Charice, don’t forget that name.”
…
Concert viewers are one in claiming that Charice more than delivered the goods that night.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, “If Groban is one of Foster’s most renowned discoveries, this night truly belonged to a newer one, doe-eyed 16-year-old Filipino belter Charice, whose voice is like a jetliner taking off from her sternum.”
In between the medley and her second song, Charice responded to Foster’s question about her and where she came from.
“I’m from the Philippines and I started singing when I was 4,” she said, and the Filipinos applauded wildly. “May mga Pilipino ba diyan?” she asked, and was met by louder screams.
…
The Others
Tennis legend Andre Agassi introduced Foster and said that it was a great honor for him to introduce one of the greatest musical talents of our time. “He started with a vision, then it became a calling, and now it is a movement,” Agassi said as he described Foster’s other passion aside from music.
The musician has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his own foundation which assists families with children in need of organ transplants and other causes such as the fight against cancer and AIDS.
One by one, a cavalcade of stars happened and performed a song or two with the man of the hour.
Kenny G, Michael Johns, Brian McKnight, Katharine McPhee, jazz artist Renee Olstead, Cheryl Lynn, country singer Blake Shelton, Boz Scaggs, Eric Benet, Peter Cetera and Andrea Bocelli, who was the finale of the first part of the show.
The second half opened with pianist William Joseph, followed by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Michael Buble, then Charice and Josh Groban, who served as the evening’s finale, and as Foster said, “the only one person tonight who can follow Charice”. Groban performed five songs, including his signature hit You Raise Me Up and a duet of Bridge Over Troubled Water with McKnight.
“He is going to be around for a very, very long time,” Foster said of Groban. The illustrious Bocelli, who flew from Tuscany just for the show, had a larger than life stage persona and the audience just lapped at every song he sang. I had goosebumps listening to the man. To describe him as amazing would be an understatement.
He performed The Prayer with American Idol alum McPhee, who was just resplendent and captivating every time she appeared onstage. McPhee’s natural charm and her melodious voice are a potent combination. Michael Buble was the wild one in the bunch. He goofed around both in his performances and during the spiels. It was a welcome sight, especially for those who always see him in very formal clothes during very formal gatherings. He had spot numbers and sang Save the Last Dance for Me and his own duet, with country crooner Shelton as they sang their hit Home.
“I truly had no idea of the magnitude of his talent,” Foster said of Buble before he introduced the singer.
The $2 million one-night only musical event was filmed for broadcast this December on all PBS stations nationwide while the CD/DVD of the show will be released by Warner Bros. this fall.
His songs always seem to sprout wings and not only fly too close to the sun, but swallow it whole.
He favors singers with voices so big, it’s as if they were trying to smuggle a gospel choir in their lungs.
For David Foster, more is always more, and why nibble when you can gorge? If the guy was a chef, he’d weigh 500 pounds.
Instead, Foster’s a well-decorated songwriter and producer who has seemingly notched that number of hits over his 35-year career.
On Friday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Foster revisited his extensive canon with more than a dozen singers whose careers he has helped shape, from neo-classical pop superstar Josh Groban to honey-voiced R&B crooner Brian McKnight to former Chicago frontman Peter Cetera.
At nearly four hours long, with a 15-minute intermission, the show was every bit as outsized and extravagant as Foster’s works have long proved themselves to be. The $2 million production was taped for a TV special to air on PBS this winter, as well as a corresponding CD/DVD release.
The evening underscored the secret to Foster’s success: He’s a penultimate craftsman, a guy who seldom seems to pay much heed to genre distinctions because the basis for a hit is largely the same in all of them.
He traces the shared genealogy of seemingly disparate forms of music — say, country and R&B — by applying the same principles of songwriting to each one: a meticulous production done with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpela meticulous production done with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel, an emphasis on melodrama and a love for the kind of soaring voices that aren’t satisfied until they’re resting on a bed of clouds.
As such, his works have been dismissed as maudlin by some, and Foster is well-aware of this.
“Most people that know me know that I haven’t been in an elevator for 30 years,” he wrote in the program for the show. “Some people would say that’s because I don’t want to hear my own music!”
Sure, it’s some indulgent stuff at times, but then again, a glass of chardonnay is indulgent compared to a can of Coors Light and Foster’s musical decadence is tailored for pop epicureans. It’s the audio equivalent of eating prime rib for breakfast.
And there was plenty to feast on during this night.
Backed by a mammoth band that included members of the Las Vegas Symphony, Foster occupied center stage at his piano while a rotating cast of singers joined him to belt out a jukebox worth of songs you know by heart.
They ranged from his first hit (stirring ballad “Wildflower,” sung by country singer Blake Shelton) to foot stompin’ funk (Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real”) to neo-jazz swing (a dapper Michael Bublè purring through “Save The Last Dance For Me” like a kitten getting its belly rubbed).
The show was highlighted by a series of dramatic duets, such as former “American Idol” contender Katharine McPhee joining operatic Italian crooner Andrea Bocelli for a heart-in-the-throat version of torch song “The Prayer;” Shelton and Buble trading lines on the wistful “Home” and Groban and McKnight teaming up on Simon and Garfunkel standard “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”
Speaking of which, Groban was the night’s main attraction, especially for the many in attendance with silver hair.
When Groban tore into his signature “You Raise Me Up,” audience members leapt to their feet like they had just won at bingo.
If Groban is one of Foster’s most renowned discoveries, this night truly belonged to a newer one, doe-eyed 16-year-old Filipino belter Charice, whose voice is like a jetliner taking off from her sternum.
She turned in a stunning rendition of Whitney Houston-by-way-of-Dolly Parton hit “I Will Always Love You,” singing with such power and poise, it was hard to believe that she wasn’t even yet alive when the song originally became a hit on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack in 1992.
“Tonight, a star is born,” Foster gushed after her brief set, another grand sentiment from a man defined by them.
David Foster - superstar music producer with 14 Grammy Awards and a 2006 Order of Canada recipient - promised himself that if he ever made it big he’d buy himself a Mercedes 450 SL.
“I bought a copper-coloured one in 1978,” he said during a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “What happened was that my friend Chris Earthy had ordered it and ended up selling it to me.
“I promptly painted it black - crazy, huh?”
For all of his fame - he has performed and written songs for musical greats including Celine Dion, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart - you wouldn’t suspect Foster to be so candid, down to earth and accessible. He is also, charming and witty.
Foster, 58, admits an affinity for black Mercedes’. Today, he drives around in a “spectacular black-on-black 2007 Mercedes 550″, one of two cars he presently owns.
“The Germans are amazing, they know how to build and design automobiles,’ he said.
His other “baby” is a black 2006 Aston Martin Vanquish- - an understated elegant, sporty, modern classic.
“I bought it after my divorce (from his second wife Linda Thompson) to treat myself.”
It wasn’t his first Aston Martin.
“I bought my first one in 2003 after I saw the James Bond movie, Die Another Day,” he said. “It is by far the sexiest car on the road. But I have to confess it’s not the comfiest or the smoothest ride. The thing is, it’s a tricky, little race horse that doesn’t hold up well.”
He recently blew out the clutch on his 2006 Aston driving in Beverley Hills. “It’s in the shop again.”
In a city known for its wealthy residents being driven around by their chauffeurs, Foster bucks the trend because “I like driving because I like to be in control … I don’t like having drivers.”
Today, when Foster drives the chic streets of Beverly Hills, his CD player is filled with great classical tunes or The Beatles 1 - a compilation of 27 number one hits. However, the sought-after producer hasn’t had much time to drive lately.
Right now, he’s signed on a new artist, William Joseph - a piano player who is garnering a lot of attention - as well as producing hot young vocalist Josh Groban’s new live album.
“I’ve also recently signed on a new pop rock band from Victoria called Maurice.”
Last month Foster headed to Halifax for his David Foster & Friends star-studded gala fundraiser, which raises money for his David Foster Foundation. Its mandate is to assist families with children requiring life saving organ transplants. (Vancouver’s 2006 gala at the River Rock Casino Resort raised more than $2.9 million).
His favourite car, a 1991 Chevy Suburban, burned during last October’s Malibu fires.
“I used to just drive it exclusively because it was a great car,” he says. “I know a cynic would probably say (of his driving an older car) it was reverse snobbery that made me buy it, but it wasn’t.”
Charice is a 15 y.o. singer from Philippines and she seems to be the next star. After her appearance on Ellen’s show David contacted her and…read the article to learn more:
From AngPeryodiko.ca:
After her landmark guest appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ self-titled US TV show late last year, Charice will soon be seen on yet another popular US TV show, Oprah no less. Charice doesn’t know exactly when the Oprah episode will be aired, although Oprah herself has been plugging it, reminding televiewers “to watch for 10 fantastic kids,” one of whom happens to be Charice. The TV teaser said: They may look like ordinary kids but what they are getting ready to do on our stage will blow you away! This you have to see to believe! Coming this May.
So how did Charice get into Oprah?
“Through Mr. David Foster,” Charice told Funfare. Charice met Foster last year. He saw Charice on Ellen and he took pains to contact her. And then Foster asked Charice to sing. Presto! Before Charice knew it, Foster was asking her to record Ordinary World, one of his compositions (Foster has written songs for almost all the big names in the industry, from Celine Dion to Barbra Streisand to Whitney Houston to Josh Groban).
“My newest baby” is how Foster introduces Charice to people.
So fond Foster has become of Charice that he even brought her on his private jet to Las Vegas to watch the farewell concert of Celine Dion. They were seated on the front-center, no less.
It was Foster who brought Charice to the attention of Oprah. “Watch out for her,” Foster told Oprah.
During the shoot in Chicago, which lasted for two hours (5 to 7 p.m.) early this month, recalled Charice, she saw Oprah watching from the sidelines. The 10 “fantastic kids” were each asked to perform their forte. One played the guitar, one played the drum, another did a dance exhibition. It was only Charice who sang a song, I Have Nothing (also by Whitney Houston), like I Will Always Love You, one of the two songs Charice sang on Ellen
“She hugged me before the interview portion,” Charice said. “Nagulat ako! Natulala ako! Siempre, si Oprah siya, eh!”
A third placer in the ABS-CBN talent search Little Big Star in 2006, Charice was discovered by Ellen via the YouTube in which a fan who called herself “False Voice” uploaded a film clip of Charice’s performance in the South Korean show Star King. An Ellen staffer saw the YouTube and told DeGeneres about it, prompting her to make a joke on air about giving a reward to anybody who could furnish her the contact number of Charice. Ed Shapiro, Ellen’s lawyer, found Charice’s website. Shapiro got in touch with Michael Gurfinkel who rushed the processing of Charice and her mom’s US visa. Mother and daughter arrived in the US in the nick of time.
On Ellen, Charice sang two songs, I Will Always Love You and And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going (sung by American Idol graduate Jennifer Hudson in the movie version of Dreamgirls).
Between Ellen and Oprah, Charice was booked for a guest appearance early this year on The Paul O’Grady Show in London where she sang the same two songs (as requested by O’Grady himself).
After Oprah, Charice will finish recording her debut album (for Star Records). You guessed it: The album is titled simply Charice.
NEW YORK - Chris Botti can’t quite figure out how he ended up competing for a Grammy with the Beastie Boys, but he did get a kick out of finding his melodically romantic CD “Italia” nominated with the funk-rock group’s “The Mix-Up” for best pop instrumental album.
The trumpeter never knows what to expect come Grammy season because he’s essentially created his own musical genre - mixing jazz, pop and, on “Italia,” even classical influences - which means his music doesn’t fit neatly into any category.
“It’s sometimes hard to figure out what the committee is going to do, but I think it’s fantastic that we’re up against the Beastie Boys . . . That’s something you don’t think about when you’re a kid growing up in Oregon,” laughed Botti, during a conversation over lunch at his hotel before his band was to perform at the Blue Note jazz club.
Botti shares more in common with the other pop instrumental album nominees: Spyro Gyra (”Good to Go-Go”), Kirk Whalum (”Roundtrip”) and Dave Koz (”At The Movies),” on whose album Botti guests on “The Shadow of Your Smile.” But he no longer can be lumped together with R&B-influenced smooth-jazz musicians as he was early in his career.
“With my music . . . there’s this constant dance that I’m doing between my affection for pop music and being around artsy pop musicians … and my affection for Miles Davis … and how do you marry those two together,” said the 45-year-old Botti. “I think there’s a huge appetite for jazz-influenced music which is melodic, accessible and reins it in but doesn’t dumb it down at all.”
Botti recalls that as a teenager in Corvallis, Ore., the jazz that really inspired him to make music his career was Davis’ spacey, melancholy ballad playing on early 1960s quintet recordings like “My Funny Valentine.”
Botti also realized shortly after arriving in New York in 1986 to study with jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw that it was pointless for him to try to outdo Wynton Marsalis at rapid-fire bebop improvisations.
“If there’s one strength I’ve ever had during the course of my career is realizing what I’m not good at,” joked Botti, who didn’t release his debut album, “First Wish,” until 1995 at age 33.
Instead, he embraced working with the most sophisticated pop musicians, including Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Sting, who hired the trumpeter as the featured soloist on his 1999-2001 “Brand New Day” tour.
“Sting’s the guy that’s solely responsible for breaking the sound of my trumpet to the world,” said Botti. “He’s been on my CDs, DVDs and he’s been family to me. I’ll never be able to repay him.”
Sting did a guest turn on Botti’s breakthrough 2004 CD “When I Fall In Love,” on which the trumpeter seductively slowed the tempos, used lush orchestral arrangements and emphasized American Songbook standards.
Boosted by an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show, it not only topped the jazz charts but reached No. 37 on Billboard’s Top 200, a rarity for a largely instrumental album. It also didn’t hurt that Botti, with his tousled blond hair and green eyes, had the good looks to be named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2004 and make the gossip columns when he briefly dated Katie Couric.
His duets album, “To Love Again” (2005) with guest singers including Gladys Knight and Steven Tyler, was an even bigger hit, resulting in a PBS special and a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement accompanying a vocalist for “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” with Sting.
“Italia,” his 10th album, is a heartfelt personal statement reflecting Botti’s romantic connection to his ancestral homeland. He even lived in Italy for two years as a child when his father, an Italian teacher, led a college exchange program.
Botti sculpted the album around the title track which he composed with producer David Foster, a 14-time Grammy winner, with lyrics by Italian pop star Lorenzo Cherubini. Tenor Andrea Bocelli gives an impassioned performance of “Italia” with Botti’s trumpet lines tenderly wrapping around the lyrics.
“It really is a beautiful kind of love letter to Italy expressing the longing of someone who’s not there,” said Botti.
“Italy has a romantic quality about it even for someone who’s never been there … the food, the fashion, the art, the landscape, the way the people live their life,” added the trumpeter, dressed casually but elegantly in a black sweater from Italian designer Costume National and hand-crafted, custom-fitted Earnest Sewn Jeans.
It’s that sophisticated vision of Italy that Botti celebrates with a tasteful collection of classical music, Italian pop tunes like “Caruso” and “Estate,” and Ennio Morricone film themes as well as standards linked to Italian-American crooners like Frank Sinatra.
Among the highlights is the trumpeter’s relaxed duet with Dean Martin on “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” which blends well with the original 1957 vocal track, recorded in the same Capitol Records studio in Los Angeles.
Botti takes the greatest pride in his almost classical trumpet playing on Morricone’s haunting “Deborah’s Theme” (from “Once Upon a Time in America”) and the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma.”
Botti describes “Italia” as “more of a classical pop album than it is jazz” because there’s less improvising than on any of his previous albums. “It’s a much more buttoned-up record . . . I kept this a much more melodic record.”
But there were no such restraints when Botti took the stage at the Blue Note with his band - drummer Billy Kilson, bassist Robert Hurst, pianist Peter Martin and guitarist Mark Whitfield.
Botti engagingly bantered with the audience before each tune, introducing the saloon song “One For My Baby” with a tale of how he made a complete fool of himself in front of Sinatra on his first professional gig.
“The live shows are completely different from the records, which are all kind of dreamy,” said Botti. “I like to interject some humour and try to up the octane level and let the band flex their muscles a little bit musically.”
Botti keeps a gruelling schedule that finds him doing 220 concerts a year and spending his off days travelling, doing promotional work and recording, including such projects as playing on Marc Shaiman’s soundtrack for the film “The Bucket List.” He keeps himself in shape by practising yoga.
Last year, he bought Sting’s former Manhattan apartment but sold it after six months because he was hardly ever home. He now considers himself “homeless.”
“I don’t live anywhere,” he said. “I have no storage locker. Every single possession I own fits in one suitcase, one carry-on and there’s my trumpet. . . . But I feel unbelievably lucky that I have an opportunity to be on the road 365 days a year.”
Needless to say the bachelor trumpeter has no time for serious relationships. But he has his band, or as he calls them “my dysfunctional family,” and his trumpet for companionship.
Amid the gloom and doom that enveloped the music business in 2007, a select number of recording artists managed to find a way to generate mad money.
Forget the year’s hot new acts. Veterans like the Police and Celine Dion were among the biggest commercial forces of 2007. Others included younger established stars such as Josh Groban and the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana.
Top Money stories
To compile our list of pop’s biggest cash machines, Forbes looked at how much leading recording artists generated in U.S. music sales and North American concert grosses in 2007. Our estimates, which don’t calculate how much income each artist pocketed, include concert revenue data from Pollstar, music sales tallies from Nielsen SoundScan and pricing information from NPD Group. The numbers are meant to provide a snapshot, not a complete picture–revenue from licensing deals, merchandise sales and mobile sales aren’t included.
Playing live was a big cash generator for all the artists on our list. By far the biggest tour of the year was the Police reunion, as Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland decided to bury the hatchet and hit the road for the first time since 1986. Financially, it was a no-brainer: The trio generated $133.2 million in concert receipts at an average ticket price of $112–and that’s face value. In all, the band racked up an impressive $142.4 million in concert tickets and music sales.
The even unlikelier reunion of Van Halen with original frontman David Lee Roth also did well. This slightly revamped version of the band, with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang replacing longtime bassist Michael Anthony, charged about the same average ticket price as the Police but played fewer and smaller venues. Still, $56.7 million in North American grosses is nothing to sniff at.
Other big live draws were country singer Kenny Chesney, who grossed $71.1 million on the road; Justin Timberlake, who sold $70.6 million in concert tickets; and Celine Dion, who generated $65.3 million during the final year of her “A New Day … ” show at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
For these artists, the cash generated from performing in front of their fans far outweighed the revenue they generated from sales of their music. For instance, Chesney’s total album sales, including his new release Just Who I Am: Poets And Pirates, reached 1.8 million units. Add to that 2.5 million song downloads and Chesney’s recorded-music sales totaled around $25 million — a strong performance but still short far short of what he generated on tour.
But recorded-music sales accounted for a larger portion of the cash generated by other recording artists. Pop-country trio Rascal Flatts proved to be a big hit with both concertgoers and music buyers, grossing $41.5 million on tour and generating roughly that much in sales of albums and song downloads.
For the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, or more specifically the show’s star Miley Cyrus, recorded music sales accounted for the lion’s share of the cash she generated, despite the headlines generated by scalpers who charged astronomical prices for tickets to her sold-out shows. Hannah/Miley grossed $36 million on tour but generated more than $50 million in album sales and downloads.
Meanwhile, pop-classical vocalist Josh Groban hit pay dirt with his Christmas album Noel, which turned out to be the year’s best-selling album, with 3.7 million units sold. The sales were especially impressive considering that, as a holiday album, it had only gone on sale in October.
His album sales and song downloads generated an estimated $60 million in sales. Groban also did well on tour, grossing $43.1 million in 2007.
The boffo sales of Noel provided a badly needed boost to Warner Music Group, which released the album. It didn’t make up for the fact that Warner’s share price lost three-quarters of its value in 2007. But the success of Groban and other top cash generators proved that even as the recording industry struggles, some consumers are willing to spend serious money on their favorite artists.
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