Legends Radio Presents Free Live Variety Show 3/4 NYC at Gizzis

THIS WEEK'S SHOW-

Legends Radio in conjunction with Raquel Miller's Nicoda Arts Organization- www.nicoda.org presents at Gizzi's Cafe 16 W 8th St. NYC 7-10PM

Friday March 4

7PM Debra Griner

Debra Griner has performed at coffee houses, clubs, cabarets and street fairs throughout the city. She has appeared at ROMP, Kentucky's premier bluegrass festival, and on Dennis Da Costa's Good to the Last Drop Coffeehouse for PCTV.  With upcoming performances atGizzi'sand on cable networks such as Talents Unlimited, Debra is warming up for the release of her first album, BOUND TO RISE, at NY's historic folk club, The Bitter End, Tuesday, April 12^th at 7:30pm.

www.debragriner.com

7:45 Edwin Vazquez

Johnny Cruz from PuertoRican.com wrote : "If you can imagine the combination of the flare of Elvis Presley, the contortions of JoeCocker, and the charm of Enrique Iglesias, you have Edwin Vazquez.  I can only describe Edwin's performance as vibrant, energetic, and extremely animated. In one word I'd have to describe his performance as WOW!  The audience greeted him with woops and hollers, shouting out otra, otra, otra, at the end of his set.  It was quite electric to say the least".

--Johnny Cruz PUERTORICAN .COM

www.reverbnation.com/edwinvazquez

www.youtube.com/edwinvazquezmusica

www.twitter.com/edwinvazquezmus

www.myspace.com/edwinvazquezmusica

8:30 Poet Jon Winell & Evan Ginzburg reads from Apt. 4B, Like in Brooklyn

9:00 Kalen

(www.kalenmusic.com) 

"Kalen is fantastic! She owns the stage, gets the crowd rocking and has unparalleled energy."

- Scott Kaufman, New York Pudding

""Baby Boy" was my favorite indie track of 2010."

- Evan Ginzburg, Legends Radio (Dec, 2010)

"Kalen is a very promising singer and songwriter who brings in influences in her writing and music ranging from Pablo Naruda to Eric Satie."

- Ishrat Ansari, Owner and booker of West Village Landmark, Café Vivaldi..

"Vocally, Kalen is a bit of a chameleon, smoothly going from a sexy croon to urban sass, dishing out sultry come-ons and smartass one-liners with equal aplomb. She has an excellent range and handles ballads as well as she does roof-raising tracks."

- Bruce Rusk, Daily Vault

"Kalen has "otherworldly" vocal prowess. She has the rock energy of Janis Joplin, the soul diva gospel chops of Alicia Keys, the ethereal expression of Kate Bush. And can rap like nobody's business. On top of that, she plays super funky experimental rock lead keyboard; think Bernie Worrel (from Parliament/Funkadelic) meets Square Pusher, meets Imogean Heap. Kalen performs with the level of intensity that has not been seen in a fucking long time!!!"

- Gary Poulson, Zawinul Syndicate

"Kalen performs her jazzy/funky songs with vivacity and grace, singing her catchy compositions with soul from behind her polished keys"

- Dan Dipillido of Jezebel Music

5 great acts on one bill and NO COVER

Last Week's Legends Radio Presents Show at Gizzis Cafe-

A great night as a packed Standing Room Only crowd came to hear 4 RAD (www.radart.org) recording artists. Were you there? If not get away from that computer or TV screen and come out this Friday for the best entertainment value in NYC!

Super Bowl Music

The referees should have called penalties on both Christina Aguilera who mangled the Star Spangled Banner and The Black Eyed Peas who defined mediocre. What the Peas were doing wasn’t exactly singing or rapping- they were at certain points just plain shouting. Screeching “Let’s get it started in here,” over and over isn’t exactly great art. Did THAT rate 111 million viewers? Man, has the bar ever been lowered or what? And I actually liked the Peas back in their (early) “Joints and Jams” days. I’m enjoying Doug E. Fresh, Kurtis Blow, The Whispers, Cuba Gooding, etc. buried on Channel 90’s TV One more than the Super Bowl half time entertainment. Go figure.

And Christina celebrating Aretha at the Grammies? I guess Patti LaBelle, Chaka and everyone else aren’t available. Hope Christina spells R-E-S-P-E-C-T correctly, anyway.

Sheesh.

Evan Ginzburg

www.legendsradio.net

CD Review- Quincy Jones' Soul Bossa Nostra

A buddy gave me Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nostra for Christmas, and let’s put it this way- it’s not the worst present I’ve ever gotten, but it sure ain’t the best one either.

There’s a few quality cuts that I actually like with Everything Must Change by BeBe Winans and Jennifer Hudson’s You Put A Move On My Heart at the head of the list. Mary J. Blige’s Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me is also worthy and Q Tip is smart enough to hang in the background on this one. Snoop Dogg’s Get The Funk Out of My Face is goofy fun I suppose. But the prevalence of rappers and auto-tune on this thing for the most part made these reinterpretations of 15 Q classics pretty unnecessary. I mean, why mess with perfection to begin with? Akon murdered Strawberry Letter 23, sucking the soul out of it completely; it’s absolutely robotic.  Jamie Foxx’s Give Me The Night is simply inferior to Benson’s. Amy Winehouse’s It’s My Party is so bad it’s good I suppose.  P.Y.T. in the hands of Robin Thicke and T-Pain is, well, PAINful. It sounds like an android singing lead. And is the world really waiting for a rap version of the Sanford & Son theme?

Barry White really didn’t need to make a comeback from beyond for this one, folk.

Hey, while we’re at it, how about a rap and auto-tune re-interpretation of the What’s Going On and Songs In The Key Of Life albums? Have Akon and Robin Thicke and a crew of rappers with auto-tune to spare massacre them both. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Or T-Pain and Three 6-Mafia can do the Sinatra Songbook.  How about Amy Whinehouse does Ella Fitz? Ludacris and David Banner can take on Bobby Darin; doesn’t Mack The Knife need auto-tune and an obligatory rap right smack in the middle?

It’s virtually unlimited!

Anyway before I start ranting…this one’s for Quincy Jones completists and the youngsters who just don’t know better.

Evan Ginzburg

www.legendsradio.net

Concert Review- Prince with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Maceo Parker MSG 1/18/11

Concert Review- Prince with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Maceo Parker

Madison Square Garden 1/18/11

It almost “doesn’t pay” to review a Prince show.

You know going in you’re going to get great musicianship, classic tunes, colorful outfits, topnotch dance moves, a state of the art stage, and some smoking jams thrown in to boot.

On that end the musical genius most certainly delivered in a two plus hour show.

Prince opened by teasing the audience with mere snippets of tunes from his vast repertoire, and then proceeded in guitar Rock God fashion to rock out and throw a little funk in to boot. He did few covers, but The Time’s Cool and Sylvester’s Dance Disco Heat were most certainly worthy. Pacing his 52 year old self a bit more than in the past, he’d disappear throughout the show, giving his female vocalists space and milking applause for multiple encores. Although he didn’t do my favorite Prince jam, Sexy MF (hey, he’s religious now), he pretty much covered everything else you’d want to hear by him. He also wore a Prince T-shirt which was kind of tacky, but guess you gotta get paid somehow.

All in all it was a great night, although Sharon Jones’ five song, thirty minute set was ridiculous in that it was followed by forty-five minutes of, well, nothing. Why she couldn’t have performed longer was beyond me, as she prowled that stage like she owned it. She later came back with the Dap Kings’ horn section to just kill the joint with Prince on a smoking version of Love Bizarre. Maceo Parker’s participation was also a bit of a letdown as he was not given his own set, but rather showcased with Prince on a few numbers. Prince, while singing a ballad to a swooning, fine young woman, repeatedly looked towards the sax giant while asking her, “Do you know who THIS is?” Unfortunately, she clearly didn’t. It was just plain awkward. Maceo was also drowned out at times by the massive ensemble on stage.

Interestingly enough, during the way too long intermission, the giant screens played clips from Soul to Soul and Wilson Pickett’s set was just as great if not greater than anything live this evening.

All in all, this didn’t come close to touching the majestic show I saw Prince do with Larry Graham and Chaka Khan at MSG in the 90s. But hey, Prince, Sharon Jones and Maceo on the same bill is nothing to sneeze at. The Purple One has still got it.

--Evan Ginzburg

www.legendsradio.net

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Shelly-Berman--Bushwhacker-Luke--Traci-Brooks--Thomas-Amelio-on-Legends-Radio.html?soid=1104120191177&aid=cLrUXewJH8M

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Shelly-Berman--Bushwhacker-Luke--Traci-Brooks--Thomas-Amelio-on-Legends-Radio.html?soid=1104120191177&aid=cLrUXewJH8M

An old friend dies too young

Former Promoter Gordon Scozzari Dies at Age 40

New York, NY - 1/5/11 - It is with a heavy heart that I've been asked to announce the death of my longtime friend Gordon Scozzari who died today at the age of 40. Gordon had been suffering for many years with kidney related problems, ultimately losing both, and had been on dialysis besides other health issues past and present. The former AWF promoter was involved with the wrestling business in a variety of capacities including promoting and booking in NY, NJ, Puerto Rico and England. On a personal note, I'd like to say that in my entire life I've never seen a person fight so long and valiantly against illness. In one recent year he'd been hospitalized over 20 times, often for weeks and even months at a time where we thought he wouldn't make it. A mutual friend said simply, "That Gordon's a tough kid." And he was. His closest friend in Mike Henry requested I add this. "He was a good friend. I'll miss him and at least he won't be in pain anymore. The way he was living was no way for a person to be living. He was a really good guy and would give you the shirt off his back. We helped each other a million times. And he always repaid me to the penny, even when it was a financial struggle for him to do so.  I'll miss the 5 phone calls a day." R.I.P. to an honorable man in a business not always known for that. Today an old friend died too young.

I will devote part of our 1/12/11 7:30-9:30PM Legends Radio to the memory of Gordon Scozzari.

Evan Ginzburg's Legends Radio C 2011

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Legends-Radio-Press-Announcement.html?soid=1104120191177&aid=-IVeyXHZqH8

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Legends-Radio-Press-Announcement.html?soid=1104120191177&aid=-IVeyXHZqH8