city Quincy, county Jones: Last News

Kanye West sees himself as a George Lucas-like figure in the fashion industry. The 45-year-old rap star - who has legally changed his name to Ye - believes he's more like the 'Star Wars' creator than a true fashion designer. He explained: "You know, specifically in this fashion context, I see myself more as a George Lucas than a fashion designer.

Jon Batiste has praised Beyonce for “dismantling genres” with her new album ‘Cowboy Carter’.‘Cowboy Carter’ was released on Friday (March 29), her eighth studio album and the second in an expected trilogy that began with 2022’s ‘Renaissance’. Batiste wrote and produced the track ‘Ameriican Requiem’ on the album, which also features guest appearances from country veteran Willie Nelson, as well as Willie Jones, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Shaboozey and Tanner Adele.In a new post on X/Twitter, Batiste lauded Beyoncé’s talents and thanked her for allowing him to be a part of the album, as well as pointing to the way he hopes her music will pave for a more genre-fluid future.“This is the moment yall, where we dismantle the genre machine,” he said.

Tony Bennett from the likes of Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse are set to go to auction next month.A trove of items that belonged to the late singer are set to go up for sale at Julien’s Auctions on April 18, including letters and rarities addressed to him from Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Madonna, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones and Barbra Streisand and more.The legendary American singer died on July 21 in his hometown of New York, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was aged 96.The item expected to fetch the most at the auction is a typewritten thank you letter from civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Thania Garcia A collection of letters, photos and more from the late Tony Bennett will go up for sale via Julien’s Auctions on April 18. The trove of items includes rarities addressed to Bennett from stars like Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Madonna, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones and Barbra Streisand, among others.

New roles in the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic have been announced!

Angelique Jackson The upcoming Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” is embracing the Motown sound — announcing key castings including Larenz Tate as Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and Kat Graham as the legendary Diana Ross. Other new cast members of the Lionsgate and Universal Pictures International project include Jessica Sula (“Split”) as La Toya Jackson; Liv Symone (“Power Book III: Raising Kanan”) as Gladys Knight; Kevin Shinick (“Robot Chicken”) as Dick Clark; KeiLyn Durrel Jones (“The Other Two,” “How to Die Alone”) as Jackson’s trusted friend and confidante Bill Bray; and Kendrick Sampson (“Insecure”) as industry icon Quincy Jones. “Michael,” from director Antoine Fuqua, is currently in production and has added a slew of stars in recent weeks.

Ethan Shanfeld “The Color Purple” will make its streaming debut on Max on Feb. 16.

Accomplished filmmaker Bao Nguyen takes us on a trip back to 1985 and the historic recording of one of the biggest charity records of all time, ‘We Are The World’, which united dozens of A-list artists to raise money for the African famine.Produced by Lionel Richie, one of the iconic artists and co-writer of the original song, Nguyen’s film uses archive material and contemporary talking heads (some interviewed in the original studio in which the record was made), including Richie himself.Headed to Netflix one day off of the recording’s 39th anniversary, the film is a nostalgic trip back to the heyday of ’80s music, the year in which the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Billy Joel, Journey, Kenny Loggins and more were dominating the American and international charts, and all are included here in some form.

“We Are the World,” the historic 1985 charity single — where even Bob Dylan was intimidated by the star-studded session.Surrounded by everyone from Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Paul Simon to Tina Turner, Willie Nelson and Billy Joel, the Bard was clearly out of sorts — and out of his element.But it took one particular legend to help another one find his solo mojo.“The secret agent to help him get comfortable was Stevie Wonder,” says David Breskin — one of two journalists invited by producer Quincy Jones to cover the momentous occasion — in the documentary. “Stevie is an insanely great mimic,” continues Breskin, explaining how the R&B master used his special talents to help the folk god: “Stevie sang it ventriloquially in Dylan’s voice.”It’s a dead-on impression that impresses even Dylan, who — in the only time the room is cleared to give one artist his space — finally nails his part.Such is the spirit of unity that — against all odds and egos — pulled together the recording of “We Are the World” on Jan.

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) will honor the late Robbie Robertson and director Martin Scorsese with the Spirit of Collaboration Award at the 5th Annual SCL Awards, to be held Tuesday, Feb. 13 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. 

“We Are the World” was a once-in-a-generation meeting of musical giants when it was recorded Jan. 28, 1985 — and released two months later on March 7 — to benefit African famine relief.Anyone who was anyone in music at that moment — a who’s who of legends, including everyone from Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan to Billy Joel, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen — showed up to support the cause.Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and ’80s hitmaker Michael Omartian, the single sold a whopping 20 million copies.

Angelique Jackson Lionel Richie has been very emotional lately, but he wants to reassure everyone that he’s okay. According to Richie, it’s just been a heady experience to look back nearly 40 years and relive all the wondrous and chaotic memories of writing and recording “We Are the World” for the new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop.” “Every segment of this journey, I cry,” Richie said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere.

“I didn’t really know much about the making of the song,” admits The Greatest Night in Pop director Bao Nguyen of 1985’s star-studded Ethiopian famine relief hit “We Are the World.” “You just make these assumptions about how things are made because it just happens. But when you think now of 46 great artists getting together to make that, it would be really impossible for that to happen now.”

Director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 version of Alice Walker’s classic, “The Color Purple,” has always been heavily debated. Many knock it for being too tidy and toning down the lesbian love story at its heart. Others, though, consider it a classic and a film that has withstood the test of time a lot better than the movie it lost the Best Picture Oscar to, “Out of Africa.”

Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.

When Harry Met Sally fans! This Wednesday, Meg Ryan makes a rare TV appearance to honor her WHMS costar, Billy Crystal, when he is feted at the Kennedy Center Honors. The televised ceremony—which always airs during the last week of the year—recognizes artists who have made profound contributions to American culture through the arts.When Harry Met Sally is over 30 years old, but it is arguably the most quoted film in Ryan's and Crystal's movie careers, so it only makes sense that Ryan would want to pay homage to one of the greatest romcoms—and films—of our time.

The Color Purple often succeeds as a thoughtful fusion of two other adaptations of Alice Walker’s landmark novel that still confidently hums its own tune.In shakier moments, though, confidence gives way to nostalgia, when the film hammers home its reinterpretations of quotable scenes and dialogue from the Quincy Jones-produced, Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 adaptation with an insistence that borders on flashing “Hey, remember this?” in bold type onscreen.Creating and saying something new with such proven material, while also purposely coaxing audience sentiment for a beloved original, surely posed a formidable challenge for Bazawule and company. And having Jones, Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey — the big guns and big breakout from the 1985 film — onboard as producers must have eased and complicated the gig in unfathomable ways.Oprah and Jones also had a hand in the original Broadway musical adaptation, which has spun off its own lore and legacy, and adds another meta layer of pop-lit gloss to what this film aims to freshly reinterpret.The stage musical — with a book by Marsha Norman, and lyrics and music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray — has amassed its own roster of breakout stars, including American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, who made her 2007 Broadway debut stepping into the lead role of Celie, and Orange Is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks, Tony-nominated for playing Sofia opposite Cynthia Erivo in the 2015 Broadway revival.Barrino and Brooks reprise their respective roles here with a lived-in grace and fortitude that does freshly illuminate Walker’s moving narrative, the lifeblood that courses through every iteration.

Fantasia Barrino, “The Little Mermaid” star Halle Berry and five-time Grammy winner H.E.R. to bring the belting in “The Color Purple,” the new movie musical adaption of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that opens in theaters on Christmas Day.But Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson also flexes some surprise vocal chops as blues singer Shug Avery.And Executive Music Producer Stephen Bray already envisioned the former “Empire” diva in the role when she came to see the “Color Purple” musical on Broadway in 2005.“We were sitting together, and at intermission I said, ‘You know, you’d make a great Shug Avery,’ ” Bray — who co-wrote the songs for both 2005’s original stage production and its 2015 revival — told The Post.

When Asha Daniels filed her illegal retaliatory termination, racial and sexual harassment lawsuit against Lizzo and her touring team in September, the Grammy winner bashed the action by her former tour wardrobe designer as “a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt.” Now, the ‘Truth Hurts” singer and her Big Grrl Big Touring, Inc. want a state judge to toss the matter out.

Bruce Cohen In 1992, being out at work in Hollywood wasn’t really much of a thing and yet, I found myself coming out to Steven Spielberg in his office. I had started my career in film as the DGA trainee on “The Color Purple” in 1985, keenly aware of how astonishing it was not only to have Steven as my boss on my first movie but also to have it feature such a bold and beautiful portrayal of LGBTQ+ representation. Producing along with Steven and Quincy Jones were Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

1985 film “The Color Purple” was the “best $35,000 I ever made.” Speaking with Essence magazine, Winfrey, 69, revealed she “wanted nothing more in my life than to be in ‘The Color Purple'” when it was announced that Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book would hit the silver screen. “They were only offering $35,000 to be in this film,” Winfrey told the outlet for their cover story on the upcoming movie adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The upcoming release of “The Color Purple” musical film marks a full circle moment for Oprah Winfrey, who is producing the new adaptation 38 years after playing Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s take on Alice Walker’s seminal novel. Oprah earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress, and now “The Color Purple” musical could earn her another one as a producer if it lands a best picture nomination. Oprah produced the film along with Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones.