Music

Carlos Santana: Love Divinely Orchestrated

Carlos Santana was just 22 years old when he and his band mesmerized 500,000 people who were at Woodstock, the three-day phenomenon in August 1969 that is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most pivotal moments that changed the history of Rock and Roll.

Forty-two years later, Carlos the eternal, cosmic melody man, is still using his supremely magical gift of music to touch us in that deepest, most sensual, primal, spiritual place which can only be accessed by the pure, truthful emotion of Divine Love that connects us to our higher selves.

He says, “My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.”

If you’ve been to a Santana concert than you know that Carlos delivers that spiritual ecstasy that courses through your veins and electrifies every cell in your body. [Read more…] about Carlos Santana: Love Divinely Orchestrated

Natalie Cole: A New Chance at Life

By Marsala

Hepatitis C and a kidney transplant may have left Natalie Cole somewhat frail and weak, but oh that lady still has an incredible set of pipes. Her voice is smooth as a spoonful of honey, rich like a piece of dark, decadent chocolate, powerful as a freight train barreling through your mind, sensual like your man’s lingering caress, warm like a sip of brandy, and divine as an angel who takes flight on the wings of love..

Music is in Natalie’s genes which she inherited from her father, the late, great, Nate King Cole who she adored. After he died from lung cancer in 1965 at the age of 46, Natalie was sent away to boarding school by a mother she wasn’t close to. Being only 15-years-old and away from home, it was a difficult time for the teenager to deal with such a devastating loss.

That may explain why Natalie turned to drugs to numb the pain and perhaps deal with the success she’s known ever since she came on the music scene in 1975.

Since then she has been mesmerizing audiences with bluesy ballads, scat-singing jazz like her idol Ella Fitzgerald, and performing signature her hits that include “Mr. Melody,” “Inseparable,” “Our Love,” and “I’ve Got Love On My Mind,” as well as “Unforgettable,” the duet she sings (thanks to film and audio splicing) with her father, and the finger-snapping, toe-tapping, tongue-twisting, “This Will Be” (An Everlasting Love) co-written by Natalie’s ex-husband Marvin Yancy, who died of a heart attack in 1985 at the age of 34.

Phoebe Snow: Soulful Sound R.I.P.

By Marsala

Singer, composer Phoebe Snow died today, April 26, 2011, at the age of 60 from a brain hemorrhage she suffered on January 21, 2010. When I heard the news, I realized that even though the Rolling Stone had called her voice a “natural wonder” back in the 1970s, I’d never really followed her music, nor appreciated what an amazing artist she was.

After more than 35 years, the only tidbit of information I had tucked away in my brain about her was that she had a child who’d been born severely brain-damaged.

In researching her life I was enormously touched by the heartache and disappointment, the resilience and courage that filled Phoebe Snow’s life.

Kristin Chenoweth: A Stand for Equality

By Marsala

It’s rare that an entertainer has an equally successful career on Broadway, in movies and on television. But then Kristin Chenoweth is rare! In the horse-racing world, she would be what’s known as a Triple Crown Winner, except for the fact that Kristin also has a recording career which makes her…well, a Quadruple Crown Winner!

On TV, Kristin is most notably known as Deputy Press Secretary Annabeth Schott on the last two seasons of The West Wing; she earned an Emmy playing Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies, the wonderfully quirky comedy about a pie maker who can touch dead people and bring them back to life; and she has made several guest appearances on the hit show Glee.

On Broadway she earned a Tony in 1999 for her role in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown; in 2003 she originated the role of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the hit show Wicked; and in 2010 she starred in the revival of Promises Promises with Sean Hayes.

When it comes to movies, Kristin has been in Bewitched, and too many others to mention here; but suffice it to say that comedy is her forte, with the exception of movies like Running with Scissors, in which she played Annette Bening’s lesbian lover, and Into Temptation, where she played a suicidal prostitute – two roles many of her fellow Christians were not happy about. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Wisdom Gleaned from the 83rd Academy Awards

By Marsala

There are life lessons to be found everywhere, including the 83^rd Academy Awards, which took place on February 27, 2011.

I’m not here to pass judgment on who won or who should have won; what gowns I liked or didn’t like; or whether the evening was boring or not. There are enough people critiquing and criticizing the hosts, the presenters, the performers, and the winners.

I’d much rather share with you those Oscar moments that in some way inspired, informed, or touched my heart. Perhaps they will yours too.
[Read more…] about Wisdom Gleaned from the 83rd Academy Awards

Olivia Newton-John: You Can’t Help but Honestly Love Her

By Marsala

A lot of A-list celebrities hail from Down Under, including Simon Baker, Cate Blanchette, Toni Collette, Russell Crowe, Portia de Rossi, Isla Fisher, Hugh Jackman, Miranda Kerr, Nicole Kidman, Heath Ledger, Elle Macpherson, Geoffrey Rush, Keith Urban, Naomi Watts, and Sam Worthington.

But none are more beloved by fellow-Australians than Olivia Newton-John, the first Aussie to capture American hearts with hit songs like “I Honestly Love You” (1974) and “Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975).

In 1978 Olivia was catapulted into super-stardom when she appeared in Grease as Sandy Olsson, the goody-two-shoes-girl-next-door who trades in her wholesome “Sandra Dee” image for some skin-tight, black spandex pants, red peep-toe high-heeled sandals, an off-the-shoulder top, teased hair, and horror-of-horrors, a cigarette, in order to win the heart of the leader of the T-Bird gang, Danny Zuko, played by John Travolta.