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New York Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
What the Cult Singer Daniel Johnston Left Behind
Electric Lady Studios, in Greenwich Village, is a working music museum. The Fender Twin amplifier that the studio's onetime owner Jimi Hendrix brought to work before his 1970 death remains, as does an electric piano Stevie Wonder used on an astounding run of records. There's a keyboard Bob Dylan played in Muscle Shoals and several lurid murals by the painter Lance Jost, originals depicting interstellar travel and Aquarian-age sexual exploration. But Lee Foster — the former intern who became the space's co-owner in 2010, after helping rescue it from financial ruin — keeps his drawings by the singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston in a small safe in the corner of his office, each page bound in plastic in a lime-green three-ring binder. 'It has nothing to do with financial value,' Foster said in his art-lined room last month, as afternoon slipped into evening. 'It is so meaningful that, even if it was for that hour or three when he was sitting down to draw, it was all he was thinking about. There's a little bit of his soul in there.' Soon after Johnston's death in 2019, at 58, Foster became the unexpected custodian of Johnston's unexpectedly enormous art archive. His career hamstrung by bipolar disorder and stints in psychiatric hospitals, Johnston first found acclaim as an unguarded and guileless songwriter in the late '80s with tunes that cut instantly to the emotional quick. But he drew obsessively for more than half a century, too, creating a cosmos of characters — affable ghosts, flying eyeballs, his famously friendly frog, Jeremiah — that revealed his insecurities and hopes, sexual frustrations and religious aspirations. Foster estimates there may be 15,000 such pieces, many never seen beyond Johnston's family. 'I'm Afraid of What I Might Draw,' a book released in late April, is the first authoritative collection of Johnston's art and a revelation about how he experienced the world. 'He was not drawing these things to entertain us. He was drawing to entertain himself,' Dick Johnston, his older brother, said in a video interview from his home in Katy, Texas, frames and figurines of Daniel's art lining his bookshelves. 'He was real and earnest, and these are his moments in time. You get what an experience was for him.' Foster, 47, first learned of Johnston when Kurt Cobain began sporting a white T-shirt printed with the cover of his 1983 tape 'Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album.' He read about him in music magazines, too. Raised in rural Tennessee, however, Foster didn't have easy access to Johnston's records. The 2005 documentary 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' — so candid about Johnston's struggles with mental illness and medication, plus assorted escapades with the circus and Sonic Youth — rekindled his interest. 'As a kid, one of my favorite things was 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure,' and I always made that comparison,' Foster said. 'His life was stranger than fiction.' In the summer of 2019, Foster saw a Johnston drawing framed on a singer-songwriter's studio wall. He wondered how he might get one himself. (The reply — 'I send his family money all the time' — wasn't particularly helpful.) He found an illustration of a Kung Fu-trained Captain America on eBay for $900, then asked Johnston's family if he could visit and browse Johnston's other work. He arrived in November, two months after Johnston died and just after the family sold $500,000 of merch in mere weeks. Dick revealed box after box of drawings, and they waded through them together late into the night. 'After a while, you handle these pages, and they're just pages,' said Dick, 71. He began helping to manage his brother's career full-time in 2001 and became his guardian in 2012. 'But Lee was someone who could say, 'No, no, look at this one.' It had been a while since I had done that. It was a giddy sharing.' Foster recognized that, grief notwithstanding, Dick was now responsible for an overwhelming amount of material — 150 journals, thousands of hours of recorded songs and conversations, all those drawings. Dick has now digitized two-thirds of those tapes and is adding appropriate excerpts from them to reissues of his brother's albums. ('If we write a script for a movie,' he said, 'it's like he's already written it for us.') The rest reminded Foster of when he was faced with saving Electric Lady, with preserving an overwhelming legacy. He offered to help, first by delivering drawings Johnston had done of musicians like Cat Power and Elvis Costello to their subjects. He steadily became so obsessed with seeing and understanding all the work that, days before his 2024 wedding, he surrounded himself in Electric Lady's Studio A with Johnston's drawings, trying to tease out a page order for 'I'm Afraid of What I Might Draw.' He sent Dick a video. 'I said, 'Don't you have something else you need to be doing, son?'' Dick said, laughing. 'Man, he was committed.' In song, Johnston had an uncanny ability to capture complicated feelings with a few incisive lines, bleated sweetly over chords pounded or strummed. If 'Mind Movies' captures being forever uneasy with your own thoughts, 'True Love Will Find You in the End' is a bittersweet hymn about the pain of perseverance. He did the same with pen and paper. Surrounded by jeering demons, he appears catatonic in the sketch 'Alone Again Naturely.' Elsewhere, Satan looks up from a busty doodle, a Johnston favorite, to declare 'I Think I Draw I Am,' a wry moment of self-censure. In conversation, both Foster and Dick eventually discuss the same drawing, which now lives inside the safe at Electric Lady. Standing in a field of stumps as a half-dozen bats swoop in overhead, Johnston points toward a single sprout and grins. 'There is still hope!' he says. 'Isn't life a disaster and a train wreck? And here I am, and I climb out of it,' Dick said. 'You don't always know what your inner self is, but it reveals itself in your choices. Dan would hang onto that hope.'
The Sun
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Harry Styles secretly recording ‘mystery' new album in Berlin after being inspired by Brit pop legend
Ellie Henman, Bizarre Editor Published: Invalid Date, HARRY STYLES appears to be taking inspiration from David Bowie on his fourth studio album – by heading to Berlin. David famously recorded three records in the German city and now Harry has been spotted spending time there with Brit producer Kid Harpoon, who worked with him on his last No1 project, Harry's House. 9 9 Helpfully, Sony Music's new European HQ is also in the city . . . so it more than makes sense. An insider said: 'Harry wanted to take some time out following Harry's House and his massive world tour. 'Now, he is busy finishing up his next record and, like Bowie, Berlin seems to be the city which is inspiring him. ' Harry loves having a bit of mystery around what he does. 'It's exactly what Bowie used to be like, and he is one of the greatest artists in the world. "There is a huge amount of interest in what Harry is going to do next, and his team are really excited about releasing it to the world.' In recent days, fans spotted Harry in the capital and stopped for a chat with the star as he wandered around the streets almost unrecognised. One posted a TikTok video online and said Harry had kindly stepped in to cover their taxi fare after they ran out of euros to pay for the trip. The woman then claimed she had offered Harry some dollars in return, to which she says he replied: 'No thank you, I'm not going to America.' Well, as the country is now being run by a permatanned eejit, I'm not surprised about that. Fan stunned as she bumps into A-list pop megastar while grabbing a coffee in London - would you have spotted him? MILEY ALL SMILEY AT DAD'S LIZ FLING 9 9 IT has been her dad hitting the headlines instead of her, for a change, this weekend. But Miley Cyrus still had a smile on her face while out in New York, after it was revealed Billy Ray Cyrus has struck up an unlikely romance with Elizabeth Hurley. The Wrecking Ball singer wore shades and revealed a choppy fringe as she greeted fans outside the Electric Lady Studios in New York on Monday evening. She is gearing up to release her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, on May 30. And earlier this month she scored her 26th Top 40 hit with the first single from it, End Of The World. Billy has been publicly supporting Miley's new music on Instagram in recent weeks, after they grew estranged due to a family feud. With Liz trying to help mend the father-daughter relationship, I hope that smile on Miley's face is there to stay. MARIAH SLIDERS INTO EASTER 9 9 SHE is the Queen of Christmas, but Mariah Carey had a very hoppy Easter too – by getting glammed up in a pink minidress for an egg hunt with her kids. She shared photos on Instagram of her get-up, including fluffy pink sliders and an Easter basket. The We Belong Together singer wrote: 'The greatest gift of being a mom is getting your teenage kids to participate in your Easter hijinks!' Her twins Moroccan and Monroe are now 13, but it was good to see they were just like any other teenagers mortified by their mum's behaviour. After Mariah posted the snaps, which included the kids with her and a bloke dressed as a giant Easter bunny, Monroe commented: 'OMG! DELETE IT.' BAD BOYS 5 IS MUSIC TO WILL'S EARS 9 WILL SMITH could be about to get a career lifeline after his music comeback flopped, with his new album shifting just 268 copies here in its first week. Sony Pictures are currently planning a fifth Bad Boys film – and they want Will and Martin Lawrence to reprise their roles as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. Martin said of the move: 'Me and him haven't talked about the idea or nothing, but the studio is. 'As long as the audience wants to see them, we will be able to put them out. 'I think we have got to give you five.' Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, the fourth film which came out last June, boosted the franchise's earnings to almost £1billion. Martin said of their success: 'That means a great deal to me because that was me and Will's baby. 'That is what we started and to get four strong successful films out of them, we couldn't ask for much more.' Before his idiotic Oscars slap in 2022, where Will struck host Chris Rock around the chops for a joke he made about then-wife Jada Pinkett Smith, his showbiz career was flying high. Hopefully Will can get back to his best and, given Bad Boys is a brilliant franchise, this could be exactly what he needs right now. FANS' PRAYERS ANSWERED WITH JOVI GIG 9 JON BON JOVI is making a return to live music this summer after he took a break following surgery on his vocal cords. There was uncertainty about whether he would be well enough to belt out his hits again, but the Livin' On A Prayer singer is scheduled to play an 'intimate performance' at a 'secret location' in the US as part of an exclusive weekend travel package. Fans must pay for a weekend of activities around the concert, which is happening in June. But they'll all have to be minted to be able to afford to go, with a single ticket, including a hotel room, costing £1,760. Fans have been warned their phones will be taken away to stop them recording any part of the performance, but they will receive a signed photograph of the band. They will also be invited to an exclusive party at Jon's restaurant, JBJ's Nashville. I love a bit of Bon Jovi, but at that price, I think I'll stick to a few spins of their Greatest Hits vinyl. SCOTT A JACK OF ALL TRADES HE is up at the crack of dawn every morning since bagging the hosting job on Radio 2's Breakfast Show in January. But Scott Mills will be burning the candle at both ends come December, as he has been snapped up to return as Mayor Mills in a pantomime of Jack & The Beanstalk. He posed in this regal photo, left, to announce he will be on stage at the Wycombe Swan theatre in High Wycombe, Bucks, from December 12 to January 4 – a year after his Radio 2 pal Vernon Kay starred in Aladdin at the same playhouse. Scott, who previously trod the boards in Swansea and Leicester, said: 'This will be my third time doing panto and stepping into the mayor's shoes, I just can't say no. 'Once you've done it once, it grabs you and won't let go. 'I've definitely got the panto bug. 'I'm absolutely delighted to be bringing Jack & The Beanstalk to the Wycombe Swan and following in Vernon's footsteps – it's a brilliant theatre and I can't wait to get started.' I just hope that stage make-up is strong enough to hide the bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep. . . TAYLOR SWIFT's The Tortured Poets Department could leap back to No1 this Friday after she released signed CDs to celebrate the album's one-year anniversary. It spent ten weeks at the top last year and had the biggest opening week for a record in the UK for seven years, after her pal Ed Sheeran caused a splash with his album Divide in 2017. Another of her mates, Sabrina Carpenter, is on track to go to No2 this week, while Davido is expected to have the highest new entry with his fifth studio release 5ive, which is currently at No4.
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Blindsided Miley Cyrus emerges amid fears Billy Ray's romance with Elizabeth Hurley will ruin her big comeback
Miley Cyrus was was pictured for the first time since her father Billy Ray Cyrus debuted his shock new romance with Elizabeth Hurley. The songstress, 32, who will be releasing her ninth studio album Something Beautiful next month, seemingly buried herself in work during a visit to Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Miley looked in top spirits as she entered the legendary studios on Monday before greeting fans and signing autographs on her way out. The singer was styled in her rock star best in a fuzzy black tank top, loose jeans and matching slides that showed off her fire engine red manicure. Overall, Miley looked in top spirits despite a New Idea report claiming she was kept in the dark about her father's new romance with the Bedazzled star. The insider claimed the relationship threatens to 'overshadow' Miley's big comeback. Elizabeth, 59, whose last long-term relationship with late Aussie cricketer Shane Warne ended in 2013, confirmed she is dating the US country star, 63, over the weekend when they went Instagram official. But Billy Ray reportedly hid their relationship from Miley, with sources claiming the singer 'won't be happy' about the romance. Now, an insider has come forward to allege three-time Grammy winner Miley had no idea they were even together. 'Of course Miley didn't know,' a source told New Idea just hours after their Easte r debut. 'She stays away from her dad as much as possible. She won't be happy about this. She's about to launch an album and a movie and this is going to overshadow it all!' Miley's ninth studio album Something Beautiful is set to release on May 30 with the accompanying film coming soon after in Jun e. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Billy Ray's representatives for further comment. It comes after Miley was left 'fuming' over her dad's latest public praise of her amid their family feud. She shielded her eyes with cool blue-hued sunglasses Last month, Billy Ray gave Miley as well as his youngest daughter Noah Cyrus, 25, a a rare shout-out on Instagram after they each announced new chapters in their music careers. Miley confirmed her upcoming visual album Something Beautiful, while Noah plugged her song Don't Put It All On Me in collaboration with Fleet Foxes. Taking to Instagram afterward, the 63-year-old patriarch — who is understood to be on rocky terms with some of his kids, including Miley and son Trace, 36 — shared a split photo of Miley and Noah along with an emphatic caption. 'Holy s**t. I seldom ever swear in my post but this deserves one! You are witnessing in real time what it feels like for a Dad, who with in less than one [week's] time, has had his a** kicked and his mind blown by not one …but two of his own daughters,' he wrote. He tagged the sisters as he continued, 'Flesh and blood… completely taking their art to a whole new level. Congratulations girls! Well done.' Following the gushing public tribute, a source exclusively shared with that Miley isn't happy with her father's emotional display and fears it could 'overshadow' her big music comeback. 'Miley doesn't want the family feud drama overshadowing her music career, especially right now as she gears up for a new era,' the insider dished. Billy Ray continued heaping praise on his kids, adding, 'I'm so damn proud of both of you. I'm actually crying as I write this. Thank God you can't see me. Have fun now and be happy! Love Dad.' The person close to the Wrecking Ball hitmaker and her latest music campaign emphasised, 'It feels like Billy is making this all about him while Miley has made it quite clear she wants to focus on her music and not have their family drama be part of the conversation.' Miley notably did not include her father in her speech last year when she accepted her first Grammy, which she won for Best Pop Solo Performance for her song Flowers. The pair have had a strained relationship in the wake of his messy personal life, which includes a public, vitriolic divorce from Firerose in 2024 after a short-lived marriage that lasted less than a year. In addition to Miley, Noah, and Trace, Billy shares son Braison, 30, and daughter Brandi, 37, with ex-wife Tish Cyrus, 57. He also has a 32-year-old son named Christopher, whom he shares with Kristin Luckey. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Billy Ray shocked fans during the long Easter weekend when they revealed their new romance on Instagram. The couple appeared to coordinate their outfits as Elizabeth donned a plaid shirt, cowboy hat, and faded jeans and leaned against a rustic fence while Billy Ray dressed in full Western gear and a pair of floppy bunny ears. While the duo didn't include a caption spelling things out, with Elizabeth only writing 'Happy Easter', the photo spoke for itself and marked their first public display as a couple. Elizabeth's son Damian appeared to give their union his seal of approval as he dropped a heart and clapping emoji in the comments section. While it is not clear when the couple started dating, they have known each other for a number of years, having both starred in 2022's Christmas in Paradise. Elizabeth's last long-term relationship with late Aussie cricketer Shane Warne ended in 2013, following a marriage to Arun Nayar, a 13-year romance with Hugh Grant, and a son, Damian, with the late Steve Bing. Meanwhile, Billy Ray finalised his whirlwind divorce from Australian singer Firerose in August 2024, just months after a dramatic break-up played out both publicly and privately. And after an increasingly bitter and public split, during which each accused the other of verbal and emotional abuse, court documents obtained exclusively by showed Firerose walked away with $0. But according to a source, Firerose was perfectly content with how things played out. 'She settled for nothing just to be done with him and get away from the situation,' the insider told exclusively. 'Of course Miley didn't know. She stays away from her dad as much as possible. She won't be happy about this. She's about to launch an album and a movie and this is going to overshadow it all!' the source claimed The split reportedly strained his relationship with daughter Miley, who notably left him out of her Grammy acceptance speech. But now it looks like the country star is back in the saddle—and happily cosying up to British royalty Elizabeth. The Bedazzled star's love life has been just as headline-grabbing as her iconic red carpet appearances. She famously dated actor Hugh, 64, for 13 years, and despite their split in 2000, the two have remained close friends. In 2007, she married Indian businessman Arun, 60, but the marriage ended four years later. Elizabeth then had a high-profile engagement to Shane, who died in 2022 aged 52, though the couple never made it down the aisle before calling it quits in 2013. She also had a brief relationship with American businessman Steve, who died in 2020 aged 50, which resulted in the birth of her only child Damian.
Los Angeles Times
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
They found the music of ‘Sinners' together — just as they have from the beginning
'Sinners,' Ryan Coogler's newest film, supposes that music has the power to conjure spirits past, present and evil. It's a compelling hook, one that leads the story's heroes, including Michael B. Jordan (playing twins), Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo and revelatory newcomer Miles Caton, into conflict with bloodsucking creatures of the night but also on a time-tripping tour of American musical history. This is a movie that features legendary bluesman Buddy Guy and, on the soundtrack, banjo evangelist Rhiannon Giddens and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. It's a movie where music sizzles and wails out of every pore. In one knockout set piece, Caton — baby-faced but with the time-stained voice of a 60-year-old railroad man — sings a new blues song ('I Lied to You') at the film's central juke joint. Positioned behind a gigantic Imax camera (Coogler literally had his hands on the operator's hips), the director rips a time portal open and whirls through the crowded room where, suddenly, ancient African drummers and dancers share the floor with 1930s plantation workers, a rock guitarist, modern twerkers and DJs alike. The camera, airborne, rushes up through the roof, which bursts into flames. 'We actually lit the s— on fire, bro,' says Coogler, 38, proudly. His cast and crew gathered at the end of principal photography to watch the central building set ablaze for the shot. 'It was almost, like, ritualistic.' In theaters Friday, 'Sinners' is the latest lovechild between the writer-director and his longtime music man, Ludwig Göransson, the Oscar-winning composer who previously fused the nostalgic brass heroism of 'Rocky' to modern hip-hop in 'Creed' and who adapted traditional West African idioms to Marvel-sized blockbuster dimensions in Coogler's 'Black Panther' films. 'Sinners' is a culmination of their unique creative partnership, a deeply personal celebration of their shared love of music and of each others' families. 'Everybody had this sense of urgency,' says Coogler via Zoom from New York, 'where we all knew that this might be the last time in our lives where we could make something like this, that requires this much of ourselves.' The ex-footballer likened it to returning a kickoff and taking advantage of a fleeting hole in the defense. 'I felt like that every day on this movie, like there might not ever be a time when Ludwig can just move to another town and uproot his whole family.' Göransson, 40, is on the Zoom call too, albeit in a different box onscreen. He's busy finishing up the 'Sinners' soundtrack album at Electric Lady Studios. And even though Göransson is a white Swede with Samson locks and Coogler hails from Oakland and has cornrows, they talk with the easy fraternity of two guys who bonded over a mutual love of hip-hop at a pool table in USC's student housing. Göransson has scored every Coogler picture since his 2009 student film 'Locks,' and he never merely varnishes them with music in postproduction — he is truly Coogler's co-author. He also is a partner in Coogler's new production company, Proximity Media. And despite his background — growing up in Linköping, Sweden, in the 1980s — Göransson was practically baptized in American blues music. His father worshipped guitarists from the Delta and even wanted to name his son after the Mississippian Albert King but was outvoted by his wife, who named him after Beethoven. 'I grew up with [my dad] always listening to those guitar heroes, having those records at home,' says Göransson. 'He filmed those concerts from the '70s that he wanted me to watch, with Albert King playing guitar and smoking a pipe onstage in rainy Stockholm.' Göransson absorbed his dad's passions and mutated them into a personal obsession with Metallica, an electric descendant of the blues, in the process becoming a guitar player proficient in everything from thrash metal to jazz. For 'Sinners,' Coogler, per usual, started sending Göransson drafts of his ambitious script about two brothers (Jordan, seamlessly doubled) who open a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi and accidentally attract a trio of vampires. The story was first sparked by his uncle James, a blues-loving man from Mississippi who died when Coogler was in post on 'Creed.' Listening to the blues became a way of 'conjuring' his uncle, the director says. After he made 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,' Coogler was washing dishes one night and listening to 'Wang Dang Doodle,' a 1960 blues song about a crazy all-night party with a colorful cast of characters, and lightning struck. Fueled by a lifetime love of horror, the filmmaker developed a plot that resurrected the life force of the early blues scene and merged it with the intriguing possibilities inherent in a vampire's eternal lifespan. He was excited that the guitar-shredding Göransson (who has played onstage at Coachella) could finally write a guitar score, and the director even took up the instrument himself while writing his script, receiving riff lessons from his friend. 'If you've got the right type environment with the right type of people, you feel immortal,' says Coogler, awed by Göransson's chops. 'I've seen Ludwig on guitar, I've seen him shred, and I'm like: I don't know that person.' There was obviously going to be much source music in the film: blues tunes, Irish folk songs, church music, all of it performed onscreen. It seemed a fairly straightforward task, at first. They asked Serena Göransson — Ludwig's wife and a studio violinist whose playing had a starring role in his score for 'Oppenheimer' — to produce all of the songs. She took one read of the script and had some direct advice. 'She was like, there's no way you do this and just go down to New Orleans on weekends,' recalls the composer. 'So, yeah, we rented a house, and it turned out that we stayed for three months, and the scope of the project was way bigger than I thought it was going to be.' The Göranssons set up camp in the heat of a Louisiana summer with their two young children last year. Serena, a classically trained performer who 'was taught that all music came from Bach,' says on a separate Zoom call from New York that she recognized that this uniquely southern Black music had to be handled with care and expert consultation. 'I feel like a steward of this project,' she says, 'especially with the music. I just feel like it has a life of its own and the right artists are coming in to collaborate with us at the right time.' They interviewed blues legends and ethnomusicologists, as well as the top singer of traditional Sean-nós vocal music in Ireland. Ludwig Göransson even got to take his father on the blues trail in Memphis as part of a research trip. He co-wrote original songs with Brittany Howard, onetime lead singer of the Alabama Shakes, and Raphael Saadiq, the R&B maestro from Oakland, which became key moments in the plot. He gave Lindo — who plays a scene-stealing old soak nicknamed Delta Slim — piano lessons. The Göranssons rented a studio (converted from a church) in New Orleans and worked tirelessly with the supporting cast — Jack O'Connell, Lola Kirke and Peter Dreimanis as folk-singing vampires, Jayme Lawson as a seductive torch songstress — rehearsing their numbers again and again to the point where, as Serena Göransson says, 'you could have woken them up in the middle of the night and they knew these songs like the back of their hands.' After writing multiple songs and helping with the shoot (including the complex musical choreography of that space-time-shattering set piece), Göransson was now faced with the daunting task of writing a score. Weaving around the many period-rich diegetic songs, he took a 1932 Dobro resonator guitar — the same one that Caton's character, Sammy, plays in the film — and channeled his father's blues-loving DNA. Joined by a lyrical harmonica and Caton's vocals, it's music that almost lets the audience smell the cotton fields and country roads and smoke-filled hoodoo huts. Reflecting the historical continuum explored in the story, he then plugged into his Metallica love and wrote gleefully fun, neon power chords for Remmick (O'Connell) and his fanged companions, with drums authentically supplied by Ulrich. The score also cleverly exploits the pipe organ's dual connotations with religion (Sammy is the son of a pastor) and gothic horror. When the blood really starts hitting the fan, Göransson asked his wife and a string orchestra to help escalate the drama, and he had violins bend notes just like his slide guitar. 'When I hear that last section,' Coogler says, 'that's the one where I'm just like: This is really good, but I don't know if anybody outside of like me and maybe [my wife] Zinzi know how good this is.' 'I'm Ludwig's biggest fan who's, like, not married to him,' Coogler adds, his face beaming while Göransson blushes. The director, whose kids also hung out on set, has known Ludwig and Serena since they met cute at a scoring session in 2008; he officiated their wedding 10 years later. 'I love this score because I think it's infused with his love for music, his love for his dad, his love for his wife, his love for his kids. I can literally feel it in the music.' The final scene in the film, technically a post-credits scene, was actually the first one shot chronologically. Coogler wanted to show a more recent link to the story's century-old events, and he really wanted his uncle's favorite blues musician, Buddy Guy, to be involved. But he quickly learned that Guy, now in his late 80s, hadn't been to a theater since the 'fish movie,' a.k.a. 'Jaws,' and he despaired of his chances. Still, he arranged to go see Guy play in Chicago. 'I get to the show,' says Coogler, 'and his whole family is in the backstage room — his grandkids. And they're like, 'Oh, cool, we're going to bring you to see our grandpa.' And me and Zinzi go in there and sit down, and he's like, 'Yo, man.'' 'I'm not a movie guy,' the bluesman said, in Coogler's retelling of this momentous meeting, 'but my kids love your movies and they tell me that I gotta meet with you. So I'm here — whatever you need. You want me to sing? I'll sing. You want me to act? I'm on for the work. But I got you.' 'I pitched him what the movie was,' Coogler continues, 'and he told me his life story about being a sharecropper as a kid and going up to Chicago and trying to learn how to play. I broke down crying, because everything I had just written in the script, this dude lived.' 'Outside of the supernatural stuff,' Coogler clarifies.
The Guardian
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Roy Ayers obituary
When Ruby Ayers, a piano teacher, took her five-year-old son Roy to a concert by the Lionel Hampton Big Band in California in 1945, the boy showed so much enthusiasm for the performance that Hampton presented him with his pair of vibe mallets. Roy Ayers, who has died aged 84, would go on to blaze a trail as a vibraphonist, composer, singer and producer. A genre-bending pioneer of hard bop, funk, neo-soul and acid jazz, Ayers was most famous for his feel-good track Everybody Loves the Sunshine, from the 1976 album of the same name. He told the Guardian that the song was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York on, naturally, a warm summer's day. Among those who feature are Debbie Darby (credited as 'Chicas') on vocals and Philip Woo on piano, electric piano and synthesiser. Woo explained that Ayers did not like to work from charts or scores, with the song based around a single chord that the band in the studio then developed. While it was never released as a single, Everybody Loves the Sunshine's warm, jazz-soul sound has won it numerous admirers over the past 50 years. As well as being sampled hundreds of times, by artists including Dr Dre and Mary J Blige, the track has also been covered by musicians ranging from D'Angelo to Jamie Cullen. Perhaps the sheer simplicity of the song's structure explains its appeal to such a variety of musicians. The hazy chords set up a steady state condition that allows the performer room for manoeuvre. D'Angelo covered the song in sweaty desire; Cullen's Live in Ibiza version is as light and moreish as your favourite ice-cream; the Robert Glasper Experiment cover is edgy, an exercise in deconstruction. Other notable versions include the electronica-infused track from the DJ Cam Quartet and the modern jazz take of trumpeter Takuya Kuroda. Ayers was born in the South Park (later South Central) district of Los Angeles, and grew up on Vermont Avenue amid the widely admired Central Avenue jazz scene during the 1940s and 50s, which attracted luminaries such as Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus. His father, Roy Ayers Sr, worked as a parking attendant and played the trombone. His mother, Ruby, was a piano player and teacher. He attended Thomas Jefferson high school, sang in the church choir, and played steel guitar and piano in a local band called the Latin Lyrics. He studied music theory at Los Angeles City College, but left before completing his studies to tour as a vibraphone – or vibes – sideman. His first album, West Coast Vibes (1963), was produced by the British jazz musician and journalist Leonard Feather. He then teamed up with the flautist Herbie Mann, who produced the 'groove' based sound of Virgo Vibes (1967) and Stoned Soul Picnic (1968). Relocating to New York at the start of the 1970s, Ayers formed the jazz-funk ensemble Roy Ayers Ubiquity, recruiting a roster of around 14 musicians. At this time he composed and performed the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Coffy (1973), starring Pam Grier as a vigilante nurse. The Everybody Loves the Sunshine album was released under the Ubiquity rubric, reaching No 51 on the US Billboard charts, but making no impact on the UK charts. His 1978 single Get On Up, Get On Down, however, reached No 41 in the UK. He also scored chart success with Don't Stop the Feeling (1979), which got to No 32 on the US RnB chart and 56 in the UK. The track was featured on the album No Stranger to Love, whose title track was sampled separately by MF Doom and Jill Scott. Ayers was a regular performer at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London during the 80s and his shows there were captured on live albums. Other live recordings include Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1972) and Live from West Port Jazz Festival Hamburg (1999). Ayers played at the Glastonbury festival five times, with his last appearance there in 2019. A tour of Nigeria with Fela Kuti in 1979, and a resulting album, Music of Many Colours (1980), was just one of many fruitful collaborations. Ayers also performed on Whitney Houston's Love Will Save the Day (1988); with Rick James on Double Trouble (1992); and with Tyler, the Creator on Cherry Bomb (2015). A soul-funk album, Roy Ayers JID002 (2020), was the brainchild of the producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The latter was a member of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, who had sampled Ayers' Running Away on their track Descriptions of a Fool (1989), and Roy Ayers Ubiquity's 1974 song Feel Like Makin' Love on Keep It Rollin', from their 1993 Midnight Marauders album. Ayers also collaborated with Erykah Badu on the singer's second album, Mama's Gun (2000). The pair recorded a new version of Everybody Loves the Sunshine for what would be Ayers' final studio album, Mahogany Vibe (2004). 'If I didn't have music I wouldn't even want to be here,' Ayers told the Los Angeles Times. 'It's like an escape when there is no escape.' Ayers married Argerie in 1973. She survives him, as do their children, Mtume and Ayana, a son, Nabil, from a relationship with Louise Braufman, and a granddaughter. Roy Edward Ayers Jr, musician and band leader, born 10 September 1940; died 4 March 2025
