Latest news with #MilesDavis
Edmonton Journal
3 days ago
- General
- Edmonton Journal
Last: Riesling – the white for all seasons and all foods (almost)
Article content When I started my career in the wine biz, over 30 years ago now, riesling was the one grape that had eluded me. It was like bebop jazz, I knew it existed, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I eventually came to love both, sometimes together, and now I regard riesling as the Miles Davis of the wine world. The problem, initially, was that, like many, all I had tasted were the cloyingly sweet, mass-produced examples, such as the one with a depressed nun on the label. Cheer up, sister, a little less sugar and a bit more acidity will fix things. The light went on when I was in an Indian restaurant in London and noticed the wine list had an extensive riesling section. They were pouring a good Kabinett by the glass, and my server suggested it would go nicely with the spicy chicken dish I had ordered. It did, of course, and it was one of those aha moments that left me wanting more. Article content Article content Years later, on my first media trip to Germany, I noticed the locals were mostly drinking dry (trocken) rieslings, and many had at least a decade of age behind them (the wines; the patrons were considerably older). The searing acidity found in the younger wines had melded into a basket of peaches and Meyer lemons, and the wet-stone minerality and vibrant acidity seemed to tie it all together. I couldn't help but notice that even the top wines from the very best producers rarely exceeded $75, and that still holds true, whereas the fancy white Burgundies I had come to appreciate were eroding what little disposable income I had. I had found my white grape; affordable, age-worthy, and the perfect foil to exotically flavoured foods. Article content Article content Article content If there's a defining word that appears in riesling descriptors, and numerous other wines, it's minerality, but what does minerality taste like? Many years ago, I was visiting Ernie Loosen, of Dr. Loosen wines, one of the most famous riesling producers in Germany's Mosel region. It was raining lightly as we strolled through his vineyards, and we were discussing that very flavour profile. He told me to pick a piece of the blue slate that proliferates many vineyards in the Mosel and give it a lick. In the back of my mind, I wondered how many journalists he had convinced to do this, if for no other reason than sheer entertainment value. But there it was, the stony, flinty combination of rain, soil, and a hint of salinity. It's almost more of a sensation than a flavour, but when combined with the classic stone fruits, citrus, and piercing acidity inherent to German riesling, you have wine that sates the palate on multiple levels. Article content Article content Riesling is a grape that requires cooler climes to allow its trademark acidity to shine through. As such, places like Germany and Austria are ideal, and here, in Canada, the Okanagan Valley and the Niagara Peninsula can produce some excellent examples. In the Okanagan, Tantalus's Old Vine Riesling is a stellar example, winning scads of awards, and, from Ontario, Cave Spring Vineyard is another solid choice. Their ice wine is always a contender for Canada's best. Article content Article content Article content In Germany, the epicentre for benchmark riesling, the key regions include the Mosel, Rheinghau, Rheinhessen, Nahe, and the Pfalz. At one time, the Rheinhessen took a back seat to the others, but now producers like Keller (considered by many to be Germany's best, and arriving in Alberta soon), Wittmann, St. Antony, and Wagner-Stempel have pushed the region to the forefront. The Rheinhessen is also their largest wine region, both in terms of area and volume, although we tend to see more wines from the Mosel in terms of selection in Canada.
Calgary Herald
3 days ago
- General
- Calgary Herald
Last: Riesling – the white for all seasons and all foods (almost)
When I started my career in the wine biz, over 30 years ago now, riesling was the one grape that had eluded me. It was like bebop jazz, I knew it existed, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I eventually came to love both, sometimes together, and now I regard riesling as the Miles Davis of the wine world. The problem, initially, was that, like many, all I had tasted were the cloyingly sweet, mass-produced examples, such as the one with a depressed nun on the label. Cheer up, sister, a little less sugar and a bit more acidity will fix things. The light went on when I was in an Indian restaurant in London and noticed the wine list had an extensive riesling section. They were pouring a good Kabinett by the glass, and my server suggested it would go nicely with the spicy chicken dish I had ordered. It did, of course, and it was one of those aha moments that left me wanting more. Article content Article content Years later, on my first media trip to Germany, I noticed the locals were mostly drinking dry (trocken) rieslings, and many had at least a decade of age behind them (the wines; the patrons were considerably older). The searing acidity found in the younger wines had melded into a basket of peaches and Meyer lemons, and the wet-stone minerality and vibrant acidity seemed to tie it all together. I couldn't help but notice that even the top wines from the very best producers rarely exceeded $75, and that still holds true, whereas the fancy white Burgundies I had come to appreciate were eroding what little disposable income I had. I had found my white grape; affordable, age-worthy, and the perfect foil to exotically flavoured foods. Article content Article content Article content If there's a defining word that appears in riesling descriptors, and numerous other wines, it's minerality, but what does minerality taste like? Many years ago, I was visiting Ernie Loosen, of Dr. Loosen wines, one of the most famous riesling producers in Germany's Mosel region. It was raining lightly as we strolled through his vineyards, and we were discussing that very flavour profile. He told me to pick a piece of the blue slate that proliferates many vineyards in the Mosel and give it a lick. In the back of my mind, I wondered how many journalists he had convinced to do this, if for no other reason than sheer entertainment value. But there it was, the stony, flinty combination of rain, soil, and a hint of salinity. It's almost more of a sensation than a flavour, but when combined with the classic stone fruits, citrus, and piercing acidity inherent to German riesling, you have wine that sates the palate on multiple levels. Article content Article content Riesling is a grape that requires cooler climes to allow its trademark acidity to shine through. As such, places like Germany and Austria are ideal, and here, in Canada, the Okanagan Valley and the Niagara Peninsula can produce some excellent examples. In the Okanagan, Tantalus's Old Vine Riesling is a stellar example, winning scads of awards, and, from Ontario, Cave Spring Vineyard is another solid choice. Their ice wine is always a contender for Canada's best. Article content Article content Article content In Germany, the epicentre for benchmark riesling, the key regions include the Mosel, Rheinghau, Rheinhessen, Nahe, and the Pfalz. At one time, the Rheinhessen took a back seat to the others, but now producers like Keller (considered by many to be Germany's best, and arriving in Alberta soon), Wittmann, St. Antony, and Wagner-Stempel have pushed the region to the forefront. The Rheinhessen is also their largest wine region, both in terms of area and volume, although we tend to see more wines from the Mosel in terms of selection in Canada.
ABC News
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Jazz Legends: Pat Metheny
When you think about jazz, it's easy to conjure up images of New York City's bustling streets and smokey bars or the grand processions of the New Orleans' 2nd line parades. Or perhaps you picture Paris or London or a relaxed club in Copacabana. But what about small-town Missouri? Guitarist Pat Metheny grew up in a little town called Lee's Summit - and funnily enough, there was a jazz connection nearby. Just up the road was Kansas City - a town with a fabled jazz history - and Pat and his family would often travel there to see shows. But what really got the youngster's attention was The Beatles. Like a lot of kids in the 1960s, Pat went out and bought an electric guitar - but a few years later he stumbled upon two records that would change his life: Miles Davis's 'Four And More,' and Wes Montgomery's 'Smokin' at the Half Note.' Soon, he was the kid in Lee's Summit transcribing John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, and he's never looked back. In the '70s, Metheny emerged as the leader of a new generation of jazz greats - musicians who embraced the bebop tradition, but were also looking to take improvised music into the future - and Metheny did just that, becoming one of the most celebrated improvising musicians of the last 50 years. Pat himself joined us on this episode, so give it a listen as we chart this master musician's career from the early days with players like Gary Burton to his ECM years and beyond.
The Citizen
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Sam Nhlengethwa moves his art into hotel setting
Nhlengethwa is also deeply invested in young talent. 'I paint what I like,' says Sam Nhlengethwa on his first ever hotel exhibition. More than three decades have passed since Nhlengethwa received the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award in 1994 and he remains as committed as ever to his craft. From the early days of apartheid-era protest art to post-democracy reflections on everyday life, the 70-year-old visual art legend's style and themes have continued to evolve. 'I am an artist through and through. I cannot stop myself from thinking about art. I live art and breathe art. 'I have always worked with different themes. I've never been stuck to one form. Steve Biko said, 'I write what I like.' I can borrow that and say, 'I paint what I like',' Nhlengethwa told The Citizen. Born in 1955 in Payneville, Springs, and raised in Ratanda near Heidelberg, Nhlengethwa is one of South Africa's most celebrated visual artists. His work captures the political shifts and everyday moments of life, often through the lens of jazz culture, urban landscapes, and social commentary. He honed his skills at the Johannesburg Art Foundation under Bill Ainslie in the '80s, before co-founding the Bag Factory Artists' Studios in Newtown. There, he shared studio space with pioneering artists such as David Koloane and Pat Mautloa. Nhlengethwa recently broke new ground with his latest showcase – and it's not in a gallery. For the first time, the artist is exhibiting in a hotel space, with his works on display at the Radisson RED in Rosebank. Though initially hesitant, Nhlengethwa said the results exceeded his expectations. 'I didn't know how the delivery of the project was going to look, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the billboard-style prints and how each space was allocated an artwork that perfectly suited it.' Nhlengethwa said, unlike traditional white-cube galleries, the hotel offers a more dynamic setting where art interacts with daily life. He highlighted that displaying art in accessible, everyday spaces can help spark a wider interest in visual arts. 'Some hotel guests may not usually visit galleries, but now they get to engage with artworks in public spaces like the reception, dining area or bar. 'I hope this experience encourages guests to move from being passive to active appreciators of art – maybe even collectors,' he said. ALSO READ: Youth month: Young creators get a spot on the wall in Joburg Jazz, journeys and mentorship Among the standout pieces in this unconventional exhibition is Nhlengethwa's tapestry of jazz icon Miles Davis, his personal favourite. Sam Nhlengethwa Miles Davis tapestry. Picture: Supplied His admiration for the music legend culminated in a solo exhibition titled Kind of Blue in 2009, paying tribute to Davis as his album of the same name turned 50. 'I have more Miles Davis albums than any other jazz artist. Every time I paint him, it feels like I'm listening to his trumpet,' he said. Over the years, Nhlengethwa's work has travelled the world, with solo and group exhibitions across Europe, the US, Africa and Asia. He has featured at the Venice, Havana, Beijing and Cairo Biennales and is represented in major collections such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, Iziko South African National Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and others. Despite international acclaim, he said he remains deeply invested in developing young talent back home. 'I have been and still am involved in the mentoring of young artists – from high school-equivalent art students to practising artists. As we speak, I am sponsoring an artist's studio at the Bag Factory for a young black female artist in residence. 'This private sponsorship has been running for five years. Sometimes young people come and visit our house, where I have mini-workshops with them.' NOW READ: WATCH: Leleti Khumalo's unexpected encounter with Ramaphosa after international TV award win
The Guardian
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Sly Stone obituary
Between 1968 and 1973 Sly Stone, who has died aged 82, changed the direction of African-American popular music not once but twice. Initially promoting a utopian vision of racial and sexual unity with catchy, imaginative and anthemic songs, he then morphed into a shadowy, stoned figure whose downbeat music mirrored the disenchantment of the early 1970s. It was in 1968 that his band, Sly and the Family Stone, released the single Everyday People, an appeal to unity that topped both the US pop and R&B charts for four weeks in early 1969. Everyday People's catchphrases – 'different strokes for different folks', 'we got to live together' – reflected an optimistic, racially inclusive America and ensured that Sly, with his bright smile and brighter threads, became an iconic figure to many. He and his band had a huge US following, their energy and optimism making them flag bearers for the nascent hippie movement, while appealing to both black and white audiences. In 1969 the band released the adventurous album Stand!, which opened with the title track urging listeners to stand against injustice, and was followed by the dissonant Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey. By now the likes of Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye were studying Sly: he was an icon of black power and arguably the most influential talent in popular music. The band's powerful performance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 – with Sly driving the audience into a frenzy as he chanted I Want to Take You Higher – provided one of the highlights of the Woodstock feature film, and magnified their fame. Then the band relocated to Los Angeles in late 1969, releasing Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), a propulsive funk number that topped the charts in 1970. Sly then began to shut himself away in a Bel Air mansion, consuming huge quantities of cocaine and angel dust (the hallucinogen PCP). The album There's a Riot Goin' On took almost two years to emerge – a lifetime in pop music. It was a Sly Stone solo effort in all but name and its sound was no longer bright and bold but sombre and low-fi, recorded with an early drum machine and a few close friends (the guitarist Bobby Womack, the organist Billy Preston) sitting in and getting high. Sly's record company, Epic, was aghast, fearing it would alienate his audience. But once again Sly proved himself ahead of the pack: Family Affair, the first single to be released from the album, was a US No 1 and has since gone on to become a contemporary music standard. Nothing else on There's a Riot Goin' On possessed the commercial potential of Family Affair, but the album was a murky, compelling insight into Sly's weary but creative mind – and its drug-induced mood of ennui and cynicism appeared to match that of many Americans experiencing a comedown after the excitement and hopes of the 60s. Riot topped the US album charts and effected a profound influence on African-American music. It is now regarded by many as a masterpiece. Born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, Sly grew up in Vallejo, California. His mother, Alpha, sang and played guitar at a local church, and his father, known as KC, served as a deacon. With his siblings, Sly sang in the Stewart Four, a gospel group that played in churches and even cut a 78 record. He taught himself to play the guitar and soon mastered the organ, harmonica and a number of other instruments, becoming lead vocalist of the Viscaynes, a doo wop group with whom he released two singles in 1960. After studying musical theory and composition at Vallejo Junior College in Fairfield, California, he was hired by Autumn Records, producing pop hits for the Beau Brummels and Bobby Freeman (and writing Freeman's C'mon and Swim). Sly maintained a hectic schedule during the mid-60s: leading his own band, the Stoners, and working as a DJ at the KSOL radio station in San Francisco, then at KDIA in Oakland, at both of which he was a pioneer in playing contemporary rock music alongside R&B. He formed Sly and the Family Stone in 1966 with his brother Freddie on guitar, Larry Graham on bass, Cynthia Robinson on trumpet, Jerry Martini on saxophone and Greg Errico on drums. His sister Rose joined on electric piano after the release of the group's little-noticed 1967 debut album, A Whole New Thing. Sly wrote all the material, played guitar and keyboards, and sang, too. Sly and the Family Stone were a radical proposition from the start: a multiracial, mixed sex band who blended elements of contemporary rock with a James Brown-influenced dance groove. Their afros and long hair, and fashionable clothes, stood outside the R&B mainstream, in which matching suits and processed hair remained the norm. With their harmonising, their habit of using different members to sing individual lines, and Graham's popping bass technique that would come to be the signature sound of funk, they had a unique feel. Only three months after their second album, Dance to the Music, which contained their first hit single (a Top 10 success in the US and the UK) with the track of the same name, they released Life, an unremarkable collection of songs that produced minor hits with the title track and M'Lady. A year later came Stand!, and then, as Epic grew frustrated at receiving no new material, a Greatest Hits collection was put out in 1970. It reached No 2 in the US charts and has since gone on to sell more than 5m copies. With Sly working for two years on his next album, Epic's president, Clive Davis, froze his royalties to force him to get a move on. When Davis finally received There's a Riot Goin' On he was shocked by its contents. Although his worries about the album's unsaleability proved to be ill-founded, Davis did, however, have genuine cause for concern in the years after Riot. Sly's drug intake escalated, and he became increasingly paranoid and isolated, regularly refusing to perform at concerts (leading to riots by furious audiences) and surrounding himself with thuggish bodyguards. Their threatening behaviour led Errico and Graham to leave the band and the 1973 album, Fresh, although it contained the Top 20 US single If You Want Me to Stay, was not a great commercial success. The following year the album Small Talk proved a critical and commercial failure, and 90% of tickets for a 1975 concert in New York were left unsold. The Family Stone dissolved and Sly attempted a solo career, but subsequent albums failed to sell. In 1977 Epic released him from his contract. For more than four decades he created little. Rarely performing or recording – his last album, Ain't But the One Way, came out in 1982 – he generally made the news only when arrested for cocaine possession, in court for not having paid tax or fighting with various managers over royalties. A comeback was mooted in 2007 when a European tour was booked, but Sly's reluctance to perform for more than 20 minutes, plus his new band's ineptness, meant the performances were widely ridiculed. After that he existed for many years as little more than a ghost, often reported to be living in his van, still a superstar in his own mind. In 2023 his autobiography Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again), written with Ben Greenman, was published and Stone gave interviews in which he claimed to be free of his drug addictions. Seemingly, his daughter Sylvette and a new manager, Arlene Hirschkowitz, had combined their efforts to ensure drug dealers no longer had access to Stone. A feature documentary, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), directed by the musician Questlove, was released in 2024. The popularity of the music he created between 1968 and 1973 had never faded – Prince, D'Angelo and Lenny Kravitz were among the many musicians influenced by him. Indeed, the US critic Joel Selvin wrote that 'There are two types of black music: before Sly Stone and after Sly Stone.' He is survived by three children: Sylvester, from his marriage to Kathy Silva, which ended in divorce; Sylvette, from a relationship with his fellow band member Robinson, and Novena, from another relationship. Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart), musician, born 15 March 1943; died 9 June 2025
