As Amadou & Mariam, he and his wife were improbable pop stars on two counts. Their style was venturesome and eclectic, and they were blind virtuosos.Amadou Bagayoko, a Malian guitarist and composer who with his wife, the singer Mariam Doumbia, formed Amadou & Mariam, inventing a broadly accessible sound that made fans of people worldwide who otherwise knew little about music from Africa, died on Friday in Bamako, Mali’s capital. He was 70.His death was announced by the Malian government, which did not provide a cause. He and Ms. Doumbia lived in Bamako.In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Amadou & Mariam was regularly described as the new century’s most successful African musical act.Mr. Bagayoko, who grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, called their sound “Afro-rock,” and the group regularly combined his winding guitar solos with, for example, the pounding of a West African djembe drum.Yet the group’s music also consistently evolved. Their breakout hit, the 2005 album “Dimanche à Bamako,” had chatty spoken asides, sirens, the hubbub of crowds — city sounds turned into melodies. Their 2008 album “Welcome to Mali,” conversely, embraced an electronic style of funk, opening with a song, “Sabali,” featuring Damon Albarn of the arty hip-hop group Gorillaz.What was consistent was a sweet, graceful sound that still had the power to build to crescendos, with Ms. Doumbia’s alto achieving clear, pleasant resonance over a rich orchestration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Following the world’s twee-est band down the Pacific Coast after a divorce and the death of a parent.May 31, 2022, Seattle, Paramount TheaterMy favorite band is on the road and I’m putting on a mask and going with them. I’ve been a little beaten up by the world the last couple years — maybe the same amount as anyone, but that’s plenty. I need to get out. Like the saddest, oldest groupie in the world, I’m following the Scottish indie band Belle and Sebastian down the west coast of America.I’m starting out in Seattle, where I live. My grown children come along and this feels just right, for the band’s presence in my life maps directly onto my motherhood. I discovered them when my first child was a baby. The voice of the lead singer, Stuart Murdoch, accompanied me over the next two decades, ringing out as I drove the school run in my VW van (little kids), then my Prius (medium-size kids), then a sensible Mazda (teenagers).Or should I say “lisping out.” If you know anything about Belle and Sebastian, you know they are twee and also, sometimes, the singer lisps. That’s what’ll be on their grave: TWEE LISPERS. As a person who grew up suckling at the bitter teat of punk rock, I didn’t see myself ending up here. But Belle and Sebastian has been the great musical love of my adulthood, and as the years slip by, it’s my belief that I am lucky to love anything at all. I don’t exactly understand why I love them, but I do.I’ve seen them so many times that I know exactly where to stand: at the rail, stage right, because that’s the direction Stuart faces when he plays piano.At the Paramount, the kids and I line up, stage right, and the band files out. There are so many of them: seven in the band, plus the few local musicians they add at each stop. They sound fantastic, but there are off-kilter notes: Sarah Martin, the violinist, is out with Covid. And they don’t do their traditional rave-up dance party to “The Boy With the Arab Strap,” when the audience jumps onstage with them. They’re all here, my secret friends, my superheroes, but I feel slightly cut off from the experience. My eyes dart around the crowded theater, looking for maskless folks who might be exposing me and my kids to the virus.I’m focused on my own fear, my own story. I am here, but not quite here.June 1, 2022, Portland, Roseland TheaterBarreling down I-5 the next morning, I have some time to reflect, not necessarily a welcome state of affairs. Reflection is a young woman’s game — it tends to go better when you don’t have quite so much to reflect about. And I have plenty: In the last two years, my very long marriage has ended (amicably, but still), I’ve sold the family home, I’ve nursed my beloved father to his death in the midst of a Covid-riddled hospital. These are the things I think about, or try not to think about, as I drive the familiar freeway.In Portland, I’m meeting up with my boyfriend — such a strange word for me, a person who was married for 20-plus years. He’s a music writer who has occasionally mocked me about my B & S love. He’s game to go to some shows, but I’m a little worried he might not get it, whatever it is. That indefinable thing that makes me love this band.Roseland is hot and crammed with all kinds of people — young queer couples, middle-aged former punks, families with little kids. My boyfriend angles us to a spot stage left, and I’m too embarrassed by my trainspotter-ish tendencies to insist that we move to the other side. I fall into conversation with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts, the kind of middle-aged white men who show their band love by accruing details about set lists and venues.Sarah is back! The venue is tiny. Stuart is right there. I start to feel the miracle of seeing a band you love — they have flown out of your car speaker or your earbuds and are now made flesh before your eyes. Stuart sits on the edge of the stage and slings one leg over the other. He looks like a very relaxed, debonair lamb. He extemporizes verses to “Piazza, New York Catcher.” A bald man leans his bulk on me. Two wild-haired young people in front of us twine their arms around each other’s necks. We all hold our breath and can’t believe our luck.When we walk out into the hot night, my boyfriend pulls his mask down and says, “I loved that” with great force.June 3, 2022, Oakland, Fox TheaterThe drive to Oakland passes in a dream of sunshine and grubby rest areas and Starbucks. This is the road trip that has been eluding me since the pandemic started. It turns out I only need a single day of being, as Gram Parsons sang, out with the truckers and the kickers, and I am starting to feel more human. My boyfriend, with the fervor of the newly converted and the completist tendencies unique to music writers, Spotifies his way through the Belle and Sebastian catalog as we drive.At the Fox, in downtown Oakland, I take my spot at the rail. The band fills the stage and the evening unfurls its magic. There’s a mysterious exchange between band and audience at their best shows; their very multitudinousness makes you feel somehow like you’re part of their project. All these other people are in the band, why not you? I forget my fears, I forget to be annoyed by the other audience members, or afraid of them. I lose myself in the sea of fans.When we walk outside, people line the sidewalks, dancing and singing. I had forgotten what it was like to be “out among ‘em,” as my granny used to say. It feels like the world has erupted with joy.The next day we go to the de Young to see a show of Alice Neel paintings. Neel burst into creative flower in midlife. In the 1970s her work became vibrant, celebratory, wicked, funny, communal. Her paintings are crowded with unexpected people wearing violet scarves and robin egg blue eye makeup. I walk around and around the galleries, taking in the spectacle of unending difference. “People Come First,” the show is called.And then I see it, the why of my love: Belle and Sebastian people my world. Their songs are filled with louche, ungovernable characters: the lazy painter Jane, who gets a dose of thrush from licking railings; Judy, who fantasizes about horses; Sukie, who likes to hang out in the graveyard; Hillary and Anthony, who kill themselves because they are bored and misunderstood; Chelsea and Lisa, who find solace in each other’s arms.My own world, over the last few years, has grown smaller and harder. Between divorce and death and quarantine, my soul has shrunk like a wool sweater in a washing machine. Even as I’ve walked alone through my difficulties, trying to solve every problem through sheer force of my solitary will, Belle and Sebastian have kept me company — with the characters they’ve invented, and with the performance of collaboration that defines the band. “We’re four boys in our corduroys,” one of their oldest tunes goes, “we’re not terrific, but we’re competent.” Their bleak cheerfulness has made them my boon companions, even when I was trying my hardest to do everything myself, when I was beginning to see other people as the enemy. They remind me that people come first.We have tickets to shows in Southern California but we’ll abandon the tour and stop here in San Francisco for a while. We’ve gotten what we came for. And we’re awfully old to be driving that far.Episode is a weekly column exploring a moment in a writer’s life. Claire Dederer is the author of “Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning” and “Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses.” More

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The Foo Fighters founder and the Run The Jewels rapper have been added to the advisory board of National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) that support artists hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

Feb 12, 2021
AceShowbiz – Dave Grohl, Run The Jewels rapper Killer Mike, and Quincy Jones have joined forces to lead a new advisory board to help support U.S. artists hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Independent Venue Association’s leaders will share knowledge and expertise to help members navigate through the remainder of the pandemic.
NIVA formed in March, 2020, shortly after the coronavirus crisis shuttered venues and forced the cancellation of concerts and festivals.

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“When the pandemic first hit it was clear the independent live music community would need to come together and rally for relief,” Boris Patronoff, Chair of the NIVA Advisory Board, said in a statement. “Doing just that, a dedicated group of promoters set out to form NIVA and we proudly stepped up to support them. The accomplishments to date have been remarkable and I’m thrilled to serve what I believe will be an important organization for years to come.”
Over 800 venues have since banded together to join the coalition, which has spearheaded the #SaveOurStages campaign.
In other news, Dave addressed Foo Fighters Grohl being nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fam during an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show”. “I thought maybe if I give someone a cassette and they think it’s a band, then they’ll be surprised when they find out that it’s just one person, and that it was me,” he said. “And, you know, coming out of Nirvana, it was like, I didn’t want to say, ‘Hey! I’ve got a solo project,’ so I called it Foo Fighters.”

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Part of the soundtrack to a biopic directed by Shaka King and starring Daniel Kaluuya, ‘What It Feels Like’ is scheduled to be released in full on February 12.

Feb 10, 2021
AceShowbiz – Hours after it was announced, Jay-Z and Nipsey Hussle’s highly-anticipated collaboration has been previewed in a trailer for “Judas and the Black Messiah”. Titled “What It Feels Like”, it plays over the scenes of the biographical pic starring Daniel Kaluuya.
“And this is what it feels like,” the late Nipsey spits his repeated lines in the chorus. He continues, “Look, the only reason I survive ’cause a n***a is special, first/ You get successful, then it get stressful, thirst/ N***as gon’ test you, see what your texture’s worth/ Diamonds and pipes, wonder when pressure burst.”
Jay-Z raps in the next verse, “I arrived on the day Fred Hampton got mur-hold up/ Assassinated just to clarify further. Black stones on my neck, y’all can’t kill Christ/ Black Messiah is what I feel like/ S**t ain’t gon’ stop till y’all spill blood/ We gon’ turn up even more since y’all killed cuz’.”

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“What It Feels Like” is included on the soundtrack to “Judas and the Black Messiah”, which is set to arrive on Friday, February 12. The star-studded tracklist features Nas, Rakim, A$AP Rocky, Lil Durk, Black Thought, Polo G, G Herbo (Lil Herb) and Hit-Boy, who executive produced the album.
“What It Feels Like” marks Jay and Nipsey’s first collaboration, though they had built friendship years before the latter’s passing, when the “4:44” rapper co-signed the “Racks in the Middle” spitter’s #Proud2Pay movement.
Jay was last featured in a song as a performer in 2018’s “Apes**t”, his latest collaboration with his wife Beyonce Knowles, as well as in DJ Khaled’s “Top Off”, which was also released in the same year. He has recorded for Pharrell Williams’ song “Entrepreneur”, but the song is yet to be unleashed.
As for Nipsey, his song “Racks in the Middle” featuring Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy was released posthumously in 2019 and received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance at the 62nd Grammy Awards. He also won Best Rap/Sung Performance for another song, “Higher”, at the same event.

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Mick Jagger and his rocker bandmates have released a comeback single called ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ which marks their rock band’s first original song since 2012.
Apr 24, 2020
AceShowbiz – The Rolling Stones have thrilled fans by releasing their first new track in over seven years.
“Living in a Ghost Town” was written during the band’s recent recording sessions and Mick Jagger and his bandmates completed it in lockdown due to the coronavirus.
It’s the group’s first original tune since 2012’s “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot”, which both appeared on greatest hits album “GRRR!”.
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“The Stones were in the studio recording some new material before the lockdown and there was one song we thought would resonate through the times that we’re living in right now…,” Jagger explains. “I hope you like it.”
Bandmate Keith Richards adds, “So, let’s cut a long story short. We cut this track well over a year ago in L.A. for part of a new album, an ongoing thing, and then s**t hit the fan. Mick and I decided this one really needed to go to work right now and so here you have it. Stay safe!”
The new release comes days after the Stones performed “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” as part of Global Citizen’s “One World: Together at Home” virtual COVID-19 relief concert last weekend.

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