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      Screamin’ Scott Simon, Longtime Sha Na Na Keyboardist, Dies at 75

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      A mainstay of the rock ’n’ roll nostalgia band, he also wrote the lyrics to “Sandy,” a song heard in the hit film “Grease.”Screamin’ Scott Simon, who as the dynamic keyboardist for the rock ’n’ roll revival act Sha Na Na regularly paid homage to Jerry Lee Lewis with electrifying versions of “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” — and who also played a vital behind-the-scenes role as the band’s managing partner — died on Sept. 5 in Ojai, Calif. He was 75.His daughter Nina Simon said he died of sinus cancer while in hospice care.Mr. Simon joined Sha Na Na in 1970, a year after the group was formed, and stayed until the group’s final performance, shortly before the coronavirus lockdown in 2020.As both a pianist and a singer, he brought his own theatricality to a group dedicated to turning doo-wop and early rock ’n’ roll songs into dramatic versions of the originals.Wearing brightly colored shirts festooned with images of piano keys and musical notes, he played the piano on “Great Balls of Fire” partly from his knees, sometimes from his bench and occasionally with his feet. He sang the Bobby Darin hit “Splish Splash” in a bathtub, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, boxer shorts and a towel while plinking a toy piano.Mr. Simon (standing, second from left) with the other members of Sha Na Na in an undated publicity photo. He joined the band in 1970 and remained for 50 years.via PhotofestDuring the group’s accelerated version of Danny and the Juniors’ “At the Hop,” he never stopped jumping or doing the twist as he sang.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

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      Sean Combs’s Legal Team Takes His Case to TikTok

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      As the music mogul faces civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct, one of his lawyers is defending him — in the court of social media.The typical playbook for a defense lawyer representing a celebrity facing damaging accusations often features a sharply worded denial, promises to eventually reveal all at trial, and perhaps a strategically placed tabloid pushback story.But lawyers defending the music mogul Sean Combs against a cascade of civil sexual misconduct claims have opened up a new strategic front: TikTok.On Tuesday, the singer Dawn Richard filed a new lawsuit against Mr. Combs, accusing him of threatening and groping her. Mr. Combs’s representatives responded with a somewhat traditional statement that called the lawsuit a “series of false claims” brought “in the hopes of trying to get a payday.”Then Teny Geragos hit TikTok. “All right, here we go again, Diddy sued by a former bandmate; I’m his lawyer and here’s why you should care,” Ms. Geragos, a member of the Combs defense team, said in a TikTok posted on Wednesday.Employing a popular format in which a creator speaks in front of various screenshots that help illustrate a point, Ms. Geragos walked viewers through several examples of Ms. Richard, who performed with the groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, expressing support for Mr. Combs. She pointed — literally — to friendly text messages between the plaintiff and defendant in 2020 discussing a possible future collaboration and played a clip from a video interview in which Ms. Richard spoke positively about her time working with Mr. Combs. One of the mogul’s sons, Justin Combs, shared the video to his Instagram.“We want to be able to respond to allegations where people are forming opinions,” Ms. Geragos said in an interview, noting that she is in her 30s and has grown up around social media. “I see where all of the misinformation spreads. I see it happening on people’s phones and in short one-minute clips.”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

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      A Soprano Who Despises Encores Interrupts Her Co-Star’s

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      Angela Gheorghiu drew criticism after she stormed onstage to stop a tenor’s encore during a performance of “Tosca” in Seoul.It was the third act of Puccini’s “Tosca” at a theater in Seoul, and the South Korean tenor Alfred Kim, responding to enthusiastic applause, was singing a rare encore of “E lucevan le stelle,” one of the opera’s most beloved arias.Then the unexpected happened: The celebrated soprano Angela Gheorghiu, who was singing the title role in a performance on Sunday, stormed onstage and demanded that he stop, according to local media reports and accounts by audience members.“Excuse me,” she said, signaling to the orchestra to pause.When the orchestra continued playing, she also refused to stop. “It’s a performance; it’s not a recital,” Gheorghiu said. “Respect the audience. Respect me.”Gheorghiu, 59, a diva of the old school known for her preternatural voice and strong-willed demeanor, faced an immediate backlash.She initially did not appear for a curtain call. But when she eventually emerged, she was booed, blowing a kiss as she exited the stage after only a few seconds. She was widely denounced by commentators and fans in South Korea. And the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, where the performance took place, demanded an apology.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

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      Jon Bon Jovi Helps Woman Off Ledge of Nashville Bridge

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      The singer, who was filming a music video nearby, helped coax a woman to safety in Nashville.Jon Bon Jovi helped talk a woman off the ledge of a bridge in Nashville earlier this week, the police said.Mr. Bon Jovi was filming a music video on the bridge just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday for “The People’s House,” a song from his band’s new album “Forever.”In a video released by the police, Mr. Bon Jovi and another person, whom other news outlets have identified as a production assistant, slowly approach the woman, who is on the edge of the bridge, facing outward, on the far side of a railing. They are seen speaking to her for a minute or so, before she turns around to face them, and they lift her over the railing to safety.Mr. Bon Jovi then hugs the woman and the three walk together along the bridge, attended by law enforcement officials. The woman was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the police told CNN.“A shout out to Jon Bon Jovi and his team for helping a woman in Nashville on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge Tuesday night,” the police said on social media. “Bon Jovi helped persuade her to come off the ledge over the Cumberland River to safety.”John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge is in the center of Nashville, not far from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Formerly the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge, it was renamed in 2014 for John Seigenthaler, a journalist who was an editor of The Tennessean and who himself prevented a man from jumping off the bridge in 1954.The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in Nashville.Steve Luciano/Associated PressThe Nashville police did not immediately respond to a request for information on the incident.A publicist for Mr. Bon Jovi said he would not be commenting on the incident out of respect for the woman’s privacy. In addition to releasing a new album this year, Mr. Bon Jovi was also the subject of a new documentary series that aired in April on Hulu, “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.” He was in the news this summer when his mother, Carol Bongiovi, died at 83.If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States. More

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      Michael Kiwanuka Makes the Simple Profound on ‘Small Changes’

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      “A song can make you hear or understand things that you don’t know how to say,” the English singer and songwriter Michael Kiwanuka said. “I think of songs as ways to communicate without conversation.”For more than a decade, Kiwanuka, 37, has been creating songs that speak directly and soulfully. Most often, he uses just a handful of chords and succinct, open-ended lyrics. But his words often turn into incantations over lush, organic grooves that reach back to vintage R&B, psychedelia and trip-hop. The songs offer questions and life lessons, mingling the personal and the political, balancing sorrow and solace.“Music heals me,” Kiwanuka said in a video interview from his home in England. “So that’s what I try and do.”Kiwanuka’s fourth studio album, “Small Changes,” is due in November, while in September and October he will be touring North America as a co-headliner with Brittany Howard, including an Oct. 2 stop at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y.“I’m amazed by his songwriting; I think it’s classic,” Howard said from her home in Nashville. “There’s an art form to being vulnerable and telling your story, but also keeping it simple so that other people can relate to it,” she added. “The mood he’s creating, the stories he’s telling — it feels like I’m being let in on a little secret or something, like a close friend of mine is telling me their life.”Kiwanuka, whose parents are from Uganda, was born and grew up in London, often feeling like an outsider. “Maybe it’s an immigrant thing — you’re always trying to discover yourself,” he said.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

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      MTV Video Music Awards: 7 Memorable Moments

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      Taylor Swift set a record and Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Katy Perry delivered noteworthy performances as the show struck a balance between past and present.Wednesday night’s MTV Video Music Awards marked the show’s 40th anniversary, and much of the festivities strived for déjà vu by honoring memorable performances and moments from shows past. Montages of “V.M.A. flashbacks” like Michael Jackson heartily kissing Lisa Marie Presley, Madonna writhing through “Like a Virgin,” and Eminem storming the building with a regiment of bleached look-alikes peppered the telecast.This year’s show paid homage to those events too, sometimes explicitly. Eminem, for instance, opened the show performing his latest single, “Houdini,” alongside an army costumed to look like him, with dark beards underneath blond wigs that referenced the old days. The host Megan Thee Stallion donned an outfit that nodded to the silky green top Britney Spears wore in 2001 to perform “I’m a Slave 4 U,” and sported a yellow boa constrictor to boot — though Megan’s genuine discomfort with the creature worked to comedic effect.The V.M.A.s are forever looking to inaugurate new stars to take up the mantle of the classic music-video era icons. This year’s class, including Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Tyla and Rauw Alejandro stood out amid the throwback references. Katy Perry bridged the gap between eras, and Taylor Swift did what she does best at award shows — dance zealously to other artists and collect hardware. Here are the highlights.Shawn Mendes returned to the stage with new music.The last time Shawn Mendes was on the V.M.A. stage, it was 2021 and he was performing “Summer of Love” with Tainy. He’d last released an album, “Wonder,” in 2020 but later postponed a 2022 tour to focus on his mental health.Wednesday Mendes returned to the stage to perform an acoustic and stripped-down new single, “Nobody Knows,” from his upcoming album “Shawn,” expected to release in October. Fans on social media speculated that the song contained a reference to his ex-girlfriend and fellow V.M.A. performer, Camila Cabello. In the song, Mendes sings, “When the bottle is open, anything can happen/flying too close to the sun”; Cabello’s Instagram bio reads, “long, thick black hair turned white from flying too close to the sun.” — SHIVANI GONZALEZWe 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

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      5 Essential Frankie Beverly and Maze Songs, Including ‘Before I Let Go’

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      The singer, who died on Tuesday at 77, had a smooth, sunny delivery that turned at least one track into a lasting anthem of Black celebrations.The song is a call to action from its opening notes. There’s only a brief stomping riff before Frankie Beverly, the lead singer and songwriter of the soul and funk band Maze, intones “woah-ohhh.” By the time he actually gets to the song’s opening lyrics, “You make me happy,” audiences at barbecues, family reunions, weddings, block parties and musical festivals know they should already be on the dance floor.“Before I Let Go” peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s R&B chart after its release in 1981, on the band’s fifth album. But in the more than four decades since, the song became a signature for the group and for Beverly, whose warm but impassioned vocals ignite the track and elevate it to a communal release, particularly at Black gatherings.Questlove, during a sit-down in March with Beverly for his podcast, called the song “the national anthem of life,” in part for its ubiquity in Black celebrations. Invoking the nostalgia of home and togetherness through its ebullience and Beverly’s bellowing delivery, the song is often an end-of-the-night anthem: Beverly and Maze used it as a set-ender and the band for many years closed the annual Essence Festival with the jam.Clint Smith, the New York Times best-selling author, poet and journalist, described the energy Mr. Beverly is able to alchemize with his music in a poem from 2015 titled “When Maze and Frankie Beverly Come On in my House.”“A reminder of the playful manifestations of love, how the harmony of guitar & trumpet & bass & sweat & Frankie’s voice can create the sort of levity that ensures love lasts long after the song has stopped,” Mr. Smith wrote.Beyoncé’s cover of “Before I Let Go,” from her 2019 live album “Homecoming,” brought the song to new listeners, and her performance — adding calls to new dance moves for TikTok and Instagram audiences — reveled in its sheer delight.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

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      Dave Grohl’s Mystery Baby Offers a Lesson in Crisis Communication

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      The timing and content of Dave Grohl’s admission that he had a child outside his marriage was complimented for addressing the issue and relying on short memories.Dave Grohl — the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder — is as close as America gets to a rock ’n’ roll father figure: funny and family-oriented, beloved by his fans and his fellow musicians and seemingly as steady as the drumbeats that made him famous. His nickname? “The nicest dude in rock.”On Tuesday, however, that reputation took a hit when Mr. Grohl revealed that he was also paternal in a very real, and decidedly less flattering way, with the announcement of the birth of a daughter outside his marriage.“I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her,” the musician posted on Instagram, adding that he loved his wife and their children. “I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.”The decision by Mr. Grohl to make a pre-emptive announcement may well have been an attempt to control the narrative, something that crisis communications experts said was savvy.“I thought it was clean, smart, simple,” said Melissa Nathan, the chief executive of The Agency Group PR, which specializes in “reputation management.”Molly McPherson, a crisis communications strategist, echoed that sentiment, saying that Mr. Grohl’s post was probably strategically timed, coming on the same day as the highly anticipated debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump.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