Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History Leon Russell Photo by Jim Roup; Album covers Courtesy of UMe

Leon Russell, (April 2, 1942-November 13, 2016), the former Claude Russell Bridges, was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, and left the physical world dying of a heart attack in Nashville Tennessee.

   Russell is the subject of a new biography. Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History, from author and musician Bill Janovitz, published March 14, 2023, via Hachette Books.

   The 592-page title is described in the book announcement as “the definitive biography of the legendary musician, composer and performer, a profound influence on countless artists, including George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Willie Nelson.

   “Leon Russell is an icon, but in many ways, he is also an underappreciated artist. A Zelig figure for a number of decades, he is spoken of in tones, reserved not just for the most talented musicians, but also the most complex and fascinating.

    “Russell’s career is like a roadmap of American music, yet he worked integrally with English rock royalty like Beatles and the Stones. He played piano on records by such giants as Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and Phil Spector, and on hundreds of classic songs with major recording artists. Russell inspired Elton John’s career, and Elton inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

    “In his prime, Russell filled stadiums on solo tours, and was an organizer/performer of both Joe Cocker’s revolutionary Mad Dogs and Englishmen 1970 tour and George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Russell founded Shelter Records in 1969 with producer Denny Cordell, establishing offices and studios in Hollywood and eventually Tulsa, fostering wild and free atmospheres for musicians to live and work together.  

   “The book dives deeps and explores the personal side of Russell, who struggled with his demons, including substance abuse, severe depression, and a crippling stage fright that wreaked havoc on his psyche over the long haul.”  

   The litany of collaborators and beneficiaries of the creative worlds Russell inhabited were recording artists such as Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge, Dave Mason, Bob Dylan, Freddie King, J.J. Cale, Jim Keltner, Jimmy Karstein, Gene Clark, Marc Benno, Gary Lewis, the Wailers, Kim Fowley, Claudia Linnear, Don Nix, Mud Crutch, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the Dwight Twilley Band, Gary Busey, Phoebe Snow, Bonnie Raitt, and the Gap Band. 

    As a bandleader, Russell was an early proponent of culturally diverse groups.

For over a half a century I’ve been dialoging with a handful of musicians, writers, deejays, record executives and songwriters about Mr. Russell. 

    In early 1960, future guitarist of the Everly Brothers (1961-1963) Don Peake, and guitarist Elliot Ingber, a 1965 founding member of the Mothers of Invention, were playing at the Sea Witch club and Pandora’s Box. Peake and songwriter/record producer Kim Fowley encountered “Claude” [Leon] and a pal from Oklahoma, [either Chuck Blackwell or Johnny Williams]. 

“Claude had a soft southern accent,” recounted Peake in a February 2023 interview we conducted.  

  “Kim was always deep in the trenches checking out talent. We went to an Italian restaurant on Pico Blvd. called Mama’s, owned by the mother of the great singer, Timi Yuro, who was on Liberty Records. In 1961 she had a big hit single, ‘The Hurt.’ Later, in 1962, I really got to know Claude at a Phil Spector session at Gold Star studios.” 

   In LEON RUSSELL: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History (Hachette Books; 3/14/23; $31; ISBN: 9780306924774), shines the spotlight on one of the most important music makers of the twentieth century.

   A long out-of-print collection of intimate, solo piano and vocal recordings by legendary musician, composer, and performer Leon Russell is being reissued. Signature Songs, originally released in 2001, will be available on CD and pressed for the very first time on vinyl, via Dark Horse Records on March 17, 2023.

    Signature Songs includes stripped-down and unique takes on songs from across Russell’s remarkable canon, from the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame classic, “A Song for You,” to his own classic hits, “Hummingbird,” “Delta Lady,” “Tight Rope,” “Stranger In a Strange Land,” “This Masquerade,” “Out In The Woods," and “Lady Blue.”

    When Elton John heard the news about Russell’s physical departure, he immediately took to Twitter to comment on his musical hero.

    “My darling Leon Russell passed away last night. He was a mentor, inspiration and so kind to me. Thank God we caught up with each other and made The Union. He got his reputation back and felt fulfilled. I loved him and always will.”  #LeonRussell #RIP #TheHandsOfAngels.  

     For Leon Russell fans, I recommend seeking out a copy of a live album from the Omnivore Entertainment Group distributed earlier this century. Nine selections from a 1973 Russell concert at the Budokhan in Japan, coupled with bonus tracks added to the CD release from a memorable 1971 show from Houston, Texas.

   Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972.   Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In2021 they wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble. Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters.

Kubernik’s writings are in several book anthologies. Most notably, The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats and Drinking With Bukowski. Harvey wrote the liner notes to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.  

    During 2006 Harvey spoke at the special hearings initiated by The Library of Congress held in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 Harvey Kubernik appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, as part of their Distinguished Speakers Series.

   In December 2021, Harvey Kubernik was interviewed and served as a consultant on the Ron Chapman-directed Revival69: The Concert That Rocked The World about the 1969 festival held in Toronto, Canada featuring the debut of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band. Chapman interviewed Klaus Voorman, Shep Gordon, Alice Cooper, Robby Krieger, Danny Serrafine, promoter John Brower, Rodney Bingenheimer, and Geddy Lee of Rush. Pennebaker/Hegedus Films is executive producer.  The movie is an official 2023 SWSW selection in Austin, Texas and screened March 12th and 16th at the Zach Theatre.    

   In 2023, Harvey, photographer Henry Diltz and authors Eddie Fiegel, Barney Hoskyns and Chris Campion were filmed by French director France Swimberge for her Mamas & Papas documentary scheduled for the European arts television channel, Arte. Kubernik is serving as consultant.   

W. A. Production Loop Engine WA Production presents LOOP ENGINE, the next generation of cutting-edge multi-voice loop tools. This revolutionary plugin unlocks a new standard for MIDI generation by drawing... Read More

Vigilante hackers fix Black Ops III, and other TC newsWelcome back to the TechCrunch Podcast, where I’m standing in for Darrell while he’s honeymooning with his lady love. This week, I sat down with Amanda Silberling and Mary Ann Azevedo to talk through some of their interesting stories.
You can listen below or subscribe in iTunes or Spotify to get new episodes delivered weekly on Fridays!

News articles from the episode: 

Hack the planet: Lorenzo writes a great story about how gamers are fixing a video game “taken over” by hackers
Hello, robot: Aisha reports that Snapchat launched an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology
Broken dishes: Carly reports how Dish was hit by a multiday outage after a reported cyberattack

… and the longer interviews: 

Musk the Uninclusive: Amanda takes a look at Senator Markey’s letter that calls on Elon Musk to reinstate Twitter’s accessibility team
From stocks to building blocks: Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo explore Amazon’s new employee perk that lets employees use their stock to finance home purchases

One more thing… 
Love podcasts? Don’t miss our mini feature series Inside Startup Battlefield, where we go behind the scenes to learn more about what it’s like to participate in the most famous startup pitch competition ever: TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield!

Introducing the Inside Startup Battlefield podcast

Vigilante hackers fix Black Ops III, and other TC news by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

SoundsDivine Wonky Tapes Vol.2 'Wonky Tapes Vol.2' features 40 patches for the Sequential Prophet 5/10. This is the 2nd in a series of 3 soundsets for the Prophet 5/10, inspired by dusty old synthesizer sounds... Read More

Space & Time bundle by GPU Audio GPU Audio have released new delay and reverb effects in their free Beta Suite series of GPU-powered PC audio plug-ins.

From Universal’s billions to Deezer’s new Board Director… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories on MBW from the past seven days
Source

Milk & Honey signs trio of new clients, all songwriter/producers behind chart hits: JHart, The Elements, and Alexis KesselmanM&H founder, Lucas Keller, calls JHart "one of the greatest songwriters and voices in the business"
Source

‘Who Gives A Sh!t About Indie Music?’ SXSW panel [Mark Your Calendar]Bandsintown managing partner and founder Fabrice Sergent will host “Who Gives A Sh!t About Indie Music?,” a panel at SXSW on Thursday, March 16, to explore the current state and. Continue reading
The post ‘Who Gives A Sh!t About Indie Music?’ SXSW panel [Mark Your Calendar] appeared first on Hypebot.

Michael Brandvold on Spotify DJ: It ‘needs to do more’Last week Spotify launched DJ, an AI-voiced personalized stream, and we asked some industry veterans to share their initial impressions. Your Morning Coffee’s Jay Gilbert said that it “accurately curated. Continue reading
The post Michael Brandvold on Spotify DJ: It ‘needs to do more’ appeared first on Hypebot.

How musicians can sell NFTs using Public Pressure: NO CRYPTO REQUIREDNFTs have ‘revolutionized’ the music industry as quickly as its boosters promised. But they still have an important role to play, and Brian Hazard found a service that helps make. Continue reading
The post How musicians can sell NFTs using Public Pressure: NO CRYPTO REQUIRED appeared first on Hypebot.

Get Grater Light From Yum Audio FREE For A Limited Time
Yum Audio offers the Grater Light (€55 value) compressor as a FREE download for a limited time. I have honestly and truly lost track of how many compressors there are in my plugin folder. That said, there’s always space for another dynamics processor. Grater Light from Yum Audio isn’t your traditional sort of compressor. What [...]
View post: Get Grater Light From Yum Audio FREE For A Limited Time

Rap/Hip-Hop
Nascar (with parczy) by Verti https://explore.publme.com/album/90/nascar-with-parczy

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
Nascar (with parczy)
Main artist name:
Verti,parczy
Release date:
2nd Mar, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/Nascarwithparczy
#newmusic #Release #Music #indie #indepedent #artist

Roger Linn Design LinnStrumentalists series The LinnStrumentalists Volume 3 showcases the capabilities of Roger Linn Design's unique expressive MIDI controllers.