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Nash - one of the United States´ best-known contemporary jazz performers, will lead a project called Jazz X. He and several Cuban musicians will compose new works inspired by visual art in Cuba´s National Museum of Fine Arts, then present them together to the public in several sessions. Well-known Cuban musicians Alejandro Falcón, Arnulfo Guerra y Ruy López Nussa will perform alongside Nash. The project, Nash said, brings together musicians from the two countries, and art of different forms, in a fusion of creativity across cultures and mediums. The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba has for decades restricted most travel and official collaboration between the two countries.

☆ Mourners gather at Graceland for Lisa Marie Presley memorial
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A sign is seen as music fans pay their respect in memory of singer Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the "King of Rock 'n' Roll," Elvis Presley, outside of Graceland, at her birthplace in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. January 13, 2023. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer FochtJan 22 (Reuters) - Mourners were heading to Graceland on Sunday morning to pay their respects to singer Lisa Marie Presley at the Memphis, Tennessee, mansion she inherited from her father, rock legend Elvis Presley. Presley died on Jan. 12 at the age of 54. Elvis Presley and other members of his family are buried at Graceland's Meditation Garden. After the burial, a public memorial service is scheduled to take place on the front lawn of Graceland at 9 a.m. CST (1500 GMT), followed by a procession past Lisa Marie Presley's grave.

☆ Billy Strings Found a Life Raft in Music
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Alan Paul | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Billy Strings, 30, is one of the fastest-rising touring acts in American music. Mr. Strings’s love of high-flying, risk-taking improvisation has endeared him to fans of jam bands like Phish and let him expand far beyond the bluegrass world where he started. Though he built his reputation on magnetic live performances, Mr. Strings’s career skyrocketed during the Covid pandemic, when touring was shut down. He started streaming performances from his home, then moved on to broadcasting from empty clubs, culminating in six nights at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y. “It felt like the Twilight Zone,” says Mr. Strings. “Live music is a conversation between the audience and the performer, but there was nobody talking back to us, and it honestly felt kind of pitiful.”

“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” suffers from thin dialogue and predictability — dull trappings intrinsic to biopics. Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston in "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." To wit: Whitney Houston was a Black woman — ate Black, slept Black, lived Black, cried Black, walked Black and died Black. The most peculiar aspect of this criticism is the fact that nearly all American music is Black music. While Houston has mostly elided criticism that she wasn’t Black enough or didn’t make Black music, the spirit of this indictment lives on today.

☆ Will 'Emancipation' set Will Smith free from 'the slap?'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Three things to watch‘Emancipation’Will Smith (center) in a scene from "Emancipation." Smith has been banned from attending the Oscars for the next decade, but he is still eligible for nominations. ‘Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?’Idina Menzel attends the American Music Awards on November 20, 2016 in Los Angeles. A Boogie wit da Hoodie performs at the Rolling Loud Los Angeles festival on December 15, 2019 in Los Angeles. Something to sip onNick Cannon attends an event at the GRAMMY Museum on June 25 in Los Angeles.

☆ T.O.P, DJ Steve Aoki among crew for Japanese billionaire’s SpaceX trip to moon
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Kriti Gandhi | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Friday named South Korean rapper T.O.P and DJ Steve Aoki among the eight artists and entertainers who will join him on a private SpaceX trip around the moon as early as next year. It follows Maezawa’s 12-day trip to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last year. It still hasn’t even sunk in yet — and I’ve known for quite awhile,” Dodd said in a video posted after the announcement. U.S. Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu will be backup crew members for the trip, which has been years in the making. The eight-day mission aboard SpaceX’s Starship vehicle includes three days circling the moon, coming within about 125 miles of the surface.

☆ Taylor Swift signs on to direct a movie for Disney as she campaigns for short film Oscar
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Taylor Swift accepts the Artist of the Year award onstage during the 2022 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on November 20, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Taylor Swift has only just begun an Oscar campaign for her short film "All Too Well," and she's already struck a deal with Disney to make her feature directorial debut. The short film is based on Swift's song "All Too Well" and follows a manipulative boyfriend played by Dylan O'Brien and a young woman played by Sadie Sink as they fall in love and ultimately have a devastating breakup. The news of Swift's feature film directorial debut comes just a few months after the singer made history as the only solo artist to win two best direction awards at MTV's Video Music Awards. Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation , was supposed to open up sales for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans last month ahead of general public ticket sales.

☆ Japanese billionaire Maezawa picks K-pop star TOP, DJ Steve Aoki to join SpaceX moon trip
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa reacts as he speaks with his family after donning space suits shortly before the launch to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Shamil ZhumatovTOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Friday revealed that K-pop star TOP and DJ Steve Aoki will be among the eight crew members he plans to take on a trip around the moon next year, hitching a ride on one of Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets. The picks were announced by Maezawa on Twitter and at a website for what he dubbed the #dearMoon Project. Maezawa used the micro-blogging site to recruit eight crew members from around the world to join him on the moon trip, saying 1 million people had applied. U.S. Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew members.

Three people close to FTX and Bankman-Fried told CNBC that the former CEO lobbied aggressively for a partnership with 11-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift. Bankman-Fried's commitment to getting the Swift deal done despite the deteriorating business environment fit a pattern of ignoring his lieutenants and going it alone, a half-dozen former company insiders and business partners said. The Financial Times reported earlier that FTX held talks with Swift about a potential sponsorship. Part of the Swift deal would have included the production by the singer of a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or digital items that can rise and fall in value. Beyond that, there was a lack of clarity over what Swift would be doing for the company, sources said.

[1/2] Taylor Swift's "Red (Taylor's Version)" receives the Favorite Pop Album award during 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday pressed the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a 2016 law against ticket scalpers using bots after Ticketmaster blamed the software for troubles selling tickets to pop superstar Taylor Swift's upcoming tour. Ticketmaster (LYV.N) canceled planned ticket sales to the general public for Swift's 2023 U.S. concert tour, her first in five years, earlier this month as 3.5 billion ticket requests from fans, bots and scalpers overwhelmed the website. A spokesman for the FTC confirmed that it had received the letter, but had no comment. Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kelly Rowland reiterates her support for Chris Brown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Kelly Rowland is speaking out about grace after her support for singer Chris Brown at the American Music Awards was met with some backlash. “I believe that grace is very real and we all need a dose of it,” the actress and singer told a photographer for TMZ. “Before we point fingers at anybody, we should realize how grateful we are for every moment that we get,” she said. Rowland was asked by the TMZ photographer if she believed that Brown needed to be forgiven. “We all need to be forgiven for anything we can be doing, anything that we’re thinking,” Rowland said.

☆ Best photos from the World Cup: Day 3
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Anuja Jaiman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min