BURT BACHARACH (1928 - 2023)

With his musical partner, lyricist Hal David, Burt Bacharach composed some of the greatest and most enduring pop songs of the twentieth century. This gifted pianist and producer passed away on February 8th at the age of ninety-four of natural causes. While these compositions from Bacharach and David may best represent the era in which they were created during the swinging '60's, they have since gone on to become timeless classics, songs that still captivate with their offbeat rhythms and complicated arrangements yet remain extraordinarily catchy.

The New York City raised Bacharach was started on piano lessons as a child, encouraged by his creative mother. But as he got older, he became more interested in jazz than classical music. After serving in the army for two years, Bacharach went to work as a pianist and conductor for singer, Vic Damone who he has first met while they were both serving in Germany. This lead to other jobs as a pianist for other noted performers of the day, accompanying Steve Lawrence, The Ames Brothers and Joel Grey.

Bacharach's first major break came in 1956 when he was recommended to actress Marlene Dietrich who was about to begin touring with her nightclub act. As her musical arranger and conductor, they would work together on and off until the early 1960's.

After joining the songwriting factory at the Brill Building, Bacharach first met Hal David with the team writing together their first two hits; "The Story of My Life" which became a number one song on the US Country chart in 1957 for Marty Robbins and the top-five pop hit, "Magic Moments" recorded by Perry Como. Despite these early successes with David, Bacharach worked with other writers, most notably Bob Hilliard with this team's songs, "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" and "Mexican Divorce" becoming charting pop hits. It was during the recording of the later song in 1962 with The Drifters that Bacharach would first meet the singer that would change the course of his career.

One of the background singers during that recording session was Dionne Warwick who stood out with her formidable vocal abilities, impressing Bacharach enough to hire her to record his demos. By 1962, Bacharach and David had officially become a songwriting team and started their own production company, signed to Scepter Records. And their first artist was Warwick who released her debut album, "Presenting Dionne Warwick" in 1963. Beginning with "Don't Make Me Over", this trio had a long string of worldwide pop hits which included "Anyone Who Had a Heart", "Walk On By", "I Say a Little Prayer", "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?", "Message to Michael", "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and "Alfie". Many of these songs were covered by other singers, most notably Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield, who would also find success on the pop charts with their versions.

Bacharach-David also went on to write music for films ("The Look of Love" for "Casino Royale", "What's New Pussycat?" and the Oscar-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid") and the stage (the 1968 musical, "Promises, Promises"). Bacharach would work on his own projects during this time as well, making a name for himself and creating some visibility as a personality with several television specials, talk show appearances and released solo albums. But the recording of the score for the 1973 film musical version of "Lost Horizon", a critical and commercial disappointment, lead to the dissolution of the creative partnership between Bacharach and David with each suing the other and Warwick filing a lawsuit against them both.

Bacharach went on to find a new songwriting partner, singer/lyricist Carole Bayer Sager who would later become his third wife in 1982. Some of the songs they wrote together included "Heartlight", "Making Love", "On My Own" and "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (co-written with Christopher Cross and Peter Allen) which won the 1981 Oscar for Best Original Song. And "That's What Friends Are For" (originally recorded by Rod Stewart in 1982 for the soundtrack of the film, "Night Shift")  would reunite Bacharach and Warwick in 1985 with this number one song, that featured Gladys Knight, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder, was a charity single with all proceeds going for AIDS research.

After his marriage to Bayer Sager ended in 1991, Bacharach continued to work over the years with one of his most notable musical collaborations was with Elvis Costello, releasing an album together "Painted From Memory" in 1998 and later working on several tracks for Costello's 2018 album, "Look Now". One of Bacharach's last projects was in 2020 when he collaborated with multi-instrumentalist, Daniel Tashian on the EP, "Blue Umbrella".

THE 65TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS

After the disruptions and restrictions over the last couple of years, the Grammy Awards are back in Los Angeles with a full audience in attendance to witness the biggest night in music. Trevor Noah, back for a third time as host and first gig since leaving his post on "The Daily Show", was in understated comedic form and more about spreading positive vibes, teasing the celebrated musicians with light jokes and being an excited cheerleader for the live performances.

A nice touch on the show was having a round-table of ten dedicated fans passionately yet respectfully debating who should win the Album of the Year. Not only were they invited to attend the ceremony but then Noah had this group come on stage to present this award with him.

Bad Bunny, who became the first artist to have a Spanish-language album, "Un Verano Sin Ti" nominated for Album of the Year, opened the show, getting the crowd on their feet with a medley of "El Apagón" and "Después de la Playa" that featured a colorful, dance-filled celebration of his Puerto-Rican heritage. Out of the many live performances that followed, some of my favorites included the Stevie Wonder lead tribute to fellow Motown artist, Smokey Robinson and the label's founder, Berry Gordy, who were both honored as MusiCares Person of the Year, with Wonder, Robinson and country star, Chris Stapleton performing together some Motown classics; Lizzo, the winner of Record of the Year, did a brief interlude of the winning song, "About Damn Time" before moving into her album's title track, "Special", a powerful anthem on self-esteem; and a touching In Memoriam section that featured Kacey Musgraves paying tribute to Loretta Lynn with a version of "Coal Miner's Daughter"; Quavo of the hip hop group, Migos honored his late musical partner and nephew, Takeoff with "Without You" and Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood came together to pay respect to Christine McVie with a rendition of her 1977 Fleetwood Mac hit, "Songbird".

But the biggest highlight was the impressive celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Questlove helped curate a massive, multi-generational line-up of rap artists to musically run through the history of this genre with Run DMC, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Nelly, Missy Elliot, Lil Baby, GloRilla, Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy as just some of the performers appearing together on stage. Considering how many acts were involved over such a brief period of time, this was truly a dazzling, breath-taking event that I think was one of the best ever to have taken place in the history of the Grammys.

With a late arrival (no one can escape LA traffic), an ethereal Beyoncé finally emerged in time to receive four Grammys which made her become the most honored artist of all-time with a career total of thirty-two, surpassing a record previous held by conductor, Georg Solti. But her wins for "Renaissance" were not in the major categories with the loss of Album of the Year in particular setting off outrage amongst many fans and critics who felt the singer has been long overdue for this award, especially for this album which is considered by many to be one of her very best.  It was Harry Styles who won the top prize for "Harry's Place", a stylish collection that also won Best Pop Vocal Album,  a more deserving acknowledgment of the young British singer's solid pop-rock record.

And it was proven this evening that if you receive a nomination, any of the nominees truly has a real chance to win the award. One very unexpected winner was in Song of the Year with Bonnie Raitt taking the prize against some better known competition for "Just Like That", the title track from her eighteenth studio album and one of the rare songs that this veteran blues musician actually wrote. Samara Joy, the twenty-three year old jazz vocalist, was another surprise, selected as Best New Artist in a field that featured more higher profile musicians. Yet she did get her record deal by posting a performance online with it going viral and leading to Joy's debut, "Linger Awhile" which also won for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Here is a partial list of the winners from the 2023 Grammy Awards:

Album of the Year: "Harry’s House" — Harry Styles
Record of the Year: "About Damn Time" — Lizzo
Song of the Year: "Just Like That" — Bonnie Raitt, songwriter (Bonnie Raitt)
Best New Artist: Samara Joy
Best Pop Vocal Album: "Harry’s House" — Harry Styles
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: "Higher" — Michael Bublé
Best Pop Solo Performance: "Easy On Me" — Adele
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: "Unholy" — Sam Smith & Kim Petras
Best Dance/Electronic Music Album: "Renaissance" — Beyoncé
Best Dance/Electronic Recording: "BREAK MY SOUL" — Beyoncé
Best R&B Album: "Black Radio III" — Robert Glasper
Best Progressive R&B Album: "Gemini Rights" — Steve Lacy
Best R&B Performance: "Hrs & Hrs" — Muni Long
Best Traditional R&B Performance: "PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA" — Beyoncé
Best R&B Song: "CUFF IT" — Denisia "Blu June" Andrews, Beyoncé, Mary Christine Brockert, Brittany "Chi" Coney, Terius "The-Dream" Gesteelde-Diamant, Morten Ristorp, Nile Rodgers & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
Best Rap Album: "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers" — Kendrick Lamar
Best Rap Performance: "The Heart Part 5" — Kendrick Lamar
Best Rap Song: "The Heart Part 5" — Jake Kosich, Johnny Kosich, Kendrick Lamar & Matt Schaeffer, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
Best Rock Album: "Patient Number 9" — Ozzy Osbourne
Best Rock Performance: "Broken Horses" — Brandi Carlile
Best Alternative Music Album: "Wet Leg" — Wet Leg
Best Música Urbana Album: "Un Verano Sin Ti" — Bad Bunny
Best Country Album: "A Beautiful Time" — Willie Nelson
Best Country Solo Performance: "Live Forever" — Willie Nelson
Best Country Duo/Group Performance: "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" — Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde
Best Country Song: "‘Til You Can’t" — Matt Rogers & Ben Stennis, songwriters (Cody Johnson)
Best Bluegrass Album: "Crooked Tree" — Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
Best Americana Album: "In These Silent Days" — Brandi Carlile
Best Americana Performance: "Made Up Mind" — Bonnie Raitt
Best Folk Album: "Revealer" — Madison Cunningham
Best American Roots Performance: "Stompin’ Ground" — Aaron Neville With The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Best American Roots Song: "Just Like That" — Bonnie Raitt, songwriter (Bonnie Raitt)
Best Contemporary Blues Album: "Brother Johnny" — Edgar Winter
Best Traditional Blues Album: "Get On Board" — Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder
Best Jazz Vocal Album: "Linger Awhile" — Samara Joy
Best Reggae Album: "The Kalling" — Kabaka Pyramid
Best Latin Pop Album: "Pasieros" — Rubén Blades & Boca Livre
Best Latin Jazz Album: "Fandango At The Wall In New York" — Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Featuring The Congra Patria Son Jarocho Collective
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording: "Finding Me" — Viola Davis
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album: "The Poet Who Sat By The Door" — J. Ivy
Best Comedy Album: "The Closer" — Dave Chappelle
Best Musical Theater Album: "Into The Woods (2022 Broadway Cast Recording)" — Stephen Sondheim, composer & lyricist (Sara Bareilles, Brian d'Arcy James, Patina Miller & Phillipa Soo, principal vocalists; Rob Berman & Sean Patrick Flahaven, producers))
Best Music Film: "Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story" — (Various Artists); Frank Marshall & Ryan Suffern, video directors; Frank Marshall, Sean Stuart & Ryan Suffern, video producers
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media: "Encanto" — (Various Artists)
Best Song Written for Visual Media: "We Don’t Talk About Bruno" From "Encanto" — Lin-Manuel Miranda, songwriter (Carolina Gaitán - La Gaita, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & "Encanto" Cast)
Best Music Video: "All Too Well: The Short Film" — Taylor Swift, video director; Saul Germaine, video producer (Taylor Swift)
Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical): Tobias Jesso Jr.
Producer of the Year (Non-Classical): Jack Antonoff

BARRETT STRONG (1941 - 2023)

One of the first artists to achieve a hit record for Motown, Barrett Strong passed away on January 28th at the age of eighty-one. He later went on to become a prolific writer for the music label, co-writing with Norman Whitfield some classic songs like "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", "I Wish it Would Rain" and "Just My Imagination".

After signing with Tamla Records, Strong helped bring attention to the fledgling label with his recording of "Money (That's What I Want)" which reached number two on the r&b chart in 1960 and selling over one million copies. The song was so popular that other artists covered it including The Beatles in 1963 and The Rolling Stones in 1964. Strong claimed to have co-written "Money" with Janie Bradford and Motown founder, Berry Gordy and his name was originally on the copyright. But his name was later removed due to Gordy saying that the addition of Strong as a songwriter was a clerical error. Strong later tried to pursue this legally but his case was weakened due to how long it took him to have his name reinstated as a writer.

Strong had moved into songwriting after his recording career cooled down, working with producer Whitfield on songs largely for the Temptations which included "Cloud Nine", "Psychedelic Shack", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" as well as songs for the Undisputed Truth ("Smiling Faces Sometimes") and Edwin Starr ("War").

When Gordy decided to pack-up Motown to Los Angeles in 1972, Strong remained in Detroit, leaving the label and resuming his music career. He signed with several different labels and would record four solo albums throughout the rest of his career. Here is Strong's first big hit and a few of the popular hit songs he wrote for some of the great artists on Motown: