Ramsey Lewis Dies: Grammy-Winner And NEA Jazz Master Was 87

Chinonye Chukwu was certain of two things setting out to tell the story of a loving and lovely 14-year-old boy lynched in 1955 Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. First, the story had to be told from the perspective of Mamie, the mother of Emmett Till. “We had to follow closely her emotional journey. For without Mamie, the world, we, would not have known who Emmett Till was.”

Richard Bienstock “What’s beautiful about life is not always winning,” Perry Farrell says. “It’s getting knocked down and getting back up and then winning. Sometimes, that can be even sweeter.” Farrell, it should be noted, has not lacked for winning moments in 2022. The 63-year-old musician recently saw Lollapalooza through another massively successful multi-day stand in Chicago (not to mention Stockholm, Paris, Buenos Aires and other far-flung locales); conceived, executed and performed at, along with his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, a recurring L.A.-based “immersive theater” experience named Heaven After Dark that he hopes to take international; and unexpectedly reunited his mid-‘90s outfit, Porno for Pyros, for their first full shows in more than 25 years.

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Radnor (Hunters), Rob Huebel (The Descendants), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Chandra Russell (Southside) and John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop) are set to star in the upcoming comedic drama All Happy Families. The film will shoot in Chicago, IL, and is the sophomore feature from director Haroula Rose (Once Upon a River), who co-wrote the script with Coburn Goss. 

Coolio, the Compton-raised rapper with the trademark braids who won a Grammy in 1996 for his No. 1 smash “Gangsta’s Paradise” from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer-starring film Dangerous Minds, died Wednesday in Los Angeles, his manager Jarez Posey told Deadline. He was 59.

Tegan And Sara have shared the latest taste of their forthcoming tenth studio album ‘Crybaby’ in the form of a punchy new single titled ‘I Can’t Grow Up’.Described by the band as a “snotty nosed pop song about not being able to grow out of bad habits in relationships,” it comes with playful visuals which you can see below.The band’s Sara Quin said the track inspired musically by Chicago band Dehd and their 2020 album ‘Flower of Devotion’.She said: “The song started on bass, an instrument I’d never written with until Crybaby, and I was channeling a little bit of Emily Kempf from Dehd, and Peter Hook from New Order. My partner had traveled back to the U.S., after a year of being stuck in Canada during the pandemic, and I was enjoying late nights alone writing music and singing full tilt in the basement.”The track will appear on the Canadian duo’s 10th studio album ‘Crybaby’, which is due for release on October 21 via Mom + Pop Music.

Will.i.am has claimed he was the inspiration behind Beyoncé’s ‘Break My Soul’ remix EP.Earlier this year, Beyoncé released a four-track EP featuring remixes of the ‘Renaissance’ track from the likes of Honey Dijon, Terry Hunter and Nita Aviance.According to will.i.am though, the whole thing would never have happened without him. Speaking to Metro, he said: “I was in France and her song (‘Break My Soul’) came out and I’m like, ‘I wish the beat did this.’ So I called my collab partner and we did it remotely on FYI, a collaboration tool.”The Black-Eyed Peas singer then claimed “they weren’t thinking about remixes until I sent it.”“They put out a remix EP and my song’s first one on it – and I inspired it,” he continued.

Dominic Fike has confirmed details of a 24-date North American tour which is due to start in November – check out dates below and get tickets here.The tour is Fike’s first headline run since the release of his 2020 debut album ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong’ and kicks off November 6 at Seattle’s Showbox SoDo.Fike will take in the likes of Vancouver, Los Angeles and Boston before his Out Of Order tour wraps up in Tempe, Arizona on December 16. Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, September 30 and will be available here.

It’s official! Less than one year after Larsa Pippen and Scottie Pippen finalized their divorce, she has a new beau: Marcus Jordan.

Jake Lockett is the hot new star of Chicago Fire and the longtime series’ showrunners are opening up about the mystery surrounding his character Sam Carver.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Compton-based house-music producer-singer Channel Tres has inked a deal that sees him joining RCA Records in partnership with L.A. indie Godmode. The partnership kicks off tonight with the release of the new single “No Limit,” with his debut full-length album “Real Cultural Shit” arriving later this fall. The album will also feature his singles from earlier this year, “Acid in my Blood,” “Ganzfeld Experiment” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Channel Tres, who has toured with Robyn, Vince Staples, Disclosure and Toro y Moi and performed at Coachella and New York’s Gov Ball, calls his style of dance music “Compton house”; it meshes the rhythms of Chicago house and Detroit techno with the bite of West Coast rap.

Smashing Pumpkins played a gig in Chicago last night (September 20) and debuted a brand new song – listen to ‘Empires’ below.‘Empires’ will appear on the band’s new three-part “rock opera” album, ‘ATUM’, which was announced yesterday and previewed by first single ‘Beguiled’.Following on from 2020’s ‘CYR’, the forthcoming 33-song album serves as a sequel to the band’s classic double records ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (1995) and ‘Machina/The Machines Of God’ (2000).Listen to the live debut of ‘Empires’ below.Speaking to NME about the new record, Billy Corgan said: “When you decide to do a three-act, 33-song rock musical in 2022… [Laughs] you’re definitely stepping in it! Because there’s a lot of people who believe less is more these days. I’m on the opposite side – I actually think more is more!”While ‘Beguiled’ feels like a bold statement of intent, Corgan admitted that there were “probably about seven other songs” that could’ve been used to introduce fans to the ambitious ‘ATUM’ era.“With 33 songs, I was sort of Switzerland on the whole thing,” he told NME.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Armando Espitia, who broke out as the hapless young factory worker in Amat Escalante’s Cannes winner “Heli,” is attached to star in “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” a feature project being brought to San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum by Mexico’s Bruno Santamaría Raso.  Also on board is actor – and writer-producer – Sofia Espinosa, who fulfilled all three roles in Max Zunino’s “Los Bañistas” and “Bruma” and won a Mexican Academy Ariel for her tearaway performance as Gloria Trevi in “Gloria.” Written and to be directed by Santamaría, “Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” (“Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul,”) marks his first fiction feature. He caught attention and won a Chicago Golden Hugo Golden Hugo and Golde Q Hugo for best documentary for “Things We Dare Not Do,” a movie straddling fiction in its finish, production values and narrative structures as it depicts Toño, the eldest son and second father to a swarm of siblings, living in a benighted village on marshy plains and plucking up the courage to tell his mother that he’s gay.     

Married bliss! One year after Jessica Batten and Benjamin McGrath celebrated their engagement, the twosome secretly got married.

Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett, and performed at the 1995 state dinner that President Clinton hosted for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil. Hard-nosed jazz fans might have shrugged him off as a pop-jazz quisling who spent much of his time on gospel-powered covers and catchy funk anthems. Yet he gracefully drew on all manner of influences, interweaving jazz, classical and pop with a sureness of touch that defied classification.

Michaela Zee editor Legendary jazz musician Ramsey Lewis, known for hits such as “The In Crowd” and “Wade in the Water,” died Monday morning at his home in Chicago. He was 87. Lewis recorded over 80 albums in his career, during which he received five gold records and three Grammy Awards. The jazz pianist and composer’s death was announced in a post on the official Ramsey Lewis Facebook page, stating that he “died peacefully” with no cause of death mentioned at this time. In the notice, a quote from his wife Janet Lewis read, “Ramsey’s passion for music was truly fueled by the love and dedication of his fans across the globe. He loved touring and meeting music lovers from so many cultures and walks of life. It was our family’s great pleasure to share Ramsey in this special way with all those who admired his God-given talents. We are forever grateful for your support.”

The Story of Film: A New Generation opens at two dozen theaters this weekend — Laemmle Royal in LA, Museum of the Moving Image in NY, Music Box Theatre in Chicago and Brattle in Cambridge. It’s a mix of arthouses, cinematheques, museums and even a few multiplexes for Mark Cousins’ follow-up to his 15-hour, 2011 opus The Story Of Film: An Odyssey. (This one clocks a relatively brief three hours.)