Joseph Ferraro and Lewis Howard

   
Artist: Joseph Ferraro and Lewis Howard

   Genre(s): 
New Age
   

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Discography:


   
 Himalayan Nights

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 1

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Obituary: Jimmy Slyde

Jimmy Slyde, who has died aged 80, was a consummate master of the "sliding" interpretation of rhythm tap dancing. That he embarked on professional tap dancing shortly before a sharp decline in its popularity might seem to indicate a dubious sense of timing, but Slyde's exemplary commitment ensured he was around to catch the art form's revival.

Born James Godbolt in Atlanta, Georgia, he moved at the age of two with his family to Boston, Massachusetts. Although he enjoyed his mother's prescribed violin lessons at the New England conservatory, the draw of tap dancing at the Stanley Brown dance studio opposite proved stronger. It all came together there. He got to observe and know tap greats such as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and John W Bubbles while they rehearsed and taught, and met his future dance partner, Jimmy "Sir Slyde" Mitchell. Having learned what became his characteristic "slide" technique from another teacher at the school, Slyde teamed up with Mitchell to form the Slyde Brothers. It was, confusingly, slightly later that he took the name Jimmy Slyde, but invariably insisted on being called just Slyde.

Devising an eight-minute tap act, the Slyde Brothers played the Boston area and then toured with the best of the remaining big bands, including Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Times were not easy in the 1950s, and they had to dance in all manner of places. "You have to have something to say to be in front of an audience," he once recalled. "I've played saloons, cabaret, and even burlesque theatres which by then were the closest thing to vaudeville where they'd shout, 'bring on the girls', while you're dancing. You have to have an answer, like making the sound of an approaching chorus line, and with high heels on!" As work grew scarce and the act dissolved, he even choreographed for the Crosby Brothers harmony group in the early 1960s.

In 1969 Slyde turned up shortly after Letitia Jay founded the Hoofers. Emulating Harlem's legendary Hoofers Club of the interwar years, it also featured some of its regulars. New Yorker jazz critic Whitney Balliett dismissed Slyde in 1969 as having no individual style, but by 1979 Dance magazine was describing his addition of "elegance to his syncopation" as a contribution to the spectacular impact of the Original Hoofers at the Lincoln Center's 1,000 Years of Jazz. Tours of South America and Europe followed.

Dance historian Sally Sommer points to Slyde's lightning quickness, dexterity and the way that, creating sound patterns, he played "at the edge of balance". Having apparently almost fallen, he would flash an astonished look, and then a sly grin at his audience, having made his recovery.

Paris called in 1973. He visited at a time when his most notable pupil, Sarah Petronio, was developing a vibrant tap culture in the French capital that London could only envy. He returned to the city in 1985 for the original Black and Blue, which celebrated the interwar Parisian culture of dance and music. The veteran dancer Bunny Briggs recalled that Slyde's performance "made you reach down into your bag" - in other words, to dance better. Black and Blue hit Broadway in 1989, with Slyde receiving a Tony nomination, and in 1993 it became a Robert Altman-directed TV film.

Slyde made three movie appearances in the 1980s. He was Jimmy Slide in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984), and in 1986 he appeared in Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight. Three years later came Tap, which turned a new generation on to "laying down iron". Tap greats, led by Sammy Davis Jr, responded to a tap challenge from a troubled but promising newcomer played by Gregory Hines.

Slyde often worked for pianist Barry Harris's jazz gatherings. Nurturing newcomers meant everything to him, especially Dianne Walker, dance captain in Black and Blue and dancer in Tap. In the 1980s and 90s, working with Lon Chaney, he mentored the Wednesday tapjams at La Cave on Manhattan's lower east side. There, old and new dancers tapped in succession and were encouraged to perform. At an international tap day concert in New York in 1992, Slyde's duet with drummer Panama Francis sounded pre-planned, despite being improvised. He opened the 1996 Jacob's Pillow Festival, in Becket, Massachusetts, which had formerly shunned tap dancing, and danced at the White House for President Clinton in 1998.

In 1999 he was awarded a national heritage fellowship award, and three years later came a doctorate from Oklahoma City University, followed by a Guggenheim fellowship in 2003.

After Honi Coles' death in 1992, Slyde was pre-eminent in his field but insisted he had not invented tap, and neither had the people he had learned from, reeling off innumerable names of illustrious predecessors. That generosity of spirit will be a hard act to follow.

He is survived by his wife Donna and son Daryl.

· Jimmy Slyde (James Titus Godbolt), dancer, born October 27 1927; died May 16 2008


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Garraway denies affair with dance partner

TV presenter Kate Garraway has said she and her husband are as in love as ever, dismissing allegations about her relationship with her 'Strictly Come Dancing' partner Anton Du Beke.
In a statement released by her solicitors, Garraway, who is married to psychotherapist Derek Draper, said she had been "extremely hurt" by allegations in a Sunday newspaper.
She said: "Contrary to these insinuations Derek and I are as faithful, happy and in love today as we have ever been.
She continued: "The plain truth is that Anton and I became friends during 'Strictly Come Dancing'."
"Since then we often work and hang out together. For that to be twisted into something else is sad, hurtful and totally untrue."
The 'GMTV' presenter added: "I am extremely upset and hurt by the allegations. I made it clear before publication that there was no truth to them whatsoever.
"Given they were published in any event and continue to be published, I feel I have no option but to take libel proceedings against the newspaper to set the record straight."

Randy Newman preps new album

Randy Newman is set to release his first album of new material in nine years. "Harps and Angels," produced by Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker, arrives via Nonesuch on Aug. 5.

Pepe Deluxe

   
Artist: Pepe Deluxe

   Genre(s): 
Pop
   Dance
   

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Discography:


   
 Spare Time Machine

   Year: 2007   
Tracks: 10


   
 Beatitude

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 19


   
 Super Sound

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 13

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The Finnish electronic trio Pepe Deluxe is an eclectic, artistically purloin cluster of musicians. The Brits press has been touting the band since the belatedly '90s, merely Pepe Deluxe kickoff fundament came together back in 1995. DJ Slow down and Ja-Jazz collaborated on the Bomb Records electronic mouthful tester Render of the DJ prior to in full forming a band; DJ James Spectrum linked short thenceforth, and Pepe Deluxe was official. They released their knife edge and campy-coated debut, Super Speech sound, in the fall of 2000. DJ Retard leftfield shortly after, and the unexpended artists took three years to track record and give back with their boozer soph album, Beatification, an eudaimonia record with client appearances by 40 musicians. In 2007 Spare Time Auto arrived with enlivened retro electro-funk beat contemporaries, this time blended with a touch of '60s psychedelic and '70s prog tilt.





T.I. Reveals His "PAPER TRAIL": Hip-Hop Superstar Announces Hugely Anticipated Album as New Track, "No Matter What," Explodes Online; "PAPER TRAIL" Arrives Everywhere August 12th

Helfenrath and de Jong

   
Artist: Helfenrath and de Jong

   Genre(s): 
Ethnic
   

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Discography:


   
 Ranga the tabla trail

   Year:    
Tracks: 10

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Metallica's Musical Mission

Johnny Depp to replace Ledger in final role?

Johnny Depp to replace Ledger in final role?

Johnny Reb Depp may be poised to replace the deep Heath Ledger in the Australian's final cinema, according to reports.
Side director Dame Ellen Terry Gilliam is determined to stopping point shooting Ledger's final exam plastic film, 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus', and is said to need Depp in the pb purpose.
Filming on the countersink of the phantasy motion picture was reportedly abandoned followers Ledger's dying in Fresh York on Tues.
However, Gilliam now wants to discharge the shoot with Depp in the role.
A studio apartment source told The Sun: "In that respect is a point in the film when Heathland waterfall through a illusion mirror. He could change into another fictional character afterwards that and that is where Johnny Reb would fall in.
"It's a wyrd, phantasy, time-travel motion-picture show so Heath's character could well modification appearing. It would be a poignant import.
"Johnny's not working at the here and now so everyone is praying he will do it."
Book of account was said to be less than deuce months by from completing cinematography on the picture show at the clock time of his death.