There was a lot going on in the music business in the autumn of 1975. Bruce Springsteen was on tour promoting his breakthrough album Born to Run, meanwhile appearing on the covers of both Newsweek and Time in the same week. The Who released the raggedy but still appealing record The Who by Numbers. Bob Dylan kicked off his “Rolling Thunder Review” tour. And the Sex Pistols played their first show, at St. Martin’s School of Art in London.
But in the midst of all this, Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here, the band’s follow up to the mega-platinum The Dark Side of the Moon. Sales figures aside, Wish You Were Here is the superior album. Both are tremendous, but Wish You Were Here is an album that appeals to so many.
Who cannot identify with the album’s themes of absence and loss that the lyrics and music portray? Who does not think of people now missing from life who once occupied such a significant position? Wish You Were Here contains Pink Floyd’s most universal message, so I encourage you to give it a spin this week, maybe also raising a glass to someone whose journey is now over, but whose trip you were part of for a while. Haven’t we all known a crazy diamond?
Ticket Alert
Look at you, Colter Wall! Two nights (Wednesday, January 21, and Thursday, January 22) at the Bayou Music Center! His forthcoming album, Memories and Empties, will be released in November, which means that fans will be fully familiar with the new material by the time the Canadian singer-songwriter arrives in Houston.
Kelly Willis has been a fixture on the Texas music scene for many years, and she is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of her landmark album What I Deserve. The album was begun with recording sessions in San Francisco, but after a parting with her record company, Willis brought the tapes to Austin and finished the record there, resulting in an album that still resonates today. Catch Willis on Thursday, February 14, at the Mucky Duck.
When Opeth comes to town, get ready for some heavy-duty prog metal, with notes (as wine connoisseurs would say) of blues, classical and jazz. The band will play the Bayou Music Center on Sunday, February 15, but I don’t know that it’s really a Valentine’s Day-weekend-appropriate show. Unless your significant other is totally into this stuff, in which case, let ‘er rip!
So what to say about Raye? In the singer-songwriter / record producer’s catalog, the listener will find influences ranging from R&B to jazz to soul and pop. That’s a lot going on. Fortunately, Raye manages to corral these musical styles into a coherent, consistently grooving sound. She will perform on Friday, May 1, at the 713 Music Hall.
Concerts This Week
Blues guitarist Davey Knowles grew up on the Isle of Man, which is about 30 miles from Ireland. Which explains the presence of a Celtic vibe and a major Rory Gallagher influence in his playing. Check him out on Thursday at the Big Top, right next door to the Continental Club.
And speaking of talented blues-based guitarists, Tab Benoit will perform on Friday at the Heights Theater. ‘Cause Knowledge is Power: Benoit founded Voice of the Wetlands (VOW), a conservation organization that promotes the preservation of the Louisiana wetlands and the accompanying culture.
If you have ever said to yourself, “Man, if only there were a rock and roll band fronted by three bagpipe players,” then you are in luck, as the Red Hot Chilli Pipers will bring their unique act to the Dosey Doe Big Barn on Saturday. The band performs a mix of traditional Scottish music and classic rock covers such as “Smoke on the Water,” “We Will Rock You” and “Don’t Stop Believing.” This is one of those “dinner and a show” affairs that the Dosey Doe is known for, but no word yet on whether haggis will be on the menu.
Jon Batiste can do it all. Well, if not “all,” then most of it. Batiste gained celebrity as the bandleader on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, later winning an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy for his score for the Pixar film Soul. He has also composed a symphony and found time to do some acting last year, appearing as Billy Preston in the film Saturday Night. Oh, and he composed the score for that movie too. Batiste’s “Big Money” tour makes a stop at the Smart Financial Centre on Saturday.
Like many young artists, Junior H first entered the public consciousness via videos that he posted on YouTube. His songs helped to establish the corridos tumbados (aka trap corridos) genre, which combines influences from narcocorridos and rap music. Considering that Junior H has sold tens of millions of records in a period of just a few years, it’s no wonder that he can play two nights, this Saturday and Sunday, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
Cage the Elephant began its existence in Bowling Green, KY and then moved across the pond to London, where the band began to consolidate its sound. ‘Cause Knowledge is Power: The band’s name resulted from an encounter with a man (probably mentally ill) who repeatedly told lead singer Matt Shultz, “You got to cage the elephant!” I suppose we can consider the elephant caged, as the band will perform on Monday at the 713 Music Hall.
On “Big Money,” Super Bowl-sized singer Jon Batiste opts for a surprisingly intimate sound.
The just over 32-minute, nine-song set will be released Friday, and it’s not nearly as loud as the New Orleans’ jazzman’s eye-popping wardrobe. The stripped-down, mostly acoustic arrangements create a chill vibe. Simplicity somehow only intensifies the songs’ swing and sway.
Batiste pairs lyrics about devotion, values, angels and ecology with music that mixes folk and funk, gospel and the blues. The range is such that Batiste even plays a little fiddle and mandolin, but he shines brightest on two songs featuring his solo piano.
The first is a wonderful duet with Randy Newman, another piano man with New Orleans roots, who in recent years has been slowed by health issues and kept a low profile. They cover Doc Pomus’ “Lonely Avenue,” and Newman’s legendarily froggy tenor provides a comical contrast to Batiste’s vocal sheen. “I could die, I could die, I could die,” Newman sings. “It sounds like I’m dying.”
Also stellar is “Maybe,” a ballad filled with thick chords and questions about the big picture. “Or maybe we should all just take a collective pause,” Batiste sings, before launching into a keyboard exploration worthy of Jelly Roll Morton.
The bouncy “Lean on My Love” draws from Prince, Sly Stone and the Spinners as Batiste sings in unison with Andra Day. The equally buoyant title cut rhymes “money” and “dummy” in a strummy sing-along that includes backing vocals by the Womack Sisters, granddaughters of soul singer Sam Cooke.
“Pinnacle” chooses a similar tempo to kick up Delta dust around a delightful word salad. “Hop scotch/Double Dutchie jumping rope/Twistin’ it and ya wobble it/And let it go,” he sings on one verse.
Batiste’s gospel influences are most evident on the closing reggae tune “Angels” and the ballad “Do It All Again,” a love song that could be interpreted as secular or spiritual.
“When I’m happy, it’s your shine,” Batiste sings. As always, he makes joy sound genuine.
NEW ORLEANS – It looks like the third time is the charm as the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival prepares, again, for The Rolling Stones to perform.
The festival, which spans two weekends, is set to open Thursday with dozens of acts playing daily on 14 stages spread throughout the historic Fair Grounds race course. The Stones play next Thursday, May 2, tickets for which have long been sold out.
In 2019, festival organizers thought they had landed the legendary rock band, but the appearance was canceled because lead singer Mick Jagger had heart surgery. They tried again in 2021, but a surge in COVID-19 cases ultimately forced the fest to cancel.
Now, says festival producer Quint Davis, “It’s gonna be special.”
This will be the first time the Stones play Jazz Fest.
Opening day acts include rock bands Widespread Panic and The Beach Boys, reggae artist Stephen Marley and jazz vocalist John Boutte.
“The talent is great, the weather is projected to be good and people’s expectations are going to be met,” Davis said.
Blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the 80s were forecast for opening day Thursday. Similar weather was expected for the rest of the first weekend, which runs through Sunday and showcases performances by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jon Batiste, country megastar Chris Stapleton, R&B singer Fantasia, rock band Heart, Cajun fiddler Amanda Shaw and The Cute Guys, jazz pianist Patrice Rushen, and blues and folk artist Ruthie Foster.
Anticipation for the Stones’ performance is palpable, Davis said.
“All I’m hearing is ‘How can I get a ticket?’” he said of fans trying to see the marquee performance. “Unfortunately for some, that day sold out in like a day-and-a-half after tickets went on sale. I think people have just waited so long for this.”
The Rolling Stones in October released “ Hackney Diamonds,” their first album of original material since 2005 and their first without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Though he hasn’t seen a set list, Davis said fans can expect to hear a mix of greatest hits and new releases. No special guests are expected to perform with the Rolling Stones, but Davis said “never say never.”
“Just expect euphoria,” he said laughing. “I think maybe we’re going to need some ambulances on site because people are going to spontaneously combust from the excitement. And, they’re playing in a daylight event. They’re gonna be able to make eye contact with the audience. That’s going to create a really special bond.”
Acts on the festival’s 14 stages usually play simultaneously beginning when gates open at 11 a.m. and continuing until the music ends at 7 p.m. But the other stages will shut down next week when the Stones take the stage.
“We didn’t want to have 13 empty stages and no people in front of them when the Stones start singing favorites like ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’” Davis said. “Everyone who bought a ticket for that day primarily bought one to see The Stones.”
Davis said tickets for the festival’s other days remain available and can be purchased online through their website.
Much of Jazz Fest celebrates the Indigenous music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana but the music encompasses nearly every style imaginable: blues, R&B, gospel, Cajun, Zydeco, Afro-Caribbean, folk, Latin, rock, rap, contemporary and traditional jazz, country, bluegrass and everything in between.
Colombia’s rhythms, from music to dance and food, also will be highlighted this year as part of the festival’s cultural exchange. Close to 200 Colombian artists are scheduled to participate, including headliners Bomba Estéreo on Saturday, ChocQuibTown’s lead singer Goyo in a guest appearance with local band ÌFÉ on Sunday, and salsa legends Grupo Niche closing the celebration on May 5.
And don’t forget the food. During the festival, food available on site includes crawfish bread, pecan catfish meuniere and catfish almondine, cochon de lait and turducken po-boys, boudin, crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, crawfish Monica and shrimp and grits.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
I hate to say it, but all good people admit when they’re wrong. After attending Coachella in 2022, I saw a dying franchise desperately trying to retain its grasp on relevancy. With lackluster Californian crowds who only go for the festival name and not the names headlining, outsiders often wonder why artists treat this as a Mecca for music.
Long gone are the days when girls’ outfits were chosen with Tumblr shots in mind. The bohemian chic style that Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, and other attendees made famous began as “Coachella style.”
And when I got a taste of the coveted festival, I was beyond underwhelmed. Sure, the rich and famous were within reach…but I couldn’t have felt further away from them. I ended up with dust in my lungs and a week’s worth of exhaustion.
Celebs stopped attending en masse, the non-festival influencer events like Revolve Festival rose in popularity, and it became abundantly clear that no one cared about the music…it was all about their Instagram posts.
But what I’ve learned from live-streaming Coachella 2024 — and pouring over my social media and consuming every single piece of Coachella content there is — is that Coachella is back in a major way.
Sure, the festival is designed to give you an intense bout of FOMO…but all I kept hearing was how bad everyone thought the lineup was. How no one of note would be in attendance this year. How Coachella was surely done for…until it wasn’t.
It’s been every bit as star-studded and shocking as earlier years. We’ve had earth-shattering performances, surprises left and right, and even reunions…not to mention the iconic American Royal Couple sighting.
We had 5-star performances from headliners like Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat. Chris Lake and Chris Lorenzo via their supergroup, Anti Up, confirmed rumors of a joint album.
After spending the weekend across the country on the wrong coast sobbing to my friends that I opted not to go this year, I put together my must-see lineup.
Here are the five performances I would’ve attended at 2024 Coachella Weekend One.
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan’s sheer star power has truly been surprising me. With a devout fanbase (just watch her set), you’ll immediately realize that we’re dealing with someone who is about to break through to a different level of stardom.
During her set, you’ll hear essential songs like “Good Luck, Babe!”, “HOT TO GO!”, and “My Kink is Karma.” But what’s more impressive is her stage presence, the way she commands the crowd in avant-garde makeup, big hair, and a bigger personality.
Songs like “Good Hurt” saw a 160% increase on Spotify…Don’t sleep on Chappell Roan. Before you know it, she’ll be performing at a much bigger stage.
Not enough is said about a house music set at a festival. Sure, the headliners are great and deliver us our fix of rock, pop, or soul. But it’s always been the DJ’s who have my heart at the end of the night. They know how to get you dancing, to feel the beat down to your soul, and forget for a while.
We saw a lot of technical difficulties and underwhelming sets from various artists this weekend…but John Summit and Dom Dolla delivered a borderline flawless collaboration that perfectly exhibited both their greatest hits and EDM essentials.
There’s nothing better than watching an artist truly having fun on stage…so when two friends, Dolla and Summit, come together to display some of the best techno house out there, they do not disappoint.
Soon to be the pregame track for many, Dom Dolla and John Summit are two of the biggest names in house for a reason.
No Doubt
Two words: jaw dropped. Coachella’s Main Stage has reunited long lost bands and supergroups like Blink-182 and Swedish House Mafia…but few have No Doubt’s impact.
After a year of music domination on TikTok, Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal, and Adrian Young took the stage to bring punk rock back in all its glory. In their first performance since 2015, this band has the exact same 1995 energy when they released “Just a Girl.”
Bringing out Gen Z’s very own punk pop princess, Olivia Rodrigo, was a passing of the torch in many ways. Stefani and Rodrigo belted “Bathwater” side by side as Rodrigo sported low rise cargos and an “I <3 ND” tank. “Bathwater” saw a 430% increase in streams on Spotify following the performance.
Perhaps the most impressive performance comes from Stefani, who at 54 years of age pranced and throttled around the stage full force. Stefani embodied a whirlwind tornado that gave more stage presence and energy than a 19-year-old. She went full punk rocker mode, and it was gorgeous.
I keep reminding my readers that Sabrina Carpenter is the one to watch this year. She’s got all the ingredients of your classic popstar: proven vocal talent (even a stint on Broadway with Renee Rapp in Mean Girls), the opener for Taylor Swift’s legendary Era’s Tour, a past love triangle scandal with aforementioned Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, and the latest It Boy, Barry Keoghan, falling over his feet for her.
Her Coachella performance only solidified that I’m right. Carpenter understands her audience, and knows how to bring in more fans. She’s candidly witty, overtly sexual in her euphemisms, and yet exudes an innocence and honesty in her music.
For the first time on a Coachella stage, Carpenter was able to belt out her emails i can’t send album. This tell-all set of songs details her relationship with Bassett, her perspective on the backlash, and shares refreshing insights into her life.
She had the cinema, the vocal ability, the wow-factor. No notes.
Lana Del Rey
And while many prominent publications and, most notably, the Recording Academy will continue to turn their noses towards the genius of Lana Del Rey, the world watched anyway. Del Rey’s music has inspired the careers of thousands of budding artists, and it’s rare that she gets such a massive platform to perform it.
Arriving via motorcade, Lana Del Rey took the stage to perform hits like “Summertime Sadness”, “Ride”, and “West Coast” while dancers twirled from poles and swirled around Del Rey.
With guests like Jack Antonoff, Jon Batiste, and the one-and-only Billie Eilish, Del Rey flawlessly integrated tracks like “Ocean Eyes” and her own “Video Games” into her set.
Many will criticize the microphone issues or the lack of energy from the crowd (all factors that were out of the headliner’s control)…but it’s overwhelmingly clear from Lana Del Rey’s performance that her star far outshines any technical difficulties.
Lana Del Rey had a couple of heavily favored cameos during her Coachella performance, welcoming recent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste, both of whom will be fronting their own sets later in the weekend — but also one far less easily guessed guest, in the form of Billie Eilish, who turned up for a surprise pair of duets.
Taking to a terrace overlooking the massive stage, the duo first joined forces on Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” then turned their voices to “Video Games.” Both songs represent the first real breakout hits in these artists’ respective careers.
The two traded fangirl notes as their joint appearance came to a close. Enthused Del Rey about her singing partner: “That’s the voice of our generation, the voice of your generation, and i’m so fucking grateful she’s standing next to me right now singing my favorite song.”
Eilish retorted, “Get the fuck out of my face,” as they both fell into laughter.
“This is the reason for half you bitches’ existence — including mine!” Eilish further told the crowd. “Lana Del Rey, you guys, come on!”
The emergence of Eilish onto the stage followed a lengthy turn by Batiste as he and Del Rey recreated “Candy Necklace,” a song they worked up together for Del Rey’s most recent album, 2023’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” The song was nominated for best pop duo’group performance at the 2024 Grammys. For most of the tune, Batiste played piano while she kneeled atop the instrument, but after she stepped down toward the end, they began spontaneously trading vocal lines.
“Sometimes you need somebody else’s spirit to move with you, and that’s always going to be Jon Batiste,” said the headliner.
Following Eilish’s appearance, Del Rey was joined by her co-producer and co-writer of late, Antonoff, for a reading of “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me — but I Have It.” Or at least some version of her was joined by Antonoff: He was playing piano very definitely in the flesh, but she appeared as an oversized hologram, just for that one number. The track dates back to her “Normal Fucking Rockwell” album from 2019.
Her setlist included some live rarities, including opening with “Without You,” which fans say she has not performed since 2014, and her cover of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time,” which she hasn’t done since 2019 — possibly a nod to the fact that a contemporary iteration of Sublime is also booked for Coachella.
Del Rey didn’t need any of her guests to make an impression, most viewers on-site or watching via the YouTube livestream would agree. She had certainly one of the more memorable entrances and exits in Coachella history, riding in and out through the audience, via walled off sections splitting up the crowd, on the back of a motorcycle, sometimes standing and/or blowing kisses as she passed by. Her six dancers trailed her, also holding onto motorcycle drivers, in motorcades that lasted minutes.
The hour-and-a-half set was well received by the massive crowd, either in spite of or because of offering such different moods and musical fare than what had preceded it during the day. The live singing and instrumentation was just one obvious point of demarcation from some other Coachella artists seen throughout the day. Low on the highly aggro qualities emphasized by some other performers, the Del Rey show was all about gentle, if determined, feminine energy, with Del Rey and her female dancers and backup singers wearing dresses and singing softly or beauteously, while, of course, putting this low-key energy to use on the bold themes she’s famous for.
From the very first drone (or Steadicam) shots of her motorcades, on through to what almost counted as delicate pole dancing, to a succession of piano ballads in the second half of the set, her show was characterized by what might have been described a late-night vibe, even if it hadn’t started (on schedule) at 11:20 p.m. and lasted nearly till 1. That easygoing sense of summertime sadness is no easy thing to pull off in a climactic slot: Perhaps only Del Rey could turn in a headlining festival set this laid-back, or even sweet, and still utterly reassert herself as an alpha in the process.
Fresh from his incandescent performance of “It Never Went Away” at the 96th Academy Awards, the highly acclaimed, multi-talented Jon Batiste heated things up, then tore them down at NYC’s Beacon Theater on Tuesday, March 19th.
The 5-time Grammy and Oscar-winning musician and former bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is in the middle of his first North American headlining tour to promote his latest album, World Music Radio. Jon Batiste’s “Uneasy Tour: Purifying the Airwaves for the People” kicked off on February 16 in Portland, Oregon, will span the US and Canada, and culminate in Miramar Beach, Florida on April 27.
Batiste aims to create unique experiences even in smaller venues. As he recently told USA Today: “We are designing these performances to be catalysts to bring people together, raise awareness for things I care about, and inspire change in this country, and the world.”
These are fine days for Batiste. Last year, he was nominated in six categories for the 2024 Grammy Awards. His nods included Album of the Year for World Music Radio, Record of the Year for “Worship.” His other nominations include Best Jazz Performance for “Movement 18′ (Heroes).” Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for his appearance on Lana Del Rey’s “Candy Necklace,” and Song of the Year for “Butterfly,” (also nominated for Best American Roots Performance).
Sadly, “Butterfly” didn’t win the Grammy but it sure was a winner with the audience.
Jon Batiste – Butterfly | Deezer Sessions, Pariswww.youtube.com
Batiste transfixed the crowd with this heartwarming song of childhood. Almost a lullaby, it’s incantatory. There’s a repeated set of triplets – Oh-oh-oh, whoa-whoa-whoa, oh-oh-oh . . . that Batiste urged the audience to sing together, saying:
“Everybody put your lights in the air. It represents the soul light.”
All around the Beacon Theatre people’s phone lights flickered as they sang along.
“Light that’s been with you since you were a child – Since the day you were born. You can never-ever lose it. All of us have it.”
“We can win, we can win, we can win, we can win.”
“Now you see I composed this melody, this healing melody . . . And the more you sing it with friends and family and complete strangers – The more the healing properties take effect – So sing with me this lullaby, this butterfly-healing-melody – first composed for my beautiful wife, Suleika.”
And, as the audience continued singing, Batiste was joined onstage at the Beacon Theatre by Suleika Jaouad, the author of the New York Times Best Seller Between Two Kingdoms – a chronicle of survivorship (Penguin Random House 2021).
Diagnosed with a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia in 2011, Jaouad was given only a 35% chance of surviving. She survived and has written and spoken extensively about these medical challenges. At the end of 2021, Jaouad announced the recurrence of her cancer.
Batiste and Jaouad have been a couple for a decade, but they officially tied the knot in February of 2022 a day before she underwent a second bone marrow transplant.
In the recent Netflix documentary American Symphony, a doctor advises Jaouad that although she’s technically in remission, chemotherapy might have to continue for the rest of her life.
American Symphony | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com
As the audience sang to the couple, showering them with love, There were tears, laughter, joy, and smiles. This was no sentimental wallowing – Batiste achieves what he’s set out to do: encouraging people to seek peace and happiness.
Batiste is worth the attention he’s receiving – as anyone who saw him at the Beacon last night will attest. For the better part of the two-and-a-half-hour show, Batiste was playing and singing – dancing wild and free. Over the course of the evening, he demonstrated his mastery of the piano, melodica, drums, synth, and more.
Truth to tell, when you take an outstanding composer, voice, band, and a packed-out, loving audience then meld it with Batiste’s positive message about the power of humankind to effect change, you leave the venue with the feeling you can change the world.
And who knows? Maybe you can.
Want to catch Jon Batiste in the act? The singer will make stops in Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Toronto, New Haven, New York, Dallas, and more, on the 23-date run of shows.
Head to Ticketmaster, but be quick about it – many shows are sold out!
Deadline reported that American Symphony had been widely considered to be the frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, which should come as no surprise given how obsessed the liberal world of Hollywood is with the Obamas.
When nominations were announced on Tuesday morning, however, the Obama-produced American Symphony was nowhere to be found, as the five films that were instead nominated were National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger, and 20 Days in Mariupol.
The Obamas produced American Symphony, which was directed by Matthew Heineman and tells the story of the Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and his wife Suleika Jaouad. Check out a trailer for the movie in the video below.
Michelle had been campaigning hard for her film, even appearing in Louisiana at a special Netflix screening of the movie last month.
“I’m beyond thrilled to be here in Nawlins with all y’all!” Michelle said at the event. “My husband, he’s not here. He says, ‘Hey.’ There is no better place to lift up this work than in the city where music is at the heart of everything, because music is at the heart of this film.”
“This film is about so much more than one man’s meteoric ascent,” she continued. “It is the story of two souls, Jon and Suleika, two souls on parallel paths. Alongside Suleika’s courageous battle with leukemia, we see the fuller story behind Jon’s Grammy wins and that Carnegie Hall performance [in May 2022], the harmony and dissidence that lifts them both up, yet tears them both down in their journey. We see how art and music can be a source of healing.”
During her speech, Michelle also described Baptiste as a close personal friend.
“Jon says music, for him, is more than entertainment. It’s a spiritual practice. He says he believes a song or an album is made and almost has a radar to find the person when they need it most. Ain’t that the thing?” she stated. “We also learn that the victories we see in public aren’t usually the whole story, even with famous people. And even if the extreme highs and lows don’t necessarily balance each other out, then at the very least they can exist together in an imperfectly beautiful way.”
“These are exactly the kind of stories and storytellers that Barack and I hoped to partner with when we started our production company,” Michelle concluded.
American Symphony had been considered the frontrunner for the Oscar after winning a slew of other awards that include Best Music Documentary and Best Score at the recent Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards as well as audience awards at the Montclair Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, and Philadelphia Film Festival. Unfortunately for the Obamas, however, the Oscars clearly did not see their movie as being up to par.
The Obamas are used to the liberal elites of Hollywood fawning over them as if they are royalty, so being snubbed by the Oscars has to have come as a major shock to them. If they truly want to make it big in Hollywood, perhaps they should focus a little less on publicly bashing Donald Trump, and a little more on making movies that are actually good!
Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust. The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”
An Ivy leaguer, proud conservative millennial, history lover, writer, and lifelong New Englander, James specializes in the intersection of… More about James Conrad
FREE NEWS ALERTS
Subscribe to receive the most important stories delivered straight to your inbox. Your subscription helps protect independent media.
By subscribing, you agree to receive emails from ThePoliticalInsider.com and that you’ve read and agree to our Privacy policy and to our terms and conditions.
Inside a Manhattan hospital room in February 2022, Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad obtained their marriage license. A city clerk addressed the pair over Zoom, and a nurse held the laptop upright as a surgical port was being prepped to go in Jaouad’s chest. This isn’t how they pictured it would be. They’d been a couple for eight years and, like many others, they were waiting out the pandemic: planning an exuberant celebration that could be attended by Jaouad’s relatives from overseas and Batiste’s New Orleans family, complete with second-line parade. “When I got sick, it expedited that plan,” Jaouad says.
The wedding itself happened a day before Jaouad underwent bone marrow transplant surgery and five months after her leukemia returned. They were married in their then empty Brooklyn home, the floors swept clean of construction debris and rooms filled with flowers and candles. Batiste and Jaouad exchanged bread ties instead of rings, and he played “Unforgettable” on a rented grand piano. A tight-knit circle of COVID-tested guests were served fried chicken sandwiches and Champagne. The only thing the couple hadn’t thought of, it seemed, was finding someone to document the day. “It occurred to us that we did not have a wedding photographer on the morning of,” Jaouad remembers. “And Matt, of course, was like, ‘I’ll film the wedding.’ ”
Jon Batiste premieres the titular work in American Symphony.COURTESY OF NETFLIX.
That would be Matthew Heineman, who so intimately captures Batiste and Jaouad’s love story in Netflix’s American Symphony, acquired by the streamer and the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground, after bowing at the Telluride Film Festival in August. Their makeshift nuptials are emblematic of a year in the couple’s life that was upended at every turn.
Heineman, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Cartel Land and A Private War, met Batiste when the singer, musician, and Late Show bandleader composed the score for his 2021 COVID documentary, The First Wave. Drawn together by mutual respect, they planned a vérité-style road-trip movie tracing the journey to Batiste’s first symphony at Carnegie Hall. Then, on November 23, 2021, Batiste was nominated for a field-leading 11 Grammys—on the very same day, Jaouad started chemo treatments for her second bout with leukemia. “Life intervened,” Heineman says. “And as I have with almost every film I ever made, I was forced to really pivot.”
Shifting focus meant turning the lens toward Jaouad, who had already chronicled her first battle with leukemia at age 22 in her best-selling memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. “She didn’t want to be a part of it,” Heineman says plainly. “She definitely didn’t want to be the sick antidote to Jon’s success, and nor did I [want that]. I wanted to make sure that she was a fully formed artist and individual, in addition to being Jon’s partner.”
Jaouad appreciated the opportunity to offer a more complex view of the cancer experience onscreen. “Too often we see a glossed-over version of the illness narrative that ends in a cure, a sense of triumph, where you return from that experience wiser and stronger and braver,” she says. “A relapse is every cancer patient’s worst nightmare. This time around, I knew that my prognosis was not in my favor. That felt, to me, worthy of portraying from the trenches of treatment.”
Batiste’s foremost concern? “To protect Suleika and our family,” he says. “A lot of documentaries, especially with entertainers, there’s a lack of vulnerability. But the goal was to make something that would be very true to life. And life at that time happened to be Suleika having this seismic diagnosis and me having these seismic career milestones.” Batiste admits that agreeing to film warts-and-all was an exercise in faith: “It felt like it was much bigger than us. And even though it was more than we had bargained for going in, it felt as though this is what the spirit was leading us to do. It was a work of God that we had to complete to the end.”
When an artist reaches a certain point in their career, self-reference can’t be avoided. In Lana Del Rey’s case, that tends to become quite a quagmire in terms of how most of her music and aesthetics were already referencing other people to begin with. This includes not only “paying homage” visually to the “classics” of Americana and 50s-era icons like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Elvis Presley, but also more esoteric fare, including instrumentation and intonation from Eleni Vitali’s “Dromoi Pou Agapisa” for “Video Games” (though some have tried to push back on that theory). Then, of course, there’s her signature of randomly throwing in the lyrics of musical heroes like David Bowie (“Ground control to Major Tom” in “Terrence Loves You”), Patsy Cline (“I fall to pieces” in “Cherry”), Bob Dylan (“Like a rolling stone” in “Off to the Races” and “Lay-lady-lay” in “Tomorrow Never Came”), Beach Boys (“Don’t worry baby” in “Lust for Life” and “California dreamin’” on “Fuck It I Love You”) and Leonard Cohen (“That’s how the light gets in” in “Kintsugi”), to name a few. And let’s not forget her tendency toward weaving literary quotes into much of her work, to boot (which is much easier to sneak in and have people assume is one’s own because nobody’s all that well-read anymore, are they?). Many of which take from Nabokov’s evermore problematic tome, Lolita. Hence, the Del Rey songs “Lolita,” “Carmen” and “Off to the Races.” There’s also Walt Whitman in “Body Electric,” T. S. Eliot in “Burnt Norton” and Oscar Wilde in “Gods and Monsters.” With so many people to “inspire” (read: take from), it’s no wonder Del Rey is so prolific.
But it all makes sense because of how much Del Rey has always represented the millennial gift for pastiche. Themselves having experienced it on overload from the day of conception, thanks to being “cultivated” in a postmodern world. Where society is at now leaves potential for many more “posts” to be placed in front of that “modern” (just how many might depend on who you ask). And maybe that’s why the love of all things meta has taken root so deeply in pop culture ever since Scream came to theaters. Del Rey herself has never much favored playing with the concept too overtly, perhaps deciding it was time to do so after all this talk of her various “personas” throughout album cycles—though mainly the “Daddy”-loving one that sucks on lollipops, sips “cherry cola” and still insists, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” (another lyric borrowed from someone else: The Crystals). So it’s only right for director Rich Lee (who previously teamed with Del Rey on videos for “Doin’ Time” and “Fuck It I Love You/The Greatest”) to commence “Candy Necklace,” the first single from Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd to receive a video accompaniment, by opening on a klieg light. Everything about such an emblem signifying the grandeur of Del Rey’s music, as well as her ongoing commitment to presenting Old Hollywood glamor as a lifestyle choice people can still choose to make.
Lee zooms into the shot of the klieg light and then cuts to the man wielding it behind the back of the truck Lana is “driving” on set. One with a screen backdrop that plays footage of trees on a loop to make it seem like she’s actually driving though some woodsy area (“You can find me where no one will be/In the woods somewhere,” as she says on “Sweet”) when, obviously, she’s not. But it’s all part of the “put-on,” innit? That razzle-dazzle that only Hollywood—de facto, Del Rey—still knows how to achieve better than anyone. And where is she driving to but L.A.? Some small-town girl bound for the big city to do “big things.” Much like the woman Del Rey visually emulates in the video, Elizabeth Short. Better known as the Black Dahlia. Like Del Rey, Short shares a name with Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant and also spent much of her youth on the East Coast (with some stints in Florida, also like “Lizzy”) before ending up in L.A. after various boppings around between her father and some Army and Navy men.
Rumors of whether or not Short was a prostitute began to crop up in the wake of her murder, tying right in with another favorite topic of Del Rey’s, as explored on “A&W.” Indeed, after so much rejection in her life, it would be easy to imagine Short callously thinking to herself as she prowled the streets of L.A., “It’s not about having someone to love me anymore/This is the experience of being an American whore.” Regardless of whether or not she did prostitute herself at one time or another, there was an innocent aura about her. Which then, of course, brings us to the flowers—dahlias—Short wore in her hair. As Del Rey used to adorn her own hair with a “sweet” flower crown despite talking of subjects like cocaine, older men and being born bad.
The dichotomy of a woman when viewed through the myopic lens of men—particularly men controlling Hollywood and the narratives that were churned out of it—is embodied by Del Rey as the vixen, the vamp and the lost little lamb throughout the video. Cutting from her in the truck as “Lana” to her as the Black Dahlia sometime in the 40s as she’s guided out of a car by a John Waters lookalike (maybe the real deal wasn’t available), Lee sets the stage for something sinister to build—only to keep taking us out of the moment with constant behind-the-scenes “asides” from Del Rey herself who, as usual, helmed the concept. As she walks into the stately mansion she’s led to by this older gentleman (Johnny Robish), she reminds one of Lana (quelle coincidence) Clarkson being led to the slaughter by Phil Spector. Eerily (and perhaps intentionally) enough, Robish actually did portray Spector in a TV series called Silenced. And yes, one could imagine Del Rey moonlighting as a hostess at the House of Blues and ending up in such a man’s abode had things gone in an alternate direction for her. In fact, one of her chief defenses against those calling her portrayal of the Black Dahlia insensitive (since, by now, everyone is desensitized to Marilyn’s image being habitually plundered) is that, “It’s not insensitive when you started the same way and you could’ve ended up that way, but that hasn’t been how the story played out and no one knows how it will. So, leave if you don’t like the idea.” But obviously, plenty will like it, for Del Rey is not without her devoted legions, even if they aren’t able to move mountains in quite the same way as Swifties or Beyhive members.
But Taylor and Beyoncé don’t tend to go quite so niche (at least not in ways deemed as polarizing) with their visual brainchilds. In this video’s instance, a key part of the concept is highlighting “what it’s like for those in front of the camera, behind the smokescreen of fame.” Almost like what Britney Spears was doing in the video for “Lucky” as a matter of fact. But, as usual, Brit doesn’t get much credit for her profundity. Del Rey also follows the tradition of movies that serve as a “film within a film” designed to debunk the supposed perfection of it all—totally manufactured by those behind the camera as much as those in front of it. For someone mired in the debate about “persona,” it couldn’t be a more on-the-nose notion. Almost as on the nose as the various “rundowns” of the video that have come out, offering only such reductive “commentary” as, “Lana Del Rey Transforms Into Marilyn Monroe in New Video.” No shit. But, as with most Del Rey videos, there’s much more to it than the surface.
Considering her collaboration with Lee on the merged videos for “Fuck It I Love You” and “The Greatest” (clocking in at nine minutes and nineteen seconds to make it a length contender with the videos for “Ride,” “Venice Bitch,” “Norman Fucking Rockwell”/“Bartender”/“Happiness Is A Butterfly” and, now, “Candy Necklace”), he actually alludes to it when making mention of her skateboarding down an alleyway in Long Beach for that shoot. An alleyway will factor in during this video as well, but not with such a “fun-loving” tinge. What’s more, it’s worth noting that the lyrics to “Fuck It I Love You” encapsulate the “everygirl”—like Elizabeth Short—who moves to L.A. with “big dreams” (“said you had to leave to start your life over”). Only to fall into the trap of “fast living” (yet again). This apparent in lyrics such as, “Maybe the way that I’m living is killing me/I like to light up the stage with a song/Do shit to keep me turned on/But one day I woke up like, ‘Maybe I’ll do it differently’/So I moved to California but it’s just a state of mind.” And that state of mind can often lead to a dark destiny, hidden behind the oft-repeated phrase: “the myth of California.”
Del Rey as Black Dahlia starts to slowly uncover it as we see her atop a grandiose staircase, in the home of the creepy older man who takes her there. Another camera cut shows Del Rey overlooking the scene with Jon Batiste, her trusty piano player on the song and also, of course, a Grammy-winning dynamo in his own right. But in this context, the two both appear as outsiders looking in, heightening the meta concept of us as the outsider audience watching them look like outsiders, too. When Del Rey then descends the staircase while “acting the part,” it feels like a callback to Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard doing the same thing after retreating entirely into her delusions.
Whatever is happening throughout the video, Lee is always sure to keep our eyes on the varying necklaces Del Rey is wearing, with the term “candy necklace” being symbolic of a lure itself. Something women use to “ensnare” by drawing the male gaze to her vulnerable neck and then up to the mouth as she sucks on the candy. It’s also a metaphor for something sweet and disposable—the way most young women are viewed, particularly by men in “the industry” who see such women as mere “perks” of being in it. Ergo, Del Rey’s dissection of yet another disappointing man who she thought she was madly in love with echoes a sentiment expressed in “Shades of Cool”: “I can’t fix him/Can’t make him better.” But by the time she—or rather, the Black Dahlia version of herself—realizes it, it’s too late.
At the two-minute, forty-eight-second mark of the video, Del Rey is up to her old “National Anthem” tricks again by portraying Marilyn Monroe, but this time with the full-on re-creation of her blonde coif (as opposed to just wearing a replica of the Jean Louis gown that Kim Kardashian felt obliged to destroy for the sake of her vanity). Shot from a movie-within-a-movie perspective again, we hear the “real” Del Rey tell Lee, “I just don’t know, like, how to not be, like, a robot. I just need to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.” And shoot she does…in the persona of Marilyn holding a book in her hand (there’s also a book in the background appropriately titled Handbook of General Psychology). While some would write Del Rey’s portrayal of Marilyn off as yet another tired trick in her usual playbook, it bears remarking that her putting on this particular “character” has more significance at this moment in time, with Del Rey currently being thirty-seven—a year older than Marilyn was when she died (or committed suicide, if that’s the theory you’re going with). This meaning she survived past a “scary age” for those who pay attention to the women slain by the Hollywood machine. Which harkens back to Del Rey’s mention of how when she started out as Lizzy Grant taking on the big city and finding herself in precarious situations with men-wolves, her fate might have gone down just as dark a path as Short’s or Monroe’s.
After talking about being like a robot, Del Rey adds, “I’m not, like, it’s not, like, working anymore for me.” There are two interpretations of this line: 1) the concept isn’t working for her anymore or 2) doing the shoot no longer feels like work to her because she’s so “in it.” In this manner, as well, there is a layer of duality to everything. Transitioning back to Black Dahlia mode, Del Rey offers another behind-the-scenes soundbite in the form of, “‘Cause the whole thing about the video is, like…why it was all supposed to be behind-the-scenes is because all these women who, like, changed their name, changed their hair, like me and stuff [correction: her like them], it’s like they all fell into these different, different, like, snake holes, so the whole point is like how do you learn from that and not fall into your own thing?” Del Rey grapples with that question as she puts on another wig—this one more Veronica Lake-esque. Along with a Red Riding Hood-style cape in white. The Red Riding Hood vibe being undeniably pointed, per the mention of the men-wolves above—the ones that still run most industries. And still make them all a rather scary place to be a woman. Especially a “fragile” one (as Del Rey so often likes to remind people that she is—something Jewel was doing quite some time ago).
Walking down a darkened alleyway in this glam-ified Red Riding Hood getup, Del Rey finds herself singing—performing—yet again in a club (as she has also done so many times before in videos such as “Blue Velvet,” “Ride” and “Fuck It I Love You”). One where the seedy Phil Spector-reminiscent character waits and watches. A wolf in no sheep’s clothing. As Batiste plays the piano next to her, Del Rey locks eyes with this foreboding male presence…yet another “Daddy” figure in her music video canon (see also: “Ride,” “Shades of Cool” and “The Greatest”). The one to lead her into the proverbial woods, rather than out of them, as she would like to believe.
Back in the alleyway with this man who will serve as her “date” for the rest of the “evening,” Del Rey rips off the wig she’s wearing to reveal Black Dahlia curls again…or are they Del Rey’s own? As usual, she toys with viewers’ perception on the matter, with wig-snatching as yet another bid to break down the wall of artifice created by Hollywood glamor. Subverting the “real” goings-on “behind the scenes” again by flashing a middle finger at the camera in her dressing room and demanding, “Get out. Seriously.” But is she being serious, or is this a sendup of the difficult diva persona? Once more, the decision is at the discretion of the beholder.
Close-ups on Del Rey’s necklace become more pronounced after this scene, though it’s been accented the entire time that each “character” she plays wears some kind of ornate necklace. The one lured (whether aware of the lure or ultimately uncaring that it is a lure) into the backseat of “Daddy’s” car keeps caressing the “candy” necklace she’s wearing as Lee cuts to Batiste repeating the phrase like a narrator who can only communicate her fate through this ominous pair of words. All at once, there’s a moment when it seems as though the necklace feels to her like a choking hold that she tries to remove before looking around frantically out the window. Is it too late to escape what she herself walked into? As necklaces both candy and jeweled fall against a black backdrop and into blood, we find out what the answer is…and what we knew it to be all along: she can’t escape the gruesome outcome that awaits. This shown dramatically by a shot of the car door open and her white cape strewn from the seat to the floor, covered in blood. The camera pans to the back of the car, where a trunk is attached. The perfect size for fitting a mutilated body. Partially open, the camera closes in on its blood-spattered exterior, zooming into the blackness of the trunk only to then reflect back the POV from within: a bevy of reporters letting their flashbulbs go off in a frenzy, ready to splash the horrid tale all over newspapers across the country. The girl is just a story now. Another cautionary tale. One that tells women: don’t be “loose,” don’t “ask for it.” And suddenly, among the fray of “paparazzi” (a word not yet coined in the Black Dahlia’s time), there’s Jon Batiste, who presently comes across as the A$AP Rocky of the narrative, for Del Rey does so enjoy to portray herself as the romantic fetish of Black men. And the fetish of bad men.
Another cut made through the flashbulb and into the reality where Del Rey is just a star who was playing a tragic dead girl concludes the video. Or was this the alternate reality Del Rey wants to offer up for all the girls who didn’t survive the wolves of Hollywood? Whatever the case, she poses with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one that doesn’t actually yet exist, but maybe it will soon) with that shit-eating grin of triumph. The black-and-white scene then segues into color, indicating the falseness of it. A few close-ups on some more neck shots of Del Rey wearing her various necklaces are followed by the final frame being Del Rey’s smiling face as seen through the camera monitor. This concluding the meta blending of fiction and reality, with Del Rey happier than ever (to use an Eilish phrase) about confusing the two. For to live in the twentieth century and beyond is to never really know the difference anymore. Just ask Gloria Swanson/Norma Desmond. Or Norma Jeane/Marilyn. Or Elizabeth Short/the Black Dahlia. Or Lizzy/Lana.
“An artist who transcends generations, Jon Batiste’s music inspires and brings people together,” said Vanessa Valdivia, a spokesperson for first lady Jill Biden, whose office is overseeing dinner preparations.
“We’re thrilled to have him perform at the White House for the first state dinner of the Biden-Harris administration,” Valdivia said.
The black-tie dinner for Macron will be part of what is shaping up to be a busy social season at the White House. The Bidens’ granddaughter Naomi was married on the South Lawn earlier this month. And first lady Jill Biden was set on Monday to unveil the White House decorations that will be viewed by thousands of holiday visitors over the next month.
Reporters returning to the White House on Sunday with the president saw large wreaths studded with shiny Christmas tree ornaments and red bows suspended from the south side of the White House. Wreaths also were hung on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the building. White lights were draped over the shrubs and other landscaping on the South Lawn. A Christmas tree could be seen through the windows of the Oval Office.
Batiste will be adding White House entertainer to an already long list of roles, including recording artist, bandleader, musical director, film composer, museum creative director and scion of New Orleans musical royalty.
He won five Grammy Awards this year, including for album of the year for “We Are.” During the awards show in April, Batiste ended his dance-filled performance of “Freedom” by jumping up on Billie Eilish’s table.
Batiste, 36, most recently was bandleader and musical director of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” leaving the broadcast after a seven-year run.
Batiste composed music, consulted on and arranged songs for Pixar’s animated film “Soul.” He won a Golden Globe for the music alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails. The trio also earned the Academy Award for best original score. For their work on “Soul,” Batiste, Reznor and Ross won the Grammy for best score soundtrack for visual media.
The Washington Post was first to report that Batiste will perform at the dinner.
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 23, the 327th day of 2022. There are 38 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 23, 1971, the People’s Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.
On this date:
In 1889, the first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon. (The coin-operated device consisted of four listening tubes attached to an Edison phonograph.)
In 1903, Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in “Rigoletto.”
In 1936, Life, the photojournalism magazine created by Henry R. Luce (loos), was first published.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed Nov. 25 a day of national mourning following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In 1980, some 2,600 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.
In 1996, a commandeered Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the water off the Comoros Islands, killing 125 of the 175 people on board, including all three hijackers.
In 2000, in a setback for Al Gore, the Florida Supreme Court refused to order Miami-Dade County officials to resume hand-counting its election-day ballots. Meanwhile, Gore’s lawyers argued in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the high court should stay out of the Florida election controversy.
In 2003, five U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Eduard Shevardnadze (sheh-vahrd-NAHD’-zeh) resigned as president of Georgia in the face of protests.
In 2006, former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko (leet-vee-NYEN’-koh) died in London from radiation poisoning after making a deathbed statement blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2008, the government unveiled a bold plan to rescue Citigroup, injecting a fresh $20 billion into the troubled firm as well as guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets.
In 2011, Yemen’s authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh (AH’-lee ahb-DUH’-luh sah-LEH’) agreed to step down amid a fierce uprising to oust him after 33 years in power.
In 2020, the federal government recognized Joe Biden as the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, formally starting the transition of power; President Donald Trump still refused to concede and vowed to continue a court fight after General Services Administrator Emily Murphy gave the green light for Biden to coordinate with federal agencies ahead of his inauguration. Michigan certified Biden’s win in the battleground state.
Ten years ago: Supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clashed in the streets of Cairo and other major cities in the worst violence since Morsi took office nearly five months earlier. Actor Larry Hagman, best known for playing the scheming oil baron J.R. Ewing on TV’s “Dallas,” died in Dallas at the age of 81.
Five years ago: The holiday shopping season kicked off with some major retailers opening on Thanksgiving afternoon or evening, hoping for a lift from a better economy.
One year ago: A jury in Virginia ordered 17 white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay more than $26 million in damages over the violence that erupted during the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. A federal jury in Cleveland found that CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties. (A judge awarded $650 million in damages.) NASA launched a spacecraft on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course. (NASA said the mission was a success.) President Joe Biden ordered a record 50 million barrels of oil released from America’s strategic reserve, aiming to bring down gasoline and other costs. The only person convicted in the 2007 murder in Italy of British student Meredith Kercher, Rudy Guede, was freed after serving most of his 16-year prison sentence. Multi-genre performer Jon Batiste scored the most Grammy nominations with 11.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Franco Nero is 81. Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (ES’-tur-hahs) is 78. Actor-comedy writer Bruce Vilanch is 75. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is 72. Singer Bruce Hornsby is 68. Former Sen. Mary Landrieu (LAN’-droo), D-La., is 67. Actor Maxwell Caulfield is 63. Actor John Henton is 62. TV personality Robin Roberts (“Good Morning America”) is 62. Rock singer-musician Ken Block (Sister Hazel) is 56. Actor Salli Richardson-Whitfield is 55. Actor Oded Fehr (OH’-dehd fayr) is 52. Rapper-actor Kurupt (Tha Dogg Pound) is 50. Actor Page Kennedy is 46. Actor Kelly Brook is 43. Actor Lucas Grabeel (GRAY’-beel) is 38. TV personality Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is 35. Actor-singer Miley Cyrus is 30. Actor Olivia Keville (TV: “Splitting Up Together”) is 20.
