genre jazz
Universal Music Group has announced the expansion of two of its most storied labels — Deutsche Grammophon and Blue Note Records — into greater China, marking a significant move to tap into the country’s rapidly growing classical and jazz music scenes.
“At UMG, we are committed to supporting the development of diverse music cultures around the world,” said Adam Granite, UMG’s executive vice president of market development. “The launch of Deutsche Grammophon China and Blue Note Records China reflects this vision in action and marks a meaningful step forward in the evolution of our multi-label operations in the market.”
Announced at an event in Shanghai this week, Deutsche Grammophon China will focus on discovering and promoting new classical talent across China, plus provide artists with access to UMG’s global resources, including recording, international promotion and touring. Chinese musicians Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Long Yu will serve as artistic advisors, guiding the label’s artistic direction.
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DG China’s debut release, Bach: The Cello Suites by acclaimed cellist Jian Wang, is set for May 23. Additionally, DG China will collaborate with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to record and release the complete Shostakovich Symphonies by 2029, celebrating the orchestra’s 150th anniversary.
Dr. Clemens Trautmann, president of Deutsche Grammophon, highlighted the label’s growing presence in China over the past decade and noted that the partnership with Blue Note and the involvement of international artists underscore UMG’s global reach and creative ambition. “We are proud to co-invest in the future generation of outstanding classical performers from Greater China, together with our esteemed colleagues at UMGC to foster the success of amazing new talent across recording, touring and brand partnerships,” Trautmann said.
Stacy Yang, Timothy Xu, Dr Clemens Trautmann and Adam Granite in Shanghai.
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Blue Note Records China is set to champion original jazz talent within the country, beginning with its inaugural signing: INNOUT, an avant-garde duo known for fusing improvisation, modern jazz, and experimental soundscapes. This partnership underscores the label’s commitment to bold, boundary-defying artistry.
BNRC is also partnering with JZ Music, a key player in China’s jazz scene, to promote live performances, tours, and festivals.
Don Was, president of Blue Note Records, praised INNOUT’s visionary talent and expressed excitement about launching the label’s Chinese chapter with their music. “Xiao Jun and An Yu are two of the most talented and visionary musicians I’ve ever met,” Was said. “Their music is going to ‘blow people’s minds’ all over the world. It’s a thrill and an honor to be able to launch Blue Note Records China with their music.”
Blue Note Jazz Club has confirmed that plans to open a new venue in London, England will proceed following the granting of a late license by the local council. The 350-capacity venue will be the first Blue Note Jazz Club to be established in the U.K. and is slated for an early 2026 opening.
The news follows reports of opposition by the Metropolitan Police Service and local residents. In February a Licensing Sub-Committee Report from the City of Westminster outlined a number of objections from the local police enforcement, who objected to the venue’s opening on the grounds it would undermine the licensing objective of “prevention of crime and disorder”.
The move was criticised by a number of local musicians and industry figures, with claims that the council was stifling the capital’s nightlife scene. The venue was initially granted a license that would see the club close at 11:30 p.m., but Steven Bensusan – president of Blue Note Entertainment Group and son of the original Blue Note Cafe founder Danny Bensusan – told Sky News that the opening of its planned European flagship venue may not be viable without a late license. “If they’re not giving us a late license, I can’t imagine how they would be supportive of other smaller venues, which are important for the ecosystem in general.”
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However the Westminster City Council has since reversed its opposition and said that the “venue management have engaged extensively with local people to improve their application and address the concerns that were raised by the police.”
The venue will be based in the basement of the St Martins Lane hotel in Covent Garden in central London. The license will allow the club to open until 1 a.m. on Monday to Saturday, to midnight on Sundays.
The Blue Note Jazz Club will host two performance spaces: a main room with 250 person capacity, alongside a secondary 100 person capacity space. The venue will host a full-service kitchen and beverage menu and will be open for dinner throughout the week.
The new venue will continue the expansion of Blue Note Jazz Clubs internationally. The original club in New York City was opened in 1981, and new venues have since opened in Milan, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Ezra Collective and more have all performed at the club and its sister institutions.
Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note Entertainment Group said in a statement, “We’re excited to be coming to London and grateful to Westminster Council for recognising what Blue Note can bring to the city’s nightlife. As we prepare to open in early 2026, we’re looking forward to bringing world-class jazz and a deep cultural legacy to one of the greatest music cities in the world.”
Seth MacFarlane’s ninth studio album, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, will feature 12 never-before-heard arrangements created for Frank Sinatra by his legendary collaborators Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Don Costa. The album is set for release June 6 via Verve Records / Republic Records.
MacFarlane has long been a Sinatra fan. Two of the Family Guy creator’s earlier albums, Holiday for Swing and No One Ever Tells You, featured Sinatra’s bassist Chuck Berghofer as well as a 65-piece orchestra. In 2015, MacFarlane performed on the primetime tribute Sinatra 100 — An All-Star GRAMMY Concert.
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MacFarlane, 51, was born in October 1973, the very month Sinatra released Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back, his “comeback album” following a brief retirement (which he wisely reconsidered). Sinatra continued recording through 1994. He died in 1998 at age 82.
These arrangements remained in the private collection of the Sinatra family for many years. In collaboration with the Sinatra family and estate, MacFarlane acquired the entire Sinatra music archive in 2018, and has brought these 12 arrangements to life with a 70-piece orchestra, conducted by British conductor John Wilson, and produced by MacFarlane’s longtime musical collaborator Joel McNeely. Every song on the album was recorded live with this ensemble at George Lucas’ famed Skywalker Sound Studios in Marin County, Calif.
The album’s first single, Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” features Riddle’s original conceptual arrangement from 1958.
MacFarlane received Grammy nominations for best traditional pop vocal album for his first three non-holiday studio albums — Music Is Better Than Words (2012), No One Ever Tells You (2016) and In Full Swing (2018).
If this new album is also nominated when the nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards are announced later this year, it will become the ninth tribute album to Sinatra to be cited in that category, following Tony Bennett’s Perfectly Frank (1993), Barry Manilow’s Manilow Sings Sinatra (1999), Keely Smith’s Keely Sings Sinatra (2002), Michael Feinstein’s The Sinatra Project (2009) – and two albums each by Bob Dylan (Shadows in the Night, 2016, and Fallen Angels, 2017) and Willie Nelson (My Way, 2019 and That’s Life, 2022).
Bennett’s Perfectly Frank and Nelson’s My Way both won in that category. Sinatra himself won in the category in 1995 for Duets II, which was his final new studio album.
MacFarlane is set to bring Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements to the stage with a live performance at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall on Feb. 17, 2026.
MacFarlane has received five Grammy nominations in all – the other two are for best comedy album and best song written for visual media – and an Oscar nomination for best original song for “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Ted. Other career highlights include hosting the Oscars in 2013, performing with legendary composer John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl, and recording a duet with Barbra Streisand for her Billboard 200-topping album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.
Here’s the complete track list to Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements:
“Give Me the Simple Life”
“I Never Felt This Way Before”
“Lush Life”
“Flying Down to Rio”
“How Did She Look?”
“Who’s In Your Arms Tonight?”
“A Wonderful Day Like Today”
“When Joanna Loved Me”
“Arrivederci, Roma”
“Hurry Home”
“Ain’tcha Ever Comin’ Back”
“Shadows”
The Blue Note Entertainment Group announced the participating artists in its 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York on Tuesday morning (April 1). Among the dozens of top name artists participating are: Grace Jones & Janelle Monaé, Branford Marsalis & Charles Lloyd, Emily King, Joshua Redman Quartet, Kenny Garrett, The Soul Rebels, Spyro Gyra, Marcus Miller, Tank and the Bangas, Santigold and many more.
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“This is one of our strongest lineups to date and Im so proud of the series we have curated this year,” says Alex Kurland, director of programming and talent buying for Blue Note. “These artists represent some of the best in jazz, soul and contemporary music and their participation this year speaks to the strength of the Blue Note brand.”
Kicking off May 27 with a concert honoring saxophonist James Moody’s 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall, the festival includes stops at a number of popular venues all over the city, including the Blue Note Jazz Club in the West Village, Town Hall near Times Square, SummerStage in Central Park, Sony Hall on W 46th Street, Celebrate Brooklyn Prospect Park and more. Tickets and more information can be found here.
“We look beyond genre to curate this festival and strive to create outstanding musical experiences,” Kurland tells Billboard. “We’re excited to present artists this year who are singular and innovative. Artists who have their own unique individuality and voice, and that are truly one of a kind.”
Blue Note has a busy schedule for 2024, including two concerts slated for the Quarry Amphitheater on the campus of UC Santa Cruz in Northern California. Blue Note is also bringing back The Black Radio Experience with Robert Glasper in Napa, opening a new Blue Note Los Angeles in Hollywood and curating and producing the newly renamed Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in June.
Blue Note recently wrapped up The Roots’ iconic celebration of their major label debut album, Do You Want More?!!!??!, at Blue Note, the annual month-long Robtober residency curated by Robert Glasper and critically acclaimed residencies with artists including Esperanza Spalding, Chris Botti and others.
Dates for the 2025 Blue Note Jazz Festival are below. More information here.
May 27 — James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration @ Sony Hall
May 29 — Kenny Garrett @ Blue Note
May 30 — Kenny Garrett @ Blue Note
May 31 — Kenny Garrett @ Blue Note
June 1 — Kenny Garrett @ Blue Note
June 1 — Harlem Gospel Choir [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 1 — Chuck Prophet & Cumbia Shoes @ Sony Hall
June 2 — Infinity Song @ Blue Note
June 3 — Infinity Song @ Blue Note
June 6 — Emily King @ Blue Note
June 7 — “Forever Ray” [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 7 — Emily King @ Blue Note
June 7 — Louie Vega & The Elements Of Life @ Sony Hall
June 8 — Harlem Gospel Choir [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 8 — Emily King @ Blue Note
June 9 — Brandee Younger @ Blue Note
June 9 — Grace Jones & Janelle Monaé @ Celebrate Brooklyn Prospect Park
June 10 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 11 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 11 — Santigold @ Sony Hall
June 12 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 13 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 13 — Spyro Gyra @ Sony Hall
June 14 — Strictly Sinatra [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 14 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 14 — Rebirth Brass Brand @ Sony Hall
June 15 — Harlem Gospel Choir [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 15 — THE REVERENCE PROJECT: John Patitucci, Darryl Jones, Nate Smith & James Francies @ Blue Note
June 15 — Gallant @ Sony Hall
June 16 — Warren G with Chris Rob & Live Band @ Blue Note
June 16 — Harlem Gospel Motown @ Sony Hall
June 17 — The Baylor Project @ Blue Note
June 18 — SABA @ Sony Hall
June 18 — The Baylor Project @ Blue Note
June 18 — Gino Vannelli @ Sony Hall
June 19 — The Baylor Project @ Blue Note
June 20 — Joshua Redman @ Blue Note
June 20 — Bas @ Sony Hall
June 20 — Babehoven @ National Sawdust
June 21 — A Tribute To The Golden Age Of Cuba – The Music Of The Buena Vista Social Club [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 21 — Joshua Redman @ Blue Note
June 22 — Harlem Gospel Choir [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 22 — Joshua Redman @ Blue Note
June 23 — Julius Rodriguez @ Blue Note
June 24 — Julius Rodriguez @ Blue Note
June 25 — Willie Nile @ Sony Hall
June 25 — Julius Rodriguez @ Blue Note
June 25 — Vopli Vidoplyasova @ Sony Hall
June 26 — Julius Rodriguez @ Blue Note
June 26 — Moses Yoofee Trio @ Blue Note
June 26 — Jesus Molina @ Sony Hall
June 27 — Savion Glover featuring PROjECt.9 @ Blue Note
June 27 — Baby Rose @ Sony Hall
June 28 — Savion Glover featuring PROjECt.9 @ Blue Note
June 28 — Branford Marsalis / Charles Lloyd Co-Bill @ Town Hall
June 29 — BALTHVS @ Sony Hall
June 29 — Harlem Gospel Choir [BRUNCH] @ Blue Note
June 29 — Savion Glover featuring PROjECt.9 @ Blue Note
June 29 — Azymuth @ Sony Hall
June 30 — Sungazer @ Blue Note
June 30 — Rickie Lee Jones @ Sony Hall
July 1 — Sungazer Plus @ Blue Note
July 2 — Sungazer Plus @ Blue Note
July 2 — Dora Morelenbaum @ Sony Hall
Jeff Goldblum is on the verge of releasing his fourth album, Still Blooming. The actor-musician reveals how he nabbed Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Scarlett Johansson to take part on his album, teases what’s to come in Wicked: For Good, talks about playing the piano for in the White House, dabbling in scatting and more!
What do you think of Jeff Goldblum’s music? Let us know in the comments!
Lyndsey Havens:You’re releasing your fourth album.
Yes, ma’am.
Still Blooming, coming in April. Tell me a bit about this project. When did you start working on it? What inspired it?
It’s our fourth album with the great Decca-
Yes.
label and Verve. But this one, as we continued and found ourselves at Scott Gilman studio, The Hobby Shop, we said, “Let’s make some more music, and let’s get some more singers to do, like we had on our other three, half of the tracks.” So on this one, we got half kind of instrumentals, and we’ll talk about all the tracks, if you like, and half singers, so let’s do more of that. And we found ourselves in the studio and doing it for heaven’s sakes because we had good ideas that we were excited about. And we’ve got merchandise coming out with a, you know, that has something to do with that. And the singers to whom I referred we’ll talk about, you know, how about that?
Yes, we will talk about that.
Because maybe they don’t even know yet, but you do, you listened to it.
I know, yeah, some pretty big names. Before we get into the features, I need to ask the obvious questions. You’ve had quite a life and career, but do you feel as though you are still blooming?
Well, like the record title suggests, refers to, yeah.
How nice.
Keep watching for more!
Jason Moran plans to blend genres in one of his performances as the Detroit Jazz Festival’s artist-in-residence this year.
“I’m thinking that I have to figure out a way to represent for Detroit’s techno music,” the pianist, bandleader, composer and educator tells Billboard. Moran was named to the prestigious position on Thursday (March 13) following drummer Brian Blade in 2024.
Techno, Moran adds, “has long been a thing I’ve listened to and practiced with sometimes at home. So why not, when you’re in Detroit, really represent it? Maybe myself and another artist can churn away for an hour. It’s the idea of, in an industrial city, drum machine meeting piano — which I think is one of the great machines — and what happens when those two meet in their simplest forms? With volume,” he adds with a laugh.
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Moran says the piece would be an entirely new composition to be premiered at the Labor Day weekend event (Aug. 29-Sept. 1) and then turned into a traveling piece.
Now in its 46th year, the DJF — held mostly outdoors in the city’s downtown — is the world’s largest free-admission jazz festival. Last year’s edition drew more than 300,000 in-person attendees, according to organizers, and a worldwide audience of more than two million via the festival’s free livestream on its website and social media platforms.
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“I think that what makes this (festival) unique is the importance of Detroit as a historic music city for the world,” says Moran, who’s performed at the festival several times, as recently as 2023. “That’s what makes it exciting for me, to be presenting sets of music in a city that’s responsible for a lot of change and possibilities in music.”
In addition to the techno-jazz mashup, Moran — who’s been on the faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music since 2010 — is planning a celebration of Duke Ellington’s 125th birthday, using a big band of younger musicians. “That’s a big one for me,” he says, “just because I get to meet who’s on the ground and get that experience to work with them and push the music the way Ellington did.” He’s also planning a set by the Bandwagon, a trio he co-founded during 2000, along with special guests.
The Houston-born Moran studied at the Manhattan School of Music and began his recording career as part of saxophonist Greg Osby’s band. He released his first solo album, Soundtrack to Human Motion, in 1999 and has released 17 more since. Moran has also scored soundtracks for films such as Selma, Traveling While Black and Aggie, and he’s recorded with Cassandra Wilson, Christian McBride, Ron Miles and others. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Scientists in 2022, and in 2023 he received the German Jazz Prize for pianist of the year.
“Jason Moran is a trailblazer in the use of diverse multimedia and theatrical installations to present jazz to audiences in a way that has never been done before,” festival artistic director and CEO Chris Collins said in a statement. “We look forward to his singular craftsmanship and his creative and evolutionary artistry to lead this year’s festival.”
The lineup for the 2025 DJF is expected to be announced April 15 during a special preview event in Detroit, where Moran will perform.
The festival has also put out a call for new works that “bring new perspectives to blending jazz and other musical styles” with an application deadline of April 11. Artist performance submissions are also open, with a deadline of June 1. Applications, as well as festival updates, can be found via detroitjazzfest.org.
LONDON — The U.K. jazz scene is in something of a golden period right now. In 2023, scene leaders Ezra Collective became the first jazz act to scoop the coveted Mercury Prize, winning for their album Where I’m Meant To Be. Last autumn, the group headlined the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena, the biggest-ever jazz headline gig in the U.K. And earlier this month, the group also landed a BRIT Award in the best group category, beating out Coldplay and The Cure, and closed the show with a joyous live performance.
In the last 12 months, there have also been superb LP releases from saxophonist Nubya Garcia and London-based harpist Nala Sinephro, while Emma-Jean Thackray’s “Wanna Die” — released on tastemaker Giles Peterson’s Brownswood label — currently sits on BBC Radio 6 Music’s A-list and London group Oreglo made Billboard U.K.’s artists to watch list in 2025. On the live front, U.K. jazz festivals such as We Out Here in Dorset, East Sussex’s Love Supreme and the London Jazz Festival are pulling bigger crowds.
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But there’s a problem, says new research from Women In Jazz, a community group that celebrates and supports female and non-binary jazz performers in the U.K. The newly released report, based on a survey of 10,000 respondents, says women in the scene are not experiencing the same opportunities as their male counterparts, face barriers within the industry and are shut out of key decision-making roles. Only 16.4% of those surveyed felt that women were “well represented” in the jazz scene, with 55.8% of them saying that they were “very poorly or poorly represented.” That chimes with recent research by The Musicians Union, which says that over half of women in music have faced gender discrimination and that female and non-binary musicians are paid less and have shorter careers.
“There’s a huge amount of work to be done in regards to fair pay, access to opportunities, visibility in the media and more,” Women in Jazz co-founder Lou Paley tells Billboard U.K. “The contributions of women in jazz have always been there, but historically they haven’t necessarily always been recognised, and that’s not just in the U.K., that’s worldwide.”
Women In Jazz was co-founded by Paley and Nina Fine in 2018 to address this issue by hosting live events, jams and workshop sessions to help provide resources for emerging female musicians in the jazz space. And while they say there has been a shift in attitudes in recent years, there is still work to be done. Now, the organization is set to release its first full-length album, a 12-track LP that will showcase some of its members, with a new song being spotlighted every month.
“It was a very organic next step in terms of the Women In Jazz journey,” says Paley. “We’ve done live events, we’ve done mentoring, so there needs to be something that encompasses all of our work and showcases artists at different stages of their journey.”
Rosa Brunello, an artist who features on the compilation, says that being a part of Women In Jazz helped her gain access to Abbey Road Studios for a recording session. With female producer numbers still stubbornly low, the hope is that the opportunity to record in such world-class studios will encourage progress not only for women performers but women producers and engineers as well. The aforementioned research by The Musicians Union indicates that women make up just 29% of DJs, 24% of producers, 15% of live sound engineers and 12% of studio/mastering engineers.
Plumm, another featured artist on the album whose song “The Epic” was released in February, says these backroom roles at record labels, festivals and more will help women be recognised and championed in the same ways their male counterparts are. “I believe that for great talent to succeed, all need to be noticed,” she says. “I think there have always been amazing female artists, and the reason they have emerged more in recent years is because there’s finally more attention towards women.”
Paley, who previously worked at London’s Roundhouse venue as part of its programming team, says that women also need to be in decision-making positions at live events and festivals. Recent research by A2D2 last year indicated that 63% of acts across 10 major UK festivals are male artists or all-male bands, compared to just 21% female solo artists or bands.
“There’s one thing booking artists on a festival lineup, but there has to be more than that. It has to be paired with a deeper understanding or interest in artist development,” Paley says. “Otherwise, it just becomes a kind of tokenistic tick box exercise, which actually can be unhelpful in terms of longevity and might put artists in a position that they’re not potentially ready for.”
The diversity of songs on the record — from Afro-Latin-infused beats to more traditional jazz standards — makes for an enthralling listen. The idea, Paley says, was to set no barriers or expectations for the selected artists, except to fulfill their creative desires — a rarity in today’s results-oriented music industry.
That creative direction was inspired by Paley’s own experiences. She began playing as a teenager in a jazz band, but in addition to being the only woman in the band, she was acutely aware that she was entering a male-dominated scene. She says that this still rings true now, with jam sessions and live performances overwhelmingly dominated by men, making it more difficult for female performers to be recognised equally for their contribution to a session.
“A lot of people felt that there was a lack of collaborative spaces where people can create and network,” Paley adds. An upcoming Women in Jazz jam night in April in Notting Hill, London, will be an early step in bringing artists closer together, while the group also recently held a networking breakfast at the city’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall.
Despite the problems that persist, progress is being made, Paley says. The growing Women in Jazz community is providing resources and support. And in 2024, UK Music reported that the number of female and non-binary musicians is on the rise. However, she adds, everyone in the music ecosystem has a responsibility to help right the gender imbalance that remains.
”Fans, media, radio, press, and platforms all have a role to play in shaping an artist’s career, and the way that artists are framed and covered can have a significant impact on their success,” Paley says. “Everyone in the industry has a responsibility to ensure that all artists are given a fair chance to succeed.”
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Roberta Flack, who died on Feb. 24 at age 88, by looking at the singer’s last of three No. 1 hits as a recording artist: the lilting paean to romance, “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” (In case you missed it, here’s a look at her first No. 1, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and at her second No. 1, “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”
The year was 1974. President Richard Nixon had resigned and Gerald Ford stepped up to fill the vacancy. Muhammad Ali and George Foreman punched their way through the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire. Stephen King published his debut novel Carrie, while the year also witnessed the birth of future Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio. And alongside various musical moments such as David Bowie launching his Diamond Dogs tour and Dolly Parton releasing the Jolene album, Roberta Flack set a record as the first female solo artist to reign at No. 1 on the Hot 100 within three consecutive years, 1972-1974, with “Feel Like Makin’ Love.”
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Flack first donned the Hot 100 crown with breakthrough hit “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” featured on her now platinum-certified 1969 debut album for Atlantic, First Take, and in the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Play Misty for Me. Coming off the top five pop and R&B chart success of the iconic duets album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, Flack captured the singles throne once again in 1973 with her career-cementing ballad “Killing Me Softly With His Song” from her multiplatinum, similarly titled fourth solo album, Killing Me Softly. Then in 1974 Flack completed the No. 1 trifecta with “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” the first single from the same-titled fifth solo album released a year later.
As has been the case with various songs-turned-classics over the years, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” stemmed from a casual comment that immediately sparked the writer’s imagination. In this instance, veteran singer-songwriter Eugene McDaniels (best known for his 1961 top five Hot 100 hit “A Hundred Pounds of Clay,” as well as the jazz standard “Compared to What”) had invited his assistant Morgan Ames to join him and his family for a mini-vacation at his in-laws’ cabin in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. But after only one day, Ames decided to leave. As relayed in 1993’s The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits, when McDaniels asked why she was departing, Ames told him, “Gotta get back to town. I feel like makin’ love.” To which McDaniels replied, “’See ya!’ And [I] wrote the song. It took me 25 minutes.”
McDaniels and Flack had already collaborated before he brought “Feel” to her attention. She’d covered her mentor Les McCann’s aforementioned McDaniels-penned protest classic “Compared to What” on First Take as well as other McDaniels compositions such as “Reverend Lee” from second album Chapter Two. After McDaniels called her about “Feel,” Flack flew to Los Angeles and rode with him to Lake Arrowhead, where they worked on the song for a few days. Then Flack met up with McDaniels a couple of weeks later at Bell Sound Studios in New York. Hired for the three-hour recording session were noted musicians Bob James (piano), Idris Muhammad (drums), Gary King (bass) and Richie Resnicoff and Hugh McCracken (guitars).
Atlantic’s Joel Dorn, who had produced Flack’s earlier albums, did a remix of “Feel” before the single’s actual release. However, according to The Billboard Book, Flack rejected it. Instead, under the pseudonym Rubina Flake, she created another mix. It’s this version — also marking Flack’s debut as a producer — that was ultimately released.
Right from its opening strains, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” immediately captures the euphoria of being romanced and loved. The track’s mellow, cha-cha vibe subtly underscores the give-and-take inherent in that interplay, while Flack’s ethereal yet measured vocals indelibly outline the simple little moments that can relight Cupid’s flame. As with the song’s second verse, which begins: “When you talk to me/ When you’re moanin’ sweet and low …” then followed by the infectious, sing-along chorus: “That’s the time/ I feel like makin’ love to you/ That’s the time/ I feel like makin’ dreams come true.” Looking back, it’s also interesting to note that “Feel Like Makin’ Love” was released a year after Marvin Gaye’s similarly seductive (and also Hot 100-topping) “Let’s Get It On” signaled a societal shift, as it upended long-held taboos about blatant references to sex in music.
“Feel Like Makin’ Love” replaced John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” atop the Hot 100 on the chart dated August 10, 1974, before being pushed out the next week by Paper Lace’s “The Night Chicago Died.” addition to topping the Hot 100, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” spent five weeks and two weeks at No. 1, respectively, on Billboard’s R&B and Adult Contemporary charts. Nominated for three Grammy Awards — record of the year, song of the year and best female pop vocal performance — the song has since would go on to be covered by a who’s who of R&B and jazz artists over the decades, including D’Angelo, George Benson, Johnny Mathis and Gladys Knight & the Pips. (It also preceded Bad Company’s identically titled power ballad “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” which would become a Hot 100 top 10 hit and signature song for the classic rockers the following year.)
Hot 100
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“Feel” doubled as the title track of Flack’s fifth studio album. Released in 1975, the self-produced nine-track project also featured the Stevie Wonder-penned “I Can See the Sun in Late December.” And while the album reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 11 on Top Jazz Albums, it peaked at only No. 24 on the Billboard 200. Also of note: by the year of the album’s release, the only other women who had achieved three No. 1s on the Hot 100 were Cher, Connie Francis and Helen Reddy. But their No. 1s were not in consecutive years.
Flack went on to release another seminal album, 1977’s Blue Lights in the Basement. The set included the Grammy-nominated crossover hit “The Closer I Get to You” with Hathaway. That was followed three years later by her ninth studio album, Roberta Flack featuring Donny Hathaway. Originally intended as a second duets album by the pair, the project only features the posthumous vocals of Hathaway, who had died a year earlier.
By the mid-‘80s, however, Flack’s chart prominence was waning. Her last studio release was a Beatles cover album, 2012’s Let It Be Roberta. And while she had begun touring again in 2008, a stroke in early 2016 ended her performing career. Six years later, a spokesperson confirmed the singer had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She died peacefully at 88 on Feb. 24, with no official cause of death disclosed.
Over the course of her innovative, multi-genre career, Flack scored a total of 18 Hot 100 hits and landed four albums in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 album charts, as well as more than two dozen charting hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. A four-time Grammy winner, she received the lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy in 2020 and the Jazz Foundation of America in 2018. Her additional accolades include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Flack also never forgot her early beginnings as a teacher: She established the Roberta Flack Foundation in 2010 to help young people fulfill their dreams through education/mentorship and wrote the 2023 children’s book, The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.
Being an innovator can often mean traveling a lonely road. Singer/songwriter Laufey knows that better than most. The 25-year-old Berklee College of Music grad who has spent the past four-plus years plumbing the tricky confluence of jazz, classical and pop is lauded as a Gen Z innovator in TIME magazine’s Women of the Year feature.
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Taking her place on this year’s list alongside the indefatigable Nicole Kidman, trans-rights activist Raquel Willis, Emmy-winning Shogun star Anna Sawai and abortion rights activist Amanda Zurawski, among others, the Reykjavík-born performer is hailed as the “only singer in the world who has their jazz scat solos sung back to them note-for-note by arenas filled with adoring fans.”
With a wide range of inspirations stretching from Schubert’s series of eight solo piano Impromptus to Ella Fitzgerald’s signature scatting and Taylor Swift-like pop bridges, the piece notes that Laufey is as comfortable playing heady pieces alongside symphony orchestras as she is making one of her signature lighthearted TikTok videos.
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“I used to think that was such a scary thing: that nobody had walked that trail before me,” she told the magazine during a break from recording her third album in New York. “But I now realize that when you’re the one determining which steps to take next and which branches to pull to the side, that’s when you know you have something good on your hands.”
The songs on her romantic 2022 debut, Everything I Know About Love, and it’s 2023 follow-up, Bewitched, are comprised of mostly original lovesick ballads inspired by what she calls her “bible,” the Great American Songbook. “I want people to enjoy the music without feeling like they have to be super educated on its history,” said the singer who learned to play classical piano and cello as a child. “Like any other kind of music, it can be something that lifts you up or accompanies you on a sad day.”
And though she rose to prominence in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by posting videos of herself singing some of those midcentury standards, Laufey decided to take a right turn from honing her chops on the jazz circuit performing already-established favorites in favor of writing original songs TIME described as “in the style of those old standards, but imbued with modern slang and conveying big, relatable feelings.”
That unique mix of beloved old reliables and TikTok videos in which she models outfits and lip synchs to Sabrina Carpenter songs — as well as having her dance moves ported into Fortnite — has led to fast friendships with fellow twentysomething pop starlets such as Olivia Rodrigo and Beabadoobee. “There are a lot of young women who connect with each other — and me — through this feeling of being the outcast,” she said.
The one-of-a-kind mash-up has already paid off in a major way, with Laufey taking home her first Grammy last year for best traditional pop vocal album for Bewitched. Not willing to be a media-appointed “savior of jazz,” though, Laufey said her upcoming as-yet-untitled album will be more “daring” and feature a more diverse mixing of genres.
“I want to see if I can keep the integrity of my music but also allow myself to try out a bit of what modern technology allows,” she said, seemingly unbothered by critics, and fans, who are sometimes eager to ding her for wanting to stray from her perceived lane. “The fact that the jazz and classical worlds seem to struggle with the idea of an artist being both commercially successful and musically interesting — it breaks my heart a little. Why can’t I be both?”
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