Hanging Out With Berry Gordy

Here I am spending precious time with legendary music/entertainment mogul Berry Gordy - founder of Motown Records and one of the great architects of American popular music. Berry Gordy, to highlight just one area of his accomplishments, discovered and cultivated the likes of The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and Diana Ross And The Supremes. How do you say thanks to a guy like that? What a cool dude and what an unforgettable afternoon!!

Another Underwhelming Night For Singing At The Oscars

The 85th Academy Awards, unfortunately, was blemished with problematic singing:

1) Katherine Zeta Jones was clearly lip-syncing in the Chicago piece.  The maneuver should have been a no-no in light of the Beyonce's poor judgement call to lip-sync the "National Anthem" not too long ago.

2) Despite her large, exciting sound, Jennifer Hudson's screaming-like singing is finally showing early signs of vocal deterioration as her voice when she sings her high notes is beginning to wobble

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In Remembrance Of Jack Klugman

I loved Jack Klugman. He came to me - a fellow South Philadelphian - in the early 1990s to help him get his voice back; it had been ravaged by throat cancer and radiation treatments. His doctors told him that the chances of his voice returning were not good. Jack was despondent, but certainly not without some sense of humor. I can still hear his horribly raspy and barely audible voice saying to me, "Gary, without my voice, I have no life. Talking is all I have!! With no voice my career is gone, but so is my reason to live. Look, you're Italian, and I am a Jew, together we can to beat this!"

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Muhammad Ali At The Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Ali is the icon of icons - one of the greatest athletes of all time as well as a cultural hero who inspired millions and continues to do so today; and for me, he was a great student and friend, and is one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I have ever known.

Jerry Cantrell Receives The Stevie Ray Vaughan Award

Congratulations to my former student Jerry Cantrell on being honored with the MusicCares Stevie Ray Vaughan award.  The award is given to musicians for helping their fellow musicians through addiction recovery.

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