Russia

Peru

Papua New Guinea

Panama

Oman

Norway

Nigeria.

New Zealand

Morocco

Mongolia

Mauritius

Malaysia

Lithuania

Laos

Kyrgyzstan

Kenya

Kazakhstan

India

Haiti.

Ghana

Gambia

France

Ethiopia.

Egypt

Comoros

China

Canada

Cameroon

HISTORY…A THEATRICAL MASTERPIECE

“I’m not planning to write another book anytime soon, If you want to know how I feel, you can check out HIS tory. It’s a musical book.”

Michael Jackson

“His tory is Michael Jackson’s most personal album. From the impassioned rage of SCREAM to the pained vulnerability of CHILDHOOD, the record was, in Jackson’s words, ‘a musical book.’ It encompassed all the turbulent emotions and struggles of the previous few years. It was his journal, his canvas, his rebuttal.”

MAN IN THE MUSIC

Joseph Vogel

“At our house, we host MICHAEL MARATHONS. Friends come to spend days, evenings and even stay for sleep-overs. Marathons include short films, listening and dancing pleasures and CONCERTS…EVERYTHING MICHAEL. Michael’s HIS tory World Tour is the most requested.

Jude Ling

There is truth in the capacity for enthusiasm being a sign of a healthy spirit and heart. Michael Jackson’s creative enthusiasm knew no limits, bursting into world attention with intention, purposing musical history. With unparalleled work ethic, a peerless imagination, and his pioneering, legendary visions, Michael sought perfection and greatness with each and every project he did. A voice that vigorously trained, Michael’s compositions offered a vehicle for sounds the ear had never heard before. Quite simply, he maintained his vocal gifts and worked to make them even better. Michael’s HIS tory double album is among the most magnificent work I have ever heard from this massively talented artist. I am not one to quantify and compare songs and albums, performance and designs. When asked what is my favorite Michael art, I simply say that to choose one would be like choosing my favorite breath I’ve taken. Truly, I love EVERYTHING. I turn to the HIS tory album for diversity and boldness…an honesty and power that grabs me and doesn’t let go.

Michael angry ignites my fuse. Michael lonely, searching, is somewhere beyond powerful to me. I learn about sampling to drive home message. I feel desperate when hearing Little Susie’s plight. I fall in love all over again with YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I sing at the top of my lungs with Michael’s cries against social and media injustice, greed and lies. And EARTH SONG is absolutely Michael’s magnum opus…the most brilliant work of artistry written to save a dying planet. Rather than simply putting out a greatest hits album, Michael selected some of his Number Ones and then set about writing new material. He never believed in doing the ordinary. It wasn’t a part of who he was. Soundscapes require multiple listenings to begin to grasp all that is recorded…the material is simply too rich to take in all at once. Michael’s short films for the album show a genius at work. Each is art incarnate…being so far from typical pop genre video. One must take the time to study each…SCREAM, THEY DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT US (two separate short films done), STRANGER IN MOSCOW, CHILDHOOD, YOU ARE NOT ALONE, COME TOGETHER, AND, EARTH SONG. This art could come from no one else but Michael Jackson.

“Whatever one makes of the hoopla surrounding the album, one can scarcely ignore its amazing production values and the skill with which truly vast musical resources have been brought to bear upon the project. Where most popular music makes do with the sparse instrumentation of a working band fleshed out with a bit of synth, HIS tory brings together such renowned studio musicians and production talents as Slash, Steve Porcaro, Jimmy Jam, Nile Rodgers, plus a full sixty piece symphony orchestra, several choirs including the Andrae Crouch Singers Choir, star vocalists such as sister Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men, and the arrangements of Quincy Jones and Jeremy Lubbock. Indeed, the sheer richness of the instrumental and vocal scoring is probably unprecedented in the entire realm of popular recording.” Daniel Sweeney

And then, we come to the stage production of the History World Tour, with its 82 shows performed for 4,145,000 Fans, in 58 cities, 35 countries, on five continents, a duration of 404 days…the tour reaching 1,000,000 more fans than Michael’s Dangerous World Tour. Michael again brought THEATRE to the stage. The sheer massiveness of staging, lighting, wearable art innovation, and set pieces which included a spaceship and a tank…INCREDIBLE. And for the Ladies, let’s not forget the golden suit…Oh, Dear, where was I! Oh, yes, THEATRE. MICHAEL MADE HISTORY! With each world tour, Michael’s well-crafted, innovative approach to contemporary performance moved up a notch. Far beyond other artists, Michael brought drama and theatre to audiences, using his storytelling artistry and his music to delight all the senses, appealing to all ages, colors, cultures. Each stage progressively got bigger…the History stage gave Michael a great area to OWN IT. A true artist owns his stage and MICHAEL JACKSON IS A TRUE ARTIST! Michael believed in bringing his audiences every bit of blood, sweat and God-given talent he had in him. HE DID THAT FOR 82 SHOWS. Theatricality went to the 10th power during Michael’s performances of SCREAM, THEY DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT US, IN THE CLOSET, SMOOTH CRIMINAL, THRILLER, EARTH SONG AND HISTORY. Billie Jean was magnificent along with all Michael’s other classics. DANGEROUS brought theatre reminiscent of SMOOTH CRIMINAL…only, more so. And then there is EARTH SONG…theatre and opera all in one. STUNNING. For those who come to our MICHAEL MARATHONS, many who have never seen Michael in concert…to a person, marvel at the energy Michael gives…from INTRO TO OUTRO and everywhere in between. The History World Tour also offers powerful messages for audiences to ponder long after they exit the stadium. The tribute to each country hosting the tour is powerfully done as the show concludes and Michael’s massive sampling aired from the song History. There is so much to see, to hear, to enjoy, to ponder! During this same time frame, Michael wrote, choreographed and performed/filmed GHOSTS, wrote and produced the BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR album and worked tirelessly on humanitarian efforts…and, he became a FATHER. HIS story captured the emotional turbulence of living. It is art at its finest. Performance Art in both short films and live stage shows showed Michael’s passionate commitment to his music and to the quality, professionalism, energy and perfection he gave his entire lifetime.

“Michael was at another level, and it was a hell of a level to go to.” R. Kelly

“THE TOUR DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: I AM STILL HERE! I AM BIGGER! I AM STRONGER! I AM THE BEST AT WHAT I DO!” Iconic Magazine

“EVERYDAY CREATE YOUR HISTORY!

EVERY PATH YOU TAKE YOU’RE LEAVING YOUR LEGACY!

http://michaeljacksonchosenvoices.com/history-a-theatrical-masterpiece/

HAPPYPERSON said:

Armond White on MJ

MR. White spoke nothing but truth!! Michael's most importants works were his 90's output.

the question is

is POP a identifiable genre of music, does it have an origin, was it born out of a cultural form of expression

or is POP a distinction

xlad said:

Gene Kelly's Wife reveals his thoughts on Michael Jackson

Stealing from the Best

Posted: 11/17/2014 3:29 pm EST Updated: 11/17/2014 3:59 pm EST






The outpouring of responses I received for my piece about Gene and the upcoming stage production of An American in Paris prompted me to think about creativity and influences and the question -- from whence comes art? Early in our conversations, Gene answered the question for me. "I believe that everyone has been influenced by people before him -- or events or happenings," he said. "The best just don't simply spring full-blown from the earth. They're picking up a seed that has been planted before."


For Gene, the seeds were many. "I stole from everybody," he said. Sometimes the borrowing was very conscious, as it was when he and his younger brother Fred went to Loew's Penn Theater in downtown Pittsburgh and picked up the steps of the great Bill Robinson. In Gene's mind, Robinson was "the epitome and the quintessence of tap dancing perfection." As he said, "There were guys that did more exciting stuff, like Buck and Bubbles, in rhythm styles. But Bill Robinson was it. I was very fortunate to be a young man coming along learning dancing when he was around." When I asked what was distinct about Robinson's style, Gene explained, "Nobody could get the ease and the grace and the sound that Bill Robinson got. I've never heard it quite that clean and clear again."


When I asked if he could he identify something in his films directly connected with Robinson, he said, "Sure, there are variations of Bill Robinson in the dance I do with Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain -- 'Moses Supposes.' Variations of it, but, basically, some of those steps are from Bill Robinson." According to Gene, "Bill himself had lifted from older minstrel men and vaudeville people before him; things such as asides to the audience or making jokes during the dance." And then there was Robinson's famous canting of his hat that would become one of Gene's signature gestures. "He always wore a derby and he would take that off and fan himself or twist it. And when he'd make an exit, sometimes he would cock it over his eyes. We all stole that from Bill Robinson, and, Lord knows, he might have stolen it from an older minstrel man before my day, before I was even born."


The influences spread through all forms of dance. "I soaked up everything that everybody had to teach," he said, "I went to every dance performance that played in Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, wherever I was. I would look at it. I'd imbibe it and it would be part of me." And, earlier, "I stole from Martha Graham and the American Ballet Theatre and all its great dancers. But I didn't think of it as that. I thought it was educating myself and knowing everything about dance I could know. I wanted to have enough dance that I could dance like Peer Gynt or I could dance like an American sailor getting off a ship."
It didn't stop there. Gene also turned to painting, sculpture, athletics, musicals, movies, books. "The more a dancer learns," he insisted, "the better he will be."
When I mentioned Gene's voracious appetite to dance historian Elizabeth Kaye, she said it reminded her of her friend Rudolf Nureyev. "He was like a huge Hoover, scooping up everything." When she asked him about his consumption, he replied with an impish grin, "I only steal from the best."
Though Gene appreciated when people paid tribute to his work, he never relished literal renderings. He preferred, instead, to see artists take his steps and ideas and turn them into something new. Referring to the role of the artist, he said, "If he just follows the leader and accepts what's been done before, naturally, that can be brought to a very high skill. But if he wants to change it in some way and do it differently, then it jumps up to the major league."

To Gene, Michael Jackson was one who made this leap. His movements were derivative, yet he transformed the many borrowings into a new and exciting art form. Like Gene, Michael had an uncanny ability to imitate things precisely. One night when Michael invited us to his house for dinner to discuss the possibility of him starring in a musical version of Frankie and Johnny, he stood in the living room and performed an exact rendition of Gene's "Ballin' the Jack" -- not the vaudeville-style number with Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal but the sexy, earthy version from Gene's hard-to-find 1959 Pontiac television special. He had it down to the minutest detail, including the Bill Robinson-inspired cocked hat. Later, when we were seated at the dining table, he launched into a near-perfect copy of "Makin' Whoopee," saying he loved Gene's harmonizing with Donald O'Connor on the old Eddie Cantor song.
I was struck by how much Gene and Michael were alike. Both were sponges, taking what they needed, modifying it, and setting aside the rest. By watching everything Gene did and mimicking his moves, Michael absorbed a whole history of dance -- a range of influences from the simple, clog-shoe-steps of Bill Robinson, to the masculine ballet of Russian Adolph Bolm and the modern ingenuity of Martha Graham -- and so much more.
Gene appreciated that Michael had "respect for the older generation," and that he made "no secret" of those who had helped to shape his style. For Gene, dance was a matter of influences and all dancers "have generations behind them." As he had advised his friend Fred Astaire years before when someone had stolen one of Fred's routines: "You mustn't get angry at this. You should be flattered that the guy stole your number. That's the sincerest form of flattery. That's happening to me, and I'm not going to resent it. I'm going to be proud of it."
Stealing from the best, indeed.
http://www.huffingtonpost..._hp_ref=tw

Wow, they just showed Michael on Motown 25 on PBS and his performance of Billy Jean was just as electrifying as I remember it being all those decades ago when I first saw it--the night before he became a superstar. I haven't seen it since then. Really takes me back...and Marvin, too.

But they cut some of the scenes with Diana Ross & Supremes... Everyone looks so young!

purplethunder3121 said:

Wow, they just showed Michael on Motown 25 on PBS and his performance of Billy Jean was just as electrifying as I remember it being all those decades ago when I first saw it--the night before he became a superstar. I haven't seen it since then. Really takes me back...and Marvin, too.

they could have been showing MOTOWN 25 all along annually

everything about it was off the charts....

I'm loving this incredibly rare and candid footage!

Michael Jackson's big Grammy Win behind the scenes