Plus Atlantic City Ballet set to celebrate 30 years; DrewToonz on 'Livin' de Life' and the Album of the Week.
ATLANTIC CITY — As HBO gets ready for the season two premiere of Boardwalk Empire on Sept. 25, Elektra records will release Boardwalk Empire Volume 1 – Music from the HBO Original Series on Sept. 13. The 16-track collection features songs from the show with contributions from Regina Spektor, Loudon Wainwright III, Nellie McKay, Leon Redbone, Martha Wainwright, and Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, who often appear at Babette’s Supper Club on the show. Entertainment Weekly (ew.com) has posted an exclusive premiere of Spektor’s version of “My Man,” which was initially recorded by Fanny Brice. Brice, of course, was the inspiration for the musical Funny Girl. You can also keep up with developments on the show at our “Boardwalk Empire Notes” page at acweekly.com. For a full track listing for the album, see this article online at acweekly.com.
— Mike Pritchard
Watch Regina Spektor singing "My Man" on Valentine's Day, 2004 at the NYC club Tonic:
Atlantic City Ballet Celebrating 30 Years
The Atlantic City Ballet (ACB) has announced its Fall 2011-Spring 2012 season. According to Phyllis Papa, artistic director for ACB, “It will be an exciting anniversary season with new work and new choreographers, which will take the company to a whole new level.” The international dance company was approved in July for a matching-funds entertainment grant from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority of $22,500 for five free performances beginning Aug. 20, four of which are slated to be held at Dante Hall, includes professional dancers hailing from Spain, Italy, Latvia, Israel, Japan, Canada, Korea, Australia and the United States. The new season will commence Saturday, Aug. 20, with a performance at Kennedy Plaza on the Boardwalk. The ACB will return for a weekend of performances at the Cape May Regional High School Theater in Capeß May on Saturday, Aug. 27, at 4pm and on Sunday, Aug. 28, at 5pm at the Jewish Community Center in Margate. Both programs are titled “An Evening with the Atlantic City Ballet,” which will include four short ballets that range from the “exotic and sexy ballet Eclipse, to the sensual Tango, to the very contemporary Ethnic Drums and to a light and comedic Love Royale.” The ACB will be performing Dracula at the Stockton PAC on Thursday, Oct. 27. In the spring the ACB will stretch back 30 years to perform one of the debut programs from the 29-year-old company’s repertoire for the ACB’s 30th anniversary event at Resorts Hotel Casino. A new 1920s-themed ballet will debut for the anniversary show. For more dates and to purchase tickets visit acballet.org. (See a first look at the ACB’s new season photos here) — Jeff Schwachter
Jesse Ruben
‘The Ones That Matter’
Philly-born songwriter Jesse Ruben had only one wish for his 25th birthday: to have his album The Ones That Matter land on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter Top 10 chart. With the help of his loyal fan-base, Ruben’s wish was fulfilled. The Ones That Matter is a follow-up to Ruben’s 2008 debut record, Aiming for Honesty. Once you begin listening to his album, it is impossible to push the pause button. Ruben’s soulful voice and touching lyrics captivate listeners. His focused vision for his album is impressively executed, which can be heard throughout his pop-rock songs. Tracks such as “A Lack of Armor,” “Ace of Spades” and “Bleeker and Sixth” exemplify Ruben’s persistence to continually create irresistible music. — Cori Rosen
Drew Toonz
It’s no surprise that Diana Krall — whose sultry voice, good looks and evocative piano playing made her an instant star in the jazz world beginning in the 1990s — has always had one foot in the past and one foot in the present.
Among the genres of music A Night at the Speakeasy embodies are country (catapulted into popularity in the mid-1920s by the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast, which originates from Tinnon’s home town of Nashville, Tennessee) and gospel, also made widely popular by radio in the 1920s.
In 1982 Phyllis Papa, an acclaimed ballet dancer whose credits include the American Ballet Theatre, established the Atlantic Contemporary Ballet Theatre in the Atlantic City area. Now known as the Atlantic City Ballet, her ballet company has been a treasured beacon of dance excellence in southern New Jersey for 30 years.
'The whole world now will start listening and really finding out how great the music of the 1920s is. It brings it up to the forefront.'
New York big-band leader Vince Giordano talks to Atlantic City Weekly about working on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and its GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack.
"Eddie lived in a kind of musically optimistic 1920s place even though he had a shitty childhood. His parents died when he was young but his grandmother raised him and he was little and scrawny so he got beaten up a lot. He learned to make jokes so he could avoid getting beaten up, so from then on he realized this singing and dancing thing could work."
“It’s been my love and passion ever since I was five years old and I think this music moves people. People who come to see us, they say, ‘When I got here I was in kind of a blah mood, not so good, or depressed, or whatever and I come out in just a whole different place. I’m laughing, my spirits are lifted, it’s cheaper than going to a psychiatrist!’”
In a year that saw the return of widespread protests around the world, the power and potential of grass-roots movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, more and more bad economic news and forecasts, the music industry seemed to bounce back with a bunch of solid releases, including new albums by Kanye West and Jay-Z, Adele, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and others, as 'indie' labels such as Sub Pop, Yep Roc, and ANTI-, emerged as the leaders of a new renaissance in the music biz. Meanwhile, reissues, by specialty labels like Legacy, were among the most exciting "new" music of 2011. Atlantic City Weekly runs an Album of the Week column on the Coasting page each week, and the editors have put together a list of the best 2011 albums of the bunch, as well as several re-issues, and albums we didn't get a chance to write about yet for a total of 50 albums that you may or may not have heard yet. 2011 Albums of the Year (in no particular order. Click on links to see album review; when you get to page, scroll down to the Album of the Week column). Rock on. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The...
The long-awaited DVD set featuring the complete first season of HBO's Boardwalk Empire will be released in January 2012.
“[Empire’s] helped remind people of what a colorful history we’ve had as a city, and helped bring these things back into focus for some people. And I think the fact that the series is very well regarded only helps.”
Cable TV giant HBO has released an official trailer for the second season of its award-winning and milti-Emmy nominated drama series Boardwalk Empire.
The second season of HBO's highly acclaimed drama series Boardwalk Empire, set in 1920s-era Atlantic City, premieres in late September.
Boardwalk Empire picked up a couple more awards last night from the Screen Actors Guild. The SAGs are the most prestigious awards next to the Oscars, since the SAGs are voted on by a performer’s peers.
In a “news” box on the upper right side of the Archeophone Records home page, there’s a list of the songs played thus far in the first two episodes of HBO’s 'Boardwalk Empire,' set in 1920s Atlantic City.
HBO has uploaded the approximately 14-minute behind-the-scenes documentary "The Making of Boardwalk Empire," which premiered...
Article:
Coasting: Magic-Comedy Blend is Back at the Comedy Stop
Article:
Chelsea to Host Third Annual Big Teplitzky Challenge
Article:
Walk, Run to Help Fight Cancer May 11 in A.C.
Article:
May Is Month of the Burger
Article:
Coasting - Ocean City’s Doo-Dah Parade
Article:
Coasting - Conversation With Bravo's Andy Cohen
Article:
Coasting - Paws Pet Fashion Show
Article:
Coasting - Beers, Brews & Birdies!
Share this Story: