Icons of the Music Industry: Ken EhrlichPresented by American Express – As a producer/creator, Ken Ehrlich has introduced numerous innovative concepts for shows ranging from the GRAMMYs, the Emmys, the Blockbuster Awards, the Alma Awards, the Latin GRAMMYs, the European MTV Awards and the MTV Movie Awards, which he created in 1992. Please join us as we welcome back legendary television producer and director Ken Ehrlich to the Clive Davis Theater as we profile his impressive four-decade career. Ehrlich got his start in 1974 as the creator of the PBS music series, Soundstage before moving to Los Angeles, where he has produced the annual GRAMMY Awards Show since 1980. Currently, Ehrlich directs the massively-popular Celine Dion Las Vegas Caesar’s Palace show, which is sold out for the next two years. Other specials from Ehrlich’s incredible resume include Lifetime Channel’s Intimate Portrait, VH1’s Divas Live and We Will Always Love You: A GRAMMY Salute to Whitney Houston. Other recent highlights include producing two shows with Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, the first-ever GRAMMY Museum Gala Concert and even a highly successful fundraising concert for the Obama campaign. Ehrlich will also produce the recently-announced The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles, which will air on Sunday, February 9 on CBS, exactly 50 years to the day when The Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. After the discussion, moderated by GRAMMY Museum Executive Director, Bob Santelli, Ehrlich will take audience questions.Tuesday, January 14; 7:30pm
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free; reservations required. Members receive priority seating. To reserve your seats, please e-mail [email protected]
A Conversation With Peter Guralnick
Presented By American Express
Wednesday, January 15; 7:30 p.m.
Peter Guralnick has been called “a national resource” by critic Nat Hentoff for work that has argued passionately and persuasively for the vitality of this country’s intertwined black and white musical traditions. Other books by Guralnick include the prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love. Of the first Bob Dylan wrote, “Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others.” He won a GRAMMY Award for his liner notes for Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club and wrote and coproduced the documentary Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll as well as writing the scripts for the GRAMMY-winning documentary Sam Cooke/Legend and Martin Scorsese’s blues documentary Feel Like Going Home. He is also a recent inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame. Other books include an acclaimed trilogy on American roots music, Sweet Soul Music, Lost Highway, and Feel Like Going Home; the biographical inquiry Searching for Robert Johnson; and the novel, Nighthawk Blues. His latest book, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, has been hailed as “monumental, panoramic, an epic tale told against a backdrop of brilliant, shimmering music, intense personal melodrama, and vast social changes.” He is currently working on a biography of Sam Phillips. Please join us in the Clive Davis Theater as we help celebrate the release of two enhanced e-books, Feel Like Going Home and Lost Highway. Guralnick will speak about his writing career and will take questions from the audience.
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free; reservations required. Members receive priority seating. To reserve your seats, please e-mail [email protected]
An Evening With Lang Lang
Presented by American Express
Wednesday, January 22; 7:30 p.m.
If one word applies to Lang Lang, to the musician, to the man, to his worldview, to those who come into contact with him, it is “inspiration”. It resounds like a musical motif through his life and career. He inspires millions with open-hearted, emotive playing, whether it be in intimate recitals or on the grandest of stages – such as the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where more than four billion people around the world viewed his performance, the Last Night of the Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, or the Liszt 200th birthday concert broadcast live to more than 500 cinemas around the US and Europe. He forms enduring musical partnerships with the world’s greatest artists, from conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel and Sir Simon Rattle, to artists from outside of classical music – among them dubstep dancer Marquese “nonstop” Scott and jazz titan Herbie Hancock. Thanks to his Sony ambassadorship, he brought Prokofiev’s 7th Piano Sonata to the soundtrack of the multi-million- selling computer game Gran Turismo 5! And he builds cultural bridges between East and West, frequently introducing Chinese music to Western audiences, and vice versa. As he inspires, he is inspired. As he is inspired, he inspires others. It is this quality, perhaps, that led the New Yorker to call him “the world’s ambassador of the keyboard.” Time Magazine named Lang Lang in the “Time 100”, citing him as a symbol of the youth of China, and its future. Wherever he can, Lang Lang gives back. He launched the Lang Lang International Music Foundation to inspire and cultivate the next generation of music lover and performer. In October 2013, he was designated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace, with a special focus on promoting the importance of global education as a key driver of human progress and well-being. Please join us as we welcome Lang Lang, the GRAMMY Ambassador to China, to the Clive Davis Theater for an intimate discussion, moderated by GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli, and special performance, just days before he is set to perform at the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards Show.
Doors open at 7:00 pm. American Express presale tickets are $20 and can be purchased online by American Express Card members starting Thursday, January 16, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. Public onsale is Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at noon. American Express is the exclusive payment method for presale tickets. American Express ticket purchasers will also receive a special gift. All proceeds benefit the GRAMMY Museum. For more information, please call (213.765.6803) or visit grammymuseum.org
The Beatles Are Coming! The Birth of Beatlemania in America
Tuesday, January 28; 7:30 p.m.
Bruce Spizer has written eight books on the Beatles and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the group. His audio/visual presentation covers the convoluted story of how Beatlemania evolved in America over 50 years ago with multiple images, music and interview clips. Along the way, you will learn why Capitol Records turned down the Beatles four times, how the Beatles ended up on a Chicago-based label specializing in gospel and R&B recordings, who the first disc jockey to play a Beatles record in America was, what prompted Ed Sullivan to book the Beatles for three shows at a time the group was virtually unknown in America and how Beatlemania in America was jumpstarted by Walter Cronkite, along with a 15-year-old girl from Maryland and a disc jockey from Washington, DC. After the presentation, Spizer will be available for a book signing.
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free; reservations required. Members receive priority seating. To reserve your seats, please e-mail [email protected]
The Drop: Suzy Bogguss
Presented by American Express
Wednesday, January 29; 8:00pm
Suzy Bogguss is one of country music’s most pristine and evocative vocalists. With the release of the Illinois native’s 1989 major label debut, Somewhere Between, Bogguss quickly became one of the key artists that defined those golden days of ’90s country. She scored a string of Top 10 singles with country radio staples like “Outbound Plane,” “Drive South,” “Hey Cinderella,” “Letting Go” and “Aces,” and her 1991 album of that name was certified platinum. In addition, she scored a trio of gold albums and notched more than 3 million sales. With her latest release, Lucky, released on Suzy’s own label Loyal Dutchess, the singer comes full circle, returning to her early inspiration, Merle Haggard. A collection of Haggard classics, Lucky is remarkable in its freshness. Its acoustic-based arrangements, while sparse, crackle with vibrancy. Each song is driven by the perfect marriage of Bogguss’ delicate voice and the adventurous, yet tasteful, playing of the band. It’s indicative of what Haggard himself would do in the studio. Please join us in the Clive Davis Theater as we celebrate the release of Lucky, just days before its release. In addition to an interview, Bogguss will take audience questions and will perform a selection of songs.
Doors open at 7:30 pm. American Express presale tickets are $15 and can be purchased online by American Express Card members starting Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. Public onsale is Thursday, January 16, 2014 at noon. American Express is the exclusive payment method for presale tickets. American Express ticket purchasers will also receive a special gift. All proceeds benefit the GRAMMY Museum. For more information, please call (213.765.6803) or visit grammymuseum.org
Reel to Reel: AKA Doc Pomus
Presented by American Express
Tuesday, February 11; 7:30 p.m.
Doc Pomus’ dramatic life is one of American music’s great untold stories. Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then emerged as a one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Viva Las Vegas,” and dozens of other hits. He wrote a thousand songs – including some of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music – but his most lasting gift may have been his uniquely generous spirit. His songs were recorded by artists ranging from Elvis to Ray Charles, Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and hundreds more. For most of his life Doc was confined to crutches and a wheelchair, but he lived more during his sixty-five years than others could experience in several lifetimes. a.k.a. DOC POMUS brings to life Doc’s joyous, romantic, heartbreaking, and extraordinarily eventful journey. Packed with incomparable music and rare archival imagery, AKA DOC POMUS features interviews with Doc’s collaborators and friends, including Dr. John, Ben E. King, Joan Osborne, Shawn Colvin, Dion, Leiber and Stoller, and B.B. King. Doc’s private journals are read by his close friend, Lou Reed. Doc Pomus’ improbably gripping life story makes for a powerful film that introduces this unique American character to a new, wider circle of admirers. Please join us for a special screening of the film, and panel discussion featuring producer/director Will Hechter, songwriter composer Kenny Hirsch and other special guests.
Doors open at 7:00 pm. American Express presale tickets are $10 and can be purchased online by American Express Card members starting Thursday, January 16, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. Public onsale is Thursday, January 23, 2014 at noon. American Express is the exclusive payment method for presale tickets. American Express ticket purchasers will also receive a special gift. All proceeds benefit the GRAMMY Museum. For more information, please call (213.765.6803) or visit grammymuseum.org
