Various Artists – Divas (2001)

Diva is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of diva is closely related to that of prima donna. Diva can also refer to a woman, especially one in show business, with a reputation for being temperamental or demanding.

The word entered the English language in the late 19th century. It is derived from the Italian noun diva, a female deity. The plural of the word in English is “divas”; in Italian, dive [ˈdiːve]. The basic sense of the term is goddess, the feminine of the Latin word divus (Italian divo), someone deified after death, or Latin deus, a god.

The male form divo exists in Italian and is usually reserved for the most prominent leading tenors, like Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli. The Italian term divismo describes the star-making system in the film industry. In contemporary Italian, diva and divo simply denote much-admired celebrities, especially film actresses and actors, and can be translated as “(film) star”. The Italian actress Lyda Borelli is considered the first cinematic diva, following her breakthrough role in Love Everlasting (1913).

Woman are often referred to as a “diva” if they are “difficult, temperamental and demanding”. Welsh National Opera note that the title emerged in the early 19th century after an increase of female leading sopranos who became “almost became goddess-like in the eyes of their adoring public”. They also note that the word has been used by the media to name many female politicians and entertainers rather than “just ambitious and assertive like their male counterparts”. (wikipedia)

And here´s a low budget compilation:

Ok, then let us celebrate all these divas … my favourite singers were Bette Midler, Nina Simone, Maria Muldaur, Aretha Franklin and of course Alannah Myles

Tracklist:
01. Bette Midler: The Rose (McBroom) 3.44
02. Dionne Warwick: Walk On By (Bacharach/David) 2.59
03. Rose Royce: Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (Gregory) 3.57
04. Nina Simone: Papa Can You Hear Me (A.Bergman/M.Bergman/Legrand) 4.24
05. Linda Ronstadt: Blue Bayou (Orbison/Melson) 3.54
06. Mary Coughlan: I’d Rather Go Blind (Foste/Jordan) 4.22
07. Maria Muldaur: Midnight At The Oasis (Nichtern/Muldaur) 3.54
08. Rickie Lee Jones: Chuck E’s In Love (Jones) 3.35
09. Emmylou Harris: Sweet Dreams (Gibson) 3.10
10. Judy Collins: Both Sides Now (Mitchell) 3.18
11. Aretha Franklin: Respect (Redding) 2.26
12. Candi Staton: Young Hearts Run Free (Crawford) 4.12
13. Sarah Vaughan: Get Back (Lennon/McCartney) 2.59
14. Donna Lewis: I Love You Always Forever (Lewis) 4.02
15. Alannah Myles: Black Velvet 4.48

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Stills & Collins – Everybody Knows (2017)

Everybody Knows is an album by Stephen Stills and Judy Collins, credited to “Stills & Collins”. It marks the first collaboration between the former lovers and longtime friends. It was financed through a crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMusic.

From 1968 to 1969, Stills and Collins were romantically involved. Stills wrote several songs about Judy, most notably “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Judy”. But despite Stills playing on several of Collins’ recordings, they never recorded as a duo or performed on stage together.[2] Stills said that he and Collins “…talked over the years and muddled through conversations about if we did make a record together…”, ultimately releasing Everybody Knows and going on tour. (by wikipedia)

50 years ago, singer-songwriter Stephen Stills met singer-songwriter Judy Collins, known for her piercing ocean blue eyes. Their tumultuous love affair would later be immortalized by Stills with his composition “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash on their landmark debut. Both artists would go gone to shape modern music with visionary approaches, but Stills and Collins’ short fiery union remains a transformative era for the two artists.

This summer, the two icons of folk will celebrate the golden anniversary of their formative time together. Their joint summer tour marks the first time ever Stills and Collins have been onstage together. For this once in a lifetime experience, the two music legends will pull from their rich catalogs, debut songs from their upcoming album, due out Summer of 2017, and share warm and intimate stories from their journeys and the1960s folk and Laurel Canyon scenes they helped build.

Stills and Collins met in 1967 and dated for two years. Stills wrote and demoed his legendary love song to Collins right after he left Buffalo Springfield, before he joined CSN. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is a five-section romantic epic brimming with heartfelt sincerity. The song has been ranked #418 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time Poll.

​                                                                                                                                                                     Stills is known for his work with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his solo work. In addition to “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” Stills is best known for the hits “ For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield and “Love The One You’re With” from his solo debut, Stephen Stills. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and ranked #28 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.” He also has the added distinction of being the first artist to be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame twice in one night (for his work with CSN and Buffalo Springfield). He recently released a sophomore album with The Rides, the blues-rock supergroup he formed in 2013 with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg, and is currently putting the finishing touches on his long-awaited, much-anticipated autobiography.

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‘Stills & Collins’ will be released on the heels of a very busy period for Collins, who released an album in 2015 and 2016. 2015’s ‘Strangers Again’ earned Judy her highest Billboard 200 debut in almost 30 years, and 2016’s ‘Silver Skies Blue’ duets album with Ari Hest earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Folk Album. She’s recently been described by the NY Times as the “ageless wild angel of pop,” appeared in HBO’s Girls, and released the book ‘Cravings: How I Conquered Food’ earlier this year. (press release)

Judy Collins provided Stephen Stills with the inspiration for “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” a song he composed in 1969 as their relationship was coming to an end. Lovers no more, the two remained friends over the years and decided to strike up a musical partnership nearly 50 years later, releasing Everybody Knows in September of 2017. The album deliberately plays off their past, with the duo reviving songs from their individual albums — “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” from Collins; “So Begins the Task” from Stills — and selecting covers from their peers, including the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle with Care,” Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe,” Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows,” which also lends its name to the album title. It’s a clean and crisp production, so much so that its transparency reveals the disparity between Collins’ sweet voice and Stills’ scraggly singing, a pairing that can sound as smooth as sandpaper. Nevertheless, there’s an inherent warmth to Everybody Knows. Stills and Collins have a gentle, easy chemistry and the studio-slick supporting performances provide a nice bed for a project that is less nostalgia than a reassuring reminder of the comfort of growing old together. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Personnel:
Tony Beard (drums)
Judy Collins (vocals, guitar)
Kevin McCormick (bass)
Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar)
Russell Walden (keyboards)
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Marvin Etzioni (mandolin, mandocello on 05.)

Tracklist:
01. Handle With Care (Dylan/Lynne/Petty/Harrison/Orbison) 3.43
02. So Begins The Task (Stills) 3.36
03. River Of Gold (Collins) 3.37
04. Judy (Stills) 4.03
05. Everybody Knows (Cohen/Robinson) 5.27
06. Houses (Collins) 4.37
07. Reason To Believe (Hardin) 2.57
08. Girl From The North Country (Dylan) 3.26
09. Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Denny) 5.41
10. Questions (Stills) 3.45

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Joan Baez & Friends – Beacon Theatre, New York (2016)

Joan Baez is still the mother of us all. At the Beacon Theater, where she celebrated her 75th birthday on Wednesday evening with an all-star concert of duets, she was a quietly magnetic woman in charge. Radiating her characteristic maternal strength and easygoing humor, she projected the welcoming empathy of someone you can turn to in times of trouble. She looked terrific: trim and fit, with short silver hair and a wonderfully goofy smile.

That strength is embedded in a voice that has shrunk in range and power but conveys an embracing reassurance and solidity. Her upper register is all but gone, but her middle range, where she remained comfortably settled for most of the evening, was as warmly expressive as ever.

It wasn’t actually the birthday of this great folk-pop singer, who was born on Jan. 9, 1941. But why quibble? The concert, in which she sang with guests including Paul Simon, Judy Collins, Mavis Staples and Jackson Browne, was taped for the PBS series “Great Performances” to be broadcast in June.

with David Crosby

For the live audience, the concert presented technical difficulties. Except for Ms. Baez, the singers were under-rehearsed and had trouble reading lyrics on a teleprompter at the back of the orchestra. The sound in this unusually quiet concert was passable at best. Too many of the duets were so glaringly out of tune that they will have to be redone or adjusted before the broadcast. A particularly embarrassing casualty was David Crosby, who was so confused he seemed barely present during his chaotic duet with Ms. Baez on the Beatles’ “Blackbird.”

The technical lapses suggested a depressing possibility: that as much as they’d like to continue, many folk singers (not Ms. Baez) can’t go on forever without losing vocal power, stamina or spirit. The younger guests — the Irish folk singer Damien Rice, the Chilean singer Nano Stern — gave the show a shot of adrenaline and passion it desperately needed.

with Damien Rice

The all-acoustic concert began with strong, steady performances by Ms. Baez, accompanying herself on guitar, of Steve Earle’s “God Is God” and the great Phil Ochs song “There but for Fortune.” The parade of guests began with David Bromberg and continued with Mr. Crosby, Mr. Rice, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Emmylou Harris, who recalled that while growing up she wanted to be Ms. Baez.

Mr. Browne, playing the piano, sang his prophetic ’70s anthem “Before the Deluge” with Ms. Baez, who glumly observed that “as we head into the abyss” this expression of apocalyptic foreboding is even more relevant today than when it was written. A weary sense of impending doom was a persistent undercurrent throughout a concert that tried and mostly failed to conjure a ’60s-style inspirational fervor. Ms. Staples, 76, came close in her duets with Ms. Baez of “Oh, Freedom” and “Turn Me Around.”

with Paul Simon

Ms. Baez’s duets with Richard Thompson on “House of the Rising Sun,” arranged as a waltz, and his original song “She Never Could Resist a Winding Road,” were stronger. Late in the evening, Mr. Simon sang a low-keyed rendition of “The Boxer” with Ms. Baez. The concert’s final number was her solo rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” a trite song that mocks baby-boomer narcissism.

The appearance of Mr. Stern lent the concert its only moment of genuine excitement. That 30-year-old Chilean singer and guitarist infused the theme song of the Argentine diva Mercedes Sosa, “Gracias a la Vida,” written by Violeta Parra, with an incandescent verve and spirit. It is the title song of Ms. Baez’s mostly Spanish 1974 album. As he and Ms. Baez sang it, their performance generated the kind of lightning you might have experienced at a joyful ’60s hootenanny when everything seemed possible and hope was in the air.

For a moment, the hush of depression lifted, the generational sense of defeat abated, and the concert came thrillingly alive.

with Nano Stern

To celebrate her 75th birthday, Joan Baez held a concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York; the guests included Jackson Browne, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Indigo Girls, Damien Rice, Paul Simon, Mavis Staples, Nano Stern and Richard Thompson.

Joan Baez remains an icon of the Sixties folk revival, one of the movement’s foremost architects and a lifelong champion of vernacular musical tradition. So despite the grand setting and fancy roster of artists, Wednesday’s show was, true to spirit, a folk concert through and through, full of spontaneous sing-alongs and impromptu lyrical ad-libs, and with nary a single electric guitar to be found onstage. (by Rolling Stone)

Recorded live at the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY; January 27, 2016
Very good audio (ripped from HDTV – Arte HD – broadcast).

with Judy Collins

Tracklist:
01. God Is God (Earle) 3.35
02. There But For Fortune (Ochs) 4.34
03. Blackbird (with David Crosby) (Lennon/McCartney)) 3.20
04. Catch the Wind (with Mary Chapin Carpenter) (Leitch) 4.01
05. Hard Times Come Again No More (with Emmylou Harris) (Foster) 5.30
06. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Traditional) 3.50
07. Oh, Freedom (with Mavis Staples) (Traditional) 2.46
08. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around (with Mavis Staples) (Traditional) 3.39
09. The Water Is Wide (with The Indigo Girls and Mary Chapin Carpenter) (Traditional) 4.54
10. She Moved Through The Fair (with Damien Rice) (Traditional) 5.41
11. She Never Could Resist A Winding Road (with Richard Thompson) (Thompson) 3.39
12. Before The Deluge (with Jackson Browne) (Browne) 6.38
13. Diamonds And Rust (with Judy Collins) (Baez) 5.44
14. Gracias a la vida (with Nano Stern) (Parra) 6.21
15. The Boxer (with Paul Simon and Richard Thompson) 7:26 (Simon) 7.26
16. Forever Young (Dylan) 4.31

with Jackson Brown + Emmylou Harris

 

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Judy Collins – Wildflowers (1967)

Wildflowers is an album by Judy Collins, released in 1967. It was her highest charting album so far, reaching No 5 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts. It included her hit version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”.

The album was arranged by Joshua Rifkin and produced by Mark Abramson. Collins’ recording “Albatross” was used in the 1968 film adaptation of The Subject Was Roses. It was one of three self-penned tracks that appeared on the album, the first time that Collins wrote her own material. (by wikipedia)

Taken from the magazine “Rolling Stone”:
Judy Collins’ well-respected catalog is so vast that, 40 years later, it’s hard to isolate her standout albums. But we’d argue Wildflowers is among her best. After spending the early portion of her career covering the Beatles and Bob Dylan, Wildflowers finds Collins tackling the songs of Leonard Cohen, and the words and mood suit her well. It’s a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” however, that’s the highlight, as the track went on to win a 1968 Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance.

What We Said Then: Judy Collins has to have one of the most beautiful and moving voices of any female singer. She has also been smart enough to make magnificent orchestration an integral part of her albums. The arrangements on this album especially complement her voice. The songs she has chosen are also quite representative of the beauty of music of today… Altogether, it is a very beautiful album.” (by James Christman, February 10th, 1968, Rolling Stone)

And I add a live version of “Suzanne”, recorded in 1967 together with Leonard Cohen as a bonus.

Leonard Cohen + Judy Collins, 1967

Personnel:
Judy Collins (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
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a bunch of unknown studio musicians

Tracklist:
01. Michael From Mountains (Mitchell) 3.10
02. Since You Asked (Collins) 2.34
03. Sisters Of Mercy (Cohen) 2.31
04. Priests (Cohen) 4.55
05. A Ballata Of Francesco Landini (ca. 1335 – 1397) Lasso! di Donna 4.34
06. Both Sides Now (Mitchell) 3.14
07. La chanson des vieux amants (The Song Of Old Lovers) (Brel) 4.40
08. Sky Fell (Collins) 1.47
09. Albatross (Collins) 4.51
10. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye (Cohen) 3.28
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11. Suzanne (live with Leonard Cohen, 1967) (Cohen) 3.55

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