Michael Feinstein's American Songbook Returns with a New Season!

 

The program kicks off its three-part second season February 3 on WPBT2, with a multifaceted journey through the history of American song by the acclaimed musician and five-time Grammy®-nominated vocalist.

 

Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook gives viewers an intimate look at Feinstein on stage, behind the scenes and on the road, where he has all-new adventures in his quest to celebrate and preserve the gems of classic American music.

Friday, February 3 at 9:00 p.m. 
Episode 1 - Time Machines
Feinstein explores how technology has preserved and altered the way we think about the great songs and singers of the past.  Feinstein goes on a cross-country quest — even stopping at Hugh Hefner’s mansion — to uncover the various ways musical performances were documented, and the eclectic array of collectors and performers who are keeping that music alive. Includes a guest appearance by Hefner.

 

 

Friday, February 10 at 9:00 p.m. 
Episode 2 - Lost and Found
Lost and Found, follows Feinstein’s discovery and authentication of an undocumented song by one of the giants of American popular music. Feinstein also persuades legendary Broadway songwriter Jerry Herman to teach him an unknown song from his own songwriter’s “trunk,” one that’s never been heard prior to this broadcast. Includes a guest appearance by Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole.

 

Friday, February 17 at 9:00 p.m. 
Episode 3 - Saloon Singers
We examine the allure of musical nightlife, from Mississippi juke joints to the neon lights of Las Vegas. Feinstein delves into the history of nightclub entertainment, from the Cotton Club to Sinatra’s Rat Pack. In addition, he talks to pioneers of the form, including entertainer Rose Marie, and poet and author Maya Angelou, who once made her living doing a calypso club act in San Francisco.

 

 

 

Dr. House Sings the Blues...

What do you get when you mix a sarcastic, yet lovable, doctor and a blues and jazz singer? Hugh Laurie! 

WPBT2 will premiere Great Performances: Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk- A Celebration of New Orleans Jazz on Friday, September 30 at 9pm.

 

Versatile British actor Hugh Laurie, an American favorite for his role in the hit TV series “House,” showcases his musical side in an atmospheric special filmed in New Orleans. Defying simple categorization, Laurie finds his greatest satisfaction and inspiration from the mixture of blues and jazz that grew out of New Orleans at the beginning of the last century.

 

 

  “Let Them Talk” is his personal journey into the heart and soul of that music. Including documentary and interview segments during Laurie’s travels around the city, the program features his performances with blues legends Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas, as well as a fellow countryman similarly inspired by this uniquely American music, Sir Tom Jones. With concert sequences filmed at the historic Latrobe’s building in the French Quarter, the musical selections include New Orleans blues standards along with some forgotten and neglected gems.

 

WPBT2 premieres National Memorial Day Concert on May 29th at 8:00 pm.

For more than two decades, PBS has been proud to honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, their families at home and all those who have given their lives for our country with the NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT. The evening, that has become an American tradition, offers viewers a time to remember, to heal and bring our country together.

The multi award-winning event, broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, will be co-hosted for the sixth year by Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise (CSI:NEW YORK) and Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna (CRIMINAL MINDS), two acclaimed actors who have dedicated themselves to veteran’s causes and supporting our troops in active service. Joining co-hosts Sinise and Mantegna will be an all-star line-up of dignitaries, actors and musical artists in performance with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly. The U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff will also participate in the event along with the Armed Forces Color Guard and Service Color Teams provided by the Military District of Washington, D.C.

The 22nd annual broadcast of THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT will air live in HD before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, as well as to our troops serving around the world on the American Forces Network.

 

Join WPBT2 for An Evening with Dave Grusin on May 12th at 8:00 pm.

 
 
 

Dave Grusin, 10 time Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning composer, conductor and pianist has scored some of the most entertaining and enduring films in the past half-century.  An Evening with Dave Grusin, (available on CD, Blu-ray Disc and ROBA iPad App), is a groundbreaking live program that captures him conducting and performing with a host of stars and backed by the University of Miami Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. 

The musical selections feature Dave’s award-winning film scores for On Golden Pond, Tootsie, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Goonies and more.  Additionally, Dave celebrates the music of great American composer George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Henry Mancini’s Moon River and Leonard Bernstein’s music for the Broadway hit, West Side Story.  Dave is joined by guest artists: Patti Austin, Jon Secada, Monica Mancini, Gary Burton, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres and Sammy Figueroa. 

The concert was part of the 2009 JAZZ ROOTS: a Larry Rosen Jazz Series, conceived to be as much about education as it is about music.  As one of the Adrienne Arsht Center’s largest and most dynamic outreach efforts, the JAZZ ROOTS series provides an in-depth, behind-the-scenes performance and educational component to local jazz high school students during each show

Grusin’s album is, set for release on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group, on April 26, 2011, is a collection of 12 songs from the performance. The groundbreaking ROBA Interactive iPad app for the project will also be available that day, and includes over 300 pages of photos, videos, audio options, artist interviews, “making of” footage, and more

 

A Night of Poetry Everywhere with Liam Callanan and Campbell McGrath is hosted by the Miami Dade Public Library System on Thursday April 14 at 6:30

A Night of Poetry Everywhere is hosted by Liam Callanan, executive producer of Poetry Everywhere, and award-winning poet Campbell  McGrath. The evening is dedicated to screenings, readings and discussions about poetry. The event consists of thirty different short animated poetry films from different poets including Miami’s own Campbell McGrath to the current Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martinez. Each film features every word of every poem, both onscreen and in the soundtrack. These films are screened on public television and in buses, libraries  and classrooms. The purpose of these films is to bring poetry into public life.

A Night of Poetry Everywhere is presented in collaboration with University of Wynwood, University of Wisconsin, and the Poetry Foundation as part of O, Miami (www.omiami.org), a county-wide poetry festival inaugurating in April 2011. Its goal is for every single person in Miami-Dade County to encounter a poem during the month of April.

The event A Night of Poetry Everywhere takes place on Thursday April 14, 2011 at 6:30 till 8:30 at the Main Library Auditorium at 101 W. Flagler Street.

WPBT2’s video sharing website, uVu, will cover this special night.  If you cannot attend, take a look at the event on uvuvideo.org, keyword “Night of Poetry”

WPBT2 Presents Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium

 

The Piano Man comes to WPBT2 on Wednesday, March 9 at 10:00pm with Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium.

Shortly before the demolition of New York City’s Shea Stadium in July 2008, superstar Billy Joel electrified audiences with two memorable concerts at the historic arena.  Joel’s special guests included Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, and Sir Paul McCartney whose 1965 appearance there with the Beatles was so iconic.

Paul Crowder’s film, Last Play at Shea, a documentary about those concerts, which intertwined the history of the stadium and the New York Mets with Joel’s New York-centric biography, received accolades when it premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival last October. Stephen Holden of The New York Times dubbed it “exhilarating,” noting of Joel’s musical selections, “His blunt, irresistibly tuneful songs, however autobiographical, are also nuggets of American cultural history.”

Now, those songs, mostly heard in fragmentary form in the documentary, are performed in full inBilly Joel: Live at Shea Stadium.

Joel and his band offer definitive and often transcendent versions of hits, rarities, personal favorites and crowd-pleasing surprises, including duets with guests McCartney (“I Saw Her Standing There,” “Let it Be”), Bennett (“New York State of Mind”), and Brooks (“Shameless”).

 

March Music Madness Continues on WPBT2 Tonight!

WPBT2 will air The Rat Pack: Live and Swingin’ at 8:00pm tonight, March 3.

The Rat Pack: Live and Swingin’ features Frank, Sammy and Dean in prime form, dazzling the audience with their dynamic chemistry, comic camaraderie and unforgettable melodies. The live black-tie benefit performance – the first and only time cameras ever fully captured a proper "Rat Pack Summit" – was taped on Father's Day, June 20, 1965 at the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. Emceed by Johnny Carson, this beautifully restored musical time capsule includes sets by Frank, Sammy and Dean and a rousing final performance of “Birth of the Blues.”

 

Don’t forget to tune in to Rock, Pop and Doo Wop airing March 5 at 9:00pm on WPBT2.

Rock and pop legends Ronnie Spector (of The Ronettes) and Jon “Bowzer” Bauman (formerly of Sha Na Na) team up to host a celebration of the best-loved songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s in an all-new concert event. This special offers emotion-packed performances from iconic voices singing songs that have remained popular for over forty years.

 

 

WPBT2's March Music Madness!

WPBT2’s March Music Madness begins with In Performance at the White House “Motown Sound” airing on March 1 at 8:00pm on WPBT2.

The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House is a PBS music special in the East Room of the White House.  President and Mrs. Obama hosted the event on Thursday, February 24 in celebration of Black History Month and the legacy of Motown, the distinctive soul-infused pop music sound, style and presentation that was born in Detroit and embodied by the Motown Records label. 

The evening will include program host Jamie Foxx and performances by Foxx, Natasha Bedingfield, Sheryl Crow, the group Gloriana, Nick Jonas, Ledisi, John Legend, Amber Riley, Smokey Robinson, Mark Salling, Seal and Jordin Sparks. 

 

 

 

WPBT2 also premieres American Masters: Troubadours: Carole King, James Taylor and the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter on March 2 at 8:00pm.

American Masters continues its 25th anniversary season withTroubadours: Carole King, James Taylor and the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter, a first-hand account of the genesis and blossoming of this 1970s music movement, centering on King and Taylor’s historic collaboration and the nightclub that nurtured a community of gifted young artists and budding critical and commercial sensations.

The documentary explores 1970s music movement through new interviews with Carole King, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Martin, and others.  It also features never-before-seen archival footage and performances from King/Taylor Troubadour Reunion world tour.

 

 

Don’t miss Great Performances “Harry Connick, Jr. In Concert on Broadway,” which airs March 2 at 9:30pm on WPBT2.

Twenty years after dazzling audiences in his first solo Broadway concert early in his career, three-time Grammy Award-winner Harry Connick, Jr. returned to the Main Stem in a roster of favorites, performed in his trademark New Orleans style. 

Taped in July of 2010 at New York’s Neil Simon Theater,Harry Connick, Jr. In Concert On Broadway features Connick’s big band and a 12 piece string section, with the star on both a Steinway grand and upright honky-tonk piano.  

 

 

Don't Miss Your Chance to See Clay Aiken in Concert!

Clay Aiken is coming to town! Watch the former American Idol runner up perform songs from his fifth studio album,Tried and True.  The bulk of this album is made up of songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s that Aiken grew up listening to in Raleigh, North Carolina.  

Clay Aiken will perform at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. 

For ticket information, visit www.arshtcenter.org.

 

Lennon Exposed

If one were asked to describe the life of John Lennon, they might say he led a life of fame, fortune, drama and untimely death.  This week, WPBT2 goes beyond the headlines to reveal a different John Lennon as we air two extraordinary specials on the life of this music legend. 

On Sunday, November 21, WPBT2 will air Masterpiece Contemporary: Lennon Naked at 9:00 p.m. Christopher Eccleston ("Doctor Who") channels John Lennon in this acclaimed recreation of Lennon’s last turbulent years with the Beatles, co-starring Naoko Mori ("Torchwood") as Yoko Ono, the woman blamed for breaking up the band, and Christopher Fairbank (MASTERPIECE "Tess of the D’Urbervilles") as Freddie Lennon, John’s absentee father.

On Monday, November 22, WPBT2 will air American Masters: LENNONYC at 9:00p.m.  The program looks at the period of John Lennon's life following the breakup of the Beatles in 1971. It was during this time that he and his wife, Yoko Ono, moved to New York and settled down. He took on the role of house husband and wrote some of his most important songs of his career. Some say this was the happiest and most prolific time of his life until he was brutally gunned down in 1980.

Thirty years after his death WPBT2 offers two telling accounts of the last years of John Lennon’s life with never before seen interviews from those closest to Lennon as well as never before released studio recordings, concert film and many unheard Lennon/Ono compositions.