Library’s living legend
Saxman Gunther Schuller, who has played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and the Metropolitan Opera, has been named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.
Mr. Schuller, 80, will receive the award Dec. 16 at a concert by the Jupiter String Quartet in the library, according to Associated Press.
Mr. Schuller has written more than 160 musical compositions, including a saxophone sonata and works commissioned by the New York and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras.
His books include “The Compleat Conductor” and “The Swing Era,” a history of jazz.
The son of German immigrants, Mr. Schuller won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award in 1991 and the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1994.
At 70, he started his own music publishing and recording firm, specializing in both early music and works by Duke Ellington.
Beatle’s boycott
Defying a trend of accommodation in the music industry, a Western rock star has announced he won’t set foot in China — but not because of the communist country’s human rights record
Paul McCartney said he will never perform there after watching a disturbing secret video of dogs and cats being slaughtered for fur.
“This is barbaric. Horrific. It’s like something out of the Dark Ages. And they seem to get a kick out of it. They’re just sick, sick people,” Mr. McCartney told BBC television.
“I wouldn’t even dream of going over there to play, in the same way that I wouldn’t go to a country that supported apartheid,” he said. “This is just disgusting.”
Kate’s confidence
In her forthcoming movie, “Little Children,” Kate Winslet does things she never thought she’d do at her age.
“If you had said to me 15 years ago, ‘When you are nearly 30 and you’ve had two children, you’re going to be doing some very explicit sex scenes and you’re going to spend a week in a bathing suit’ … that literally would have been my worst nightmare,” she told Teen Hollywood.
She more than overcame her fears, apparently.
“I got to a point where I thought… I’m always gallivanting around the place, going, ‘Be who you are, be who you are.’
“I should just get over myself and get on with it, and I did.”
Rock’s new class
Heavy-metal pioneers Black Sabbath, jazz great Miles Davis and punk godfathers the Sex Pistols are among five musical legends to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation will hold its induction ceremony March 13 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, the organization announced yesterday.
Also to be inducted into the class of 2006: 1980s new-wave band Blondie and — finally — Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who founded A&M Records in 1962, will receive a lifetime achievement award in the non-performer category.
Love is in the air
Singer Diana Ross, 61, confirmed she is dating Oscar winner Jon Voight, 66, following a six-year search for the right man, the Internet Movie Database reports.
Miss Ross apparently is taking things slowly. Her agent, Phil Symes, said, “It’s still at an early stage. Certainly too early to say he is the new love of her life. But they have been on dates, which they both enjoyed.”
Compiled by Scott Galupo and Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports.
