Post by Diamond Girl on May 27, 2007 14:24:43 GMT -5
Diana Ross, scheduled for Hard Rock, has endless love for performing
By Brian McCollum
Detroit Free Press
April 30, 2007
We didn't see much of Diana Ross for awhile.
Oh, we kept hearing her: that legion of hit songs, both Supremes and solo, that long ago became indelibly imprinted in the American fabric and entrenched Ross as an icon.
But until January -- when she launched a bustling schedule that has included a new album, tour and high-profile TV appearances -- this had been a low-key decade for the Detroit native, who spent much of her time traveling the world and playing stage mom to her teenage actor son.
Now Ross, 63, says she's found a vibrant, comfortable lifespace. This year's burst of activity serves as "food for the soul," she said.
"It's been a lot of years, good years, and it's a pleasure. It's a privilege to walk onstage and do what I do -- getting a chance to do my work and still enjoying it."
Her sparkling tour set traverses the breadth of Ross' storied career: from the early Supremes material forged at Motown's Detroit studio, through her 1970s move into sophisticated adult pop, to her new collection of cover ballads, I Love You.
This year's return to the public eye -- boosted by a well-received American Idol appearance and the film Dreamgirls, loosely mirroring the Supremes' career -- finds Ross revisiting a familiar place: that halcyon era when she was an omnipresent figure in American pop culture. Those were the days when Ross was certifiably the world's hottest female music star, a versatile artist who deftly straddled the worlds of pop and film, building the modern diva template since followed by acts from Whitney Houston to Beyoncé.
Q. Even at this point in your career, is there still a nervousness or anxiety before going out on a tour?
A. I don't know that I would call it nervousness. The hard part about touring is the travel. But I like performing. Who wouldn't, anyway? Dancing in the lights with beautiful gowns, singing the songs, looking at the audience, looking into their eyes. That's my privilege.
I want to not walk on the stage and have to worry about anything. You don't want to be concerned about makeup and hair -- you want to walk onstage and be comfortable, and that comfort translates to the audience, then it's an interaction, a back and forth, and it feels really good when it's like that.
Q. Who are you seeing out there these days?
A. I see all my faces that I know. A lot of that. And I see families, always. Usually fans bring their children. ... It's a family time. My music has gone through all of these different generations -- people of my generation bring their kids, and then they bring their kids. It's a wonderful thing.
Q. What prompts you to get out there again? When do you know it's time?
A. I really have always liked the quest of having things to look forward to. I'm always searching for the next thing. I'm interested in life. We should all want to look forward to something. Whether it's the next tour, the next record, the next movie. You know, what is your quest? What is your search, what are you moving toward, that keeps your vitality in life? The work you do, if you treat it like a new experience, something to learn something from. ... I've always been like that -- always looking.
I really do like life. I like being here.
Q. It must still be a good feeling to know that every hour of every day, on a radio somewhere, your voice and your songs are being shared with people.
A. A strange, interesting thing happens a lot, when I walk into a market or a store, and all of a sudden my record is playing on the sound system. It's amazing how it happens -- it's almost like there's this magical energy in the universe to let you know your voice is still there. So it is very, very rewarding. It's been so many years now, and such an incredibly wonderful career. I'm blessed. I'm healthy, I'm strong, I'm still here and I'm still making music.
Q. Is there a way that you enliven that material for yourself onstage?
A. I listen to the words. They're all still so very new. There's a story in each of the songs. It's not really the words on the paper -- it's what's underneath. Ain't No Mountain High is not about a mountain. It's about going for your dreams and believing in yourself -- the energy underneath the lyric.
It's the things between the lines. When I'm doing Baby Love or Where Did Our Love Go or My World Is Empty, the audience is having their own memories. ... A lot of things happen through those three minutes in a song -- you're with me, then you're with yourself, you're with me, you're with yourself. ...
I do try very hard to stay with the melody of the song -- I've noticed that sometimes performances now really stray and change the song too much. ... We're able to take the audience with us through those moments. We walk through all these years on the stage.
Q. How much of a connection do you maintain with the older Motown family these days?
A. Not so much. Really not so much. Because I don't live in the same places they do -- I don't really live in Los Angeles. I spend time there, I spend time in New York, and I spend a lot of time in Europe, because I'd married a European and we lived there for quite some time. Maybe Smokey [Robinson] and Berry [Gordy] spend a lot of time together. I think they do. But I have not spent a lot of time with the Motown family in a long time. I see Berry when I'm out in California. ... I really don't think there's any more Motown family, personally. ... I think that's gone.
if you go
Diana Ross performs at 8 tonight at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. $50-$100; call Ticketmaster (561-966-3309, 954-523-3309, 305-358-5885).
www.sun-sentinel.com
By Brian McCollum
Detroit Free Press
April 30, 2007
We didn't see much of Diana Ross for awhile.
Oh, we kept hearing her: that legion of hit songs, both Supremes and solo, that long ago became indelibly imprinted in the American fabric and entrenched Ross as an icon.
But until January -- when she launched a bustling schedule that has included a new album, tour and high-profile TV appearances -- this had been a low-key decade for the Detroit native, who spent much of her time traveling the world and playing stage mom to her teenage actor son.
Now Ross, 63, says she's found a vibrant, comfortable lifespace. This year's burst of activity serves as "food for the soul," she said.
"It's been a lot of years, good years, and it's a pleasure. It's a privilege to walk onstage and do what I do -- getting a chance to do my work and still enjoying it."
Her sparkling tour set traverses the breadth of Ross' storied career: from the early Supremes material forged at Motown's Detroit studio, through her 1970s move into sophisticated adult pop, to her new collection of cover ballads, I Love You.
This year's return to the public eye -- boosted by a well-received American Idol appearance and the film Dreamgirls, loosely mirroring the Supremes' career -- finds Ross revisiting a familiar place: that halcyon era when she was an omnipresent figure in American pop culture. Those were the days when Ross was certifiably the world's hottest female music star, a versatile artist who deftly straddled the worlds of pop and film, building the modern diva template since followed by acts from Whitney Houston to Beyoncé.
Q. Even at this point in your career, is there still a nervousness or anxiety before going out on a tour?
A. I don't know that I would call it nervousness. The hard part about touring is the travel. But I like performing. Who wouldn't, anyway? Dancing in the lights with beautiful gowns, singing the songs, looking at the audience, looking into their eyes. That's my privilege.
I want to not walk on the stage and have to worry about anything. You don't want to be concerned about makeup and hair -- you want to walk onstage and be comfortable, and that comfort translates to the audience, then it's an interaction, a back and forth, and it feels really good when it's like that.
Q. Who are you seeing out there these days?
A. I see all my faces that I know. A lot of that. And I see families, always. Usually fans bring their children. ... It's a family time. My music has gone through all of these different generations -- people of my generation bring their kids, and then they bring their kids. It's a wonderful thing.
Q. What prompts you to get out there again? When do you know it's time?
A. I really have always liked the quest of having things to look forward to. I'm always searching for the next thing. I'm interested in life. We should all want to look forward to something. Whether it's the next tour, the next record, the next movie. You know, what is your quest? What is your search, what are you moving toward, that keeps your vitality in life? The work you do, if you treat it like a new experience, something to learn something from. ... I've always been like that -- always looking.
I really do like life. I like being here.
Q. It must still be a good feeling to know that every hour of every day, on a radio somewhere, your voice and your songs are being shared with people.
A. A strange, interesting thing happens a lot, when I walk into a market or a store, and all of a sudden my record is playing on the sound system. It's amazing how it happens -- it's almost like there's this magical energy in the universe to let you know your voice is still there. So it is very, very rewarding. It's been so many years now, and such an incredibly wonderful career. I'm blessed. I'm healthy, I'm strong, I'm still here and I'm still making music.
Q. Is there a way that you enliven that material for yourself onstage?
A. I listen to the words. They're all still so very new. There's a story in each of the songs. It's not really the words on the paper -- it's what's underneath. Ain't No Mountain High is not about a mountain. It's about going for your dreams and believing in yourself -- the energy underneath the lyric.
It's the things between the lines. When I'm doing Baby Love or Where Did Our Love Go or My World Is Empty, the audience is having their own memories. ... A lot of things happen through those three minutes in a song -- you're with me, then you're with yourself, you're with me, you're with yourself. ...
I do try very hard to stay with the melody of the song -- I've noticed that sometimes performances now really stray and change the song too much. ... We're able to take the audience with us through those moments. We walk through all these years on the stage.
Q. How much of a connection do you maintain with the older Motown family these days?
A. Not so much. Really not so much. Because I don't live in the same places they do -- I don't really live in Los Angeles. I spend time there, I spend time in New York, and I spend a lot of time in Europe, because I'd married a European and we lived there for quite some time. Maybe Smokey [Robinson] and Berry [Gordy] spend a lot of time together. I think they do. But I have not spent a lot of time with the Motown family in a long time. I see Berry when I'm out in California. ... I really don't think there's any more Motown family, personally. ... I think that's gone.
if you go
Diana Ross performs at 8 tonight at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. $50-$100; call Ticketmaster (561-966-3309, 954-523-3309, 305-358-5885).
www.sun-sentinel.com
