Music

Robert Wyatt: Top of the Pops

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Robert Wyatt is a multi-talented musician from Bristol, England. His musical talent and eclectic performances make him a standout artist from the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and the 21st century. However, after a falling accident in 1973 that left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair, this talented musician became famous for another reason, being the only musician in a wheelchair to perform on Top of the Pops, a popular British music program.

Getting Started
Robert Wyatt started his music career while still a teenager. This is when he learned how to play the drums from American jazz drummer George Neidorf. As his talents developed he played for a number of bands including the David Allen Trio, the Wilde Flowers and the Soft Machine. While an accomplished drummer, Wyatt also sang lead in the Wilde Flowers, which was unheard of back in the 1970s when the drummer was not the star of the show.

By the 1970s Wyatt had launched a solo career with the album "The End of an Ear." After the release of this album, the conflicts Wyatt had with band members in the Soft Machine led him to leave the band and to form a new band called the Matching Mole. After two album releases with this band a fateful party led to a serious spinal cord injury which left Wyatt paralyzed.

Obstacles
After his spinal cord injury (SCI) Wyatt stopped drumming and left his band the Matching Mole. At this point in his career, he focused on the development of his solo act. His remakes infused pop hits from the United Kingdom and other corners of the world with reggae, jazz and fusion flavor. One of the biggest challenges of his career came when he was asked to perform on Top of the Pops, a family show. The producer had a problem with the image that Wyatt would project in a wheelchair. However, Wyatt held out and cleaned up his appearance by removing his rag but appeared in his wheelchair, despite the objections of the producer.

Advice
The most poetic piece of advice offered by Robert Wyatt is to look before you leap, especially in terms of developing business relationships within the music industry. This advice is important for both musicians with disabilities and without disabilities. Mutual trust and respect is needed for profitable, long-term relationships, and owing someone should not be a part of any music business relationship. These are the things that will deteriorate a relationship and lead to production problems and separations.

Sources:
www.artist-shop.com/irc/wyatt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wyatt

Natasha Wood Cracks up Audiences in Rolling with Laughter

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Natasha Wood has a comedian's ability to provoke laughter from her disability.

She is a bawdy 30-something Brit who is winning four-star reviews for her one-woman play, Rolling with Laughter.

The title is based on her life in a wheelchair with spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited neuromuscolar disability that has cost her the use of her legs and gradually her arms. The affliction inhibits signals from the brain to the muscles and some impulses fail to connect. Wood cannot walk and can lift only the lightest of objects.

"It's about the movers and shakers in my spine," she says. "They ain't moving and shaking."

Wood worked as a BBC production manager behind the camera before deciding to step in front.

Rolling with Laughter is praised for its lack of sappy sentimentality, although some viewers consider her script to be vulgar in spots. She portrays 30 characters from her life, including her ex-husband, as she buzzes around the stage in a customized top-of-the-line wheelchair donated by an admirer of her comedic but truthful artistry. This comedian's description of "the one thing that the wheelchair lacks" maintains her R-rating, and so curious readers of this page will need to check the script.

She is a petite blonde but she has been described as "Mae West on wheels," referring to the chesty and flirtatious American diva from the early days of movies. Indeed she boasts of having received a "boob job," but it was not for the usual reason. Doctors corrected a congenital lack of symmetry in her breasts.

Rolling with Laughter won critical acclaim in Los Angeles during the past year. Wood then returned to her homeland for a triumphant tour that concluded at Her Majesty's Theater in London, raising funds for the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. The nonprofit foundation is named for Jennifer Macauley, who was seven months old in 1985 when she died of the affliction.

Wood plans to tour again early in 2009 and also has hopes for a potential Hollywood movie contract.

A child can be affected with spinal muscular atrophy only if both parents carry the gene. Chances in that case are one in four, similar to sickle cell anemia. Wood's parents decided to have children in spite of the disability risk. She has the Type 2 variety, which is a middle level. Her brother, Johnny, already has died from the affliction. Her other sibling, Martin, is clear of spinal muscular atrophy.

She first asked her parents about her disability when she was four years old, growing up in Nottinghamshire. In her script, she says her father teased that she was purchased cheap in a store's toy department "on account that you were broken." This may seem not too funny, but she says an ability to laugh has helped her make the best of life, even though spinal muscular atrophy probably will prevent her from reaching elder status.

"I've never been the depressed kind," Natasha Wood says. "I think I've been dead lucky."

Sources:
www.rollingwithlaughter.com
fightma.org/blog/index/php?tag=natasha-wood
www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2008/.../hnatasha117.xml
www.backstage.com/bso.news_reviews/la/review_display.jsp?

Boys on Wheels

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:37:00 GMT

Jesper Odelberg of Sweden has cerebral palsy as a disability, so he cannot entertain as a stand-up comic. Instead he works from his wheelchair in what has become his most noted parlay, joining two other musicians with CP in a singing group known alternately as Boys on Wheels, or New Wheels on the Block.

Recently the 30-something Odelberg and his compatriots landed a gig on Norwegian television with Otto Jespersens, known for his controversial comedic style. With two musical teammates who apparently also are afflicted with cerebral palsy - Internet Web sites are not clear - Oldenberg performed Making Love in the Handicap Toilet and My Balls are OK and Living On My Wheelchair.

Videos now are gaining millions of visits on YouTube, creating a focus on cerebral palsy, a disability that results in loss of voluntary muscular control and coordination.

Croons Odelberg with his cerebral palsy disability: "I met a girl who said to me, can you perform sexually? Of course I can, give me a test. That night she screamed, 'You are the best.'" Lyrics are displayed in text form for viewers who may not be able to follow word for word, given that Odelberg's CP disability does not allow clear enunciation.

A more humble wheelchair-based verse from Odelberg sings, "You looked so nice in your coat and hat. I tried to follow, but my battery was flat." The challenge becomes even more impossible as the attractive woman lives in a fifth-floor apartment: "I'm finding it hard to get there in my wheelchair."

As for the connotation of whether this is good or sick humor, no uproar has emerged. Instead, blog sites express mixed emotions in reaction:

- "I'm conflicted. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think I'm mostly creeped out."

- "This is quite possibly the worst thing I have seen in my entire life. I'll be riding the Bullet Train straight to Hell after laughing at that."

- "These guys are real heroes. I can't imagine (what) it must take to go on that stage and show the world they still have a sense of humor despite all they have to bear."

- "Take this off (the Internet). How can somebody laugh at a serious disability. Get a life!"

- "I may burn in hell or have a child with CP just for laughing at it ... but still funny to me."

- "Horrible and funny at the same time."

- "I can't wait to show this to all of my friends who hate handicapped people. Also I can't wait to show it to my handicapped friends. Also these guys make me want to become handicapped."

Odelberg also intones: "I'm rolling away, because my legs are not OK. I think every day, there are guys with greater problems. I'm happy today. At least I'm not gay. I'm not gay." This may be satire, but one viewer's reaction: "Damn, even the crippled look down on the gay people. Poor gay people!"

Does this comedian with a cerebral palsy disability shed positive light, or a negative hue? Viewers will have to judge for themselves.

SOURCES
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesper_Odelberg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCxDZRJKkqY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUrZi2XQKyU&mode-related+search
www.digg.com/comedy/Living_in_a_wheelchair_crippled_boys_band_breaks_it_down

Clay Walker Donates $25,000 to Multiple Sclerosis Research

Sierra Koester — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:41:00 GMT

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently received a $25,000 donation from Clay Walker and his non-profit organization, Band Against Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, in order to fund Multiple Sclerosis research. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, approximately 400,000 individuals in the United States are affected by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and approximately 200 new cases of MS are diagnosed each week in this country.

Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder in which the central nervous system attacks itself, destroying the myelin that surrounds nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. Myelin is a substance that both protects nerve fibers from damage and allows nerve impulses to be transmitted to and from the brain. As the myelin on nerve fibers in the central nervous system are destroyed, nerve impulses have difficulty getting to and from the brain, which causes the symptoms of MS. Symptoms of MS frequently vary from person to person and from time to time in each individual as well. Symptoms of MS can include, but are not limited to: vision problems, coordination difficulties, walking and balance problems, bladder and/or bowel incontinence, difficulty with memory, problem-solving and/or focusing, fatigue, depression, spasticity, pain, a "pins and needles" or numbness sensation, dizziness, and/or sexual dysfunction.

Clay Walker is no stranger to MS, as he was diagnosed as having relapsing-remitting MS in 1996. Walker has been a successful country music star, despite his battle with MS. To date, he has sold over eight million albums and has had 11 singles hit #1 on the charts. He has released 10 albums, four of which have been certified platinum. His most recent album, Fall, was released in April, 2007. Walker founded the Band Against MS Foundation in 2003 with the hopes of raising awareness about MS. His non-profit organization also seeks to provide information and resources to individuals who suffer with MS and to fund MS research. Additionally, Band Against Multiple Sclerosis provides funding for assistance programs to aid individuals battling MS.

Walker recently presented Vanderbilt University Medical Center a check for $25,000 for MS research. Further, he announced that the Band Against MS Foundation will be making two additional donations of $25,000 for the next two years, culminating in a $75,000 donation over a three-year period from the organization. On his Band Against MS Foundation website, Clay Walker is quoted as saying, "Being diagnosed with MS hasn't been easy. I choose to view it as a 'bump in the road' rather than a detour, because I have been blessed to still be able to do the things I love. I know not everyone who is diagnosed with MS is that lucky. I want to help them by providing both a resource for information about MS and to take a leadership position in the fight to find a cure for the disease."

For more information on Clay Walker, please visit: www.claywalker.com.
For more information regarding MS, please visit the National MS Society at: www.nationalmssociety.org.
For more information regarding the Band Against MS Foundation, please visit: www.banagainstms.org.

Sources:
Band Against MS: Clay Walker and Band Against MS Make Vanderbilt's Day:
http://bandagainstms.org/?inc=5&news_id=11375
Band Against MS: Clay's MS Story:
http://www.bandagainstms.org/index.htm?id=11495&sid=10838
Band Against MS: About BAMS:
http://www.bandagainstms.org/index.htm?id=10820
Wikipedia: Clay Walker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Walker_%28musician%29
National Multiple Sclerosis Society: About MS:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=HO
M_ABOUT_homepage

Blind Boys of Alabama Celebrate Seven Decades of Song

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:13:00 GMT

Being born poor, black, and blind in the rural Birmingham, Alabama, of the 1930s wasn’t an easy way to start out life. For the Blind Boys of Alabama, however, these circumstances translated into 70 years dedicated to singing contemporary gospel music. The group’s story began when five of the original singers (all about 7 years old and all blind) arrived at the Talladega Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind.

Today the group’s last active, original member, Jimmy Carter, can recall how the boys adhered to the Institute’s rules—learning to read Braille and tackling traditional trades such as broom-, chair- and shelf-making. But the boys broke free from the structure of learning during rehearsals with the large school choir and, at the age of 14, they took their singing talent on the road. The Blind Boys of Alabama were eventually embraced as gospel stars and are still making music today.

When they’re on stage, it’s easy to forget that the three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind. Until you see them, as the Guardian pointed out, walking “in crocodile formation, one hand on the shoulder of the brother in front.”

The group has seen a lot of change in the world at large and in the music business during their tenure on the gospel circuit. As the music industry evolved and moved toward pop and rock leanings, the Blind Boys’ commitment to gospel remained steadfast, even if it often warded off fame and fortune. In the face of shrinking audiences, eventually, they did begin to experiment.

They've recorded moving renditions of songs from the likes of Tom Waits and Prince while maintaining their loyalty to the traditional material that launched their career. The Blind Boys have appeared as guests on record and on stage with an equally diverse array of artists, from Peter Gabriel to Ben Harper. “During this amazing run, the cover tunes and collaborations have been consistently tasty and organic, seasoned with a time-tested understanding of the sounds that move man's soul,” according to the Web site dedicated to the group.

Now their eclectic, worldwide following enjoys secular music with a positive message. They’ve recorded more than 50 albums. The group that was once confined strictly to gospel music venues in the South played "The Gospel at Colonus" on Broadway in 1983, and has won four straight Grammys for traditional gospel groups. That’s a long, far road away from their starting place at a school for the blind in Alabama.

The Blind Boys also recently headlined a gala night homecoming celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Institute where the group began. Carter, whose tenor voice reveals only the minimal wear of decades on stage, said it was good to go back.

"It made me what I am today," said Carter, speaking during an interview at his home in Montgomery before the show. "When the blind children wanted an education, that's where they came. That's how I met with the other singers."

Auti Angel Carves Out Niche as First Hip Hop Wheelchair Singer and Dancer

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:49:00 GMT

Auti Angel truly has the voice of an angel. Every word she shares is encouraging as she wears positive energy like a badge of honor. She shares that energy with everyone who crosses her path.

Auti has found the strength to rise above tough situations in her life. She grew up in a gang-infested neighborhood in Torrance, California.

"I've dealt with it all: child abuse, molestation and rape. When I married at 18, I went through a living hell and then escaped him," Auti details. "I'm lucky to be alive."

With growing attention from the record industry, Auti Angel was headed on the fast track in the Hip Hop, R&B world.

"I was J.Lo before J.Lo," Auti says with a laugh, "I danced with LL Cool J. I went on tour with Rap artists and I was about to sign a record deal as part of an all-Latin female Hip Hop group. Then, the tragic car accident happened, severing my spinal cord and leaving me wheelchair bound. That was May 3, 1992, a day I will never forget. The record company wasn't willing to wait, but I told them, 'I'm still me!' The group tried to replace me, but they couldn't and fell apart. I was saddened they didn't move forward because they still needed to follow their dreams."

That record deal evaporated, but Auti's determination for success did not.

"Once a dancer, always a dancer. The spirit of dance never dies, no matter what happens to your body. I landed a gig hosting a music video show, In Motion Hottest Videos. I was interviewing high-profile artists behind the scene such as Ice Cube, Chris Tucker and everybody in the R&B urban network. So, I'd take my back brace off and sneak out of rehab to work. I shared a rehab room with six other patients. My sister would pick me up late at night after everybody went to bed. A couple of nurses figured it out," Auti says, "but it didn't stop me."

"We filmed our show in different nightclubs, so that's where I started to dance again and figured out how to manipulate the wheelchair to work for me. After I got out of the hospital, I put another group together and we started performing. People were confused by my abilities to sing and dance, yet inspired. When we tried to approach the record companies, they didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know if there was a market for a wheelchair artist, but my talents were well received by many established industry artists and entertainers. As a result, I received a performance spot with Ludacris for his 'Stand Up' song. I told God that He had a funny sense of humor."

While Auti pursued her dreams, there were still challenges to endure.

"A year after the accident, I lost my mom to liver cancer, which was devastating. I began to hang with a different crowd that introduced me to alcohol and drugs. I started to use marijuana to deal with my chronic pain from the accident. Then I was introduced to rock (crack cocaine); not realizing the dark path it would drag me to. My drug use led me to being spiritually and physically attacked. I called the police for help, but when I tried to leave the scene, I wasn't thinking clearly and I led police on a high-speed chase through San Pedro, California."

"The drugs drove me to a suicidal state," Auti explains, "I was the first woman in a wheelchair incarcerated at Twin Towers County Jail. They didn't know what to do with me so they put me in the infirmary with women who were mentally ill. I spent three months in jail and God used me to talk with the other inmates. They began to see their own possibilities. I developed a strong relationship with God and honestly, God put me back on the right road and back in the game."

The tide has turned dramatically since that time. In fact, Auti is about to release her first album this summer independently. For the past three years, she's been teaching dance workshops to kids at the San Diego Adaptive Sports Camp. Her students have different diagnoses, but most of them are wheelchair users.

"One of my students, Manny Fernandez, was nine when he first started with me. He was really shy, quiet and kind of standoffish. Manny had a T-2 spinal cord injury from a tragic accident when he was only 13 months old. Now, he is 12 years old and gets in the freestyle circle to battle me. I know he's been at home practicing. The last time I saw him, he turns his hat backwards, he's spinning his chair around and begins to get down like the best of best. I'm so proud to be his teacher. He inspires me. I told him, 'That's it, you win!' Everybody was cheering him on, it was priceless," Auti says with a smile in her voice.

"I do my best to make the kids comfortable while telling them that they can participate or just watch. Each child has a different ability, so I use a freestyle circle for the kids to encourage each other and come up with their own moves. I remember everybody's dance move, give the dance his or her name, and choreograph all the moves together. Some kids can only blink their eyes. So, I incorporate that as a dance move to include every child. Everybody begins to build this very cool dance team. It's an awesome sight to see."

Auti has also started her own non-profit organization Save A Soul Foundation to help at risk youth by using performing arts as a tool.

"It's a grassroots mentor-based program for at risk youth. My ultimate goal is to have a youth center that will provide resources, tutoring, while teaching different trades that will apply to their goals in life. It will include at risk kids who are able-bodied and disabled. Save a Soul grew out of my own experience when I was asked to speak at the Los Angeles Central Juvenile Center. It seemed to set them free to hear me and hear my story. I was moved to reach out to our at risk youth. I could hear God's voice saying, 'Save A Soul. Once you save one soul, that soul saves another soul, so it repeats itself.'"

"I don't press my beliefs on anyone because I welcome everyone with different beliefs. But, God has allowed me to go through so much; my ministry is able to speak to all walks of life. My relationship with God has saved me. Everything happens for a reason and I'm grateful for the life I have. I'm in a good place now. Last year, I married my soulmate, Eric Rivera."

Auti's offers advice to adults and youth who are facing obstacles in life.

"Learn to love yourself. Remember that God never gives us anything that we cannot handle. So no matter what obstacle or challenge may come your way; it is always 'Overcome-Able!' Find your beauty in the most raw form and you will capture and affect your inner soul. If you're not dead, there's got to be a reason why you're still here." Through her own challenges, Auti has been transformed into a true Angel on Earth by sharing a strong message of hope. "I'm still here to show people there is a reason to be here and to help people find their purpose. I am a purpose to drive you, to inspire you and to help you overcome any obstacle. I will be the first Hip Hop artist in a wheelchair. Honestly, the possibilities are endless."

Auti speaks, teaches and performs at camps, schools, churches, juvenile facilities and a variety of venues nationwide.

For more information visit www.autiangel.com.

To see Auti Angel dance, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUjUhkvAyAE.

The World's First Solo Percussionist is Profoundly Deaf

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:24:00 GMT

For Evelyn Glennie, sound is tactile as well as auditory.

A lot of things about Evelyn Glennie stand out: the title of Dame (an honor bestowed by Queen Elizabeth) often appears before her name; she’s widely known as a percussionist but also plays the bagpipes; and, as the media is fond of pointing out, Glennie’s also deaf. But somehow the Aberdeen, Scotland-born musician, motivational speaker, and jewelry maker manages to be more then even the sum of these parts.

Refusing to be defined by her deafness, Glennie has explained that she is profoundly but not totally deaf and that she “hears” with various parts of her body. “Deafness does not mean that you can’t hear, only that there is something wrong with the ears,” Glennie writes in an essay on the subject. “Eventually I managed to distinguish the rough pitch of notes by associating where on my body I felt the sound with the sense of perfect pitch I had before losing my hearing.”

Glennie performs barefoot so that she can better feel vibrations from her instruments. In 2004, a documentary titled Touch the Sound, took viewers on a journey with Evelyn Glennie and explored her sensory world. The film is full of striking visual correlations to the percussive vibrations Glennie conjures.

Glennie’s childhood aspiration was initially to become a hairdresser. But at the age of 12, she watched her school’s orchestra perform in an assembly and knew it was a world she wanted to be part of. With her teachers’ encouragement, she pursued that dream and today Glennie has become a fellow at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She has been nominated for four Grammy awards, won two of them, and now performs more than 100 concerts a year.

She plays up to 60 instruments including the gamelan, xylophone, marimba, and timpani. It takes on average of four hours to set up the instruments she plays in a recital and an average of two hours to strip them all down after the performance.

Glennie has collaborated with the likes of Sting, Bjork, and Bobby McFerrin and somehow also finds the time to teach and help out the charitable causes close to her heart. She is the vice-president of Hearing Concern and Deafness Research UK, and president of The Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children, which provides musical therapy units to schools for the deaf and partially-hearing across the UK.

“’Normally hearing’ people do not define their existence by hearing. In fact, by and large, they very rarely even think about it,” Glennie writes in a Disability Essay. “A common thread amongst the very high achievers that I have met who have a hearing impairment is that they treat their hearing in a very similar manner to the non-impaired. They have at some stage had to do a lot of work to train their voices or learn to lip read, but after a while it becomes second nature and they simply forget about it. Their hearing impairment becomes no more a defining part of who they are than their hair colour.”

The U.K.'s Only Disabled Punk Band Demonstrates That Disability, Indeed, Rocks

Mon, 12 May 2008 18:56:00 GMT

When you first hear a new band, it’s hard not to place them in a mental box neatly labeled and socked away in whatever ward of your memory is reserved for that genre. One listen to Heavy Load, a UK-based punk outfit uniquely made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, however, will have your mind spinning and searching for the band’s place.

The band members describe themselves as being subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation, and desire that fuels any emerging band. With influences ranging from George Michael to The Cramps, Heavy Load has spread its combination of raucous energy, attitude, and sheer volume throughout the world for 12 years. Now the band is about to hit the big time: the feature-length documentary, Heavy Load: A Film about Happiness, about their journey from social care to stardom, and back again. The film debuted at SXSW (South by South West) film festival this year and was received with critical acclaim.

Director Jerry Rothwell contacted Heavy Load to make the film after reading about them in a newsletter for people with learning disabilities. Shot over two years as the band records its first album, "The Queen Mother’s Dead," the film takes viewers along as Heavy Load expands its reach from disability club nights to more mainstream gigs—and sells out venues along the way.

The band was relatively unknown when Rothwell first began filming them. According to The Austin Chronicle, Rothwell, in the midst of a struggle with his own depression, embraced the band’s potential as “a group that existed outside the mainstream commercial music world and that, in the true punk spirit, was making music ‘for fun, not fame’ and happily destroying expectations in the process.”

During the filming of the movie, the band conceived and launched the now-nationally renowned “Stay Up Late” campaign. Viewers watch as members of Heavy Load work to liberate disabled adults from a curfew system that prevents them from fully defining their own fates, careers, and lives.

And they do it while sticking to the true punk code based on an aversion to conformity, the desire to speak loudly about what they believe in, and to lobby for those who can’t do it for themselves, even in the face of authority. Rothwell’s own adherence to a similar code comes through in the film. Without embracing the sentimental or super-crip ideals evident in so many documentaries about disability, Rothwell dismisses the idea that the film is even about triumph over tragedy. “It’s about the joys of being in a rock band. Filming these guys, I realized they had something that is missing from so many people's lives: happiness,” Rothwell says.

Michael White, one of three Heavy Load members who has a learning disability, said, “Being in the film has made us more relaxed. We hope it'll make us famous.”

Heavy Load, presented by APT Films, Met Film and Hi8us, is an IFC co-production with ITVS International in association with BBC Television.

Read more:
To read more about documentaries based on disabilties, see Reviewing an Intimate Documentary About the True Face of War.

To read more about musicians with disabilities, see:
- Discovering Clon: Dancing K-Pop Stars Integrate Wheelchairs with Their Moves

- Tobias Forrest: Singer with Disability Sees Acceptance on Stage as Band "Cityzen" Gains Attention

- Keith Jones: Conquering the Music Industry with Cerebral Palsy

Singer with Disability Sees Acceptance on Stage as Band "Cityzen" Gains Attention

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:35:00 GMT

"I'm very passionate about not showing the world people with disabilities but instead showing people with disabilities the world. We all have the potential to be beautiful, wonderful and talented people," singer Tobias Forrest says, "I just want to sing."

And, sing he does. Forrest is the lead singer of the band Cityzen in Los Angeles.

The band offers a great sound and is building a following in clubs and on http://www.myspace.com/CITYZENLA.

"I started the group with Jeff Line. We played in a band in college before my accident. I was almost 23 when I became a C5 quadriplegic. It was May 1998 and I was diving off a waterfall in the Grand Canyon. It was the time of El Niño and the water level was lower. I was told it was safe to dive there, but it was too shallow. I did a little drowning, I did a little dying, but I said Heaven can wait," Forrest explains with a laugh. "I didn't lose my sense of humor."

After the accident, Forrest had no control of his lungs. He was on a ventilator for two months simply trying to breathe again. He couldn't play guitar and he couldn't play the drums.

"I resigned myself to saying that music was done. After I got hurt, I moved to Florida and earned my Masters degree in Psychology. But, I like to talk more than listen and I have problems with people who can't cope," Forrest says with his tongue firmly in cheek. "So, I started doing comedy improv and got involved in acting. I signed on to participate in a walking study at UCLA and moved to Los Angeles in 2003."

Forrest was awarded the Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship through the Media Access Office and also found a mentor along the way to Hollywood.

"Actor Danny Murphy in many ways is my mentor. He was one of the first guys I met after the accident. My father knew Danny and invited him over. I met him and we became friends. He led the way and had a big influence on me. He was an example of anything is possible," Forrest remembers, "and he showed me that success is possible. People set good examples and Danny is one of them."

Forrest's resume is filling up. He is currently appearing in a Wal-Mart commercial that is airing nationwide. He also performed in an episode of Weeds on Showtime and on the television series In Case of Emergency.

His passions vary from singing to poetry to painting. A true artist in every sense, Forrest plans to open a gallery show to combine his passions one day.

"I create figurative and surrealistic paintings. I love painting and creating artwork," Forrest notes, "and one day I hope to open a gallery show where the first painting is also the first song."

For now, the launch of his band is gaining attention not because of Forrest's wheelchair use, but because they play great live music. In creating their band Cityzen, Forrest and Line were joined by Nick Woods on drums, Tristan Cannizarro on guitar, and Adam Pingleton on bass to round out the group.

"My band lifts me up on the stages. Very few of the stages are wheelchair accessible, but I perform from my chair. I write all the lyrics and we sing original songs," Forrest says. "We play funk, rock, and we're a jam band. The passion of singing overrides any physical obstacle. As an artist, if I'm not creating, a part of me is dying. I also want to have a better excuse for people to stare at me rather than my wheelchair."

When asked about other rock singers who are wheelchair users, Forrest admits there is no one that comes to mind but his fans instantly look beyond the wheelchair. In fact, his success may lead other wheelchair users to consider a singing career.

"Right now, I'm it. You don't see that many rock singers on stage in a wheelchair. People think it's cool, though," Forrest explains. "We premiered at 14 Below in Santa Monica. We played at the Festival of Human Abilities. We played at Safari Sams. And, we're going to play at B.B. King's in Hollywood. We came out of the gate running and it's amazing!"

Forrest's other interests reach beyond Hollywood as he has an active role in marketing Accessible Design, www.AccessibleConstruction.com, to help people transition to independent living by providing a variety of products.

His father is the owner of Robomedica, www.Robomedica.com, which is focused on helping people with spinal cord injuries walk again through rehabilitation technology.

Forrest is also helping to establish a peer mentorship and resource group with other active spinal cord injured people called Ralph's Riders dedicated to the memory of Ralph Fornos.

To listen to a taste of Cityzen in LA, link to http://www.myspace.com/CITYZENLA.

Pictured: Singer Tobias Forrest performing on stage
Photo Credit: Nigel Skeet

Singer Chrissy Amphlett Confronts Multiple Sclerosis and Her Past

Fri, 02 May 2008 16:51:00 GMT

Some say they were the best band Australia has produced; if you were ever lucky enough to experience the Divinyls live, surely front woman Chrissy Amphlett stands out in your mind. The rock queen is well remembered for her performance antics, including making her way across the top of the mosh pit, held up only by the sweaty hands of her eager fans. She’d sing the entire time, never skipping a word while wading through the crowd to reach the security staff waiting patiently at the end of her journey.

Amphlett would then be carried back on stage, still singing and not appearing any worse for the wear, short of her messy hair and crooked dress. Amplett never seemed scared of risking life or limb (or being groped by over-enthusiastic fans) as she walked across the crowd. But she found it difficult at first to be quite that fearless in the face of a brain and spinal cord disease.

When Amphlett learned she had multiple sclerosis (MS), her first reaction was to panic. “I was very angry,” she said. “I was terrified because there's no road map. There's no predictability. You are living with uncertainty. The only certainty is uncertainty.” Amphlett also said she feared being defined by the disease.

The Divinyls singer first began experiencing symptoms of MS in the late 1980s, but she wasn’t diagnosed until around 2002. At the time, she kept her disease a secret from everyone—even her husband, American drummer Charley Drayton, who played on the Divinyls’ self-titled album. The entertainer, who can't get out of bed some days because of her symptoms, revealed to Drayton that he had “married a dud” and offered him the chance to divorce her. Amphlett says she worried that her husband would waste his life by staying with her and that she would become a burden.

Amphlett had stopped drinking over a decade prior to her diagnosis but believed that the public might be quick to link her condition with the lifestyle she had embraced in the past. In her book Pleasure and Pain: My Life, Amphlett takes readers backstage at gigs in seedy suburban beer barns and huge stadiums, and into the wings during her acclaimed two-year run playing Judy Garland in The Boy From Oz. And then she covers her greatest triumph: battling alcohol, drugs and a million dollars worth of debt to finally find peace and the love of her life in New York City. Amphlett also wrote that she was being treated with an immune balancer.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that there were plenty of people with MS who have not lived the life she’d chosen. And she’s come a long way since her initial feelings about her diagnosis. In 2007, on the eve of the Divinyls’ headlining reunion performance at Homebake Sydney, Amphlett bravely went public with her diagnosis. "It's not a life sentence and I've learned a lot," she said. "The self image thing has been a little bit difficult to deal with; in that I'm not perfect."

Keith Jones: Conquering the Music Industry with Cerebral Palsy

Fri, 02 May 2008 16:32:00 GMT

How does a man with Cerebral Palsy become a rap musician? Well, if you’re Keith Jones (aka FEZO), you do it through a sheer determination to put your voice, feet, and talent to use within the hip-hop community. He’s already recorded two CDs, the latest of which (and also his last) is called Vocal Tai Chi. Through his music—not to mention his attitude—Jones is re-defining what it means to be a disabled artist.

“The industry, much like society in general, has a schism towards people with disabilities. The reason I am and have remained un-signed is because they didn't know how to market me,” Jones said in an interview with fellow krip-hop artist Leroy Moore. “This is indicative of a larger issue: there is uneasiness around disability and what talents and contributions the individual has to offer.”

The 38-year-old, Boston-based Jones has limited use of his hands but uses his feet to more than make up for any lack of dexterity he experiences. Using his feet, he can write, type, draw and even cook. Accordingly, he doesn’t need any special equipment to make the music he loves so much.

But Jones is not only making his way through waters chartered previously by the likes of Puffy and Jay-Z, he’s also trying to roll through the Senate. While the world may not be used to seeing a disabled African American rapper in a wheelchair tackling politics and rap, Jones isn’t backing down.

"When I was a kid, there were no real role models for youths with disabilities, especially African-American youths with disabilities—no sense that you could grow up to be Barack Obama," Jones told the Boston Globe. "Even now, there still isn't."

Jones believes that actions speak louder than words when considering politicians’ stances on issues related to race, poverty, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians. He says that as a person who lives among these groups and advocates for them publicly, he knows that no political party has managed to really tackle the struggles surrounding any minority. That’s precisely why Jones will run outside of the two-party system, as an Independent/Third Party candidate.

The road ahead of Jones as a forceful disability rights activist, educating anyone who will lend him an ear about how the cause of people with disabilities is the next frontier of civil rights, is a tough one. And he acknowledges that frankly and believingly. He says that, disabled or not, if you want something, you have to work for it. And for him, more often than not, that means working significantly harder than anyone else.

This sort of determination isn’t anything new to Jones. When he was young, he told his teachers that he was more interested in completing math assignments than doing arts and crafts all day. “The one thing my family told me was: ‘Don’t ever let anybody try to limit you or put constraints on you,’” Jones says. “And I took that literally.”

Jones is featured in Including Samuel, a film by Dan Habib that focuses on the challenges facing young people with disabilities and their families on issues of inclusion.

One Vocalist Changing the Jazz World, From Her Wheelchair

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:14:00 GMT

The Boston Globe was dead on when it described jazz composer, vocalist, and actress Lisa Thorson as “grand, sassy . . . and seductive." She’s even been described in the media as a young Ella Fitzgerald who promises to make her mark on the world of jazz. Thorson is a vocalist of surprising range who has an amazing ability to deliver the notes she hits—listeners can feel the energy she directs at her audience as she performs in her wheelchair.

In 1979, as a 21-year-old senior at Boston Conservatory of Music pursuing musical theater studies, Thorson was performing back-to-back flips with a partner when she fell. She was paralyzed at the C5-6 level and spent the following eight months is rehab. It was at that time when Thorson became acutely aware of just how far the world is from being accessible to people with handicaps.

Many around her warned her that she’d never have the lung capacity to perform the way she once had, but her unabashed love for and commitment to musical theater remained unfettered. Thorson was determined to succeed in theater, radio, and artist residencies, and she accepted the performances she was offered.

Next Move Theatre gave Thorson her first acting roles as a wheelchair user. She spent much of 1980-1983 going up and down flights of stairs to do shows. It’s a sacrifice she says she wouldn’t make today as an established artist, but at the time it was worth it.

And while Thorson understood that her Broadway voice might never return, jazz was more flexible so she embraced it as an option. After several decades dedicated to the genre—both singing and teaching it—Thorson says it’s probably the most difficult discipline to adopt. Yet today, she’s able to sing in a way she didn't when she was 20 years old and fully able bodied.

“You already have the strength to fight back, to advocate, and to find a different path, because as people with disabilities we improvise every day,” Thorson said to an audience in a keynote speech that addressed resources and alternatives for a career in the arts. “That is creativity and tenacity rolled into one. And you have strength and conviction. Turning obstacles into assets is a way of life for people with disabilities and that is what you need to succeed as an artist.”

Her career spans 25 years and, with her quintet backing her up, Thorson has performed throughout the U.S. in concerts, at jazz festivals, and for community events. She has performed for organizations such as the Very Special Arts USA and the Adaptive Environments Center in Boston. She has served on the Mayor’s Commission on Handicapped Affairs for the City of Boston and received three successive scholarships to attend Jazz in July at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Through it all, she’s been honored with awards and accolades and is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music specializing in jazz styles and vocal technique.

Thorson was inducted into the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame in 2006. She was also named the Humanitarian Entertainer of the Year in 1989 and received a Living Legacy Award from the Women’s International Foundation in 1992.

“Key Changes: A Portrait of Lisa Thorson,” weaves footage of her performances with interviews. It illustrates the subtle ways in which she challenges stereotypes, and advocates for people with disabilities through her work. The work also takes a look at the irony inherent in the fact that Thorson is in demand from clubs to concert halls to school auditoriums, but finds few of them are wheelchair accessible. It’s an issue Thorson, through her art and professional life, is working to change. When she approaches the issue with the same passion she puts into her singing, one can only believe she'll be as successful in positively impacting the issue of accessibility as she has been in her world of music.

Photo courtesy of www.LisaThorson.com.

Ellis Hall: A Blind Artist Who's About to Dominate the Entertainment Industry

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:58:00 GMT

Did you know Ray Charles appointed and left behind an heir apparent to his R&B throne? It’s true! In 2003, Ellis Hall was backstage relaxing after having just sung the tune “You Don’t Know Me.” According to Hall, that’s the moment Ray Charles approached him and jokingly asked, “What are you doing singing like that? Being so damn good? You trying to take my gig?” Thus was the beginning of a relationship characterized by mutual admiration, not to mention comparisons between the two.

Hall doesn’t imitate Charles in his performances; however, he was introduced at one performance as “Ray’s protégé.” Anyone who meets, hears, or has the pleasure of taking in one of Hall’s performances would be hard-pressed not to notice some similarities between the two stars.

Like Charles, Hall is blind. He struggled with diminishing vision throughout much of his childhood but didn’t completely lose his sight until he was 18. It was at that time when the degenerative eye disorder he’d lived with took over. In the months leading up to his blindness, Hall played his piano in the dark, readying himself for what he knew was coming.

Throughout it all, he held tightly to his love of making music. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Hall had moved to Boston at the age of 5, and that’s when his musical career truly began. Today he’s involved in a wide array of projects, everything from commercial jingles to smash hit singles.

His own stylized version of the 60s Motown hit, “Every Little Bit Hurts,” was Hall’s first solo release. He took his talents on the road when he formed the Ellis Hall Group, and he was the lead vocalist on the debut hit single, “What Does it Take?” from Kenny G’s multi-platinum “Duotones.” He also assumed the lead vocalist position with the memorable funk group, Tower of Power.

As a California Raisin, Hall struck gold with an album titled “Christmas with the California Raisins” and platinum with “The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs.” He also teamed up with James Taylor, Warren Hill, Huey Lewis and the News, Bo Diddley, Jason Scheff of Chicago, Stevie Wonder, and many others.

But at some point people noticed that Hall possessed more than just a mean set of R&B pipes. That’s when he added a series of television and movie gigs to his credits. He has appeared on numerous award-winning television shows, and his is the voice of the lead rooster in the claymation hit, Chicken Run. And if you caught Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma’s House, you should know that it was Hall who played the organ and sang gospel tunes in the movie. Hall also performed Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can.

“It’s a kind of acting, and I enjoy the challenge of it. For some characters I have to completely change my voice. For Sesame Street Live, I became Uncle Grizzly, an old bear. And I played the old, toothless raisin for the California Raisins campaign,” Ellis says.

His most recent album “The Spirit Lingers On” is a re-issuing to include a very special tune “Patiently,” which he dedicated to dear friends and every family enjoying the birth of a first child. “I made highly inspiration soul,” says Hall. “I make music that produces a healing of the heart. And that is truly amazing . . . yes, it is. I dare anyone to feel this infectious joy of my soulful celebration.”

Yet Hall remains the music, television, and movie industry’s best-kept secret. Even with such a wide array of accomplishments already behind him, anyone watching or listening can rest assured that the world has yet to see the full breadth of what Ellis Hall has to offer.

New Orleans Welcomes Everyone to Annual Jazz Fest

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:52:00 GMT

As the official site of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, as well as the legendary birthplace of jazz, the Big Easy beckons music lovers from around the world every spring. Now in its 39th year, the 2008 jazz blowout—known locally as the Jazz Fest—is slated to run from April 25-27 and May 1-4. This festive event celebrates the music and culture of Louisiana as more than 400,000 visitors converge on New Orleans for a huge jazz party, complete with second line parades, food, and lots of live entertainment.

The Basics
The Jazz Fest takes place at the Fair Grounds Race Course, which is located 10 minutes from the French Quarter. This massive venue features three main stages and eight tents, all with continuous music from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Music ranges from jazz, blues, and zydeco to folk, rock, and rap. There’s even a kid’s tent for the little ones. The year’s headliners include Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Sheryl Crow, and the Neville Brothers. As more musicians stream into New Orleans, you’re sure to find more street performers in the French Quarter. In short, everywhere you look, there’s music.

When you get hungry, you can whet your appetite at one of the two large food areas, where you’ll have your choice of everything from crawfish and alligator to vegetarian plates and even the standard burgers and brews. Save some time to browse the crafts area, with artisans from around the world demonstrating and selling their wares. All in all, it’s a very full day.

Access Details
Even though it’s a huge event, access hasn’t been overlooked at the Jazz Fest. Accessible parking is available near the front gate on Gentilly Boulevard. If you’d prefer to let someone else do the driving, then buy a ticket on the Jazz Fest Express bus. Operated by Gray Line Tours, these buses will run continuously from the Sheraton Hotel, the Gray Line Lighthouse and the Steamboat Natchez Wharf in the French Quarter to the Fair Grounds Race Course. Accessible (lift-equipped) transportation is available upon request. Call (504) 569-1401 or (800) 535-7786 to make advance arrangements.

Alternatively, you may be able to arrange for accessible transportation through RTA Paratransit Service (504-827-7433); however advance reservations are a must and the demand is usually quite high during the Jazz Fest.

Reserved accessible seating is available in all tents and stages, and Access Program ushers will be on hand to help folks find those seats.

Additionally, an Access Center will be located in front of the grandstand. A master key to the accessible restrooms (porta potties) will be available here. The Paralyzed Veterans of America will man the booth next door, which will offer free loaner wheelchairs to folks who can’t manage distances.

And if you have any access-related questions, feel free to e-mail access@nojazzfest.com or call (504) 558-7849.

All in all, it’s going to be a fun and accessible event, so come on down and enjoy yourself in the Big Easy.

Candy Harrington is the editor of Emerging Horizons and the author of Barrier Free Travel: A Nuts and Bolts Guide For Wheelers and Slow Walkers. She blogs regularly about accessible travel issues at www.BarrierFreeTravels.com.

Autism: The Musical Focuses on a Production By Autistic Children

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:05:00 GMT

As flip or gaudy as the title may sound Autism: The Musical is no joke. Nor is it a musical. The play within a film is actually an upbeat documentary that follows acting coach, educator, and Miracle Project founder Elaine Hall as she takes five autistic children (her own son included) under her wing to produce a musical in Los Angeles.

Autism Director Tricia Regan followed the troupe for six months, capturing the struggles and triumphs of their family lives and observing how the musical production gave the performers a comfort zone in which they could explore their creative sides.

Though autism is an umbrella term used to classify an astonishing array of symptoms, the personalities, one-of-a-kind quirks, and temperaments of each of the five children is fully explored in the documentary. Henry’s encyclopedic knowledge of all things dinosaurs is an impressive one. Looking like a typical teen,14-year-old Lexi repeats what she hears and sings like a songbird. Wyatt is sensitive, articulate, and appears to be close to some level of understanding that his mind works differently than those of other children. Adam is a 9-year-old virtuoso who has taught himself to play the mouth harp and cello. In one of the film’s most gripping scenes, Hall’s son Neal, who doesn’t speak and is severely autistic, focuses long enough to make use of a keyboard voice box.

Mounting a stage production could have been an overwhelming undertaking for a group of kids who have a hard time sitting still, dealing with chaos, communicating, and making eye contact. And the subjects of Autism: The Musical have as many hurdles as they do victories. Yet through it all, the point that the arts can transform kids who are in their own world and re-unite them with others comes through loud and clear. In fact, the kids do connect—with each other, with their troupe leader, and with themselves. And “Autism” shows them doing it without so much as one over-sentimentalized moment.

The on-stage action is only one part of the film. Candid one-on-one interviews with the kids’ parents makes apparent the struggle and reward of bringing up an autistic child. Home movies are also shown, chronicling the kids’ journeys from seemingly average infants to erratically-behaved toddlers. And the film doesn’t leave audiences to guess about the way autism can affect marriages, cause financial distress, confuse educators, and ultimately lead to a very lonely existence. But it also gives equal credence to how love blooms, mothers refuse to give up, and kids reveal hidden talents.

Even with its serious subject matter, Autism: The Musical is a joyous film. Culminating with opening night, as a whole it’s a celebration of the troupe’s spirit and determination. It’s an inspirational counter to today’s bleak statistics that autism was diagnosed in one in 10,000 children in 1980 but today affects one in about 150 American children.

“With diagnosed cases of the disease rapidly escalating in America throughout the last decade, this documentary’s exploration of alternative methods of treatment seems opportune, not to mention downright joyous at times,” Variety Magazine wrote.

And on the film’s Web site appears perhaps the best way to sum up the documentary “Both on and off stage, ’Autism the Musical‘ is a call-to-arms, bringing attention to a modern-day epidemic, all the while celebrating the way the human spirit can overcome any challenge.”

Autism: The Musical premiers March 25, with a DVD release to follow. The documentary is a Bunim-Murray production in association with In Effect Films. It is produced by Perrin Chiles, Tricia Regan, and Sasha Alpert; executive producers are Jonathan Murray, Janet Grillo, David S. Glynn, Kristen Stills, and Joey Carson. Direction is by Tricia Regan. With: Elaine Hall, Adam, Henry, Lexi, Neal, Wyatt. Running time is 94 minutes.