Alicia keys and jay z empire state of mind live movie#
Kander and Ebb wrote and then rewrote “New York, New York” for a 1977 Martin Scorsese movie of the same name. “It’s what people think and feel and hang on to.” “It doesn’t matter what I think or what the critics say,” says Kander. Other than suggesting that an anthem usually embodies some measure of hope, Kander could not - and would not - attempt to explain what makes a city connect with a certain song he merely pointed out that “Empire State of Mind” has as much of a chance of enjoying another 30 years of popularity as his did 30 years ago. “I thought it was kind of interesting because it juxtaposed totally different styles of music,” says Kander, 82, explaining it was first brought to his attention by another musical theater star, 29-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, who mixed rap with other styles in the Broadway hit “In the Heights.” ”īut composer John Kander, who with the late Fred Ebb wrote the musical “Cabaret” as well as Sinatra’s enduring anthem, is intrigued by Jay-Z’s ode to the big city. That never would have been with a Vernon Duke or Oscar Hammerstein. Words like ‘home’ and ‘alone’ don’t rhyme and yet that’s what these rappers use. for everyone, forever,” he says, complaining that the street music of today “won’t last because it has no melody and very little that even rhymes. During a phone interview, Schwartz hums one of his favorite ballads of the city, the 1934 slow-tempo “Autumn in New York,” by Vernon Duke, who composed “April in Paris.” since I made it hereĮven the idea of a “new Sinatra” feels wrong to Jonathan Schwartz, a radio personality from New York with an encyclopedic knowledge of the singer. Like any good New Yorker, he has made no secret of his ambition to topple what came before him and since there are few left to take on, he’s trying to elbow aside the Chairman of the Board with an anthem reflective of a new generation.īut can any hip-hop song prove as universal and enduring as Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train” (written by Billy Strayhorn) or Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s " Manhattan”? Or, for that matter, that other easy-to-whistle “New York, New York,” by Leonard Bernstein and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, which explains, “the Bronx is up and the Battery down, the people ride in a hole in the ground”?įrom the very start of “Empire State,” Jay-Z’s lyrics sum up his rise from street kid to celebrity as well as his vision of New York in line with anthems that precede him:
Over the same three decades, hip-hop grew to be the dominant force in pop music and culture and Jay-Z one of its leading citizens. And if it wasn’t already ubiquitous, its beat blaring from the radio in almost every corner store, last month Keys issued her own version on her new album and has been regularly performing this salute to the aspirations of native New Yorkers.įor the last three decades, Frank Sinatra’s " New York, New York,” from the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, has ruled as the city’s sentimental favorite - in ballparks, at weddings and to signal determination. The song “Empire State of Mind” was the biggest hit at Yankee Stadium this fall, and then, just days before Jay-Z turned 40, it gave the rap legend his first No. It has been nearly impossible lately to surf the radio without hearing Jay-Z rapping about his gritty-to-glamorous ascent in the big city as Alicia Keys swoons about the “concrete jungle where dreams are made of.