2006 Kennedy Center Honorees

[dws1982]

Willie Nelson's been honored, Damien, but none of the others have. I guess Wells hasn't been honored because she's been out of the game for so long. Merle Haggard...maybe there's a policy against convicted felons? (Now watch someone provide a counterexample.) I'm surprised George Jones hasn't been honored yet though.

[Damien]

Yay Dolly!!!! Bur Lloyd Webber is crap.

Hmmmm no actors this go around. Has Doris Day ever won one of these things? Or Richard Widmark? Has Shirley MacLaine won?

And I have no concept of who's already been honored. but if they haven't been, shouldn't George Jones, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kitty Wells come before Dolly?

Smokey's ok, but kind of boringly slick, and he's no Bobby "Blue" Bland or Solomon Burke.

[anonymous1980]

Dolly Parton
Smokey Robinson
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Steven Spielberg
Zubin Mehta

From the Washington Post...


Tributes to music from the streets of Detroit, the mountains of Tennessee and the orchestra pits of Broadway will echo at the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors in December.

The annual awards, announced today, will go to country music legend Dolly Parton, rhythm and blues balladeer William "Smokey" Robinson, musical theater innovator Andrew Lloyd Webber and classical conductor Zubin Mehta.

In addition, the center is saluting Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most influential commercial filmmaker of his generation. Spielberg, 59, is credited as one of the inventors of the summer blockbuster in 1975 with "Jaws," which sold $100 million worth of tickets. (And while he is not best known for music, John Williams's theme for "Jaws" became the sound of terror.)

Stephen A. Schwarzman, the center's chairman, said: "Andrew Lloyd Webber has led a seismic change in our musical theater becoming the most popular theater composer in the world; conductor Zubin Mehta's profound artistry and devotion to music make him a world treasure; Dolly Parton's creativity and spirit make her country music's best international ambassador; Smokey Robinson's song and voice have created the soundtrack for the lives of a generation of Americans; and Steven Spielberg's films make him one of the most successful and most brilliant film directors of all time."

The Honors, in their 29th year, will be formally bestowed at the State Department on Dec. 2, followed the next night by a star-studded gala and performance at the center.

"I just couldn't believe it," Parton said this morning. Sitting by her fireplace in Tennessee, Parton said, "You never know what you are going to do with your life. As you get older, you hope people remember you. You always welcome the awards. It makes you feel like your life is worthwhile. And for the elite to select you -- I didn't have much of an education, only a dream."

Smokey Robinson, for one, thought this cultural award was a long time coming. "This is something I have always wanted to get. I am not an award person and whenever I got awards it has always seemed so ironic to be honored for something that I love doing," he said from his home in Los Angeles. "This one is one that I have secretly wanted without telling anyone because it is so prestigious. It is so great to be honored at the White House."

Parton, 60, a native of Sevier County, Tenn., was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper and his wife. She adopted music as one way to stand out and survive. She borrowed from all the traditional sounds around her -- Appalachian folk, bluegrass, hillbilly, bluegrass, gospel and blues. Parton made her debut at the Grand Old Opry at age 13.

Since then she had rarely stopped moving, hitting the top of the country and pop charts, making inroads for female country singers along with Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. After a long collaboration with Porter Wagoner, she went solo in 1977. She won her first Grammy that year for her song "Here You Come Again."

Parton took her humor and spirit into the movies, first appearing in "Nine to Five." She received an Oscar nomination for the movie's feminist anthem about getting even in the workplace. She has made 15 movies, included "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," and "Steel Magnolias." This year she had an Oscar-nominated song, "Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica." All in all, she has had 20 gold albums and produced memorable collaborations with Kenny Rogers on "Islands in the Stream," and with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on "Trio."

For the past year or so Parton has been writing music for the Broadway adaptation of "Nine to Five." She goes on the road for about 75 days a year and says she never gets tired of singing "Coat of Many Colors."

"I am amazed. I see the old fans, with the blue hairs. And then I see the blue hairs with the spikes and piercing. They know I love them all," she says.

"Ooo, Baby Baby" is all of Smokey Robinson fans need to get them started on the gifts of the green-eyed tenor who whispered what everyone want to hear, or say themselves. A native of Detroit, Robinson, 66, started a doo-wop group when he was 15. In 1958 they met Berry Gordy Jr., who was building a record company and soon the hit machine of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles gave Motown Records its early sound and hits.

Over the years the group swung from the ballads to party tunes, producing "The Tears of a Clown," "The Tracks of My Tears," "Mickey's Monkey" and "Going to a Go-Go." The Temptations' evergreen "My Girl" was written by Robinson. During his solo career, his "Quiet Storm" led to a popular radio format of romantic themes.

"Come next year, I will have been doing this for 50 years. I am blessed to still being viable and filling up concert halls. I never get tired of singing any of [my songs]. They are new to me every night," said Robinson, who just released an album of standards.

Spielberg, 59, started making 8 mm horror and adventure films during his childhood in Cincinnati Fantasy, and adventure marked most of his films, including the most acclaimed: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park," and the Indiana Jones trio.

The Motion Picture Academy nominated Spielberg as best director six times. He won twice, for "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan." "Schindler's List" also won Best Picture. Another Spielberg departure, "The Color Purple," was nominated for 11 Oscars.

In a statement, Spielberg said, "I am deeply moved and thrilled to have been selected as a 2006 Honoree by the Kennedy Center Trustees and the national artists committee. I am looking forward to joining the other honorees and their guests in this great American celebration of the arts."

Lloyd Webber, 58, a native of London, is responsible for Broadway's two longest running shows, "Phantom of the Opera" with its mournful "The Music of the Night" as well as "Cats," with its show stopper "Memories." A product of a musical family, Webber studied history at Oxford but was soon drawn to composing. With Tim Rice, he wrote the rock opera "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Webber's search for new music led him to unusual sources, such as South American politics, the disappointments of Old Hollywood and the writings of T.S. Eliot.

His output includes "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita," "Sunset Boulevard" and "Bombay Dreams." He has won seven Tony Awards, six Laurence Olivier Awards and three Grammy Awards.

"I'm very flattered to have been asked to join the enormously impressive list of people the Kennedy Center has honored over the years," said Webber in a statement.

Mehta, 70, has been one of the world's most visible maestros through an international conducting career, PBS specials and leading the famous Three Tenors concerts in Rome and Los Angeles. A native of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, Mehta was groomed by his father, a violinist and orchestra leader. Mehta started out for a career in medicine but was attracted to conducting and studied with Hans Swarowsky at the Music Academy in Vienna.

At age 25 he became the youngest conductor to lead a U.S. orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For 13 years he lead the New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States. In 1969 he was named music adviser of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and he has conducted more than 2,000 performances with the group. In 1999 he conducted the Israel Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra in Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony No.2" near Buchenwald, Germany, on the site of a former Nazi concentration camp.

"Anyone who has worked and dedicated himself for over 30 years to the arts in the United States as I have, knows the immense honor that the Kennedy Center awards signify. In this spirit I humbly accept this most prestigious award and am proud to be in the company of so many of the world's foremost artists that I have admired and grown up with," said Mehta in a statement. He is on tour in Japan with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentiono.