Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami [DVD]

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Grace is the granddaughter of Dan Williams (8), daughter of Marjorie Jones, sister of Bishop Noel Jones and Chris Jones (20), and mother of Paulo Goude. Show more Jones described her childhood as having been "crushed underneath the Bible", [36] and since has refused to enter a Jamaican church due to her bad childhood experiences. [132]

Jones has a contralto vocal range. She sings in two modes: either in her monotone speak-sing voice as in songs such as " Private Life", " Walking in the Rain" and " The Apple Stretching", or in an almost- soprano mode in songs such as " La Vie en Rose", " Slave to the Rhythm", and " Victor Should Have Been a Jazz Musician". Jones's voice spans 4 octaves, 1 note and a semitone from the low note of C 2 (in " Corporate Cannibal") to the high note of E ♭ 6 (in "Slave to the Rhythm). [130] Personal life The video partly captures live performances of Jones' A One Man Show tour which was filmed at London's Drury Lane Theatre and at the Savoy Theater in New York City in 1981. [1] It includes six songs performed live on stage, mostly from the Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing albums, plus four studio music videos. The show's intro is a photo montage of some of the most famous images of Jones from the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the "tiger in a cage" portrait and the "arabesque" photo. I think the scary character comes from male authority within my religious family. They had that first, and subliminally I took that on. I was shit scared of them.” To cynics, that might seem egotistical, but that isn’t the impression I got from her 2015 book, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs (the title comes from 1981’s “Art Groupie,” i.e. “ I’ll never write my memoirs, there’s nothing in my book”). Grace recognized her strengths and weaknesses early on, and she also faced a fair amount of rejection in her early days, but her fearlessness propelled her past one obstacle after another. After Slave to the Rhythm and Island Life, Jones started to record again under a new contract with Manhattan Records, which resulted in Inside Story, Jones teamed up with music producer Nile Rodgers of Chic, whom Jones had previously tried to work with during the disco era. [71] The album was recorded at Skyline Studios in New York and post-produced at Atlantic Studios and Sterling Sound. Inside Story was the first album Jones produced, which resulted in heated disputes with Rodgers. Musically, the album was more accessible than her previous albums with the Compass Point All Stars, and explored different styles of pop music, with undertones of jazz, gospel, and Caribbean sounds. All songs on the album were written by Jones and Bruce Woolley. Richard Bernstein teamed up with Jones again to provide the album's artwork. Inside Story made the top 40 in several European countries. The album was Jones's last entry to date on US Billboard 200 albums chart. The same year, Jones starred as Katrina, an Egyptian queen vampire in the vampire film Vamp. For her work in the film, Jones was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.The World of Grace Jones". Theworldofgracejones.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011 . Retrieved 26 May 2012. Next to Slave to the Rhythm , which features excerpts from conversations with Art of Noise member-turned-journalist Paul Morley and Ian McShane-voiced excerpts from Jean-Paul Goude’s 1983 memoir, Jungle Fever , Hurricane would turn out to be her most intimate effort to date (Morley also worked with her on her memoir). On the album, she pays touching tribute to Marjorie and the entire Williams clan. A View To Kill, the 14thinstallment of the James Bond films, arguably becomes a soulless spectacle without Jones’ presence as May Day – the formidable henchwoman and lover of Roger Moore’s Bond nemesis, Max Zorin, played by Christopher Walken. Oozing power and a mesmerizing mix of strength, sensuality and unpredictability, Jones’ electrifying performance proved the counterweight to the film’s, at times, convoluted plot. She transformed what may have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill Bond villain into a complex and captivating force, brimming with vulnerability and raw determination. Jones’s performance in A View To Kill is easily one of her early roles, so much so that among the pantheon of James Bond villains, GQ magazine honorably mentions Jones as the only actor that “comes close to outdoing his [Walken’s] performance” – who is ranked as the ninth best Bond villain of all time. In the film, three college students visit a strip club with the intention of hiring a stripper for a college fraternity. The stripper who impresses them turns out to be a powerful vampire, as do many of the other inhabitants of the part of town they find themselves in, and their carefree visit to the club turns into a struggle for survival. Grace Jones was born in 1948 (though most sources say 1952) [3] [13] [14] [15] in Spanish Town, Jamaica, the daughter of Marjorie (née Williams) (1927–2017) [16] [17] and Robert W. Jones (1925–2008), [18] who was a local politician and Apostolic [ disambiguation needed] clergyman. [19] [20] [21] [22] The couple already had two children, and would go on to have four more. [23] Robert and Marjorie moved to the East Coast of the United States, [23] where Robert worked as an agricultural labourer until a spiritual experience during a suicide attempt inspired him to become a Pentecostal minister. [24] While they were in the US, they left their children with Marjorie's mother and her new husband, Peart. [25] Jones knew him as "Mas P" ('Master P') and later noted that she "absolutely hated him"; as a strict disciplinarian he regularly beat the children in his care, representing what Jones described as "serious abuse". [26] She was raised into the family's Pentecostal faith, [27] having to take part in prayer meetings and Bible readings every night. [28] She initially attended the Pentecostal All Saints School, [29] before being sent to a nearby public school. [30]

Though she harbored no musical ambitions at the time, it’s a path she would eventually pursue. It began when she joined a theatrical troupe in college that traveled around the East Coast performing original musicals, so Grace was singing professionally, even if she saw herself as more of an actress. The troupe’s founder even secured a coveted audition with Gamble and Huff, architects of the Philly sound, but she admits she was so out of touch with the 1970s music scene that she completely botched it.Joey Michaels. "3349. "Breakdown" by Grace Jones". Sadclownrep.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013 . Retrieved 23 May 2012. Grace Jones". Fashion Insider: Supermodels Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013 . Retrieved 5 May 2013. She also switched from collaborating with Interview illustrator Richard Bernstein, who designed the covers for her first three albums, to Esquire art director Jean-Paul Goude, who would design the next three, trading her previously sophisticated image for something more abstract, intersexual, and downright intimidating. Though they never married, Grace and Jean-Paul were romantically involved from 1977-1984, a union that produced their son, Paulo, a percussionist who plays in Grace’s current band.