எண்ணெய் பசைக்கு

வெயில் காலத்தில் வெளியில் போவ தென்பது கடினமான ஒன்றாக தான் இருக்கும். உங்களுக்கு எண்ணெய் பசை சருமமாக இருந்தால் வெயில் உங்கள் எண்ணெய் பசையை மேலும் அதிகரிக்கச் செய்து உங்கள் முக அழகை கெடுத்து விடும். கவலையை விடுங்க எண்ணெய் பசை நீங்கி அழகாக காட்சியளிக்க இதோ சில டிப்ஸ்

எண்ணெய் பசை நீங்க:
வெள்ளரிக்காயை தினமும் காலையில் முகத்தில் தேய்த்து வர முகத்தில் அதிகமாக எண்ணெய் வழிவதை தவிர்க்கலாம். வெள்ளரிச்சாற்றுடன் பால் பவுடர் கலந்து தடவினாலும் எண்ணெய் வழியாமல் முகம் பிரகாசமாக காணப்படும் இதை தொடர்ந்து ஒரு மாத காலமாவது பின்பற்ற வேண்டும்.

தக்காளி பழத்தை நன்கு பிழிந்து சாறாக எடுத்து முகத்தில் தடவி காய்ந்த பின் கழுவினால் எண்ணெய் வழிவது கட்டுப்படும். தக்காளியுடன் வெள்ளரிப்பழம் அல்லது ஓட்ஸ் சேர்த்து அரைத்து முகத்தில் பூசி 20 நிமிடங்கள் கழித்தும் கழு வலாம்.

பால் மற்றும் முட்டையின் வெள்ளைக்கருவுடன் காரட் துருவலை கலந்து முகத்தில் தடவினால் அதிகமாக எண்ணெய் வழிவது குறையும்.
எண்ணெய் பசை சருமத்தினர் அடிக்கடி குளிர்ந்த தண்ணீரீல் முகம் கழுவ வேண்டும். முகத்தை அலம்ப சோப்பிற்கு பதில் கடலைமாவை பயன்படுத்தலாம். இதனால் எண்ணெய் வழிவது குறைவதோடு முகமும் பளபளப்பாக இருக்கும்.

எண்ணெய் பசை சருமம் உள்ளவர்கள் மோரை முகத்தில் தடவி சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து கழுவினால் எண்ணெய் வழிவது குறையும். வெள்ளரிக்காய் சாறு எலுமிச்சம் பழச்சாறு, சந்தன தூள், பாதாம் பவுடர், தயிர், உருளைக்கிழங்கு சாறு ஆகியவற்றை சம அளவில் எடுத்து அவற்றை முகத்தில் தடவி சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து கழுவ வேண்டும். இவ்வாறு தொடர்ந்து செய்து வந்தால் எண்ணெய் வழிவது குறையும்.

சோளத்தை நன்கு பவுடர் செய்து தயிர் மற்றும் எலுமிச்சை சாறு கலந்து முகத்தில் பூசி சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து கழுவினால் முகத்தின் எண்ணெய்ப் பசை நீங்கும். எண்ணெய்ப் பசை சருமத்தினர் வெயிலில் சென்றுவிட்டு வீட்டிற்கு வந்ததும் சிறிது தயிர், கடலை மா மற்றும் எலுமிச்சை சாறு கலந்து முகத்தில் பூசி சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து கழுவினால் அதிகப்படியாக எண்ணெய் வழிவது குறைந்து முகம் பளபளக்கும்.

எலுமிச்சை சாறு, முட்டையின் வெள்ளைக்கரு, திராட்சை சாறு ஆகியவற்றை சம அளவு எடுத்துக் கொண்டு அவற்றை நன்றாக கலக்கி முகத்தில் பூச வேண்டும். சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து முகத்தை தண்ணீரால் கழுவ வேண்டும்.

பப்பாளி கூழ், முல்தானி மட்டி, வேப்பிலை பொடி ஆகியவற்றை நன்றாக பசை போல் குழைத்து முகத்தில் பூசி சிறிது நேரம் கழித்து வெதுவெதுப்பான தண்ணீரில் கழுவ வேண்டும். இவ்வாறு வாரம் இரண்டு முறை செய்தால் முகத்தில் வழியும் அதிகப்படியான எண்ணெய் தன்மை குறையும்.

உங்கள் முகத்தில் எண்ணெய் பசை நீங்கி பொலிவு பெற மேற்கண்ட வழி முறை களை பின்பற்றுங்கள்.

சளி தொல்லைக்கு

சளி தொல்லைக்கு பக்கவிளைவு இல்லாத ஒரு எளிய இயற்கை நிவாரணி உள்ளது. அது தான் தேன் உறை (Honey Wrap). இது உடனடி நிவாரணத்தை வழங்கக்கூடியது.

சளி மற்றும் இருமல் போன்றவை பெரிய பிரச்சனைகளாக இல்லாவிட்டாலும், சில நேரங்களில் அது பெரும் தொந்தரவாகவும், எரிச்சலூட்டும் வகையிலும் இருக்கும். ஒருவருக்கு சளி அதிகமாகிவிட்டால், இரவில் நிம்மதியான தூக்கத்தைப் பெற முடியாது மற்றும் எதிலும் கவனம் செலுத்த முடியாது.

இந்த சளிக்கு பெரும்பாலானோர் கடைகளில் விற்கப்படும் சளி மருந்தைப் பயன்படுத்துவார்கள். சளி மருந்துகளை அதிகமாக சாப்பிட்டால், தலைச்சுற்றல், தலைவலி மற்றும் விரைவான இதயத்துடிப்பு போன்ற பக்கவிளைவுகள் ஏற்படும். இதற்கு அதில் உள்ள கோடின் மற்றும் டெக்ஸ்ட்ரோமெத்ரோஃபேன் தான். ஆனால், இந்த சளி தொல்லைக்கு பக்கவிளைவு இல்லாத ஒரு எளிய இயற்கை நிவாரணி உள்ளது. அது தான் தேன் உறை (Honey Wrap). இது உடனடி நிவாரணத்தை வழங்கக்கூடியது. சரி, இப்போது அந்த தேன் உறையை எப்படி செய்வதென்றும், எப்படி பயன்படுத்துவது என்றும் காண்போம்.

தேன் 
தேனில் ஆன்டி-பாக்டீரியல் தன்மைகள் உள்ளன. இது நுரையீரலில் தேங்கியிருக்கும் சளியை வெளியேற்றும்.

தேவையான பொருட்கள்:
* சுத்தமான மலைத் தேன்
* தேங்காய் எண்ணெய்
* அரிசி மாவு
* நேப்கின்
* கட்டுத் துணி
* ஒட்டக்கூடிய மருத்துவ டேப் (Adhesive Medical Tape)

செய்முறை 
முதலில் ஒரு பௌலில் தேன் மற்றும் அரிசி மாவை போட்டு கையில் ஒட்டாதவாறு கலந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும். பின் அத்துடன் சறிது தேங்காய் எண்ணெய் சேர்த்து கலந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

பயன்படுத்தும் முறை:
பின்பு தயாரித்து வைத்துள்ள கலவையை நேப்கின் மீது வைத்து, மார்பு பகுதியில் வைத்து, அதன் மேல் அடிப்படும் போதும் பயன்படுத்தும் கட்டுத் துணியை போர்த்தி, ஒட்டக்கூடிய மருத்துவ டேப்பால் ஒட்ட வேண்டும்.

குழந்தைகள் 
குழந்தைகளுக்கு இந்த சிகிச்சையை மேற்கொள்வதாக இருந்தால், இந்த தேன் உறையை இரவில் தூங்குவதற்கு 2-3 மணிநேரத்திற்கு முன் மார்பு பகுதியில் ஒட்டி எடுத்து விட வேண்டும்

பெரியவர்கள் 
ஒருவேளை பெரியவர்களுக்கு இந்த சிகிச்சையை மேற்கொள்வதாக இருந்தால், இரவு முழுவதும் இந்த தேன் உறையை வைத்திருக்கலாம்.

குறிப்பு 
சளி அளவுக்கு அதிகமாக இருந்தால், தொடர்ந்து 2-3 நாட்கள் பின்பற்றுங்கள். இதனால் சளி முற்றிலும் வெளியேறிவிடும்.

How to Lose 5 Pounds and Get a Flat Stomach in a Month

Be patient and give yourself practical time to get a flat stomach - remember - you didn’t gain weight overnight, so you can’t be expecting to lose it now. If you have the long term view, you will lose 5 pounds and get a flat stomach, but importantly keep it off for good!

Below are 5 key points to help you lose 5 pounds and get a flat stomach -

1. Beware of energy and protein bars - these are usually targeted to women who want to shape up and lose weight. However, energy bars have as much sugar and fat as a regular candy bar.

2. Just eat fresh and prepare your own meals - that way you know what you are putting into your body. Make it a point to have five serves of vegetables a day with sensational salads and soups - and get 2 servings of fruits a day. These low calorie appetite suppressants will not only help you lose those unwanted calories, but will help you looking and feeling fabulous.

They‘re packed with antioxidants and dietary fiber to protect your health and enhance your vitality. Your eating habits is the major reason for your weight gain, ad by gradually changing it and making it a habit, your body will get the necessary nutrition to fuel it.

3. The key for a flat stomach is eating sensibly - and your diet doesn’t have to be complicated. While this doesn’t seem like a secret at all, most women and men get this wrong in spite of their best - but misguided - efforts. Most people have fallen prey to low-fat, low-carob, Hollywood and every other over hyped diet that marketers can dream up, all in hopes of shedding those unwanted pounds. But eating sensibly is - isn’t about dieting or deprivation; it’s about moderation and balance.

While cutting carob or fats out of your nutrition plan might give you a temporary loss of a couple of pounds, it’s typically followed by a drop in metabolism and a weight gain of more than you lost in the first place once you go back to your old eating habits. So what is eating sensibly?



4 Eating sensibly are having protein and carbohydrates at every meal. It’s grazing on 4-6 healthy meals or low fat snack each day (1 salad plate portion only), instead of missing meals and then gorging yourself. It’s enjoying a healthy breakfast and not drinking your calories. But most of all, eating supportively is enjoying the foods you love in moderation instead of in excess. This is the best way to control your cravings!
5. Exercise and good nutrition is the best way to get a flat stomach: High intensity exercise, not long boring cardio, is an essential component for fat loss. This can be achieved through intense activity, and the person will achieve better results when compared to taking on a diet program by itself.

Not only does exercise contribute to fat loss, rapid weight loss is also accompanied by reduced stress levels, an energy boost, increased body endurance, a reduced risk for diseases, and an overall improvement to your health. A great resource is The Truth about Six Pack Abs - it has the most effective workouts and nutrition tips that will show you how to lose 5 pounds and get a flat stomach in a month.
 

The Ultimate Winter Checklist for your Hair!

Here’s your ultimate winter beauty checklist that will make sure you have that lustrous mane you’ve been dying for.

Intense Moisturizing

The best way to keep your hair shiny and glossy during winters is to switch your regular conditioner to an intense conditioner meant for dry hair. During winter, the natural oils that keep your hair moisturized get sapped easily, and leave your hair dry and frizzy. Giving it that extra moisture is only going to help, so do get it without a second thought.

Quality Products

Winter or not, make sure you always use quality products for your hair and skin. Don’t be lured by new shampoos and conditioners arriving in the market- changing the hair care products you use too often can actually cause damage to your hair. Instead, stick to the products that you know your hair loves, especially if you have dry hair that is more prone to damage and breaks easily.

Hair Trimming

The benefits of regular trimming are severely underrated. Not only does trimming help keep split ends at bay, but it also helps maintain your hair and keeps it glossy and shiny. In fact, it is also believed that trimming every 6-8 weeks can help improve hair growth and enhances the natural beauty of your hair by getting rid of the damaged hair.

Occasional Oiling

Your scalp health says a lot about your hair health and vice vera, and during winters, make sure you give that little extra pampering to your scalp, which is vulnerable to drying out. Choose from almond oil, argan oil and coconut oil and give yourself a nice head massage atleast once a week. These oils can actually give your scalp and hair roots the nutrients they need to keep your hair shiny and glossy.

Get Wise

Be it summers or winters, one hair care tip you should live by is to use lukewarm water while rinsing your hair. You may love going for a hot water bath during the chilly winters, but it will only leave your hair frizzy and unmanageable. Instead, use hot water for your body bath and choose lukewarm water to wash your hair. Limiting the number of times you have a head bath is also believed to be helpful during winters.

source:yahoo.com

7 Fabulous Foods For Men’s Health

It is surprising how many foods that we do not find magic really have super powers. Some of them could be found in your fridge even now! What is it exactly that makes some certain foods so special?

 

Obviously, all foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, important fatty acids, antioxidants and other nutrients can definitely be considered magic. These superfoods can protect your organism from various diseases. Eating them regularly can lower the level of cholesterol, wash out toxins, improve metabolism and solve many other problems. The foods you are going to read about are not exotic and can be easily found in your local store. Include them in your diet to stay healthy longer!

1. Eggs

Egg whites are pure protein. This product is the champion of superfoods that provide us with all necessary nutrients. Eating eggs can improve the quality of your blood. They are also recommended as a source of vitamin B12, vitamin A and folate. Besides, the above mentioned nutrients, eggs contain about 11 other essential vitamins and minerals.

2. Almonds

Almonds, just like any other nuts, are high in calories. Most of those calories come from monosaturated fats that are very useful for your health. Almonds reduce the level of cholesterol and prevent diabetes and heart disease. These nuts are rich in calcium, potassium, vitamin B6 and other minerals. 

3. Oats

Oats is what you should start your day with. Morning porridge is a great choice if you watch what you eat and are trying to improve your diet. These supergrains are full of vitamins, minerals, fibre and protein. You can substitute oats with quinoa and chia. All these foods taste nice even before you put berries or fruits. To make your breakfast even more beneficial, drink a glass of milk. This combination will give you enough energy to last you a few hours.

 

4. Coconut

Coconut is another superfood. It can be eaten raw and since this food is rich in fiber, it can be consumed to improve bowel movement. You can also drink fresh coconut water. It is especially good to quench your thirst on a hot summer day when you need some extra hydration. Coconut oil is great due to various minerals that it contains which positively influence brain function.

5. Avocado

Avocado is a rich fruit. However, its fats are healthy. Avocados are rich in vitamin E, oleic acid, folate and litein. They also contain glutathione and monounsaturated fats that prevent heart disease. Avocados also fight brain diseases, degenerative eye and even cancer.

6. Wild salmon

Eat wild salmon to keep your body functioning properly. You can also eat any other fatty fish to provide your body with Omega-3 fatty acids. These acids lower the risk of heart disease and reduce the level of cholesterol. Farmed salmon is less valuable so we suggest you opt for wild species of this delicious fish. Not only is wild salmon richer in Omega-3, it is also free of contaminants and toxins.

7. Dark chocolate

There is a delicious treat that is high in polyphenols and flavenols – dark chocolate. This product is full of antioxidants that make your heart healthier. Antioxidants help you stay young. UK scientists recommend dark chocolate as well as natural cocoa powder for men who take care of their health and well-being.

Indonesia halts search for missing AirAsia plane as night falls

 Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (2317 GMT on Saturday). No distress signal had been sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official.

On board were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, plus a French pilot, the airline said in a statement, correcting earlier information.

Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia's National Committee of Safety Transportation, expressed hope of locating the aircraft quickly and said it was too early to detect any of the so-called electronic pings from its black box recorder.

"We are using our capacity to search on sea and land. Hopefully we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible," he told a news conference.

"What I need to emphasize is until now, we have not found out how the plane fell or what kind of emergency it was."

Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia (AIRA.KL), which has had a clean safety record since it began operating 13 years ago. The AirAsia group also has affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus (AIR.PA).

The pilots of QZ8501 "was requesting deviation due to en-route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said in a statement. Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, South Korea and Australia offered to help in the search and any investigation. Malaysia said it was sending vessels and a C130 aircraft while Singapore had also sent a C130. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a P3 Orion aircraft was on standby if needed.

ANXIOUS RELATIVES

Flight QZ8501 was between Tanjung Pandan on Indonesia's Belitung island and Pontianak, in West Kalimantan province on Borneo - almost halfway between Surabaya and Singapore - when it went missing. There was bad weather over Belitung at the time and the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.

In both Surabaya and Singapore, anxious relatives of people on the plane awaited news.

Louise Sidharta was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for her fiancée to return from a family holiday.

"It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married," she said.

A man named Purnomo told TVOne in Surabaya of a lucky escape.

"I should have been on the flight," he said. "We, seven people, had planned to go to Singapore for vacation but this morning I had an emergency. I had my passport in hand."

Tony Fernandes, chief of Malaysia's AirAsia, said he was heading to Surabaya.

"My only thoughts are with the passengers and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR (search and rescue) operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he said on Twitter.

AirAsia swapped its distinctive bright red logo for a grey background on its website and social media accounts.

The incident comes during a troubled year for Malaysia-affiliated airlines. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found.

On July 17, Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Indonesia AirAsia has a fleet of 30 Airbus A320s. The missing plane has been in service for just over six years, according to airfleets.net.

All AirAsia-branded airlines operate aircraft made by Airbus, which has orders for several hundred planes from the group. AirAsia is considered one of the European planemaker's most important customers.

The Friday Pin Up

  

Connie Converse: The mystery of the original singer-songwriter

Connie Converse remained virtually unknown after 12 years of trying to build a musical career in New York. Connie Converse was arguably the first modern singer-songwriter, writing and playing intimate songs on her acoustic guitar in the mid-1950s. But she remained virtually unknown and disappeared in 1974. Now, her talent is finally being recognised.

In summer 1974, days after her 50th birthday, Connie Converse sent fond letters to family and close friends telling them she wanted to make a fresh start.

Disillusioned with how her life had turned out, she packed her possessions into her Volkswagen Beetle and left her Michigan home. She has not been seen since.

Twenty years earlier, Connie Converse was living in Greenwich Village, the New York district where, in the mid-1950s, beatniks and bohemians were carving out counterculture.

Converse was working for a printing firm, but had hopes of making it as a musician. In her apartment, she would write haunting, beautiful songs with a poetic honesty and melodic sophistication that set her apart from the other singers in Greenwich Village.

With the folk scene still dominated by political and traditional songs at that time, the concept of the solo acoustic singer-songwriter had barely moved beyond Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger's dust-bowl balladry.

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell were still in school.

Converse was not the most gifted vocalist or guitar player, and her voice had an air of formality that befitted the age.

Yet when she sang, it was with a depth, intimacy and eloquence that were rare for that era.

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Listen to the track, Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)

She sang of loneliness, of promiscuity, of quarrelling lovers, of frequenting saloons in the afternoons. While some tunes had a more jaunty, fireside air, most carried an underlying sense of sadness.

Despite her ambitions, she did not play conventional gigs and stood on the edge of Greenwich Village's musical coterie.

In 1954, she recorded a set of songs in the kitchen of Gene Deitch, who had recorded Pete Seeger and John Lee Hooker in the 1940s.

Deitch and her other friends tried to help her career, but to no avail.

In 1961, the year Dylan moved to Greenwich Village, Converse turned her back on her music career and left New York for a job at the University of Michigan.

Still unfulfilled, she fell into depression and heavy drinking. She would be 90 now.

"The more I thought about it, the songs were all about herself," says Deitch, now 90, who went on to become an Oscar-winning animator.

"I think that's what makes the songs interesting. No matter what she was singing, it all had to do with sexual frustration and loneliness.

"There's something about those songs that was extremely personal. In those days, this was something you never heard.

"Nowadays, there are lots of women singers who you might call folk singers or personal song singers, who are doing pretty much the same thing as Connie did.

"But I think she was really the first."

Cult following

It seemed that Converse's songs were destined to be forgotten until Deitch's recordings were put out as an album by a small New York label in 2009.

Since then, the legend of Connie Converse has slowly grown.

"The music, considering when it was recorded, sounds eerily contemporary," says David Herman of Squirrel Thing Recordings, which released the album How Sad, How Lovely.

"Her voice is really compelling. Add to that the fact this was a woman writing singer-songwriter-style music in the mid-50s, before being a singer-songwriter was a thing, and before a female songwriter was something people were used to.

"And with the mystery of the disappearance, the whole thing leaves you with more questions than answers."

The next step in her rediscovery comes on Wednesday when a 40-minute documentary by US film-maker Andrea Kannes receives its premiere at the Sensoria film and music festival in Sheffield as part of a Connie Converse tribute night staged by British singer Nat Johnson.

'Funny and sad'

Kannes has had access to the filing cabinet Converse left behind, complete with her home recordings, letters and journals.

"It's almost like she wanted it to be found and looked through," Kannes says.

"What I found most fascinating was how funny she was in her writing.

"Here was a person who struggled through her whole life to feel successful, and you can tell there's a great sadness with a lot of the things she did and the way she lived her life, but she was also incredibly funny.

"You could tell that she was well liked and she had lots of friends. But there was still this wall between her and other people, where it didn't seem like she 100% connected with anybody."

As well as being frustrated in her music career, Converse had a powerful intellect that also never quite found its calling.

'A genius'

At high school, she dominated the graduation prize-giving ceremony and won a prestigious college scholarship.

But her parents were dismayed when she dropped out after two years and moved to New York, changing her name from Elizabeth and rejecting their strict teetotal, God-fearing upbringing.

After giving up on music and leaving New York, Converse edited the Journal of Conflict Resolution. She was also a keen political activist and a talented cartoonist.

Her brother Phil, writing in 2000, described her as "a genius and a polymath", adding: "I do not use the terms lightly." She was also an enigma.

The mystery of what became of her remains unsolved. Her family believe she took her own life, probably by driving into a lake or river.

But 60 years after she made those recordings in Greenwich Village, Connie Converse's voice is finally being heard.

A Legitimately Magical Prince Album

In 2010, Prince released an album, called “20Ten,” that ushered in the longest silence of his thirty-five-year career as a recording artist. For most of Prince’s creative existence, he’s put out an album a year, sometimes double and triple sets. After “20Ten,” though, came nothing. Well, nothing by Prince’s standards: plenty of singles trickled out, along with rumors about upcoming projects, but there was no major release. Then, earlier this year, he announced a return to Warner Bros. records, at first for the purpose of assembling a thirtieth-anniversary edition of “Purple Rain,” which would include outtakes and rare demos. This has not yet materialized. What has emerged is his first album of new material since “20Ten,” and the second: this week, Prince resurfaces with “Art Official Age,” a solo album, and “PlectrumElectrum,” a long-delayed collaboration with his all-female backing group, 3rd Eye Girl.

“PlectrumElectrum” is easier to understand and easier to dispense with, which doesn’t mean that it’s subpar, exactly. It’s a short rock record with plenty of guitar, and includes meditations on sex, self-empowerment treatises, and energetic songs about energy. The more ambitious songs often spotlight someone other than Prince. Hannah Ford, the band’s drummer, sings the plaintive ballad “Whitecaps,” and “Boy Trouble” is a strange flower of a song with an out-of-left-field speed rap.

The so-called solo record, “Art Official Age,” is considerably more interesting. For starters, Prince has dispensed with his typical “Produced, Arranged, Composed, and Performed by Prince” credit, the one on which much of his mystique as a one-man band and all-around genius was founded, and has shared production credit with Joshua Welton, who also happens to be Hannah Ford’s husband. Was this an admission by Prince that he needed another pair of ears? Was he in search of a more contemporary sound? The quasi-title track that opens the album (“Art Official Cage”) seems to suggest so. It’s a strange welter of E.D.M. clichés and Europop, with some gnomic lyrics, some grinding guitar, and some rapping. It’s a mess, provocative but not exactly successful; it sounds like a track that was left off Prince’s 1989 “Batman” soundtrack, updated for 20Fourteen.

But the rest of the album is easily Prince’s most coherent and satisfying record in more than a decade. In the past few years, the Prince songs that leaked online seemed to be less about paving the way for a new album and more about trolling the Internet. “Breakfast Can Wait,” a lithe and light funk number, was released with a cover photo of Dave Chappelle as Prince. Only a snippet of “This Could Be Us” leaked, but it was enough to confirm that Prince had written a song about a popular Internet meme that used a picture of him from his “Purple Rain” days. As proper singles started appearing, though, the album came into sharper focus. Songs like “Clouds” and “U Know,” slower and more repetitive than the kaleidoscopic funk-rock we’ve come to expect from Prince, suggested a new direction—a kind of gelatinous, futuristic R. & B.

These tracks worked in concert with the other singles to sketch out a theme: that technology separates us from those we’re close to, and even from ourselves; and that the lack of integration may well result in disintegration. “Clouds,” the second track on the album, which opens with the sound of a radio tuning, critiques the way the computer age offloads experiences to distant servers (that’s what the clouds are); the song instead prioritizes romance and human connection (“You should never underestimate the power of a kiss on the neck when she doesn’t expect a kiss on the neck”). It also folds in a well-constructed argument about the way the Internet era has encouraged empty exhibition and a half-baked argument about violence and bullying, before ending with a sci-fi monologue delivered by a British female voice that seems to suggest that Prince has been placed in some sort of centuries-long suspended animation.

“Clouds” is a kind of manifesto: “When life’s a stage in this brand new age / How do we engage?” Prince’s answer is to do a version of what he’s always done, which is absorb nearly every kind of music available and, via alchemic wizardry, turn it into something that produces thoughts and emotions. That’s even more evident on “U Know,” which is built on a sample of the singer Mila J’s “Blinded” and alternates wordy half-rapped verses about romantic misunderstanding and spiritual crisis with an irresistibly seductive chorus. The songs seem like R. & B., but they’re statements of deep unrest. Then the album hits a lull, with tracks that declare the power of music rather than demonstrate it, and insist on the superiority of the past. It’s grumpy-old-man music, done with plenty of panache. None of this, though, is sufficient preparation for the homestretch of “Art Official Age,” which is where Prince stops worrying about the future or the past and truly inhabits the present. Beginning with “What It Feels Like,” a duet with the singer Andy Allo, Prince delivers a series of ballads, broken up by interludes and a red-meat dance song, that are like nothing he’s done before.

It’s worth thinking about what it means for Prince to step into new territory. He has spent years trying to recapture pieces of his old self: the provocateur in black lingerie who got booed as an opening act for the Rolling Stones, the New Wave-inflected keyboard freak of “1999,” the motorcycle-riding rock god who ruled the world after “Purple Rain,” the tortured psychedelic introvert of “Around the World in a Day,” the jazzy genius of “Parade,” the pop polymath of “Sign O the Times,” the deeply divided spiritual pilgrim of “Lovesexy.” These old selves then became albatrosses. His albums of the late nineties and the past decade found Prince making gestures toward those personas without ever really inhabiting them again. And how could he? Here, for the first time, he suggests an alternative: maybe there’s an entirely new Prince music, possibly aided and abetted by Joshua Welton, that harnesses his talents and his vision. Maybe he’s not condemned to auto-pastiche.

The closing songs are hard to absorb at first. “Way Back Home” sounds sluggish for a while and then, suddenly, it sounds revelatory. It’s a self-portrait painted in the strangest and most accurate colors imaginable, a melancholy confession and bruised boast in which Prince cops to the fact that he’s out of place, out of sorts, pushed forward at times by desperation but “born alive” in a world where most people are “born dead.” And “Time,” which runs for nearly seven minutes, is a love song, briefly lickerish, that’s mostly about the loneliness of the road. In both cases, Prince brings the tempo way down, focusses on the nuances of his melodies, shares the spotlight with female vocalists, weaves in motifs from earlier songs from the album, and adds a steady supply of surprising touches (such as the superbly funky, if subdued, horn outro to “Time”).

The ballads are broken up by “FunkNRoll,” a straightforwardly exciting party song that also appears on “PlectrumElectrum,” but the version here serves the album’s over-all message—it’s knotty, both playful and eerie, with sonar-like sound effects that create a sense of distance and mediation. The closing track, “Affirmation III,” is a haunting reprise of “Way Back Home.” And while it’s abstract (the clipped, angelic backing chorus, which seems to be on loan from Laurie Anderson, is even more prominent), it’s also concrete. For the first time in years, Prince seems not just carnal but corporeal. Way back on “Controversy,” he challenged categories: “Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay?” By the time of “I Would Die 4 U,” the challenge had turned to taunting: “I’m not a woman / I’m not a man / I am something you can never understand,” and then, messianically, “I’m not a human.” Here, he presents himself as something understandable and fully human. In “Breakfast Can Wait,” he pleads with his lover that she can’t “leave a black man in this state.” But that black man is in this state: he’s in his fifties, grappling with loneliness, aging, creative inspiration, self-doubt, a shifting cultural landscape, and love. As luck would have it, he’s also Prince.

Concert to bring back memories of female vocalists of yesteryear

Imagine a jazz club with the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Etta James, Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney and others. Jaimee Paul and her jazz combo, led by husband Leif Shires, on trumpet, delivers just that.

“At Last” is a tribute to those fabulous female vocalists of the glory days of yesteryear. For Paul, “At Last” is very personal.

“All the great lady singers saluted were inspirations to me, and the songs selected are among my innermost personal favorites,” she said. “Some of them I have a long history with: My grandfather was a World War II veteran and his favorite song was ‘Sentimental Journey,’ and we used to listen to it together. ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ always gets me thinking about my wonderful husband, Leif, and the incredible day that we first met. On the other hand, ‘Stormy Weather’ never fails to start me thinking about all the lousy relationships I’ve been through, that we’ve all been through.”

Paul sings of love, loss and the blues at Clover School District Auditorium on Oct. 7.

Raised in Southern Illinois, steeped in church choir, Paul was influenced by gospel and blues, cultivating a special place in her heart for Jazz.

“I was always involved with music,” Paul said. At the age of five she began studying classical piano for almost 10 years, and from the third grade on, she also played the French horn in school bands. She also sang in both church and school choirs. Her parents are both musical: Her mom taught music and piano in the public school system for 30 years, and her dad studied music in college before deciding on a career in engineering. “

Aretha Franklin’s ‘Great Diva Classics’ Due

Aretha Franklin is showing some R-E-S-P-E-C-T to her fellow divas: The Queen of Soul will release an album Oct. 21 covering classic songs from other female singers.

Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics will include songs such as Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia," Barbra Streisand's "People" and Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman."

The most contemporary track is a reworking of Adele's colossal hit "Rolling In the Deep," which is the first single off the album. It will be available digitally Monday, when the 72-year-old will also perform the song on Late Night with David Letterman.

"Great Diva Classics" reunites Franklin with longtime collaborator Clive Davis.

"I mean, it is great," he said in an interview. "For her to do all these songs, it's very exciting."

Exclusive: Clive Davis Says Aretha Franklin Is 'On Fire' on New Album of Diva Classics

Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Andre 3000 are among the album's producers. Other songs covered by Franklin include the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On," Alicia Keys' "No One" and Dinah Washington's "Teach Me Tonight." The icon's version of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" will incorporate some of Destiny's Child's "Survivor."

The opening track is Etta James' signature song, "At Last," and Franklin closes the 10-track set with Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U."

Speaking to Billboard ahead of the release, Davis said he was thrilled with the album. "She's on fire and vocally in absolutely peak form," he explained. "What a thrill to see this peerless artist still showing the way, still sending shivers up your spine, still demonstrating that all contemporary music needs right now is the voice. What a voice." The new recording, he added, "is purely and simply sensational."

An ode to trailblazing jazz singers

This year's Joy of Jazz line-up pays special tribute to the influence of vocalists on the genre.

In a dense and soothing voice, akin to her contralto register, Grammy award-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves shares her thoughts on the “importance of the jazz singer” in the genre. It is weeks ahead of her performance at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz in Sandton when Reeves tells me that, “through their lyrics, vocalists are the conveyor belts of the story in jazz”.

Whether it is Zim Ngqawana crooning about missing his hometown in Ebhofolo, or Anita O’Day’s commanding skat against the beat of Gene Krupa’s drums in Sing, Sing, Sing, vocals can relay literal messages or be the extra layer of sound in a song, or both. 

Jazz singers “have played a great role in the evolution of this music”, Reeves says. “Musicians like Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McCrae and Betty Carter have been such trailblazers in the genre.”

Having taken up singing and piano as a girl in Denver, Colorado, the Vaughan disciple has also been a trailblazer, deconstructing the traditional jazz-singer sound by incorporating a wide range of genres into her music. 

“Jazz-fusion, pop-soul and African- and West Indian-flavoured material vied for pre-eminence in a repertory that was as scattered as it was ambitious,” writes Stephen Holden about Reeves’s sound in a 1992 New York Times article. 

And this mesh of sounds is what audiences can expect when the Detroit-born singer takes to the Joy of Jazz stage this weekend. 

“We’ll be performing songs off the new record Beautiful Life as well as some old favourites from other albums. There’ll be a lot of good music,” she tells me.

And with its vocalist-heavy line-up which features musicians such as South Africa’s Melanie Scholtz, Roberta Gambarini of Italy, Gregory Porter from the United States, and more — this year’s Joy of Jazz is something like an ode to jazz vocals: one of the many powerful instruments of the genre. 

In a country where our own singers have shaken up the genre, while collecting awards and singing for our liberation over the decades, jazz vocals have played a role in documenting our country’s musical past and present.

Singers such as the late Sathima Bea Benjamin, who performed songs of freedom in Europe during the struggle were, as the Huffington Post put it, “a beacon of principled objection to apartheid”.

And then there is Atteridgeville-born Tutu Puoane, who now lives in Antwerp, who has gone on to win awards such as the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters award, the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award as well as two South African Music Award awards.

Puoane, who will be performing alongside other vocalists and Standard Bank Young Artists of the Year winners, such as Scholtz, Sibongile Khumalo and Gloria Bosman, says she has taken cues from singers such as Reeves, and has sonically delved into different sounds on her latest album, iLanga.

Talking to Puoane on Skype, I ask her about the perceived dominance of women jazz vocalists, to which she responds: “We never ask the guys what it’s like being a ‘male jazz singer’. We tend to pay too much attention to female jazz vocalists. There are a big number of male jazz singers, who are just as profound and amazing.”

But with a few male jazz vocalists — such as the Grammy-winning Porter — among a sea of female vocalists on the festival line-up, it’s hard not to overlook the gender imbalance in the genre. 

“Women in jazz? I don’t think we’re where we should be in terms of having that dominance in the genre,” says singer Wanda Baloyi, who will be performing in a tribute show to the late Brenda Fassie at the festival. The performance will celebrate the country’s 20 years of democracy anniversary and the 10-year anniversary of the death of singing sensation Brenda Fassie. 

“What makes the tribute so special is that it’s not just me taking a Brenda song and singing it. Rather, this is my interpretation of it. So I like to call it ‘Brenda Fassie meets jazz’.” 

With a new album, Love and Life, set to drop soon, Baloyi — who says her music is not strictly jazz, but incorporates elements from the genre — laments that gender inequalities in jazz are present, but says that “we’ll get there one day”.

Baloyi will take to the stage with singers such as Port Elizabeth-based, award-winning singer Asanda Bam and Brenda Mtambo. 

With her powerful voice that dips and resurfaces as she sings, Bam will perform a jazzed-out rendition of Fassie’s Boipatong — a song about the 1992 massacre in the township.

Recognising the jazz singers’ position as a teller of our stories, the former Joyous Celebration gospel choir member says: “We have very powerful singers in the country. And we should pay attention to them and the powerful stories they relay in the music.”

Joy of Jazz needed ‘new shoes’

The Joy of Jazz festival, which takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre from September 25 to 27, has moved from its previous location in Newtown, Johannesburg, to accommodate the growing number of jazz fans attending the event.

In an interview with journalist Percy Mabandu, festival boss Peter Tladi says the move to Sandton “was not a decision we came to easily. There were logistical problems we encountered [in Newtown] because of the festival’s growth.

“It was not a case of let’s move because we are bigger than our shoes, but rather that we needed new shoes.”

Tladi said the convention centre’s benefits include the fact that rainy weather won’t spoil any shows, the ability to sell a full festival pass for the various concerts and that the sound quality, staging, security and parking will be better.

The festival is expected to draw nearly 30 000 people this year. Last year 24 178 fans attended the event in Newtown, where the festival had been held for the past 14 years. 

More than jazz on the menu

For fans, this year’s Joy of Jazz might happily be an endurance event. For the first time since the establishment of the festival 17 years ago, audiences will be able to use just one ticket to access all four stages (Dinaledi, Conga, Mbira and Diphala) at the Sandton Convention Centre. At previous festivals, held in Newtown, Johannesburg, fans had to buy separate tickets for each stage.

The event is aiming for a bigger crowd and a broader and more diverse audience. Besides the female jazz vocalist line-up, this year’s programme is peppered with great male soul and R&B musicians.

Joy of Jazz producer Peter Tladi says this year’s event aims to appeal to a broad range of musical tastes.

But this begs the question: Why still pretend it’s a jazz festival? But in the spirit of misreading Dave Brubeck, we’ll assume that jazz stands for freedom, even the freedom to include R&B under its mantel.

The festival includes some heavyweight R&B male vocalists, including Grammy award-winning Billy Ocean from Britain, neosoul singer/songwriter Dwele from the United States and local vocalist Brian Temba.

A winning formula for the festival has been to feature an old-school R&B singer, who is not necessarily known for singing jazz. In 2011, it was Alexander O’Neal and, in 2013, it was Dennis Edwards. This year, it’s Ocean, the singer/songwriter known for pop and R&B hits, who will cater for those who like their music with a bit of cheese. His most popular ballad, Suddenly, was released in 1985, and Ocean will take us back in time with that nostalgic 1970s and 1980s sound.

The Joy of Jazz festival seems to have taken a page out of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival book, by including an international contemporary act who’ll appeal to the younger market. Dwele will perform with the Joy of Jazz Ensemble, and the Subject singer will be bringing soul with a hip-hop edge to the festival.

Temba, who is no stranger to the Joy of Jazz (he was one of the local acts in 2010) will perform on the Mbira stage and will be joined by singers Maz-Hoba and Bo Manamela in the Sounds of Democracy set.

For jazz fans, the genre will be represented by vocalists such as Gregory Porter, who performed at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival last year, and local singer Presss (Preston Sihlangu), who rose to fame after being selected to be part of the Coca-Cola Popstar band 101 in 2002.

The Joy of Jazz line-up is diversifying as the years go by, but Tladi reassures fans that there won’t be any drastic changes in the direction of the programme.

“We will keep improving on what we have started. The one genre we will not have at the Joy of Jazz is kwaito, unless it’s accompanied by an orchestra.”