Duets

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and you know what that means. For the next month, TV schedules will be overloaded with Christmas and other holiday specials. Tonight's best bet, though, is one on CBS in which Frank Sinatra sings the same songs, though not at the same time, as a new roster of guestcollaborators.* "Disney's Greatest Hits on Ice" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., Channel 11) -- And Nancy Kerrigan thought just being in the Mickey Mouse parade at Disney World was corny. Tonight she plays Snow White and skates to a song from "The Lion King."

Things I'd rather be doing than watching "Glee" on Thanksgiving night: 1) Watching the Patriots and the Jets (generally speaking, I can't stand Cry Baby Brady, but he's my fantasy QB, so I need him to crush the Jets.); 2) Watching the Michael Jackson special; 3) Getting an early start on my holiday shopping with Black Friday sales; 4) Just about anything else. And it doesn't help that this isn't even the "Thanksgiving" episode. What the French toast, "Glee"?! Anywho, here we have the "Dynamic Duets" episdoe...super hero edition.

For a long time after the death of her son, Voletta Wallace lost her identity. "I didn't even know if I had a name," she says. "I was just Biggie's mom." Biggie, of course, was Notorious B.I.G., the iconic rapper killed in Los Angeles in a 1997 shooting incident that has never been solved. Now, more than eight years later, Wallace has reclaimed herself with a book, Biggie: Voletta Wallace Remembers Her Son, Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G., and a promotional tour for a new album of duets featuring Biggie juxtaposed with a slew of the rap world's biggest stars.

Last month, Tony Bennett became the oldest recording artist to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Album charts, thanks to "Duets II," featuring his collaborations with the likes of Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli, Norah Jones, Michael Buble and the late Amy Winehouse. The chart-topping is just one more remarkable credit for the 85-year-old Bennett, whose six-decade career has been marked by a consistently high artistic standard. The singer also made news last month after saying some controversial things about 9/11, but those remarks were quickly recanted, and Bennett bounced right back into a concert tour that brings him to the Patricia & Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric on Saturday night.

DUETSElton John (MCA 10926)They say two heads are better than one. But two singers? Frankly, that depends on the pairing. Take Elton John's "Duets." When he's joined by performers eager to meet him on his own terms -- singers like k.d. lang, for example, whose input helps kick "Teardrops" into high gear, or George Michael, who takes the melodrama of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" as seriously as John does -- the music sparkles. It's a shame there isn't more of that kind of chemistry here; for the most part, the album's most entertaining moments tend more toward such cast-against-type novelties as John getting down with Don Henley on the Temptations tune "Shakey Ground," or hearing a reprise of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with RuPaul in the Kiki Dee role (which, campy as it may be, is still more listenable than Dee's duet on "True Love")

Death hasn't stopped Ray Charles from inspiring yet another musical trend. In the wake of the legend's recent Grammy-grabbing success with Genius Loves Company, two other well-seasoned artists are trying to stage comebacks by mimicking that album's canny strategy. The duets on Genius saw Charles bonding with a host of well-worn names, including Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Norah Jones and Willie Nelson. Currently, Jerry Lee Lewis and Herbie Hancock are recording albums in that format. Lewis' as-yet-untitled CD - his first studio work since 1995 - will feature Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Neil Young, B.B. King, Little Richard, Don Henley, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Kid Rock, Rod Stewart and Kris Kristofferson.

Given both the nature of Frank Sinatra's reputation and the exceptional sales engendered by his last album, "Duets," it shouldn't come as any surprise that its sequel, "Duets II" (Capitol 28103, arriving in stores today), is the focus of a large and ambitious publicity campaign.Considering the names on the new album -- Linda Ronstadt, Lena Horne, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond and Chrissie Hynde, to name a few -- it's easy to understand why the record company folks would be eager to, er, "start spreading the news."

Critics who assume that artists make their best work when they are young just haven't been paying attention lately. Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, and Joe Strummer made exceptional music in the last years of their lives, and joining that list is Ray Charles. His final album - in stores today - is a tantalizing collection of duets with old and young admirers, from B.B. King and Willie Nelson to Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones and James Taylor. Charles' Genius Loves Company, completed before he died of complications from liver disease at age 73 on June 10, is a true musical event that confirms his status as the "Genius of Soul."

"Duets" is a romantic ensemble drama-slash-road movie that takes place in the rarified parallel universe of karaoke. Like fans of "Star Trek" and other sub-cultures, karaoke has its own devoted partisans, people who live for the night at their local bar, where they can sing along to pre-recorded versions of their favorite songs to the delight or agony of their fellow crooners. It's a rich human vein to tap, but "Duets" uses karaoke as a backdrop, without providing a deeper context. The movie follows three duos who've been thrown together by fate - each of whom is travelling to a karaoke championship in Omaha, where their destinies, inevitably, catch up with them.

This optimistically titled CD - were you really hungering for a duets album by Kenny G and, if so, do you have a life? - is a bit of a surprise. It works. Sometimes. Yes, your finger will work your CD's skip button when Richard Marx and the smooth jazz saxophonist take on Elton John's depressing "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" or the overrated Yolanda Adams warbles R. Kelly's anthem "I Believe I Can Fly." LeAnn Rimes sings well, but she's given Bryan Adams' sickening "(Everything I Do)

For Columbia's Alex Ketley , the dance road leading to this week's national TV exposure on "So You Think You Can Dance" began under the tutelage of the late Anne Allen as a member of her Columbia Multi-Media Dance Theater Company. That training opened doors for this Wilde Lake High School graduate, and earned him credits with the Washington Ballet. The road led eventually to California as a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, where Ketley performed from 1994 to 1998 in a wide-ranging ballet repertory that included the works of master choreographerGeorge Balanchine.

For years, local country singer Caity Lynn Fisher performed around Baltimore and dreamed of moving to Nashville, Tenn. But her plans to leave her home in Glen Burnie and head west with musical partner Jennifer Van Meter kept getting waylaid. This spring, Fisher finally made it to Music City to compete on the TV show Can You Duet. On the reality show, created by the producers of American Idol, several teams of two singers vie for a chance to win a record deal with Sony BMG. The next episode airs at 8 p.m. tomorrow on CMT. Fisher and Van Meter played in the local country and folk group Eighty1South for nearly seven years.

On April 28, Madonna's final album for Warner Records - her home base for 25 years - debuts. The first single, a duet with Justin Timberlake titled "4 Minutes," has rocketed up the Top 40 Countdown meter faster than any song in the chart's 38-year history. It is No. 1 on iTunes. Perhaps most significantly, Ellen DeGeneres shimmies to it every day on her TV show. (Ellen now equals Oprah in shaping cultural cravings. If either of these women says, "Buy it! Love it!" - millions do.) So Madonna's swan song for Warner might be her biggest hit ever.

OUR FAVORITE singing/dancing/glamour-puss/Oscar-winner/survivor and genuinely nice human being, Cher, has been lying low recently. One of the things I love about Cher - and miss when she's out of touch - is that she speaks spontaneously and truthfully, but never tells too much. She's so appealingly earthy, frank and funny you think you're seeing her soul. But you're only seeing what she allows. The real woman is far more interesting and complex. Anyway, soon fans of Cher will have one, perhaps two offerings.

She probably could have done it years ago, but the timing seems perfect now. Singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of rock 'n' roll king Elvis Presley, has finally connected her musical skills with those of her legendary father. On "In the Ghetto," a "departed duet" in the vein of Natalie Cole's 1991 Grammy winner "Unforgettable," Presley adds her vocals to a slightly reconfigured version of Elvis' famed 1969 recording. The song and video were released this week to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death, and all proceeds from the project will benefit a new Presley Place transitional housing campus in New Orleans, one of the late singer's favorite cities.

Hugh Grant, that prince of erotic dither, and Drew Barrymore, that queen of sweetly amorous emotion, generate a rare flirtatious zing in Music and Lyrics, an affable farce about a worn-out '80s singer-composer named Alex Fletcher (Grant) from a band called PoP! Barrymore plays Sophie Fisher, a former writing student who comes to his Upper West Side New York apartment to water his plants and ends up nurturing his creativity and finding her life's work as a lyricist. This movie doesn't pretend to be anything more than a cheerful night out, and on that count it scores: It will set a happy mood for couples and a lot of singles, too. PoP!

The three works presented by Bebe Miller and her company Saturday night as part of the Off the Walls Series at the Baltimore Museum of Art were filled with such intelligence and wit that you couldn't help but be enchanted by both the choreographer and her dances.From the other-worldly "Heaven and Earth," a solo for Ms. Miller and an excerpt from a group work to be premiered later this year, the society of women in "Tiny Sisters" or the Latin-flavored romantic duets in "Cantos Gordos," each dance had its own unique flavor and movement dialect.

If Spanish has been the the loving tongue for Julio Iglesias, he hasn't done badly in other tongues, either.His first English-language album, 1984's "1100 Bel Air Place," sold more than 3 million copies and spawned the hit single "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Willie Nelson.That last fact, you might think, would be good reason for Mr. Iglesias to pick a Nelson song as the title track for his new English-language album, "Crazy."Except, "I didn't know 'Crazy' was a Willie Nelson song," Mr. Iglesias says with a laugh.

The 2006-2007 music season arrived in songful fashion. An irresistible draw Friday night was the prospect of two septuagenarian luminaries from the Broadway and opera worlds sharing the stage of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park for an affectionate, compelling stroll through the great American songbook. Any opportunity to be in the presence of Barbara Cook is welcome. Since the 1950s, when her musical theater career took off, she has been treasured for the purity of her voice and the natural warmth of her styling.

For a long time after the death of her son, Voletta Wallace lost her identity. "I didn't even know if I had a name," she says. "I was just Biggie's mom." Biggie, of course, was Notorious B.I.G., the iconic rapper killed in Los Angeles in a 1997 shooting incident that has never been solved. Now, more than eight years later, Wallace has reclaimed herself with a book, Biggie: Voletta Wallace Remembers Her Son, Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G., and a promotional tour for a new album of duets featuring Biggie juxtaposed with a slew of the rap world's biggest stars.