Alesha Dixon is visibly excited. "I'm buzzing," she says, seated on a sofa in a vast white room in a London hotel. "I feel really fulfilled." The cause is not the forthcoming release of her second solo album, The Alesha Show, although she is "really pleased", not just with the music it contains (mostly produced by Xenomania, the secretive hit-making team behind Girls Aloud), but with the ...

By comparison with the rich heritage of Saskia Nava, who weighed in at 6lbs 13oz at London's Royal Free Hospital last month, Barack Obama's mixed ancestry appears so mundane that it might struggle to arouse the interest of producers on Who Do You Think You Are?

When he founded the Dragonaires in 1956, the Jamaican bandleader Byron Lee didn't think much further than celebrating his college football team's victories and playing the occasional wedding and party. Yet the band soon turned professional and backed visiting American stars like Harry Belafonte, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

AAJ : The 2008 Power Trio did a west coast run earlier this year and a few east coast shows, and now you're starting another tour here in Nashville. Will there be some new songs performed on this tour?