Music Industry News

Good Business to Take Care Of

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
September 21, 2009

The jazz community has learned how to take care of its makers--past, present--and way in the past. The greatest examples come out of the the Jazz Foundation of America's Jazz Musicians Emergency Fund, which is run out of New York by a jazz angel named Wendy Oxenhorn. She and the JMEF step in when they hear about a musician, or retired musician who can't make a rent or mortgage payment, is threatened with eviction, needs medical help or had an ...

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The Rebirth, and the Beat, Goes On

Source: Michael Ricci
September 19, 2009

At times, central Harlem seems to be an urban scene straight out of central casting: Step off the No. 2 or 3 train at the 116th Street stop one evening, and the air is filled with the snap-snap of double Dutch jump ropes hitting the pavement and girls tensely debating just whose turn it is. Old men hunker down over folding domino tables, and young men preen and spar with one another. But mixed with these Spike Lee-esque vignettes is ...

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A Microcosm of Cutting-Edge Music

Source: Michael Ricci
September 17, 2009

At a time when most longstanding jazz festivals are struggling, a relative newcomer, the New Languages Festival, is thriving. New Languages was founded by two saxophonists, Jackson Moore, 32 years old, and Aaron Ali Shaikh, 27. “We began with the intention of shining light on jazz musicians who were of the generation that grew up with the avant-garde as a past occurrence," Mr. Shaikh said in an interview last week. For these musicians, he said, the avant-garde of the '60s ...

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Kanye West Makes a Fool of Himself Interrupting MTV Awards

Source: Michael Ricci
September 14, 2009

At least the shocker this year was related to music.

The MTV Video Music Awards are always willfully chaotic, keeping alive the myth of pop as the provenance of rebels by placing a bunch of moderately edgy celebrities within a festive environment and fueling the mood with sexy performances, off-color jokes and “incidents" that are often staged, but good for a thousand Twitter tweets. One of these mostly bogus controversies usually goes a bit deeper, hinting at real issues of ...

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Jay Leno: Television is Dying

Source: Michael Ricci
September 14, 2009

Jay Leno's new show is surrounded by drama TV insiders hope NBC's cut-rate alternative to scripted content fails.

When “The Jay Leno Show" premieres tonight in its 10 p.m. weeknight slot, a fair number of industry insiders -- and not just rival executives -- will be rooting for it to flop. Jay Leno knows how to cope with pressure. Which is good, because this week he'll face a public test the likes of which few media personalities have to endure. ...

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Terry Clarke Signs with Blue Music Group

Source: Michael Ricci
September 14, 2009

Grammy nominated and Juno Award winning drummer Terry Clarke signed with Blue Music Group for his release It's About Time featuring Joe Lovano, Jim Hall, Greg Osby, Phil Dwyer and Don Thompson. Terry Clarke was born on August 20, 1944 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His natural rhythmic aptitude was obvious from an early age, and at the age of twelve, he began studying formally with the noted drum teacher and author Jim Blackley. In 1965, Terry moved to San Francisco ...

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Jazz Orchestra Cuts Back, but Not on Its Ambitions

Source: Michael Ricci
September 13, 2009

FEW show business ventures have more risks attached than the modern big band. And the Westchester Jazz Orchestra is hardly immune. With 17 in-demand musicians to pay, and the economy depressed, the orchestra is cutting costs by shortening the coming season to four concerts, from five last year. But the orchestra means to maintain the artistic reputation it has forged, opening the season on Sept. 26 with newly commissioned arrangements of three tunes by the celebrated guitarist John Scofield, the ...

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Record Labels File Suit Against Ellen Degeneres Show

Source: Michael Ricci
September 13, 2009

One day shes a judge, the next a defendant: a consortium of major record labels has filed suit against Ellen DeGeneress syndicated daytime talk show.

Saying that their copyrights to more than 1,000 songs were violated when they were played on the show without their permission, The Associated Press reported. The suit was filed Wednesday in United States District Court in Nashville by labels that include Atlantic, Capitol, Motown, Sony and Warner Brothers.

The labels say in the suit that ...

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