Music Industry News

Red Callender's Gentle Swing

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 3, 2009

The 1940s and 1950s were frightening decades for bass players. In addition to big-band timekeepers like Jimmy Blanton, Don Bagley, Chubby Jackson and Ray Brown, there were thumping small-group upright masters like Slam Stewart, Curly Russell, Milt Hinton and Tommy Potter. And if that crowd wasn't daunting enough, you had the Big Three solo specialists: Oscar Pettiford, Charles Mingus and Paul Chambers. Lost today among these towering talents is George “Red" Callender. Primarily a West Coast bassist, Callender was a ...

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Music and the Creative Class: How Music Can Transform America's Cities

Source: HypeBot
June 3, 2009

Part 2 (Read Part 1 Here) When Richard Florida wrote The Rise of the Creative Class in 2005 music was barely a blip on the social economist's radar. Now Florida and his colleagues are beginning to recognize music and the businesses and professionals that follow and service it as “fruit fly" industries - early indicators of new technologies, new business models, and the economy in general.

“Musicians are quintessential examples of free-agent workers, mixing income and seeking out affordable, creative ...

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Not Your Grandpa's Big Bands

Source: All About Jazz
June 3, 2009

On a recent Friday evening in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, a line snaked around the corner of the Galapagos Art Space and buzz swirled about Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, one of the leading new big bands in jazz. Two weeks earlier, across the river in SoHo, a line full of excited patrons formed outside the Jazz Gallery to hear saxophonist David Binney present music for an 18-piece band that was commissioned by the venue. In late March, ...

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Amid West Banks Turmoil, the Pull of Strings

Source: Michael Ricci
June 2, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank The young man was handy with tools. A carpenters nephew, he liked to fix chairs, windows and door locks. At other times he would stand idly on the street corner.

Ramzi Aburedwan noticed him. Like the Pied Piper, Mr. Aburedwan, a French-trained violist raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, was trying to lead Palestinian children into the world of music: namely, a music center he was establishing in an old quarter of the town.

But he had ...

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Hidden Jazz Dowloads (Vol. 9)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 2, 2009

During one of my recent swings through iTunes and Amazon, I stumbled across five terrific jazz albums you may not know about. Or if you do, you may not be aware that these albums are now available as downloads. As readers of this ongoing feature know, I often come across such gems while hunting for other albums. Or I find the albums after checking to see if they've made it into the download universe. Because iTunes and Amazon do little ...

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Jazz at Holmes Annnounces Summer Schedule

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
June 2, 2009

The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has announced its schedule of free concerts for summer 2009.Pianist and former St. Louisan Linda Presgrave and her quintet will kick off the series at 8:00 p.m., Thursday, June 11, with concerts to follow on subsequent Thursdays through July 23 (except July 2). .Other performers for summer 2009 will include pianist Curt Landes, the Legacy Jazz Quintet, trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber (pictured), trombonist Wayne Coniglio and pianist ...

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Mill Valley's Sweetwater May Reopen as Nonprofit Venue

Source: All About Jazz
June 1, 2009

Storefront slated to be the new Sweetwater in Mill Valley. The owners are in talks to turn the club into a nonprofit organization similar to 142 Throckmorton Theatre.

I had the pleasure of speaking to a community group last week about Marin's rock history. Afterward, the first question from the audience was about Sweetwater. What's going on with the long-closed club in Mill Valley? Is one of Marin's rock 'n' roll institutions ever going to reopen?

Good question. The owners ...

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Music Industry Sees Nightclubs as a New Source of Revenue

Source: Michael Ricci
June 1, 2009

PARIS: In Australia, every nightclub-goer is now a lucrative V.I.P. to the music industry, at least.

To pump music out to their dance floors, Australian clubs used to have to pay record companies and artists a nominal 7 Australian cents in royalties per guest, per night. Under a recent copyright settlement, that rate has risen to 50 cents per customer, and it is set to jump to 1.05 dollars, or 84 U.S. cents, in a few years.

We looked at ...

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