Music Industry News

Bruce Cockburn: Water into Wine

Source: JamBase
May 21, 2009

By: Dennis Cook

These fragile bodies of touch and taste This vibrant skin, this hair like lace Spirits open to the thrust of grace Never a breath you can afford to waste

Bruce Cockburn There is a sense of the world split open in the work of Bruce Cockburn, like a ripe fig pulled apart by strong hands, the innards tasted hungrily and ...

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Rifftides Encore: Jazz Dispute

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 21, 2009

A couple of years ago - maybe it was three - I linked Rifftides readers to a video so clever that it's worth bringing to you again. Now that the staff has mastered the art of embedding, this time you see it right here on our screen; no linking required. When it finishes, you will see links to other creations by the same performer, who, for a reason perhaps known only to him, calls himself “Weeping Prophet." Thanks to reader ...

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A Long Road Back, but Not a Lonely One

Source: Michael Ricci
May 18, 2009

With his wife’s help, Terence Conley walked slowly toward a piano on a recent Thursday at the Jazz Foundation of America headquarters in Manhattan. “Play something nice,” Judith Conley told her husband as she eased him onto a piano stool. Mr. Conley, 51, steadied his fingers above the keys, smiled across the room in the direction of his three children and began playing “Ruby, My Dear.” “I’m glad he chose that tune,” his wife whispered. “It’s one of the hardest ...

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Two for the Show Media Celebrates Another Year Serving the Jazz World

Source: Two for the Show Media
May 18, 2009

2009 marks another year in the books for the Jazz publicity firm Two for the Show Media. The agency based out of New York welcomed in the New Year with two grammy nominations (Peter Erskine & Arturo O’Farrill) and one Grammy win for Best Latin Jazz CD for “Song for Chico” (Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra) - Over the past three years Two for the Show Media has worked the campaigns of such jazz notables as Ellis Marsalis, ...

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The Piano's Status in U.S. Living Rooms is Declining

Source: Michael Ricci
May 16, 2009

They were once a symbol of success and a love of music.

Giovanni Lovatelli and his family lucked into a long-term loan of a 1948 baby grand piano when a friend moved to New York years ago. Five-year-old Giacomo began taking lessons, practicing diligently for a year or so.

“We had to keep pushing a little bit," Lovatelli said, adding that he promised a basketball hoop if his son persevered through his teacher's recital. Giacomo got the hoop but soon ...

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Al Haig: March 13, 1954

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 15, 2009

Like Bud Powell, Al Haig had two sides to his piano-playing personality. He could play as fast and as meticulously as any bebop pianist on New York's 52nd Street in the 1940s, making him a first pick of both Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. But Haig also had a lush, romantic side that favored melody, dense chord changes and impressionistic tempo changes. And like Powell, Haig had inner demons.

The delicate side of Haig is most evident on a March ...

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Changing the Economics of Music

Source: HypeBot
May 15, 2009

Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week blog has a chapter from Fast Company Magazine founder Alan Webber's new book Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self. Using The Grateful Dead as a transformative business model, the excerpt contains several important lessons that apply to any artist, label or tech company struggling with the new realities of music. The article and the book are worth a full read, but here is an excerpt:

Music Takes Center Stage in Congress

Source: HypeBot
May 14, 2009

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is expected debate the newly introduced Webcaster Settlement Act today at a hearing that will also consider the Performance Rights Act that would require broadcast radio stations to pay performers royalties similar to those which songwriters receive.

Digital broadcasters currently pay performance royalties and it is their overall payments that the Webcaster Settlement Act 2009 attempts to address. Introduced byHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, the bill provides webcasters with a new opportunity to ...

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