Music Industry News

Music Industry

Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics

Source: JamBase
May 6, 2009

By: Jim Welte

Mulatu Astatke Nearly 50 years ago, a bright-eyed Ethiopian teen arrived in Wrexham, a county borough in the northeastern part of Wales. His parents had sent him nearly 4,000 miles from home to attend a renowned boarding school that welcomed a host of Ethiopians students. Young Mulatu Astatke quickly formed a bond with the school's band teacher, developing an interest in the trumpet and clarinet.

After ...

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Music Industry

Listening Tip: A Sudhalter Program

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 6, 2009

Bill Kirchner continues his Jazz From The Archives series on WBGO-FM, Newark, (88.3) and the internet with a show about a musician frequently mentioned on Rifftides. Here's his announcement.

Musician/author Richard Sudhalter (1938-2008) wrote (in the first case, co-wrote) three landmark books: BIX: MAN AND LEGEND, LOST CHORDS, and STARDUST MELODY. He also was a fine jazz cornetist in the Bix Beiderbecke/Bobby Hackett mold. As a musician, he had wide-ranging stylistic interests and was difficult to pigeonhole.

We'll ...

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Music Industry

All Charges Dropped Against Drummer Charlie Rice!

Source: All About Jazz
May 5, 2009

It's a celebration! This Thursday, May 7th, at the Collingwood Community Center from 7-9PM, 30 Collings Ave, Collingswood, NJ. $10/$5 students. Free sodas and buffet. Ed Wise and his New Orleans Big Band will be appearing to celebrate Charlie Rice's victory! See Philadelphia Daily News Article below.

Jazz drummer beats gas rap By JASON NARK Philadelphia Daily News Life is back in tune for Charlie Rice, the venerable jazz drummer who was accused last year at ...

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Music Industry

Other Places: Charlap on Improvisation

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 4, 2009

Last Friday, Leonard Lopate of WNYC radio in New York invited Bill Charlap to drop by the studio where Lopate does his Please Explain program and talk about how jazz improvisation works. Seated at the piano, Charlap spoke clearly about the raw materials of music and showed what jazz players do with them in the act of creation. He used “These Foolish Things" and the blues as his demonstration models. Lopate, a personification of the inquiring mind, asked good questions. ...

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Music Industry

Local Theremin Virtuoso Blazes New Ground

Source: All About Jazz
May 4, 2009

CD REVIEW “Xenovibes III - Xing Paths" Shuehli-Ong's new Xenovibes album shows that Singapore has more to export than just mainstream pop artists, says CHRISTOPHER LIM (Entertainment Correspondent, the Business Times Singapore)

CD : Xenovibes III - Xing Paths Electric Muse/Fingerfoot Music Productions Rating: A CD : This Is The One Utada (Island) Rating: B CD : Gentle Love Norihiko ...

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Music Industry

Musicians Preferred; Loud Music O.K.

Source: Michael Ricci
May 3, 2009

CARMEN STAAF, a 28-year-old New England Conservatory-trained jazz pianist, does what she has to do to make ends meet. Last year, she played accordion in a musical about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, starring puppets. More recently, she played ragtime piano with a xylophone band--in a dog costume. But those gigs were nothing compared with talking her way into a $920-a-month studio apartment big enough for a bed and a baby grand. “I kept pestering the landlords,” said Ms. Staaf, a ...

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Music Industry

Weekend Extra: Fitzgerald and Peterson

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 3, 2009

Thanks to Julius LaRosa for pointing us toward a performance with the Oscar Peterson Trio by Ella Fitzgerald late in her career. Peterson sits out most of the first chorus. Bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen generates the powerful swing with Fitzgerald. Then the pianist and drummer Martin Drew join the ride. Ella is rarely singled out for her low-register chops, but take notice of her deep range in the third chorus.

It do mean a thing if it has got that ...

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Music Industry

Threadheads Jazz Lovers Give Up-and-Coming Musicians a Boost

Source: Michael Ricci
May 2, 2009

The music lovers have evolved from an online chat room group into a nonprofit record label.

Reporting from New Orleans -- Like a lot of out-of-towners who came to New Orleans in the years after the levees failed, Chris Joseph found that the singers John Boutte and Paul Sanchez spoke to the city's post-Katrina trauma better than almost any other artists.

Like his fellow visitors, Joseph felt frustrated that he couldn't buy a CD of the cathartic songs the duo ...

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