Music Industry News

Memories Fading on Vegas icon Liberace

Source: Michael Ricci
April 15, 2009

A town that lives in the present has little use for its past. We blow up the buildings, rename the theaters and replace the marquees.

Of course, at any given time, Las Vegas had performers who in different ways came to symbolize the Las Vegas of a certain period, Old Vegas is best captured by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and, of course, Liberace. Of those three, only Liberace has failed to leave an extensive legacy that attracts new generations of ...

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Famous Record Producer Must Serve at Least 18 Years of a Mandatory Life Sentence

Source: Michael Ricci
April 14, 2009

A Los Angeles jury convicted Phil Spector of second-degree murder Monday, making the legendary record producer who worked with the Beatles and a host of other pop stars the first celebrity found guilty of murder on Hollywood's home turf in at least 40 years.

The verdict read in a tense, standing-room-only courtroom came six years and two trials after police found Lana Clarkson, a statuesque blond actress, shot to death in a chair in Spector's 30-room Alhambra mansion.

As a ...

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Bill Evans, Rachmaninoff and Van Cliburn

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
April 14, 2009

Mike Harris is the Bill Evans devotee who surreptitiously recorded the Evans trio performances that comprise the music in the eight-disc boxed set Bill Evans: The Secret Sessions. Mr. Harris is a classically trained pianist who, long before he became addicted to Evans, learned to play the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff. In this article for Rifftides, he discloses that Evans, too, was a Rachmaninoff fan.

REVIEW OF NEW VIDEO ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL" SERIES VAN CLIBURN IN MOSCOW

By Mike ...

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Spector Jury Has Reached a Verdict/ Guilty of second-degree murder

Source: Michael Ricci
April 13, 2009

Phil Spector has been convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson six years ago.

An L.A. Superior Court jury reached its decision against the legendary music producer after nine days of deliberations. An earlier jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt.

The decision means the 69-year-old Spector, famed for his work with musical acts such as Tina Turner, the Beatles and the Righteous Brothers, faces at least 18 years in prison when he is ...

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Improv, Techno-Tricks and a Bach Framework

Source: Michael Ricci
April 13, 2009

Soon after the conductor Kristjan Jarvi founded the Absolute Ensemble in 1993, it quickly became established as one of New York’s most versatile and important contemporary-classical groups. But Mr. Jarvi’s tastes ran wider still, taking in jazz, rock, hip-hop and various strains of world music; accordingly, the Absolute Ensemble morphed into an electro-acoustic band better suited to expressing his inclusionary aesthetic. When these musicians last played the city in August 2007, their program combined jazz and Arabic styles. While the ...

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Devotional and Experimental Jazz with a Norwegian Accent

Source: Michael Ricci
April 13, 2009

Avant-garde jazz has almost always had its sacramental side. There’s a reason for the devotion that some listeners bring to the mid-1960s music of John Coltrane, or to the output of his fellow saxophonist Albert Ayler. The spirituality in these performances wasn’t subtext or suggestion; it radiated out from a fervent core. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, an astute Norwegian bassist, has experience with the fiery side of free improvisation: he’s among the most prolific figures on the European experimental scene. His ...

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Life-Time Recording Agreement Reached Between Grammy Winning Jazz Pianist Hal Galper and Origin Records

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2009

In an unprecedented move virtually unheard of in the recording business, Origin Records CEO John Bishop has announced an exclusive agreement to release all future recordings by veteran pianist Hal Galper.

Says Galper, “I warned John Bishop that my mother is 96 and still going strong, and I have her genes. That being the case, now being 70 years old, knock on wood, I could release another 25 albums. This agreement gives me the rare opportunity to plan my recordings ...

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Jeff Coffin Officially Joins Dave Matthews Band

Source: JamBase
April 11, 2009

Jeff Coffin Officially Joins Dave Matthews Band

[Jeff Coffin's] boldness, intensity, and verve set him apart from other saxophonists. - JazzTimes

Jeff Coffin Jeff Coffin, saxophonist/composer, and three time GRAMMY Award winner with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, will begin touring as a touring member of Dave Matthews Band on April 14 with their NYC appearance at Madison Square Garden. Coffin was originally tapped in July 2008 while LeRoi Moore, the band's original saxophonist, recovered from injuries sustained in an ...

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