Music Industry News

Kenton's Big Sound Getting a Revival

Source: All About Jazz
August 10, 2008

Was there ever a big band with a more colossal sound than Stan Kenton's? The pianist piled on mountains of brass and woodwinds that devastated appreciative listeners, and many of those fans who were of college age when his orchestra ruled campuses in the '50s remain in awe of the group's prowess nearly three decades after his death. And though Kenton's name probably isn't often mentioned in the same hushed tones as Ellington's or Basie's, his group was enormously popular ...

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Major Breakthrough: Music's 'DNA' Decoded

Source: All About Jazz
August 9, 2008

Peter Neubcker, the German music software engineer responsible for the popular pitch correction Melodyne, has created a program called Direct Note Access (DNA) that can dissect a chord into individual notes so that the chord can be re-formed into something new.

For music producers who use computers -- which is just about all of them -- this constitutes a major game changer whose implications for the future of music are deep and widespread. For example, Direct Note Access will make ...

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Warner Music Narrows Loss on Brisk Digital Sales

Source: Michael Ricci
August 9, 2008

The company's fiscal third-quarter loss falls to $9 million from $17 million a year earlier. Digital revenue jumps 39%.

Strong international sales and higher digital music revenue narrowed losses for Warner Music Group Corp. in the fiscal third quarter, surpassing analyst expectations in the face of the industry's rocky transition to digital distribution. The music company whose artists include rock bands R.E.M and Disturbed, and pop star Katy Perry, reported a net loss of $9 million, or 6 cents a ...

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Correspondence: About Wellstood

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
August 9, 2008

The Frishberg, Sullivan, Wellstood item in the next exhibit brought quick responses from two men who knew Wellstood well. The first was Ted O'Reilly, the Toronto broadcaster who produced a few Wellstood recordings.

Wellstood was one of the brightest men I ever met, never mind how great a pianist he was. And great he was, and not afraid to play the way he did: as a stride/swing player in the bop era, and do it so well! (I've ...

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Frishberg, Wellstood and Sullivan

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
August 8, 2008

Dick Wellstood has been on my mind. Maybe it's because I heard Dave Frishberg play the piano the other night at The Seasons. Frishberg was in concert singing his inimitable songs and accompanying himself, but he opened up plenty of space for piano solos. Before he became famous for performing his songs, Frishberg worked with Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Ben Webster, Jack Sheldon and Carmen McRae, among other demanding leaders. He was, and is, a versatile and idiosyncratic pianist who ...

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New Orleans Photographer Skip Bolen Launches New Website of Jazz Photos

Source: All About Jazz
August 7, 2008

NEW ORLEANS, LA. -- The new Skip Bolen Photography website has been officially launched this week. The website features an eclectic mix of both black + white and color photographs primarily of musicians in New Orleans; downtown street scenes of New Orleans, Los Angeles and New York City; rural water towers from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas; and lastly, stills photography from Fox Television's K-Ville. The new website can be viewed at SkipBolen.com. The new website contains an impressive portfolio of ...

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Play It in the Closet: The Return Farewell of J.D. Salinger

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
August 7, 2008

43 years ago J.D. Salinger, the reclusive writer who rose to cult status in the 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his novel The Catcher in the Rye and his stories about the talented but troubled Glass family, bade farewell to the published literary life with a long piece of fiction titled Hapworth 16, 1924. It appeared in the New Yorker in June of 1965 and elicited little critical or commercial fanfare; the Salinger media mania that accompanied ...

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Beatles Reel-to-Reel Tape Sells For $23k

Source: All About Jazz
August 6, 2008

A newly discovered tape of the Beatles laughing and chatting during an early recording session has sold for about $23,000.

Cameo Auctioneers said the reel-to-reel tape was recorded in 1964 and had recently been discovered by a man in northern England while he was clearing out his father's attic.

The half-hour tape sold to an Internet bidder Tuesday afternoon for $23,446 including tax and the buyer's premium, the auction house said, adding that it had yet to contact the winner. ...

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