Music Industry News

Capitol Records Looses Battle to Save Famed Echo Chamber

Source: Michael Ricci
July 13, 2008

On Going Saga of Capitol Records L.A. City Council approves 16-story residential project in Hollywood 20 feet from Capitol Records under ground famed echo chambers

We all learned a lot more about vibrations than we ever knew before this started. Councilman Garcetti

Supporters of the Capitol Records tower and the Yucca Street project attended a special hearing of the Los Angeles City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee, Tuesday, June 24, 2008, in Los Angeles. To allay ...

Continue Reading

Concerts Operas and Theater at a Discount in Los Angeles

Source: Michael Ricci
July 13, 2008

Major performing arts groups in the area are making cheap or free tickets available to all, not just students and seniors.

Bargain-hunting concertgoers may be able to score seats right behind the orchestra at $40 apiece. The price drops to $15 two weeks before a performance. Big discounts to cultural events aren't just for students and seniors anymore. Some of the major performing arts groups in the Los Angeles area are cutting back or eliminating student/senior rush lines in favor ...

Continue Reading

Correspondence: On Slim Gaillard

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
July 13, 2008

Rifftides reader Ries Niemi reflects on the Slim Gaillard performance in the clip from Hellzapoppin'.

It's interesting to contrast this with one of the very last Slim Gaillard clips I have seen, in the movie Absolute Beginners, from 1986. Gaillard was in real life what he plays in that movie- one of the midwives of the birth of postmodernism in music.

The novel Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes, on which the movie is based, is part of a trilogy about ...

Continue Reading

Beck:modern Guilt

Source: All About Jazz
July 13, 2008

By: Dennis Cook

Blink and you just might miss what a jewel Modern Guilt (released July 8 on DGC Records) is. While one's initial reaction might be, “Hmm, another Beck album," this turns out to be Mr. Hansen's most consistent, well constructed long player since 1999's Midnite Vultures.

“Think I'm stranded but I don't know where/ I got this diamond that don't know how to shine." Thus opens this tight 33-minute distillation of all things good about one of the ...

Continue Reading

Beatles Sgt. Peppers Drum Head Rakes Over a Million

Source: All About Jazz
July 12, 2008

One in a Million Lonely Hearts Club at Auction

The Beatles iconic drum skin on the front cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band went to auction yesterday in London, fetching over $1 million.

The item was the most popular of the Beatles memorabilia that sold at Christie's Auction House, getting four times more than expected. A hand-penned lyric sheet of John Lennon's “Give Peace a Chance" also sold well with a winning bid of over $800,000. ...

Continue Reading

Ray Charles on Piano Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
July 12, 2008

Ray Charles Molding His Sound, Finding His Ear

Singer, pianist and composer Ray Charles is one of the most legendary musicians of the 20th century. His unique style drew on a wide variety of influences that can be traced back to the music he heard as a kid growing up in the rural South: the blues music played by the men in his town, the gospel music he heard at church, country music on Saturday-night broadcasts of the Grand Ole ...

Continue Reading

Jazz Legend Avoids Home Foreclosure, for Now

Source: All About Jazz
July 12, 2008

Quincy Jones among those who helped raise $43,000 for Seattle singer SEATTLE - Jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson's home has been saved from foreclosure -- for now. Thanks, in part, to music legend Quincy Jones and contemporary jazz artist Diane Schuur. More than $43,000 poured in -- including donations from Jones and Schuur -- after recent news stories about the Seattle jazz legend's financial woes, said Carmen Gayton, a friend of Anderson's family. The money to stop the foreclosure was delivered ...

Continue Reading

Chicago's Aging Blues Scene Growing Tired

Source: All About Jazz
July 12, 2008

Wailing guitars, moaning harmonicas falling silent as Chicago's clubs continue to close>

The decline is partly because national interest in the music waned -- and that's reflected in the city's club scene.

Blues guitar virtuosos and honey-voiced singers filled the Chicago streets with music during the 1950s. Muddy Waters' guitar seeped from corner juke joints. Willie Dixon strummed bass guitar beats, echoing the city's blues sound. Now more than a half century later, a music that was born in the ...

Continue Reading