Music Industry News

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 ...

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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. ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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Lennon 'Peace' Lyrics Sell For Nice Piece of Change

Source: All About Jazz
July 11, 2008

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An American Pastime: Smoking Pot

Source: All About Jazz
July 11, 2008

And You Thought It Was Baseball!

It's a matter of culture: the U.S. is home to a huge baby boomer population that came of age when experimenting with drugs was a part of the social fabric.

The Netherlands, with its permissive marijuana laws, may be known as the cannabis capital of the world. But a survey published this month in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science, suggests that the Dutch don't actually experiment with pot as ...

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Ten Questions with Matana Roberts

Source: RVAjazz
July 9, 2008

Matana Roberts is a composer/alto sax player from New York by way of Chicago. Shes got a lot of great things going on. I mentioned her new Chicago Project album here. In addition to that, she has a fascinating experiment called the COIN COIN Project that deals with her family roots as far back as she can trace them. A big fan of zines and independent media, she has her own video blog/vlog (whatever the kids are calling it) here. ...

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