Music Industry News

Ernestine Anderson's Predicament

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
June 26, 2008

Around 1955 (I must have been in kindergarten), I went to a concert at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle and for the first time heard Ernestine Anderson. She sang with a big band. I was impressed with the quality of her voice, her phrasing, her time, the lack of gimmickry in her delivery and how she looked in her beautiful red gown. A year or so later, when she was in Sweden she recorded with Harry Arnold's band. The ...

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Coldplay's Strong Sales Buck Industry Trend

Source: Michael Ricci
June 25, 2008

You can't rely as much on the traditional methods.

Near the beginning of Coldplay's free concert at Madison Square Garden on Monday night to promote its new album, “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends," Chris Martin, the lead singer, joked with the crowd: “I understand there have been some complaints about the ticket price." The roar of 11,500 fans suggested they were quite happy. The band and its label, Capitol, also had plenty to be happy about. ...

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Notable New Artists: Estelle and Katy Perry

Source: Michael Ricci
June 25, 2008

Grammys Midway: Estelle, Katy Perry and an early look at 2008's notable new artists

The year may be at its midpoint, but when it comes to the Grammys, that mark has long since passed. With the eligibility period for next year's awards ending on Sept. 30, there's little more than three months left in the world of Grammy. Though it's admirable that the Recording Academy coincides the end of its year with the conclusion of baseball's regular season, new artists ...

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All That Chinese Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
June 25, 2008

Beijing - It's hot in the small auditorium at Beijing's Contemporary Music Academy, and the hundred or so students gathered for the master class shift uneasily in their seats, trying to concentrate. A young tenor player is blowing over a blues progression, earnestly reworking licks he's memorized from Charlie Parker and John Coltrane albums. His face is set in a frown of nervous concentration, and though his sound is solid enough, his fingers move over the keys too tensely to ...

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Comparisons Are Not Necessarily Odorous

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
June 25, 2008

From time to time, Rifftides readers have suggested that in evaluations of music I should pay more attention to sound quality. Like many musicians and critics, although certainly not all, I concentrate more on the notes than the reproduction. Once when Paul Desmond and I were listening to an ancient LP, I apologized for the scratches. Desmond was no technophobe; he loved the electronic wonders of his time. If he were around now, he would have an iPhone or a ...

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Live Music Thrives as CDs Fade

Source: Michael Ricci
June 25, 2008

THE MEDIA EQUATION

A little over a week ago, Patterson Hood, a guitarist and singer in the Drive-By Truckers, stood in front of a sleepy but amped noon crowd at Bonnaroo, the music festival in Manchester, Tenn., explaining profanely that it was time to, um, wake up. As he kicked into “The Righteous Path," a song from the group's new-ish record “Brighter Than Creation's Dark," it was if the space in front of him was filled with sunburned bobble- heads, ...

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Jazz Goes Folk

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
June 24, 2008

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ESP-Disk Returns to the Forefront of Modern Music

Source: All About Jazz
June 23, 2008

ESP-DISK, the premiere American avant garde record label of the sixties--one of the most turbulently creative periods in music history-has returned to reclaim its rich legacy with a series of releases that include reissues of groundbreaking out of print albums from its extensive catalogue, exciting previously unreleased live sessions from its vaults and new recordings that follow in its great tradition of presenting cutting edge modern musicians under the banner of “The artists alone decide..." The latest collection of compact ...

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