Music Industry News

Upper East Side Big Band Plays Abbey Road

Source: All About Jazz
May 23, 2008

The Beatles will get the “re-arranged for big band" treatment this Friday at the National on the top of an eclectic bill stacked with local Richmond bands. “Abbey Road" in its entirety is the album being conquered; Samson Trinh's Upper East Side Big Band is the ensemble up for the challenge. “It's been a dream for [me] and Adrian [Duke] to arrange the music of this monumental Beatles album and let alone perform it at a wonderful large concert venue," ...

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Johnny Griffin is 80

Source: All About Jazz
May 23, 2008

Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin recently entered his eighty-first year, still living and playing at full--or nearly full--speed. Martin Gayford today observed Griffin's longevity and vigor in a piece in the British newspaper the Telegraph. Here's an excerpt:

He was described by Richard Cook in his Jazz Encyclopaedia as “the fastest tenorman of them all". He has slowed down a little, but not that much. “I got so excited when I played and I still do," he has said. ...

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Singer Tierney Sutton Named Head of LA Music Academy Vocal Dept.

Source: All About Jazz
May 23, 2008

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N'sync's Lou Pearlman Does Hard Time

Source: All About Jazz
May 22, 2008

Lou Pearlman Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

Queens native and boy-band impresario and alleged Backstreet Boy molester, Lou Pearlman was sentenced to 25 years in jail for fraud.

“A lot of it is New York money," receiver Gerard McHale told New York last year of the $317 million Pearlman encouraged investors, including some in their seventies and eighties, to sink into his fake companies, “especially the significant investments." The Florida judge told Pearlman he'd get one month off his ...

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Date Set for Phil Spector New Trial

Source: All About Jazz
May 22, 2008

LOS ANGELES--A judge who is waiting for a California Supreme Court decision on whether he will preside over Phil Spector's second murder trial has gone ahead and set a new trial date of Sept. 29.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said Thursday that whether he presides or another judge takes the helm a trial date is needed. Lawyers for the music producer are challenging Fidler on grounds that he is biased against Spector. Spector's first trial ended ...

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Artists Fight for New Hi-Fi Formats

Source: All About Jazz
May 22, 2008

High-fidelity audio may be endangered in the age of MP3, but a growing number of artists are refusing to see it die without a fight

Neil Young, Trent Reznor, John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett have all joined the battle recently, embracing sound formats that are superior to both MP3s and CDs. “We've been fighting the limitations of digital audio since it first came out," says Burnett, the veteran musician and producer. “The artists lost control of the process, and ...

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Fire Under Control at Home of Berlin Philharmonic

Source: Michael Ricci
May 22, 2008

Hall Interior in Berlin Intact After Fire Berlin Philharmonic forced to perform in the Open-Air

A fire at the home of the Berlin Philharmonic will leave the orchestra homeless at least until June 2, forcing this weekend's hefty program -- Berlioz's Te Deum and its 720 performers -- into an open-air stadium, an orchestra spokesman said on Wednesday. The fire on Tuesday caused serious damage to a quarter of the tent-shaped roof of the Philharmonie building, but left ...

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Charles Lloyd Quartet:rabo de Nube

Source: All About Jazz
May 22, 2008

By: Dennis Cook

Late night talk On a tenor With the dead And the shadows they cast

Voice of solitude Voice of insomnia Call of a night bird Continuous prayer

This bit of verse penned specifically for this release by Library of Congress Poet Laureate Consultant Charles Simic captures some of the leaps and shining yet deliciously muted tones of the Charles Lloyd Quartet's extraordinary Rabo de Nube ...

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