IndieGo Promotions Expands Jazz Department Into Full-Service Unit for Artists, Labels, Organizations & Events

DENVER - March 31, 2004 - IndieGo Promotions today announced the expansion of its jazz department and the appointment of veteran music journalist, publicist and arts marketing communications specialist Mitchell Feldman as Director of Jazz Promotions for the 12-year-old division of the Denver-based Synergy Media Group (SMG). The seismic changes that have recently taken place in the music industry in general and the jazz sector in particular have made the availability of promotional services for artists, labels and others producing and presenting the music around the world more essential than ever today, SMG CEO Michael Fitts said. With more than 25 years of international experience working in a variety of capacities in the jazz field Mitchell was a logical choice to spearhead our expanding jazz promotion activities, Fitts added.

INDIEgo JAZZ will function as a full-service department developing and coordinating jazz radio, press, retail and tour promotion campaigns for local, regional, national and international jazz artists, record companies, organizations and events. The department will complement the jazz activities of another SMG division, Synergy Distribution, which was founded in 2002 and whose roster currently includes Accurate Records, ENJA Classics, Smalls Records and other domestic and foreign independent jazz labels as well as artist-run labels like guitarist Dom Minasi s CDM Records, singer Angela Hagenbach s Amazon Records, singer Lisa Sokolov s Laughing Horse Records and keyboardist David Garfield's Creatchy Records.

Michael Fitts began promoting jazz in 1990 at the Denver club Jazz Works and at the Colorado jazz label Capri Records where he used his computer programming skills to write a software application enabling one person to simultaneously manage several music promotion projects. The program led to the founding by Fitts of INDIEgo Promotions in 1992 and the creation in 1997 of Synergy Music Group, the parent company for various business initiatives he has developed to help implement change in the music industry. 1997 was also the year in which Fitts founded the jazz label Synergy Music whose catalog includes recordings by pianist Art Lande, bassist Paul Warburton, vocalist Mary Anne Moore, the organ combo Trio-City and the quintet Convergence. The label benefited from his reputation as one of Colorado s leading sound engineers and experience working the board at Vartan s Jazz Club in Denver and at several editions of the Vail and Telluride Jazz Festivals.

Mitchell Feldman has been publicizing, promoting, marketing and writing about jazz in the US and Europe since 1976. From June 1999 to November 2003, he lived in Italy where he was a European correspondent for Down Beat and a contributor to the International Herald Tribune s Italy Daily and Musica Jazz. Previously Feldman was Director of Jazz PR for ECM Records/BMG Classics (1998-99); a marketing and media relations consultant to the Vail Jazz Festival, the Vilar Center for the Arts at Beaver Creek, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Blue Note Records among other clients (1996-98); Senior Publicist for classical music press agents Hemsing Associates (1995-96); Director of Marketing and Communications at New York s Symphony Space (1994-95); a consultant to the Cultural Olympiad of Atlanta Olympics (1992-4); Marketing & Media Relations Manager at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan (1989-92) and Managing Director of the jazz label CMP Records in Germany 1985-1989).

As Director of Music Programs & Public Relations for the City of Atlanta Department of Cultural Affairs he created and produced the 1981 World Music Concert Series and programmed and produced the 1980 Atlanta Free Jazz Festival. In 1979 Feldman produced the Southeastern premieres of the Sam Rivers-Dave Holland Duo, the Sam Rivers Quartet and the Art Ensemble of Chicago while attending journalism graduate school at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens and spent that summer as a public relations intern at Karl Berger s Creative Music Foundation in Woodstock, NY. He was Music Director and Jazz Director of UGA s non-commercial radio station WUOG-FM (1977-79) and a member of the school s Contemporary Concert Committee (1976-77).

As a jazz journalist, Feldman has contributed to Down Beat, JazzTimes, Ear, Schwann Inside, Jazz Magazine, The Denver Post, Musica Jazz (Italy), Jazz Nytt (Norway) and Fachblatt Musik Magazin (Germany) and co-wrote the Blue Note Records 60th anniversary advertorial in the January 1999 issue of Esquire. A former music editor of Atlanta Magazine and The Athens (GA) Observer, he was weekly jazz columnist for The Atlanta Constitution, Creative Loafing Atlanta and The Woodstock (NY) Times. Feldman has written liner notes, press releases, artists bios and other texts for Blue Note, SONY Legacy, RCA Victor, Fantasy, ECM, enja, ACT Music&Vision, Winter&Winter, Dreyfus, Justin Time, Splasc(h) and Synergy Music. He has also penned publicity bios for Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Holland, Henry Threadgill, Jackie Terrasson, Marcus Roberts and Jason Moran, among others, and provided content for bluenote.com, downbeat.com, amazon.com, allaboutjazz-italy.com and umbriajazz.com.

For more information about INDIEgo Jazz Contact Mitchell Feldman at 303.532.2486 (Toll-Free at 888.355.9387) or by e-mail at [email protected]

INDIEgo" JAZZ FACT SHEET
A full-service, one-stop source for the promotion and marketing of jazz artists, bands, recordings, labels or special projects. We create and implement customized jazz promotion campaigns including publicity and radio promotion, retail marketing, manufacturing, merchandising, graphic design and on-line marketing and promotion services or any combination of the above. INDIEgo Jazz's services include:

Radio Promotion campaigns targeted at non-commercial, college, public and other radio stations programming jazz with a special focus on those reporting to industry trade publications (e.g. CMJ, Jazz Week that track airplay of jazz releases.

Media Relations campaigns targeted at international national, regional and local print and broadcast media including major jazz and other music magazines; daily and weekly newspapers; national weekly and monthly magazines like The Nation, The Atlantic, People, Entertainment Weekly; syndicated radio programs like NPR s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Fresh Air, Fresh Sounds, etc. and network and cable television broadcasts.

Retail Promotion placing recordings for in-store play through our network of retail contacts ranging from buyers for national chains like Tower, the Virgin, Barnes & Noble and Borders to the owners of small independent specialty shops.

Distribution Options:

1. Artist 1-Stop