When Judy Winter lost her son Eric she could only think of one way to have his memory live on. “A parent never gets over losing a child,” she said. “But you can honor your child’s memory in a great and meaningful way. You can survive it.” That’s why she started the RicStar’s Camp — a three-day music therapy camp hosted by MSU’s College of Music’s Community Music School — running today through Saturday. The camp is aimed toward individuals of all ages with special needs. Eric, who had cerebral palsy, died in 2003 at age 12. He was a client of Cindy Edgerton, a music therapist and instructor at the Community Music School. The camp, which is in its seventh year, offers classes to enable people with special needs to express themselves through music and dance. “There are not a lot of opportunities for individuals with special needs in the community,” Edgerton said. Volunteers for the camp include MSU music therapy professors and students. In February, an admissions freeze for the music therapy program was proposed within College of Music. This moratorium on admissions was proposed to help balance the college’s budget. Although the moratorium hasn’t been approved by MSU Provost Kim Wilcox, potential music therapy applicants for the fall and spring 2010 were told to apply elsewhere. Current music therapy students will be allowed to complete their degrees, if the moratorium is passed. Although the moratorium hasn’t passed, it has Edgerton worried about the future of the camp. “I use music therapy students for volunteers,” she said. “Once they’re gone, I don’t know how we’re going to find people as easily as we have in the past.” Students are still fighting, though. Music therapy junior Anna Wegener said although she is happy she gets to complete her degree, the future is a scary reality. “It affects so many people,” she said. “It’s more than us; it’s the kids too.” Winter said the camp is proof there is still a need for a music therapy program. “I think that RicStar’s Camp provides many important examples as to why the MSU music therapy program should be continued and strengthened, not discontinued,” she said. “I invite those involved in such decision making to visit us and experience all the camp’s magic firsthand.” Along with the moratorium, the camp also has faced financial struggles. Initially, Winter and her husband Dick used $10,000 they received in funds in memory of Eric. Since then, Winter has created an endowment fund and received donations from businesses and people in the community. “There is a lot of community support for the camp, it’s really well-known,” said Amanda Darche, grant writer and communications coordinator for the Community Music School. “Each year we have numerous businesses in the community that donate.” The camp costs about $18,000 to run. Because of the poor economy, Edgerton said she has seen a decrease in donations. But camp organizers are determined to make sure they turn no one away, Winter said. “We have a high request for scholarships to the camp,” she said. “We have a very big commitment to make sure that no one is turned away from the school.” Despite budgetary concerns, Edgerton believes the camp will continue to educate people about the power of music.
LOS ANGELES – Kenny Rankin, a brilliant pop vocalist and highly regarded musician-songwriter whose stylings ranged from jazz to pop to the world music influences he picked up as a child in New York, has died of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced Monday. He was 69.
Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mack Avenue Records spokesman Don Lucoff said.
The musician, who first gained acclaim as one of the guitarists on Bob Dylan’s landmark 1965 album, “Bringing it all Back Home,” had been preparing to record an album of new material when he became ill a few weeks ago. Recording sessions scheduled with producer Phil Ramone were canceled as his health began to deteriorate.
“That he was still at the top of his game is one of the saddest parts of his passing for me,” Denny Stilwell, president of Mack Avenue Records, said in a statement. “He performed the new material in our office over the last few months and his voice was still in its finest form , he sounded absolutely amazing. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.”
Rankin wrote and recorded the pop standard “Peaceful” and also wrote “In The Name of Love,” which was recorded by Peggy Lee, and “Haven’t We Met,” performed by Carmen McRae and Mel Torme.
His own “The Kenny Rankin Album” was recorded live in 1976 with a 60-piece orchestra.
Rankin, who signed with Decca Records while still in his teens, once said his music career really began in the fourth grade when he sang “O Holy Night” in a school Christmas play and his teacher walked up to him afterward, patted him on the head and said, “Kenneth, that was lovely.”
“She set me on the path in music that I find myself on today,” he said.
After signing with Decca in the late 1950s he released a handful of singles before moving on to Columbia Records, also the home of Dylan. There, he took part in the recording of “Bringing it All Back Home,” the album in which Dylan moved firmly from an all-acoustic folk music sound to an electric mixture of pop and rock ‘n’ roll.
Soon after, he made his first appearance on “The Tonight Show,” where he impressed host Johnny Carson so much that Carson contributed liner notes to Rankin’s first album, 1967’s “Mind Dusters.” Other albums included “Family,” “Like a Seed,” “Inside and “Silver Morning:”
He would go on to appear as Carson’s “Tonight Show” guest more than 20 times.
His supple tenor voice on such recordings as “Spanish Harlem,” “‘Round Midnight” and the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and “I’ve Just a Face” also won him the respect of fellow musicians as a singer’s singer.
Mack Records said he so impressed the Beatles’ Paul McCartney that McCartney asked him to perform “Blackbird” when he and songwriting partner John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
Rankin spent much of the past 20 years touring, although he returned to the studio in the mid-1990s to release a pair of albums, “Professional Dreamer” and “Here In My Heart.” He also released a Christmas album in 1999.
Born in New York City on Feb. 10, 1940, Rankin was raised in the city’s Washington Heights neighborhood, where he said he grew up listening to a broad spectrum of music, including Afro-Cuban, jazz, Top 40 and Brazilian.
He is survived by his son, Chris Rankin, daughters Chanda Rankin and Jena Rankin-Ray and a granddaughter.
His record label said funeral arrangements are pending.
LOS ANGELES – Kenny Rankin, a brilliant pop vocalist and highly regarded musician-songwriter whose stylings ranged from jazz to pop to the world music influences he picked up as a child in New York, has died of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced Monday. He was 69.
Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mack Avenue Records spokesman Don Lucoff said.
The musician, who first gained acclaim as one of the guitarists on Bob Dylan’s landmark 1965 album, “Bringing it all Back Home,” had been preparing to record an album of new material when he became ill a few weeks ago. Recording sessions scheduled with producer Phil Ramone were canceled as his health began to deteriorate.
“That he was still at the top of his game is one of the saddest parts of his passing for me,” Denny Stilwell, president of Mack Avenue Records, said in a statement. “He performed the new material in our office over the last few months and his voice was still in its finest form , he sounded absolutely amazing. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.”
Rankin wrote and recorded the pop standard “Peaceful” and also wrote “In The Name of Love,” which was recorded by Peggy Lee, and “Haven’t We Met,” performed by Carmen McRae and Mel Torme.
His own “The Kenny Rankin Album” was recorded live in 1976 with a 60-piece orchestra.
Rankin, who signed with Decca Records while still in his teens, once said his music career really began in the fourth grade when he sang “O Holy Night” in a school Christmas play and his teacher walked up to him afterward, patted him on the head and said, “Kenneth, that was lovely.”
“She set me on the path in music that I find myself on today,” he said.
After signing with Decca in the late 1950s he released a handful of singles before moving on to Columbia Records, also the home of Dylan. There, he took part in the recording of “Bringing it All Back Home,” the album in which Dylan moved firmly from an all-acoustic folk music sound to an electric mixture of pop and rock ‘n’ roll.
Soon after, he made his first appearance on “The Tonight Show,” where he impressed host Johnny Carson so much that Carson contributed liner notes to Rankin’s first album, 1967’s “Mind Dusters.” Other albums included “Family,” “Like a Seed,” “Inside and “Silver Morning:”
He would go on to appear as Carson’s “Tonight Show” guest more than 20 times.
His supple tenor voice on such recordings as “Spanish Harlem,” “‘Round Midnight” and the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and “I’ve Just a Face” also won him the respect of fellow musicians as a singer’s singer.
Mack Records said he so impressed the Beatles’ Paul McCartney that McCartney asked him to perform “Blackbird” when he and songwriting partner John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
Rankin spent much of the past 20 years touring, although he returned to the studio in the mid-1990s to release a pair of albums, “Professional Dreamer” and “Here In My Heart.” He also released a Christmas album in 1999.
Born in New York City on Feb. 10, 1940, Rankin was raised in the city’s Washington Heights neighborhood, where he said he grew up listening to a broad spectrum of music, including Afro-Cuban, jazz, Top 40 and Brazilian.
He is survived by his son, Chris Rankin, daughters Chanda Rankin and Jena Rankin-Ray and a granddaughter.
His record label said funeral arrangements are pending.
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The Nickel Slots have been around for a long, long time. Not as a band, mind you, but the quartet’s members – Tony Brusca, Paul Zinn and brothers Christopher and Steve Amaral – have played in area bands for the better part of two decades.
Today, the Nickel Slots have their own identity, but that collective of history and experiences ultimately shapes the music, explains singer- songwriter Brusca.
The band, which performs tonight at the Blue Lamp, is relaxing at another midtown club on a recent weeknight, drinking beers, talking about the past and thinking about the future.
“With age comes wisdom,” Brusca says with a laugh – but it’s no joke. That they’re all in their 30s and 40s makes for a better fit.
“We’ve been through the band fights and the breakups, but now we just play music and have a good time.”
Or as guitarist Steve Amaral puts it: “We’ve paid our dues.”
The band’s pedigree is in an all-star league: Amaral played with Popgun and, along with his brother, a drummer, played in Red Star Memorial and the Mission Satellite. Bassist Zinn directed the Cal Aggie Marching Band-Uh! and once fronted his own horn-driven ensemble, the Blow Kings. Brusca is probably best known as the lead singer for the Brodys.
The Brodys, one of Sacramento’s most popular local bands in the last 20 years, still perform, but Brusca found himself itching for a different sound.
“It’s not that I was unhappy with the Brodys; I just wanted to try something new,” he says.
So, intent on finding an outlet for his Americana-influenced songs – some of which were 25 years in the making – Brusca founded the Nickel Slots in late 2007. Navigating his way through Sacramento’s dense network of friends and musicians, he recruited Christopher Amaral and Zinn.
After the Nickel Slots’ initial run with a different guitarist, Steve Amaral joined the band in October. The move marked a full-circle journey for the guitarist, who played with Brusca in the Brodys in the early ’90s.
“It didn’t work out then,” Amaral says with a shrug. “It’s good now.”
Now, the band members’ seemingly disparate tastes – everything from punk and metal to Irish folk music, pop and classic country – are distilled into a pure, joyfully rowdy mix of country and rock. “Everyone brings his influences and it works,” Zinn says. “Somehow we’re able to pull from all these styles and connect the dots,” Steve Amaral says.
The band is recording its self- titled debut, set for a September release.
“There’s not a lot of drama, there’s not a lot of ego,” Steve Amaral says, pointing to a recent studio session as proof.
“I’d just finished this guitar solo and I thought it was pretty good. I was feeling great about it, but Paul told me that maybe I could do it better,” Amaral says.
Instead of getting mad or miffed, the guitarist says, he simply gave it another go. “Paul can get me to try something new to make it better,” he says.
For the Brothers Amaral, playing together in the Nickel Slots is almost a given. The two, who grew up in Woodland, cut their musical teeth playing in their parents’ cover band.
“We played weddings and birthdays and New Year’s Eve parties, and we learned to play every type of music and for four to five hours at a time,” Steve Amaral says. As they’ve carried that history into several other shared bands, Christopher Amaral says, he can hardly imagine not playing with his sibling.
“My whole life, I’ve looked up and to the right and there he is playing in front of me onstage,” Amaral says. “It doesn’t feel right if he’s not there.”
Zinn also brings myriad musical backgrounds to the band. His band mates have dubbed him the “John Paul Jones of the group” – not just for how he plays bass and mandolin in the Nickel Slots (just as Jones did for Led Zeppelin) but because he’s also an expert composer and arranger.
“I first met Paul when he was directing the Cal Aggie marching band and they wanted to arrange (and perform) the Brody’s ‘Beer Truck Driver,’ ” Brusca says. “They invited me to come hear it – this 60-member marching band playing a song I wrote.”
For his part, Brusca grew up playing the ukulele as a kid (he first strummed “Race Horse,” now a Nickel Slots song, nearly a quarter-century ago on the instrument) before eventually graduating to the guitar.
Revisiting those songs has been “fantastic,” Brusca says.
“I first recorded ‘Race Horse’ before I even knew how to play the guitar,” he says. “It’s amazing to hear it now.”
The track, a simple three-chord number about nostalgia, fits in well with newer Nickel Slots songs such as “Lucky Number 7’s.” That track, about a gambler intent on making his fortune at a nickel slot machine, embodies the band’s music.
“It’s desperate but hopeful,” Brusca says. “It’s pretty apropos for the times.”
Of course, he adds, the band itself is more hopeful than desperate, more gleeful than glum.
With hundreds of gigs behind them and countless songs sung, Brusca says, being in a band is finally and happily about picking up instruments, living in the moment and being grateful for the opportunity.
“When I’m on stage and we play those first notes of ‘Racehorse,’ it always hits me: ‘Yes, this is what I want,’” says Brusca.
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Renee Bodie, the driving force behind the Los Angeles Acoustic Music Festival, managed to snare an impressive roster of classic folk music artists for the inaugural event, taking place Saturday and Sunday on the Santa Monica Pier.
Nanci Griffith, Richard Thompson, Bruce Cockburn, David Lindley, David Bromberg and Eliza Gilkyson are slated to perform this weekend at what Bodie hopes will become an annual celebration of music from the heart.
“Los Angeles doesn’t have a true folk festival,” said Bodie, a board member of Folk Alliance International, an organization committed to preserving and promoting folk music, dance and performing arts. “It’s a wonderful genre, a basic genre, and there are many offshoots from it. It has a lot of roots in our history.”
The lineup also features the Kingston Trio, fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Jimmy LaFave, Slaid Cleaves, Joel Rafael, the Refugees, Stonehoney and a tribute to the godfather of American folk music, Woody Guthrie, whose granddaughter, Sarah Lee Guthrie, will play with Johnny Irion.
One challenge in attempting to create a Southland equivalent to the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas or the Kate Wolf Festival going on later this month in Laytonville in Northern California is that “it’s really diverse here,” says multi-instrumentalist Lindley, who will be bringing a full arsenal of stringed instruments with which he typically dazzles audiences. He’ll perform solo with Irish and Romanian bouzoukis, Greek oud, Turkish saz and Hawaiian koa wood guitars.
He’d love to see a festival take root here and is particularly looking to the chance it presents to cross paths with other participants.
“It’s really good to be able to do that,” he said from his home in Claremont, “especially with David Bromberg, who I haven’t seen in a long time. He’s an old friend. And have you ever seen Natalie MacMaster? She’s pretty scary, and that kind of thing is great for a festival.”
Agoura Hills resident Bodie is hoping that the festival will serve to do more than spotlight the genre’s top talents. She’s optimistic that its success — Bodie says the event needs to draw about 1,200 attendees per day — will raise money for programs designed to introduce folk to a broader, and younger, audience.
Bodie plans to use some of the proceeds to create a California branch of the Americana Project, a community outreach effort started by the Sisters Folk Festival in Sisters, Ore. The project provides musical instruments and instruction to students who otherwise don’t have access to either.
She also is pushing to get the California Acoustic Music Project rolling in the L.A. area, after seeing the 8-year-old Oregon project in action.
“Its power is incredible,” she said. “You go up there and the entire community is so turned on to it. You go in stores and hear people talking about their kids being in the project and how it changed them. It’s very community-oriented.”
She said there’s some interest from officials she’s contacted at L.A. Unified School District, but they first want to see how it works in an urban setting, in contrast to the more rural environment of what’s happening in Oregon.
The state’s budget problems, which recently have resulted in cancellation of all summer school programs in L.A. schools, could actually be an advantage for this idea.
“The idea is we would fund artists-in-residence who could come into a school, and we’d also provide instruments,” Bodie said. “We want the school system itself to be healthy, but in some ways this is a good time, because schools are looking for anybody who can walk in and say, ‘Hey, you don’t have to do anything.’ “
http://aldira.thesecondtier.com
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eMusic.com and Sony collaborate on song sales
Online digital music store eMusic.com Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment have announced a joint gig. Sony has agreed to offer its back catalog of tunes on music subscription site eMusic.com.
The agreement, slated to start in Q3, will allow eMusic, No. 153 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to sell recordings from all Sony Music labels, including Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, LaFace, Legacy Recordings and RCA, that are at least two years old. The companies did not announce terms of the deal.
�We welcome the opportunity to expand the reach of Sony Music catalog artists online to include eMusic�s large and passionate subscriber base. We look forward to working with them to promote discovery and sales of all the great music available from Sony Music�s recent past and legendary history,� says Thomas Hesse, president, global digital business, U.S. sales and corporate strategy.
EMusic is known for its large selection of music from independent labels and artists. This is the retailer�s first deal with a major label, an eMusic spokeswoman says, and eMusic will raise its prices and lower the amount of downloads included in some of it plans as part of the agreement. Currently, subscriptions to eMusic begin at $11.99 a month for a package that enables consumers to download 24 tracks. EMusic tracks can be played on any MP3 player and can be copied freely without restrictions.
The spokeswoman adds that eMusic is in talks with the other major labels�Warner Music, the Universal Music Group and EMI�to add tracks from those labels to its catalog.
For now, eMusic�s prices are still far lower than Apple�s iTunes�despite Apple�s move early this year to adjust its pricing to 69 cents for most songs, 99 cents for others and $1.29 for new releases.
At the time of that announcement, Apple also announced it would start offering music from the four largest record labels sans copying restrictions. Apple was selling music from EMI without the restrictive digital rights management technology, but had difficulty getting other big names to sign on, even though such labels offered non-protected tracks to iTunes eMusic competitors such as Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. Those e-retailers trail far behind iTunes in market share, while eMusic has more of a niche customer base and caters to music aficionados.
Labels have been more open to non-traditional and perhaps less profitable agreements as of late. For example, free music download service Qtrax recently announced it would offer tunes from all four major labels. Such free download services typically generate revenue from advertisements and share it with the labels.
The big labels are likely becoming more flexible because they�re facing stiff competition from companies like Live Nation. The concert promoter has been eating away at record labels� profits with its 360 Deals with megastars that pay artists hefty sums up front�often over $100 million�in exchange for a cut of the profits from nearly all aspects of their careers, including touring, merchandise and recordings.
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What is Alternative Music? That’s a good question. Being defined as something ‘other’ has always left Alternative Music with an essential identity crisis. Alternative to what, exactly? Well, to orthodoxy.
To the status quo. To playing it safe. To being in the music-business for the business, not the music. To the man. To repressive politics. To racism, sexism, classism, etc. Music has always attracted the free-thinkers and the radicals, and underground music has been the place where the most radical of the radicals has been championed. Does that answer your question? Well, no, not really. Let’s just say that, if Alternative Music must be an alternative to something, the safe answer is this: to whatever your parents like. When did Alternative Music begin? Fittingly enough, right as rock’n'roll was becoming the dominant musical mode of the Western World.
As soon as rock was king, there quickly grew an underground of acts providing, yes, an ‘alternative’ voice. If you’re looking for a ground zero, well… let’s say 1965. That was the year the Velvet Underground first got together in a New York loft, that MC5 first turned up their amps in a Detroit garage, and that a kooky Californian kid started calling himself Captain Beefheart. If you’re looking to go further underground (note: doing this is the passion of any self-respective alt-music enthusiast), 1965 was also when a Texan teenager named Roky Erikson begun pioneering psychedelic-rock with a crew called the 13th Floor Elevators. It was the year that a pair of New York poets formed a primitive, satirical rock-group named The Fugs. And, it was the year The Monks, a band of American GIs living in Germany, released the amelodic, highly-rhythmic, audience-baiting album Black Monk Time, possibly the first-ever underground rock album. If I’m new to Alternative Music, where should I start? Why, right here, of course! Track down my Top 10 Alternative Starter Albums, which will serve as a fine primer to some of the big names in indie music. Or, even better, dig the Top 10 ‘Obscure’ Alternative Starter Albums. What does Alternative Music sound like? That’s up for debate. Existing as an ‘other,’ alternative music should, in theory, simply sound unlike whatever the prevailing popular-musical models of the day are. Meaning, if you don’t know exactly what it is, at least you know what it’s not. Yet, from the mid-’80s through to the mid-’90s, the notion of what was safely ‘alternative’ underwent a radical change.
Nowhere moreso than in America. After punk-rock marked a momentary blip on mainstream America’s radar, the 1980s settled into a steady diet of big-name pop-stars and hair-metal peacocks, with hip-hop the nation’s undeniable rising cultural force. That left a massive chasm between the mainstream and the underground. Punk had mutated into hardcore, a form of music devoted wholly to grass-roots activity. And, hardcore or not, there were whole networks of bands doing things independently, completely off the commercial grid. For the best part of the ’80s, there existed a happy divide —and a mutual disinterest— between these two worlds. Whilst the masses had their Madonna and Michael, the freaks had the Butthole Surfers and Black Flag. Things made sense. But, inevitably, change came. First REM, old ‘college-rockers,’ cracked the mainstream. Former avant-garde noise outfit Sonic Youth signed with a major-label. And, then, Nirvana came out of nowhere to be the biggest band in the world.
Grunge was a license to print money, sending major-label A&Rs into a frenzy. They ransacked once insular musical scenes of any barely-competent band. Failing that, they engineered their own grungealikes. The whole thing became an exercise in profiteering that was satirized, for the ages, by The Simpsons’ Hullabalooza festival. This mainstream crossover (or, to use the language of the time, ’sell out’) lead to Alternative Music’s crisis of identity: if what was once alternative was now the status quo, what did ‘alternative’ even mean? If Nirvana once could’ve defined alt music, where did that leave come-later corporate copycats like Silverchair and Puddle Of Mudd, who were hollow, artless, pre-packaged facsimiles of the late Kurt Cobain’s ferocious artistry? It left the alternative world in a confused state.
So, in summation: what does Alternative Music sound like? Well, um, it all depends. What genres can be considered Alternative Music? Good god, what a question. As Billy Shakespeare, that old dog, once wondered: What’s in a name? Musically speaking, we must wonder the same. How does one define ‘rock’ or ‘pop’ or ‘R&B’? Genres attempt to tell us what music is, but often they don’t. However, here’s a basic primer: * The Genres of Alternative Music Most genres that have strong, defined parameters are ones consigned to a specific point in time. When someone talks about shoegaze, kraut-rock, grunge, riot-grrrl, or post-rock, they’re not just talking about a specific style and sound, but a place in time, in the past, we can view from the safety of hindsight. To be honest, the notion of genre, as a straight-laced form of specific sound and accompanying identity, is dying.
Whilst I’m not denying the rise of the emo cult, there’s recently been a telling increase in outfits impossible to quantify. What does one make, for instance, of Animal Collective, or Gang Gang Dance, or Yeasayer; bands whose seamless fusing of many disparate genres leaves them sounding like none? Are ‘Alternative’ and ‘Indie’ essentially interchangeable terms? Well, yes and no. Casually speaking, yes, they can essentially mean the same thing. But if we want to get down to the semantics of it. That’s a whole other story.
* Is There a Difference Between Alternative and Indie Music? Is Alternative Music always an alternative? Of course not. Look at it this way: in 1990, the Grammy Awards started giving out trophies for the Best Alternative Album. In the years since, winners have included such noticeably not-indie figures as Sinead O’Connor, U2, Coldplay, and Gnarls Barkley. So, no matter how hard you try and define ‘Alternative Music,’ people —especially Grammy voters— will make it mean whatever they want it to.
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Over the past week or so, we’ve encountered several sites that offer file-sharing services via Twitter. Though some of our commenters are dubious about the userfulness, legality, and peer-to-peer nature of the services, we generally like the idea of using Twitter to send documents, presentations, and…
Oh, let’s be honest. Each for our own reasons, we want to send one another songs online, usually as illegally downloaded and shared MP3s; and Twitter seems like a more interesting way of doing that than email. We’ve discovered a new site that lets us send songs as MP3s on our hard drives, as MP3s hosted on a website, or even as YouTube videos or imeem audio clips plucked from the app’s library. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you SongTwit!
The site, which is still in its infancy, gives users a three-step process for sending music via Twitter. First, the user finds the song. As aforementioned, the song could be on a website, on a user’s hard drive, or in the SongTwit library, which seems to consist of third party-hosted audio clips (this seems fine for web-based sharing, but we wonder how well it will work for various mobile devices):
If the user is working from the SongTwit library, he is presented with a range of selections and is able to preview the song/video before it goes out as a tweet:
The user then provides his Twitter username and password and a message of 115 characters or fewer. The tweet is sent (publicly or as a reply; the creators are still working on DMs); and the world rejoices.
When other users click the SongTwit link, they are redirected to a SongTwit page with a little custom player (video for YouTube clips is minimized) and the original sender’s message:
There are a few flaws of the service, aside from the DM-less-ness. No downloads from these pages are yet available, and they’re still working on the broken pause button on the media players.
Still, the search function really does help save time that would likely have been spent trolling YouTube for clips of that one Venga Boys song from 1999. And that’s what the Internet is for, no?
We’d love to see musicians using Twitter more for blatant self-promotion, and this would be an excellent way to send fans demos or previews of new songs. The download function would be an excellent addition to the service for this use case alone. Then again, without the download function, that’s one more piece of content the musician doesn’t have to completely give away for nothing while not denying the fans who really just want to listen.
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In another example of struggling major music labels and Internet services finding common ground, Sony Music Entertainment has agreed to make its back catalog of songs available on eMusic, one of the largest music retailers on the Web. EMusic, a company based in New York City, has some 400,000 subscribers who pay a monthly fee to download a certain number of songs.
Its service is primarily aimed at adults who are fans of music from independent labels. The company plans to announce on Monday that it will add all Sony Music tracks that are more than two years old, including material from artists like Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. The major labels had long been skeptical of the economics behind eMusic’s proposition to consumers. Subscribers to eMusic’s “basic” plan, for example, pay $11.99 a month to download 30 songs — or about 40 cents a song, far below the prices on Apple’s iTunes.
Songs are in the MP3 format and do not have restrictions against copying. As part of the deal, eMusic says it will slightly raise prices and reduce the number of downloads for some of its monthly plans. Danny Stein, eMusic’s chief executive, said he had been talking to the major labels about adding their music for several years. Talks continue with Warner Music, the Universal Music Group and EMI, he said. He added that many of the independent labels had been asking the company to raise its prices. “We have been looking for a catalyzing event to do it, and we think introducing this vast, quality catalog from Sony is that event,” Mr. Stein said. The deal highlights several shifts in the online music landscape. The major labels gave up their objections to selling songs in the unprotected MP3 format in 2007. They also prevailed upon Apple this year to move to variable pricing in its iTunes store. Apple now sells older songs for 79 cents and new tracks for $1.29.
The major labels have also been more willing lately to strike more flexible and less expensive deals with start-ups like Imeem that are trying new approaches to online music. Sony Music and eMusic would not disclose the particulars of their deal. An executive at Sony Music, a subsidiary of the Sony Corporation, said the company was interested in seeing multiple models for digital music coexist on the Web. “We think the model of buying a set amount of music each month under an MP3 allowance is an attractive subscription option for consumers,” said Thomas Hesse, president of Sony’s Global Digital Business unit.
“We are supportive of offerings that encourage fans to dig deep into the repertoire of our artists and discover the richness of our catalog.”
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Al Jerrau Jazz Performance
It’s afternoon in California’s San Fernando Valley, but Al Jarreau isn’t enjoying the lovely spring weather. Instead, the 69- year-old singer is inside, sipping tea and nursing a pesky bout of the flu.
“Such are the hazards of the profession,” Jarreau sighs into the telephone. “You work hard, get exhausted, and that leaves the door open to getting sick.”
All sniffles aside, Jarreau is in good spirits.
He has just returned from a successful European tour and is looking forward to his performance next weekend at the Capital Jazz Fest, returning from June 5 through 7 to Columbia’s Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Celebrating its 17th year, the three-day marathon is well-known for highlighting the biggest names in contemporary jazz and R&B. This year’s lineup includes such heavyweights as George Duke, Kirk Whalum and jazz “supergroup” SMV, featuring Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. Singer Natalie Cole was also advertized, but at press time her participation seemed all but sure to be sidetracked by non-elective surgery.
Seven-time Grammy winner Jarreau is slated to close out the festivities in Sunday night’s headlining spot.
“I’m going to have fun,” he says.
The singer, world famous for his velvety voice, promises that his most-requested hits like “We’re in This Love Together” and “Take Five” will not be ignored. But he also plans to include songs from a 2004 CD, “Accentuate the Positive,” a mix of classic jazz standards that are among his own personal favorites.
“I have such a passion for jazz and its legacy,” the musician declares. “I think it’s important to give the audience a listen to things they may have not have heard yet. I owe that to them.”
While Jarreau is the only singer in history to win Grammy Awards in three different categories — jazz, pop and R&B — jazz has always been his number one source of inspiration.
“There is an essential element that is the cornerstone of the music I do, and that is improvisation,” he says. “It is part of the 10 commandments of jazz, that you be open to the moment.”
The musician began his career in the fertile 1970s West Coast music scene. His years gigging in Los Angeles led to him becoming a singer with a jazz quartet led by George Duke. For four years they were the headliners at a celebrated San Francisco hotspot known as the Half Note.
Then Jarreau teamed up with guitarist Julio Martinez to explore a new found love for Brazilian rhythms. It freed Jarreau to experiment with various forms of percussion.
“I discovered that the base of the microphone stand was sensitive to the foot, so if you took your foot and tapped on the base, you got a rhythmic sound,” he explains. Next, the musician began using his voice to imitate the sound of instruments, and incorporating body thumps and finger snaps into the mix.
Today’s hip-hop culture owes a debt to Al Jarreau’s inventive spirit. “I was doing it way back when. Only now they call it beat boxing.”
Over 30 years later, the artist shows no signs of slowing down. Last year he released both a Christmas album and a love song compilation. This fall, a greatest hits collection is scheduled for release.
Just a year shy of his 70th birthday, Jarreau continues to remain passionate about his craft, and credits any success he has had to his “old school” work ethic.
“Suppose I’m scheduled to be on stage at eight o’clock at night,” he says. “At 1:30, I’m doing my vocal stretches and warm-ups. Before I head to sound checks I’ll have done about 180 pushups. While I’m doing them, I also do my ‘creative visualization.’ I see myself on stage with a wonderful voice and an audience that is happy. I’m creating my future.”
With a jam-packed calendar of touring and recording ahead, the musician values his “down time” as something of a media fast. “I like being alone with my thoughts,” he admits. “Sometimes I feel myself in the middle of saturation and just need a break from all that stimulation.
“Yesterday I went shopping for a new tea kettle, and as I was walking the aisle, the music was blaring at me. I don’t want to get desensitized by mindless music being forced into my sensory experience,” he says with mock outrage and a laugh. “I’m just trying to buy a tea kettle!”
Al Jarreau will perform at the 17th annual Capital Jazz Fest at Merriweather Post Pavilion June 5 to 7. The gates open Friday June 5 at 6:30 pm, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7. A three-day general festival pass is $138.50. Daily admission is $39.50 to $87.30. Tickets are available at the box office, at all Ticketmaster locations and by phone at 410-547-SEAT. For a schedule and more information, go to www.capitaljazz.com.
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