(416)
677-5883
langfieldent@rogers.com
www.langfieldentertainment.com
December 27, 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone
is enjoying the season! Again, I wish to thank all of you for your
love and support and I wish you a special 2008 with joy and fulfillment
overflowing. As New Year's Eve approaches, I want you to enjoy it
safely!
Speaking of New Year's Eve, for those that enjoy a fun and entertaining vibe like dinner and a full
show, check out the Ebony and Ivory New Years Eve Gala at 6 Degrees! And don't forget
about New Years Eve at Harlem with Chef Anthony Mair - Call for reservations! Details for both
below...
Now, I have a special scoop for you - in January 2008, a new book hits the shelves by one of my
all-time favourite people - Terrie Williams (see my company bio for more on Terrie and
myself). In her newest book, Black Pain, Terrie explores the dark place of depression and it's effect
on her life and the unique impact it has on the Black community. Please
support this book of healing and pass it on to someone who may need to hear the
message. See all details under SCOOP below.
Newsletter is a little short and sweet this week folks but still got the goods
for ya!
::
Ebony and Ivory New Years Eve Gala
The New Years Eve Gala of the year - The Ebony and
Ivory NYE Gala. Steppin Out Series!
Dinner tickets are $70 which includes DINNER (chicken, goat, rice
and peas, roti, white rice, salad), DESSERT (assorted cakes)and a SHOW
featuring Dwayne Morgan and Jay Martin, Trixx and Teedra
Moses backed by her live band. Party music by Skimpy, Trixx and
Presto.
Lastly at 2:00 am, we will serve Breakfast – yes, Breakfast!
We are topping it off with an early bird deal that includes a night’s stay
at the Roe Hampton Best Western on New Years Eve for $300 and
includes two all inclusive New Years Eve Gala tickets, a hotel room and parking
(with in and out privileges).
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2007
EBONY AND IVORY NEW YEARS EVE GALA
6 Degrees
2335 Yonge St. (just north of Eglinton)
7:00 pm – Dinner; $70 - All inclusive Dinner, Show , Dance, Breakfast
9:00 pm – Show; $50 - Show, Dance, and Breakfast
Info line is 416 949 2766
www.JayMartin.tv;
www.upfromtheroots.ca
Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Harlem
Carl Cassell and Anthony Mair invite you
for dinner at Harlem this New Year's
Eve. Master Chef Anthony Mair (formerly of Mardis Gras) will be
preparing a four course Soulful Feast for
you and your loved ones. Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere in
Harlem's art-filled dining room, then go upstairs to
the Renaissance Room for some bubbly and get your party on in 2008. It
will be a night to remember. Two seatings are available: 6:30pm and 9:00pm.
As an aside, Chef Mair will be featuring new, soulful, tasteful
and mind-blowing items to his Soul Food Menu weekly!
Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Harlem (67 Richmond St.
E. - Church and Richmond) celebrates the joy of Toronto's cultural diversity
and the art of entertaining. It is a rebirth of creativity in Food, Art, Music,
and Cocktails.
To make a reservations please call 416-368-1920.
Monday, December 31
NEW YEARS SOULFUL EVE
Harlem Restaurant
67 Richmond St. E. (Church and Richmond)
Two seatings are available: 6:30pm and
9:00pm
Reservations: 416-368-1920
::SCOOP::
Black Pain - It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting
Source: Terrie Williams Agency
"Black Pain brings
a new understanding to the widely-held misperceptions and stigmas about
depression. People around the country are now talking about the issue;
many have been moved to start speaking about it publicly…by [sharing her story,
Terrie] has helped countless fellow sufferers realize that they are not
alone. It's a powerful thing to admit the pain, to seek help, and to move
on to a more productive, healthy, and fulfilling life."
—Bebe Moore Campbell
Terrie Williams is a woman
on fire, and the fuel that keeps that fire raging is the epidemic of emotional
pain and depression in Black America.
Depression is a catchword in the mainstream media, but among African-Americans
it might as well be “the D-word”—the shameful thing nobody talks about, even as
it’s killing them. But Terrie Williams is not afraid to talk about what
depression is doing to the Black community— she’s determined to get everyone
talking about it, and she will not rest until Black people can freely speak
their pain without shame, and start healing. Her groundbreaking new book, BLACK
PAIN: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting (Scribner; January 8, 2008; $24), is
her opening salvo in that battle.
Despite the disproportionate damage depression does to Black people, it’s
hardly limited to them. Yet for all we hear about depression on TV talk shows
and talk radio, few of us can recognize the symptoms we see every day in
ourselves—let alone in other people. Here are just six of Terrie’s 20 Signs
That You Might Be Depressed:
·
You are always too busy—never have or take the time to give
yourself the care you need.
·
You can’t ask people for what you need.
·
You can’t wait to get home to eat—something, anything—and lots of
it. It’s the only thing that soothes you.
·
You just don’t have energy to do anything—you have to force
yourself to do everything.
·
You are not doing work that brings you joy; you are just working a
gig, and holding out for the check.
·
You call in sick at least once a month.
Any of these ring a bell? That’s because depression doesn’t just look like
sadness. Depression can look like:
·
your sister who works eighteen-hour days and hasn’t made it to
Sunday dinner in weeks.
·
your best friend who’s stopped cleaning her house or doing her
hair or taking any interest in your friendship.
·
your coworker who’s chronically late and blames everyone else for
her missed promotions.
·
the corporate executive who needs a bottle of wine and 10 mg. of
Ambien to get to sleep every night.
·
the 13-year-old boy who joins a gang because no one else wants
him.
Depression looks like all these people, and millions more, because
it’s an insidious disease that takes as many forms as there are people who
suffer from it. So how do we recognize it? How do we treat it? For African
Americans BLACK PAIN is the Answer!
In BLACK PAIN, top African-American publicist and former clinical social worker
Terrie Williams uses her therapeutic training and unparalleled access to take
us into the heart of African-American suffering— the heart of Black Pain. Forty
years after the book Black Rage explained to all of America what
was boiling beneath the surface of brown skins, many African-Americans
have turned that rage inward. Black America is suffering from
depression, and Terrie Williams is the first person to name that pain in a way
that lets us see its on-the-ground face. From the schoolgirl to the gang-banger
to the hip-hop star to the corporate exec, she shows us that Black people in
this country, even if they’re living the American dream, are still fighting a
nightmare they can’t wake up from, the nightmare of depression.
Never before has a book laid out a community crisis with such sensitivity, such
empathy and such clear direction to solutions. By showing us her own pain and
the pain of the Black community, Terrie Williams gives us the power to
transform our lives. Filled with the untold stories of celebrities like Mike
Tyson and Blair Underwood, and the experiences of everyday folks, this book can
show you yourself, your parent, your child, your neighbor, and help you take
concrete steps to end your suffering. It’s time we all came out of the closet
about depression, and BLACK PAIN opens the door out of that darkness.
Depressed people are not empowered people—politically empowered, economically
empowered, or any other way. Tired of hearing the media ask why Black folks
can’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” Terrie Williams shows how many
of the problems that seem economic are really psychological. And until
Black people can address their psychological pain, they can’t begin to tear
down the other obstacles that hold them back. Addressing emotional wounds is
the greatest intervention Black people can make, because every other wound
starts in the soul.
BLACK PAIN was written from Terrie Williams’s fierce desire to reconnect the
Black middle class to the urban centers and rural pockets…to bring back Black
civic life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A social worker by training, Terrie Williams launched the public relations
firm, The Terrie Williams Agency, in 1988. The company quickly became one of
the most successful PR firms in America, representing top names in
entertainment, sports, business and politics such as Miles Davis, Johnnie
Cochran, Stephen King, Eddie Murphy, HBO, and Time Warner. After surviving a
profound depression, Terrie chronicled her struggle to regain her health in Essence
magazine and the feedback was staggering. She continues her work with the
agency and she also created the Stay Strong Foundation, which reaches out to
anyone of any age suffering from mental illness. Terrie has a BA from Brandeis
University and a master's degree in social work from Columbia University. She
has one grown son and lives in New York City.
BLACK PAIN: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting
By Terrie M. Williams
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
352 pages; $24.00
To purchase from Amazon in Canada, go HERE.
To purchase from Amazon elsewhere, go HERE.
::TOP STORIES::
Oscar Peterson, 82: Jazz giant
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(December 26, 2007) Oscar Emmanuel Peterson will
be honoured posthumously next month at a prestigious annual gathering of the
global jazz community in Toronto.
The inimitable technician and composer — celebrated for a swinging approach
that permeates more than 100 recordings — succumbed to kidney failure and
stroke complications at his Mississauga home Sunday night. He was 82.
An unprecedented partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts — the
national arts funding agency in the U.S. — and the Canada Council had arranged
for Peterson to receive a $25,000 fellowship along with other jazz masters
(including Quincy Jones and Gunther Schuller) during the International
Association for Jazz Education conference being staged at the Metro Toronto
Convention Centre next month.
“He had confirmed he and (wife) Kelly would be there with family members,” said
association executive director Bill McFarlin, who lauded Peterson’s “amazing
virtuosity” and placed him on par with “great innovators of jazz, like Duke
Ellington and Louis Armstrong.”
The Jan. 11 tribute will go ahead as planned, with Montreal pianist and former
Peterson student Oliver Jones playing excerpts from the late great’s 1964’s Canadiana
Suite during the gala concert.
“I kind of puff up my chest when hear it,” Jones said of Peterson’s best-known
composition, which was inspired by various regions of the country. “I can
visualize different parts of Canada.”
The suite was indicative of the pride Peterson took in his Canadian roots
despite the international recognition he accrued. The Montreal-born tunesmith,
who battled arthritis and had been using a wheelchair since a 1993 stroke,
completed a U.S. tour in fall 2006 but spent much of this year in poor health.
A late June performance at the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival was
cancelled on doctors orders after more than 900 tickets had been sold, and he
did not attend an all-star tribute in his honour at Carnegie Hall earlier that
month. Celine Peterson, 16, the youngest of Peterson’s seven children, told the
Star that her father died “peacefully.”
“It’s hard to say. I’m very shocked. It hasn’t hit me quite yet,” she said,
when asked how she was coping with his death. Standing in the doorway of the
family home, the teen said her mother Kelly, Peterson’s fourth wife, was “doing
okay” and that the family would have a private funeral and plan a “public
memorial within the months to come.”
Accolades continue to pour in for the eight-time Grammy winner and Order of
Canada recipient who played with greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie, and ranked with Glenn Gould as one of our best known
musicians.
“There’s only one word that does him justice: legend,” said Toronto Mayor David
Miller.
“Oscar was the most famous jazz musician in the world and his passing further
marks the end of a rapidly approaching era,” said Toronto Jazz Festival
executive producer Pat Taylor.
In official French reaction to his passing — even before the Canadian
government — President Nicolas Sarkozy said one of the bright lights of jazz
had been extinguished.
“He was a regular on the French stage, where the public adored his luminous
style,” Sarkozy said. “It is a great loss for us.”
Peterson’s last recording was 2004’s live album/DVD A Night in Vienna.
His final public appearance is believed to have been a May 6 fundraiser for
Mount Sinai Hospital at Roy Thomson Hall where headliner Diana Krall
acknowledged the jazz giant to warm applause from the audience.
B.C. native Krall was one of dozens of musicians, across generations and
genres, but particularly keyboardists, who cited Peterson’s artistic example.
American pop/soul icon Stevie Wonder reportedly made a low-key visit to
Peterson’s home following his November concert in Toronto.
“I consider him the major influence that formed my roots in jazz piano
playing,” said U.S. pianist Herbie Hancock in a statement. “He mastered the
balance between technique, hard blues grooving and tenderness.”
“He was the Wayne Gretzky of the piano,” said Toronto pianist/educator Mark
Eisenman. “What he brought in musical sense? An incredible sense of movement
and time.”
Though Peterson was noted as a brilliant soloist, Eisenman posited that some of
his best playing was as an understated accompanist to likes of singer
Fitzgerald and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.
“He was a complete musician,” said pianist Jones, who knew Peterson growing up
in Montreal’s St. Henri district.
“Never has there been another piano player who could swing so much, then be
just as soft and tender. And his work ethic was of the highest standard.”
Ottawa-born pianist D.D. Jackson also recalled Peterson’s “impeccable sense of
swing” as well as “the blues tinge he brought to everything he did, combined
with his flawless and elegant piano technique.”
To a musician with African and Chinese heritage such as Jackson, that “such a
figure was also African-Canadian was even more inspiring.”
Peterson was the fourth of five children of a railway porter father who
encouraged music as an option to the menial jobs blacks were then relegated to.
Peterson started off on trumpet at age 5 but moved to piano after a bout of
tuberculosis. Taught by older sister daisy, at 14 he won a national CBC music
contest and became the star of a weekly local broadcast, quitting school to
pursue a career in music.
“He had the ability to play classical as well,” said Jones, “but that arena was
not very inviting back in those days for any black musicians.”
Peterson’s big break came when New York jazz impresario Norman Granz visited
Montreal and heard Peterson on the radio during a taxi ride. He arranged for
the 24-year-old to appear on a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert at Carnegie
Hall in 1949 and recorded his debut, Tenderly, on Verve Records the
following year.
As the Jazz at the Philharmonic house pianist, Peterson toured with luminaries
such as Fitzgerald and Gillespie. His most popular format was the trio, the
most definitive being his partnership with guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray
Brown from 1953 to 1958.
Influenced by legendary musicians Nat King Cole and Art Tatum (whose image is
carved into the front door of his Mississauga home), Peterson, whose style was
somewhere between swing and bop, was a technically dazzling player whose sound
would be akin to raindrops — if they were made of crystal.
While some critics said the pianist, who also sang occasionally, used too many
notes in his music, others found his approach impressive.
Lauded as a fine interpreter of standards, Peterson later established himself
as a composer, penning 1981’s A Royal Wedding Suite in honour of the
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer nuptials.
“There’s an extreme joy I get in playing that I’ve never been able to explain,”
he said in a 1996 interview. “I can only transmit it through the playing; I
can’t put it into words.”
But his days weren’t all bright.
Peterson never forgot his experiences with racism — a patron who wouldn’t shake
his hand in a Montreal nightclub, the Hamilton barber who refused to cut his
hair, segregated halls and hotels in the U.S. south, criticism for employing
white guitarist Herb Ellis — but was proactive, writing “Hymn to Freedom,”
which became a battle song of the U.S. civil rights movement, campaigning to
get non-white faces on Canadian TV in the ’80s.
However, there were more heartbreaking setbacks. Peterson, who had five
children with first wife Lillian and one with second wife Charlotte, was
plagued by misgivings about the incessant travelling which compromised his
duties as a father.
“His contribution to jazz is huge, but he told me the cost was his first
family,” said broadcaster and Jazz FM.91 CEO Ross Porter.
Only in later years, with fourth wife Kelly Green, a restaurant manager he met
on a Florida tour stop in the ’80s, and their daughter Celine, born when he was
66, did the entertainer finally enjoy a fulfilling homelife.
Though he received dozens of awards and honorary degrees, and saw a 50-cent
stamp issued in his honour, the artist cited the naming of Oscar Peterson
Public School in Mississauga in 2005 as “the most special event so far in my
life.”
“I love children,” he said at the time. “You couldn’t give me a better gift
than being amongst the kids.”
Peterson always displayed a commitment to education.
In the 1960s, he co-founded the short-lived Advanced School of Contemporary
Music in Toronto. He also served as adjunct professor of jazz studies and
chancellor at York University in the ’80s and early ’90s, respectively.
Personally, Peterson was a 6-foot-3 teddy bear of a man.
“He had a wonderful sense of humour,” said Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion.
“I often had dinner with he and his wife at their home, and we would just sit
there and chat. You wouldn’t know he was so famous, he was so down to earth,
had a marvellous sense of humour. He teased you a little bit. You never knew
when he was serious or not. He always had a twinkle in his eye.”
“He could be very humorous, firm and generous,” said jazz guitarist Lorne
Lofsky, who played in his quartet in the ’90s.
Sidelined for two years by the 1993 stroke, Peterson credited his long-time
bass player Dave Young for coaxing him back to the piano. Since then, until his
final convalescence, his desire to play and write new music was undiminished.
In a 2003 interview with then Toronto Star jazz critic Geoff Chapman,
Peterson scoffed at any suggestion of retirement: “When it doesn’t come out,
I’ll shut the piano down. Playing is manna to me. I don’t know what I’d do if I
didn’t play. It’s not the playing but the travelling that is wearing, so maybe
in the future I’d have to adjust that. If I could live my life all over again,
I wouldn’t change a thing musically. It’s been an education.”
With files from The Canadian Press, Bruce DeMara and Josh Wingrove
Penguins Superstar Chosen The Canadian
Press Male Athlete Of The Year
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press
(December 27, 2007) He's only 20, but Sidney Crosby's
trophy case is already getting pretty crowded.
The gifted Pittsburgh Penguins centre was chosen The Canadian Press male
athlete of the year yesterday, capping a season that included a Hart Trophy as
the NHL's most valuable player, the Pearson Award as the league's outstanding
player according to his peers, and the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion.
The Cole Harbour, N.S., native was the runaway winner of the Lionel Conacher
Award in a poll of sports editors and broadcasters across the country. He's the
first hockey player to capture the honour since former Pittsburgh Penguins star
Mario Lemieux won in 1993.
Crosby also won the Toronto Star's Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's outstanding
athlete earlier this month.
"I'm definitely proud to be Canadian and I realize that there's a lot of
great Canadian athletes, so to be considered athlete of the year is quite an
honour," Crosby said in an interview. "It's special. I don't take it
for granted whatsoever."
Crosby received 58 first-place votes for 247 total points in voting for the
Conacher Award, named for the all-rounder who was voted Canada's athlete of the
first half-century in 1950.
NBA star Steve Nash of Victoria, the winner in 2005 and 2006, was second with
17 first-place votes and 122 points, while Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeff
Francis of Vancouver was third with seven first-place votes for 50 points.
"Crosby will be to kids today what [Wayne] Gretzky was to the children of
the 1980s," said Jim Swanson of the Prince George Citizen.
The female athlete of the year will be announced today, while the team of the
year will be revealed tomorrow.
Crosby joins some of the greats of hockey in winning the award, including
Gretzky, who won it six times as well as being chosen athlete of the century in
1999, Gordie Howe (1963), Maurice (Rocket) Richard (1952, 1957, 1958), Bobby
Orr (1970) and Jean Béliveau (1956).
In addition to his win in 1993, Lemieux also earned the honour in 1988. Lemieux
now owns the Penguins and Crosby has lived with him and his family since
joining the team in 2005.
"I've seen his award," Crosby said. "Just to be able to follow
behind him is certainly something to be proud of."
Crosby, now captain of the Penguins, will complete a three-year, entry-level
contract that pays $850,000 (U.S.) in salary but close to $4-million in total
with bonuses. Endorsement deals also swell his bank account.
He signed a $43.5-million, five-year extension last July that averages out to
$8.7-million a year, a payout that matches the No. 87 sweater the superstitious
centre wears.
Fame and wealth do not appear to be going to the young man's head. He has
displayed a maturity well beyond his years.
"Even with high expectations, Sidney Crosby has lived up to his billing as
'The Next One,' " said David Ritchie of the Fredericton Daily Gleaner.
"He is the poster boy for what the NHL should be all about and continues
to be a role model both on and off the ice."
Crosby was 18 and just into his first NHL season when Canada picked its team
for the 2006 Olympics. He wasn't selected as he was considered too young and
inexperienced.
When Pittsburgh missed the playoffs, he joined Canada's team for the 2006 world
championship in Latvia - the last time he represented the country - and was
chosen the tournament's top forward on a team that finished fourth.
That left some wondering if he wouldn't have been an asset in the Turin
Olympics lineup that was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Now, he is a virtual lock to make Canada's team for the 2010 Winter Games in
Vancouver.
"I'd love to be a part of it, but I'm sure there's a lot of guys who feel
the same," he said. "A lot of it has to do with timing - you have to
be playing well in the Olympic year.
"But definitely, with it being in Canada and being Canadian and knowing
how big an opportunity it is to represent your country, it's something I'd love
to do."
The Crosby File
A look at Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, who won the Lionel Conacher
Award as The Canadian Press male athlete of the year yesterday:
Born Aug. 7, 1987, Cole Harbour, N.S.
Personal 5 foot 11, 200 pounds.
2007 The Pittsburgh Penguins centre won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most
valuable player and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy as the NHL's best as voted by
other players. Became the youngest player to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL
scoring leader, with 120 points.
Career Drafted first overall in 2005. Was major-junior player of the year in
2004 and 2005, and was the youngest player to reach 200 career NHL points.
Award Is the first hockey player since Mario Lemieux, now owner of the
Penguins, in 1993 to win the Lionel Conacher Award.
Susan L. Taylor To Leave Essence
Excerpt from www.eurweb.com
(December 27, 2007) *Susan L. Taylor, the current
editorial director of Essence magazine, will leave the publication next month
to focus more attention on building her Essence Cares mentoring program,
reports Richard Prince's Journal-isms column. Those who attempt to
contact Taylor by e-mail are told: "I am taking a break in South Africa
and will have little access to email. When I come back to the States in
mid-January, I will be leaving Essence to do what at this juncture in my life
has become a larger work for me —building the National Cares Mentoring
Movement, which I founded as Essence Cares and today is my deepest passion.
"With mentoring I see light shining at the end of a long dark
tunnel.
There is a chance that if I devote more time and space in my life to learning
and working with the growing number of community leaders throughout the nation
who are organizing local Cares mentoring efforts, such a movement will succeed
in doing what political will and public policy have not done: give our children
in peril a chance to develop the extraordinary in themselves." Taylor
moved from the part-time position of free-lance beauty editor in 1970, to the
full-time staff position of fashion and beauty editor, and eventually became
editor-in-chief, in 1981. Six years ago, she was promoted to editorial
director. Her Essence Cares mentoring program is a
partnership with the National Urban League, 100 Black Men of America, the
Links, Inc., and the YWCA.
::MUSIC NEWS::
Their Music Was Made To Last
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ashante
Infantry, Pop & Jazz Critic
(December 27, 2007) More than 300 CDs and
DVDs
arrived at my desk this year and only a handful were inspiring, complex and
entertaining enough to remain in regular rotation – My Foolish Heart: Live
at Montreux (Keith Jarrett), Graduation (Kanye West), River: The
Joni Mitchell Letters (Herbie Hancock) and The World Has Made Me the Man
of My Dreams (Meshell Ndegeocello).
Also-rans, which become more rewarding with every listen, include Introducing
Robin McKelle (Anita O'Day sound-alike Robin McKelle) and Never Forget:
A Journey of Revelations (Cornel West & BMWMB). Can't wait to hear
where Usher and Roy Hargrove take it next year.
Here are a few of my other standout music moments from 2007:
Best Unearthed Jazz Recordings: Andy Bey (Ain't Necessarily So) and
Keith Jarrett released 10- and six-year-old recordings respectively, and the
Miles Davis estate offered up a six-disc box set from the late trumpet great's
'70s funk period (The Complete On the Corner Sessions), but my favourite
archival find was Cornell 1964.
This exciting two-CD package captures the bassist Charles Mingus at his
creative best on beloved originals – "Fables of Faubus" (a
kitchen-sink edition that quotes "Old MacDonald" and "The Song
is You") and "Orange was the Colour of Her Dress" – as well as
Duke Ellington and Fats Waller tunes, with a standout sextet that included
reedman Eric Dolphy who died a few months later.
For a visual take on this nonpareil band playing some of the same music in the
same period, check out the second installation of the Jazz Icons DVD
series, which showcases three of their European concerts. The daunting
seven-disc set (which can be purchased individually) also features unseen
performances by John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Vaughan and Dexter Gordon
between 1958 and 1966.
Most Ironic Moment: Fortunately, the post-divorce offering of love goddess Jill
Scott found her flaunting her libido instead of moping around; I can't wait to
hear Kanye West's take on the tragic death of his mother following plastic
surgery. That the self-proclaimed Louis Vuitton Don experienced a major high –
trumping 50 Cent in their trumped-up Sept.11 album battle – then lost his No.1
fan (the Louis Vuitton Mom) two months later was obviously devastating.
Someone as sensitive and informed and vain and contradictory as West – whose
early hit "All Falls Down" decried superficiality – will be bleeding
lyrics for years to come over the fact that the very success he chased afforded
his erstwhile college professor mom/manager the means and perhaps motive to
have the fated procedure that led to her untimely demise.
Best Reggae Reissue: With the death of lead singer Joseph Hill last year, the
30th anniversary edition of Culture's Two Sevens Clash was a welcome
opportunity to recall the Jamaican trio's compelling 1977 debut.
This was also the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley's Exodus, repackaged as
a single disc, or with a Live at the Rainbow DVD, which captured the
band at London's Rainbow Theatre in the midst of a European tour. The
blessed-out King of Reggae is in fine form throughout, showcasing future
classics such as "War" and "No Woman No Cry" and the group's
new rock-fused guitarist Junior Marvin. A new book, Bob Marley & the
Wailers: Exodus-Exile 1977 by Richard Williams, also explored the political
and social crisis around the attempted assassination Marley survived in Jamaica
the previous year, a crisis that led him to record Exodus in exile in
London.
Most Cinematic Moment: The 50th anniversary of the Monterey Jazz Festival
(Sept. 21-24) featured deans like saxists Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins,
mid-career faves such as singer-pianist Diana Krall and newcomers such as
trumpeter Christian Scott.
The most poignant moment came courtesy of New Orleans trumpeter Terence
Blanchard who – backed by his own quintet and the festival's chamber orchestra
– delivered his spellbinding Katrina suite, A Tale of God's Will, from
an outdoor stage on a cool, rainy night when the clouds seemed to huddle
together in honour of his stirring tale of loss and redemption. (You can catch
Blanchard on the Monterey Jazz Festival: 50th Anniversary Tour when it stops at
the University of Buffalo's Centre for the Arts March 11; no Canadian date).
Best I Knew Her When: Sure, everybody's jumping on the Amy Winehouse bandwagon
now, but I recall her first Toronto showcase at the Top O' the Senator in 2004
around her debut Frank – recently released in North America – a
sophisticated jazz-influenced disc that I much prefer to the old-school funk of
Back to Black. The then-20-year-old performed in red stilettos in honour
of "F--k Me Pumps," one of the most popular tracks on the intensely
personal record, which tears several strips off an ex-boyfriend and melds
flutes and acoustic guitars with a Nas sample and Ella-esque scats.
Her unconventional pipes summoned the ache of Billie Holiday, the nasality of
Nelly Furtado and the rawness of Lauryn Hill. Accused by the British press of
being anti-male, she told the Star: "I'm much harder on myself on
the album than I am to any man. I know he couldn't help being a certain way,
but it still frustrated me, so I lash out with my lyrics.... I love boys.
That's my problem. That's why I'm so (messed) up." Given the legal
problems facing Winehouse and spouse these days, some things, it seems, haven't
changed.
Lucky 2007 (For Some)
Excerpt from www.globeandmail.com -
Robert Everett-Green
(December 26, 2007) Seven is supposed to
be a lucky
number, and for some Canadian musicians, 2007 was truly the year of the jackpot. Top spot among Fortune's
darlings belonged to Feist, who scored a double bonanza when Apple Inc. chose
not just her single ( 1234) but her video for a relentless series of TV
ads pitching the iPod. World fame and four Grammy nominations ensued. Not bad
for a down-to-earth anti-diva from Calgary who, before she refashioned herself
as a pop chanteuse, nearly shredded her vocal cords wailing with punk bands.
Fortune also smiled on Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Montreal conductor who snagged
two major posts across the Atlantic (principal conductor in Rotterdam,
principal guest conductor with the London Philharmonic) even though he had
almost no profile in Europe. As of next fall, when our world-renowned singers
(including Ben Heppner, Adrianne Pieczonka and Measha Bruggergosman, all of
whom had good years) cross the water, they may have a compatriot leading the
orchestra.
Nelly Furtado surged back into view in 2007, mainly because she had the luck to
pick the right guy to write and produce her album for her. Timbaland, whom
Furtado barely acknowledged as she triumphed at last spring's Juno Awards,
refashioned her sound completely, adding her to the string of prominent
musicians (including Justin Timberlake, Bjork, Duran Duran and Madonna) who
went to the ubiquitous beat doctor for career refreshment this year.
Montreal pop musician Patrick Watson came from behind with his Close to
Paradise disc to snag the second annual Polaris Prize for best Canadian
album, beating Feist and Arcade Fire among others. Also in Montreal, Kent
Nagano lived up to almost all the high expectations that greeted him when he
arrived as new music director of l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, though
the orchestra has yet to announce any serious recording projects with its
American-born conductor, in spite of a $100,000 annual grant from the city to
raise the orchestra's recording profile.
The Canadian Opera Company also had reason to be happy for much of 2007, as it
sold out its entire first season at the new Four Seasons Centre for the
Performing Arts. But it also lost its much-admired general director, Richard
Bradshaw, who died suddenly in August, scarcely a year after his great dream
for a Toronto opera house had been realized.
Calgary Opera continued to beat the odds by bravely putting a new Canadian
opera on its main stage, and rousing the town to come and see it. I wasn't
crazy about the result ( Frobisher, a northern melodrama with a John
Estacio score that kept drifting south to Broadway), but most of the new operas
staged at La Scala or the Paris Opera in the past two centuries weren't
masterpieces either. If you want to win, you have to keep playing.
Vancouver music mogul Terry McBride and his Nettwerk empire seemed to thrive in
a newly uncertain industrial landscape, while larger, older labels struggled to
get the hang of things. And our cultural life was made much richer in '07 by
many creative and persistent micro-labels, including Secret City, Six Shooter,
ATMA, weewerk, Arts & Crafts, Last Gang, Mint, Do Right! Music, Rectangle
and Nrmls Wlcm.
Hard luck dogged some major talents, above all Amy Winehouse, whose breakout
success with her album Back to Black seems to have undone her. Pete
Doherty continued to make a shambles of his life, even as his band Babyshambles
produced a sharp album of new songs. Britney Spears continued her tawdry
downward spiral, messing up at the MTV video awards while hiring enough of the
right people to find commercial success with her recent disc.
Radiohead got everyone's attention by offering downloads of its latest album on
a pay-what-you-will basis, though various hard-copy versions of In Rainbows
were also on the agenda.
Online access to a huge body of classical-music scores, meanwhile, was abruptly
cancelled after the founder of the Canadian-based International Music Score
Library Project, which had made more than 15,000 scores available online since
early 2006, received a menacing letter from an Austrian music publisher. The
heart of the dispute seems to be a discrepancy between European and Canadian
copyright laws – another sign that we need practical global standards on this
matter, and soon.
Joni Mitchell and Paul McCartney went for coffee and sold their albums through
Starbucks; the White Stripes toured the Canadian north as no major rock band
ever has; and the Dixie Chicks got major love for what I still think was a
fairly opportunistic attempt to pose as free-speech champions. Celine Dion
wrapped up her gaudy, lucrative Vegas show, and Daniel Libeskind designed a
16-foot grand piano that looks as foolishly impractical as his $250-million
addition to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum.
And that's how it goes with Fortune, whose favours are granted and withdrawn
beyond our powers of prediction. Best of luck in '08.
Most Memorable Classical Music Moments
Of The Year
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
(December 27, 2007) Here, in no
particular order, are five
notable Toronto musical events from 2007. Coincidentally, all of these involve
singers, pointing to the drawing power of the human voice:
The First Emperor Tan Dun's new opera received its premiere at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City – and we could be there, too on Jan. 13,
thanks to direct-via-satellite broadcasts to select Cineplex theatres. The Met
for $20 – how fabulous is that?
Aldeburgh Connection Toronto's art-song masters celebrated their 25th
anniversary with nearly three hours of music by some of our finest established
and young singers on Feb. 18. It was magic, as well as a laugh when diva Mary
Lou Fallis dressed up as Terpsichore.
Elektra The COC's opening night of Richard Strauss's high-anxiety opera
on April 21 was riveting – thanks to soprano Susan Bullock, contralto Ewa
Podles and the COC Orchestra. It was one of general director/conductor Richard
Bradshaw's finest moments. Then he had to go and die on us on Aug. 15.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra Conductor Peter Oundjian guided the
orchestra, Mendelssohn Choir and soloists through a radiant reading of Carl
Orff's popular masterpiece, Carmina Burana on Sept. 19, making many of
us fall in love all over again with an otherwise over-exposed piece of music.
Valery Gergiev A capacity house at Roy Thomson Hall went into a
collective swoon over an all-Stravinsky program presented by the superstar
Russian conductor and the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre in St.
Petersburg on Dec. 17. Music by dead white guys never sounded more alive.
Gamble & Huff To 2008 Rock &
Roll Hall Of Fame
Source: Sony Legacy
(December 27, 2007) Legendary songwriting and
production team Kenneth
Gamble & Leon Huff, widely renowned as the architects of the classic Philly soul sound,
will be inducted into the 2008 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a presentation
of the highly prestigious "Ahmet Ertegun Award."
The Grammy-winning, multi-platinum selling duo are responsible for one of the
most recognizable and influential catalogs of pop and soul music ever
recorded: 70 #1 Pop and R&B singles,175 RIAA Gold, Platinum and
multi-platinum certifications, five Grammys including the Recording Academy's
Trustees Award and more than 3,500 songs produced to date.
The Gamble & Huff signature sound is internationally recognized as
"The Sound of Philadelphia" with a Gamble & Huff song being
played somewhere in the world every 13.5 minutes.
Comments Gamble & Huff: "We are extremely happy and appreciative of
this honour. We have always wanted to be in the Rock& Roll Hall of Fame and
wholeheartedly thank the foundation for this prestigious induction. We
are especially excited about being the first inductees under the newly named
Ahmet Ertegun Award. Moreover, the timing couldn't be better as we
celebrate a 45 year creative vision that has impacted people and music all over
the world including the music of Rock and Roll."
Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Daft Punk, Michael Buble, Mary J. Blige, Usher,
Jennifer Lopez, Outkast and Bette Midler are just a few of the top
artists who have sampled or covered the Gamble & Huff song catalogue.
Gamble & Huff's instantly recognizable tunes and influential lyrics are a
favourite among advertising agencies, music production houses, commercials,
motion pictures and television sitcoms. They also have one of the most
sought after sought after pop and soul catalogs in the world.
Their Philadelphia International Records label built a solid stable of
talent including Patti LaBelle, The O'Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls,
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Archie Bell and the Drells, Billy Paul and
the Three Degrees to name a few. PIR recordings reached the top of the
charts from day one, at one point selling more than 10 million records in a
nine-month period with hits such as Billy Paul's "Me & Mrs. Jones,"
a Grammy winning #1 Pop and R&B hit; Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes'
"If You Don't Know Me By Now," a popular track also covered by UK
group Simply Red; The O'Jay's "Love Train" and
"Backstabbers" among others.
An historic new agreement was announced last August in which the complete
Philadelphia International Catalogue of music has been licensed by Sony BMG
Music Entertainment to be released through its Commercial Music Group and
Legacy Recordings.
Twenty Years Later, This Blue Raincoat
Still Fits
Excerpt from www.thestar.com
- Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(December 22, 2007) Multi-award-winning,
platinum-selling singer Jennifer Warnes knew from the start that Famous Blue
Raincoat, her 1987 collection of pop- and rock-enhanced Leonard Cohen songs, would likely be her crowning
achievement.
It was, first and foremost, a labour of love, an act of devotion to an artist
she had always admired and with whom she felt blessed to have performed for a
good many years prior to the sessions that yielded her enduringly popular
interpretation of Cohen's best-known songs.
"I knew 20 years ago it was one for the archives, and that it would
outlive me," Warnes said recently in a phone interview from her home in
Los Angeles, not long after the release of a 20th-anniversary edition of the
classic album. It has been digitally remastered, "with more kick and bass
in the bottom end," and embellished with four additional Cohen pieces
recorded by Warnes a decade ago but withheld till now.
When her landmark recording was released, the singer had already scored major
hits – "It's the Right Time of the Night" and duets with Joe Cocker
(Canadian songwriter Buffy Sainte Marie's and American movie score composer
Jack Nitzche's "Up Where We Belong," from the movie An Officer And
A Gentleman) and Bill Medley ("I've Had The Time Of My Life,"
from Dirty Dancing), both Oscar winners.
She's more bemused than surprised Famous Blue Raincoat never achieved
great commercial success, especially after the glowing reviews it received for
the purity and power of Warnes' vocals, and stunning contributions from sidemen
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Fred Tackett (Bob Dylan) on guitar, David Lindley on
pedal steel, and Van Dyke Parks and Bill Payne (Little Feat) on keyboards.
The album is credited with having delivered Cohen – he's being inducted into
the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame next year, along with Madonna, the Dave Clark
Five, the Ventures and John Mellencamp – to an enormous mainstream pop music
audience and for restarting the Canadian songwriter's failing career.
One song from the album, "The Singer Must Die," arranged by Parks,
was nominated for a Grammy only after Kris Kristofferson mailed a personal plea
to members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
"It got to 79 on Billboard's album chart, but it was released too
late in the year to make an impression on the Grammys people," said
Warnes, who was a regular singing member of The Smothers Brothers Show
troupe in the 1960s, and has contributed as a session singer to albums by Harry
Belafonte, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Sam & Dave, James
Taylor, Tina Turner, Bobby Womack and Warren Zevon, among others.
The re-release of Famous Blue Raincoat, which has been out of print in
North America for almost a decade, is a chance to restore the music to its
original sonic glory, for the sake of Cohen's audience and devoted audiophiles,
she added.
Recorded on digital equipment, Famous Blue Raincoat is considered one of
the finest audio productions of its time, and is still used to test and
demonstrate high-end stereos.
"When it was transferred from vinyl to CD, no one was paying attention,
and the music lost all its warm features," Warnes continued. "Several
generations down the line, the music sounded thin and creepy."
After a tussle with the original label – "It's a sad and treacherous story,"
Warnes said – the singer managed to secure ownership of the masters and to have
them polished up by the best professional ears in L.A.
"It's exactly the same record – the same music, the same sequence – with
the exception of four new songs."
One was recorded in concert in Belgium ("Joan Of Arc"), and three in
an Austin, Tex., studio ("Night Comes On," "Ballad of the
Runaway Horse" and "If It Be Your Will").
Content with her role as a session singer – "In L.A., that's an art, and
the essence of what I do," she said – Warnes is particularly proud of
recent work with other Canadians, a Christmas duet with Quebec's Michel Bérubé
and her contribution to The Gift, an all-star tribute to Ian Tyson.
But Famous Blue Raincoat, on which Cohen collaborated, is her lasting
gift to popular music.
"I just wanted to hear his songs with more colour and texture," she
said. "I'm not sure he approved at the time, though he loves working with
women. He doesn't hear music the same way most people do."
The Year In Hiphop-Indie-Tronic-Rhythm
'N' Roll
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Ben Rayner
(December 27, 2007) CHAPTER I: I know
we're all
sick of talking about it, but it really is a good record
Radiohead, In Rainbows (Independent). What else is there to say?
"Bodysnatchers" is something else, drummer Phil Selway freakin' rules
this thing and In Rainbows, as a whole, already exhibits more
song-by-song staying power than Hail to the Thief. So well done,
Radiohead: It's the music that got you this far and it is, again, the music –
not the revolutionary "pay what you want" digital delivery – by which
In Rainbows was ultimately judged a success.
CHAPTER II: To gloat is to be un-Canadian and, yes, the Arcade Fire is
grossly overrated. Nevertheless, a round of indie-nationalist applause ...
Feist, The Reminder (Arts and Crafts). When the iPod ad and the
Grammy nominations finally push this thing over a million in sales and the real
backlash storms in, remember that Leslie Feist once nearly blew her voice out
for good as a teenaged punk rocker from Calgary, played in By Divine Right
while rooming with Peaches and that there's absolutely no shame in making an
indie-pop record that moms dig as much as the cool kids.
The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible (Merge). Pretentious to a fault, yes,
but at least these Montrealers were headed that way before Neon Bible gave
`em a scrape at Bono's pulpit with simultaneous No.1 and No. 2 debuts in Canada
and the U.S., respectively. Finally, Merge can pay for the Rock-A-Teens.
Patrick Watson, Close to Paradise (Secret City). It came out last
year, but it took another 11 months for Grey's Anatomy, some bad-ass
live shows and incessant praise from Canadian critics – who elected Close to
Paradise the winner of the second Polaris Music Prize in September – to
push this out-of-nowhere indie phenomenon to gold-record status at home.
CHAPTER III: 'Shoegaze' never went away, but it's officially back now
The Jesus and Mary Chain reconciled, Swervedriver announced a reunion tour
and My Bloody Valentine predicted both another record and a few concert dates
in the New Year. In the meantime, have you heard these?
Dog Day, Night Group (Tomlab/Black Mountain). This writer's
unquestionable favourite and most ludicrously overplayed album of 2007. An
ideal balance between full-tilt rhythmic aggression and honeyed boy/girl melody
on par with MBV's Isn't Anything or Sonic Youth's recent Rather
Ripped.
No Age, Weirdo Rippers (Fat Cat/Fusion III). Melody wins here,
but only because these two skate-punk noiseniks soften their artsy,
anti-formalist sprawl with just enough form to leave you something to hum over
the lingering tinnitus.
Sister Vanilla, Little Pop Rock (Chemikal Underground). An
easygoing, slyly self-referential sequel to the Jesus and Mary Chain's 1994 Stoned
and Dethroned.
Liars, Liars (Mute). Beleaguered fans are rewarded with a
"pop" album that pays revealing homage to some of the sounds that
might have guided Liars and their admirers to where they are today.
Adam Franklin, Bolts of Melody (Hi-Speed Soul) and Film School, Hideout
(Beggars Banquet). If ex-Swervedriver frontman Franklin plays it a bit too
folky, at least his formerly drowsy American acolytes in Film School finally
took Mezcalhead to heart and became a far more aggressive and
interesting outfit than suspected.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Baby 81 (RCA/Sony/BMG). Just a nudge
after 2005's alarming rustic detour, Howl, to remind us that BRMC can do
BRMC in its sleep.
CHAPTER IV: Didn't see that coming, did ya?
Old dogs, or at least dogs with sufficient mileage already logged to
preclude expectations of "new tricks," proved entirely capable of
wowing us this year with abrupt self-reinventions and unforeseen displays of
latter-years vitality.
Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Polyvinyl). A
bookish Georgia indie kid long associated with cutesy psychedelic-folk
confronts acute depression and marital breakdown head-on by morphing over the
course of one soul-baring and fittingly schizophrenic record into a black,
transsexual funk singer named Georgie Fruit. And so Kevin Barnes traces the
least obvious path imaginable to the best album of his career.
P.J. Harvey, White Chalk (Island/Def Jam/Universal). Even Harvey
thought she'd become predictable on 2004's Uh Huh Her, so she ditched
her guitar, taught herself piano and tapped into an ethereal, nearly
unrecognizable, high-soprano "church voice" for a fraught, frequently
chilling eighth album that totally rewrites our expectations of whatever might
follow. Again.
Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero (Nothing/Interscope/Universal). Very
nearly as caustic, uncompromisingly forward-thinking and devastatingly
danceable as The Downward Spiral. Brilliantly preceded and augmented by
an impenetrable Internet puzzle, too, that should keep NIN cyber-obsessives
occupied until the apocalypse forewarned by Year Zero actually arrives.
Chemical Brothers, We Are the Night (Virgin/EMI). I'm still not
convinced this sleek, supple and unusually subtle delve into less-is-more
techno functionalism actually came from the Chems, but ... well, wow. This
really got slept on.
CHAPTER V: Radiohead's not the only act still living up to its past
There's more out there that endures than "Country" Jon Bon Jovi:
Wire, Read and Burn 03 (pinkflag). Five years on from the only
first-wave punk reunion to truly justify its existence (see 2003's Send),
the original Wire lineup condenses the artistic and technological strides first
made on 1979's 154 into a single, jaw-dropping 10-minute electro-punk
screed, "23 Years Too Late," and serves notice that it's still
operating outside of time and trend after 30 years.
Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris (Interscope/Universal), and
White Stripes, Icky Thump (Warner). Given the choice, I'd still
prefer to be buried with Era Vulgaris. But at the level of infamy shared
by these two fine acts, the title of "best contemporary American
band" is evenly split. Neither outfit has a weak album in its catalogue
and a live "battle of the bands" between the two would end in a
horrifically bloody stalemate. In more innocent times, both of these bands would
be "the next Nirvana."
Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge). When critics praise Britt Daniel's
pop-songwriting "craft," for once, they're not making excuses for
effete crap even they won't listen to at home. Sadly, there's a vast, stupid
corporate mechanism in place to prevent "The Underdog" and
"You've Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" from becoming the radio hits they could
and should be.
Neil Young, Chrome Dreams II (Reprise/Warner). All the Neils –
electric and acidic, acoustic and spiritual – we've come to know and love over
the years, gathered together on an affably uneven record that, with mild but
reassuringly typical perversity, purports to be the sequel to an album that was
never released.
CHAPTER VI: moments of 'arrival’
The Field, From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt). Kinetic techno
minimalism with enough of a melodic haze to seduce even indie-rock blogger
types.
Handsome Furs, Plague Park (Sub Pop). This is a doomy,
future-folk side project by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and fiancée Alexei Perry
that’s actually better than Wolf Parade. Killer live act and maybe the hottest
couple in rock, to boot.
Pinback, Autumn of the Seraphs (Touch and Go). Finally, some
tunes that really hang around. Fourth album, best yet.
Georgie James, Georgie James (Saddle Creek/Outside). Charming
co-ed power-pop whose sunny harmonies and general pep camouflage a satisfying
lyrical bite.
CHAPTER VII: Badly timed deaths
It's never a good day to die, but some times are worse than others.
UGK, Underground Kingz (Sony/BMG). A near-flawless, double-disc
comeback from one of the original Dirty South crews. Pimp C emerged from prison
to record UGK's first No. 1 album with longtime sparring partner Bun B, but was
found dead in a Los Angeles hotel of still undisclosed causes mere months later
on Dec. 4.
Chow Chow, Colours and Lines (Fantastic Plastic/Fusion III). A
bracing, Pixies-gone-raving debut by an outfit that almost certainly would have
become one of Britain's hottest new exports – if, that is, Edmonton-born
singer, guitarist and keyboardist Thomas Iain Smith had not died at 26 barely a
month before the record's July release.
CHAPTER VIII: Hell freezes over
Everyone reunited this year, from the Phil Collins-era Genesis to the Spice
Girls to the Meat Puppets, but three stood out in particular for being the ones
no oddsmaker thought would ever happen.
Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones once vowed
there would be no Led Zep without the late John Bonham. Nevertheless, rumours
of an impending tour haven't let up before or since the group's globally eyed
gig Dec.10 in London with youngish Jason Bonham sitting in behind the drumkit
for his dad. Keep it special, lads. You don't need the money. You're Led
Zeppelin.
The Police. The fact that Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland all
detest one another actually elevated this tour above most reunion road trips,
as all three gifted players seemed to be attempting to musically outmanoeuvre
one another for the duration of the set list when they landed at the Air Canada
Centre in July. Some fans didn't appreciate the lads messing with their hits,
but the wealth of challenging new arrangements on display made for much more
than the usual, by-the-numbers cash-in.
Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth finally buried the hatchet
after more than two decades of mutual sniping and on-again/off-again courtship,
and actually exchanged numerous smiles during their highly enjoyable touchdown
at the Air Canada Centre in October. Still, Eddie might just have been riding the
high of seeing his teenaged son, Wolfgang, hold it down expertly in Michael
Anthony's place on bass.
Age Of Confusion
Excerpt from www.thestar.com - Greg
Quill, Entertainment Columnist
(December 27, 2007) With the drastic
decline in the sales of physical music recordings – CDs, to you and me –
finding alternative methods of paid distribution has become the overwhelming
obsession of the international music industry, and in 2007, a matter of life
and death.
The undeniable reality is that CD sales continue to fall so dramatically – down
20 per cent from 2006, and down 35 per cent in Canada – that the industry as we
know it may soon collapse completely.
Insiders and trade magazines are already predicting a bad New Year for the once
mighty EMI Music, one of the world's five remaining major labels, after the
recent loss of Radiohead, Paul McCartney and rumblings that Robbie Williams is
quitting the roster as well. Warner Music, already stripped to the bone, is also
struggling to survive.
Other majors are continuing to grapple with the new reality by applying
"aggressive pricing" policies, offering some new product for as
little as $6.99, compared to $15 just a year or two ago. But they can only last
so long on such minimal profit margins, according to trade analysts.
Retail music outlets, too, are victims of the trend. Canada's largest two
chains, Sam the Record Man and Music World, closed shop in 2007, unable to
sustain themselves on sales decimated by the effects of uncountable Internet
retail operations and free music downloading practices. The growth of music
sales in big-box stores like Wal-Mart and unconventional venues such as
Starbucks only added to the woes of CD store chains.
Industrial attempts to reverse the trend have stalled or failed. Awareness
campaigns tried to recalibrate the moral compasses of "pirates"; CDs
came loaded with copy protection codes; legislation to outlaw peer-to-peer file
sharing was enacted; and the industry went after free music users and
distributors with litigation.
MUSIC 2.0
But 2007 also saw the emergence of several novel experiments that point the way
to a new world of possibilities in the way new music is bought and sold. In
October British rock band Radiohead pre-released their new album In Rainbows,
with just 10 days notice, as a download on their website, at a price determined
not by the seller, but by the buyer. What makes the Radiohead experiment so
noteworthy is that this is the first time a platinum-selling band has gone the
pay-what-you-can route with a new release.
Not that the results are particularly encouraging. The British trade press
reports that six out of 10 Radiohead fans who downloaded the album opted to pay
not a penny.
It's not a new idea. Canadian singer-songwriter Issa, formerly known as Jane
Siberry, forsook physical retail methods a couple of years ago and made her
entire repertoire available only on the Internet in digital form and at
donation-based prices, a move that freed her of the costs of manufacturing,
storing, shipping and marketing her CDs. Results, says the peripatetic
troubadour, have proven she's on the right track.
"I want to treat others the way I like to be treated," goes her
official manifesto. "Responses such as `I can't believe you're letting me
decide', or `I am so relieved not to be treated like a shoplifter who will
steal as soon as someone turns their back,' confirm for me that this is how I
want to do things, come sink or swim."
Renegade Canadian roots music star Fred Eaglesmith, who enjoys the benefits of
an equally diverse and devoted fan base, did the same thing in 2007 with his
album Milly's Café, then, as Radiohead plans to do early in 2008,
followed through with the launch of a physical CD.
Grammy-winning Canadian singer/songwriter/producer Daniel Lanois has just
pre-released his sixth solo album, Here is What is, as a $9.99 digital
download exclusively at redfloorrecords.com. The novelty is that it's the first
digital download in both audiophile-quality WAV format and the more
conventional, compressed MP3 format. A CD version will also be available at
traditional retail outlets March 18.
American bands Wilco and R.E.M., among many others, continue to release albums
free on their websites to entice fans to purchase their back catalogues.
Some well-established artists, those who can afford to produce their own
recordings, bypassed the major record companies entirely, opting instead for
either an exclusive deal with a big-box retailer – following the trail Garth
Brooks cut a couple of years ago, The Eagles chose Wal-Mart for their comeback
two-CD set Long Road Out Of Eden – or with a lifestyle-enhancing
specialty product franchise operation.
Joni Mitchell got lots of publicity when h
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