Category: music

Peter Culshaw thinks he knows: “The real problem seems to me the disappearance of spontaneity and fun from the world of jazz. Marsalis’s attempt to turn jazz into America’s classical music often produces work that is respectable and bourgeois to the point of dullness. Yet take a look at the greats of jazz history, from Fats Waller to Billie Holliday and Miles himself, and you will nearly always find a sleazy undercurrent of sex and drugs.”

While music fans and the recording industry continue to bicker and sue each other over the legality of file-swapping, America’s top non-classical music school is working to advance the idea that there is a place for the peer-to-peer network, and it doesn’t have to have anything to do with illegal downloads. “The Berklee Shares program at the Berklee College of Music offers 80 different online lessons for download — and sharing — on topics like writing music, producing, engineering, remixing and performing… Anyone can use and trade the material provided she or he agrees to the terms set by the school: Users may not alter or sell the material, and must credit the original source.”

The Stradivarius violin which was up for auction at Sotheby’s in London this week has sold for nearly $1.3 million, but the Stradivarius cello which was also on the block failed to draw a high enough bid, and went unsold. Another Strad violin had failed to sell at another London auction earlier in the week. No word on who, exactly, purchased the fiddle that did sell.

Renee Graham has had about enough of the ongoing lyrical battle between rappers Ja Rule and 50 Cent, and she’s also begun to wonder whether the hip-hop community really took notice of the violent deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. seven years ago. “This was a cautionary tale written in blood to rappers, their fans, and the media that helped stoke the so-called East Coast-West Coast rap war. Less than a decade on, it’s as if no lessons have been learned from the pointless deaths of two of the most influential artists in the history of rap music.”

Two Stradivarius instruments, a violin valued at $1.3 million and a cello estimated to be worth over $800,000, hit the auction block this week in London. As usual, there is little chance that either instrument will be purchased directly by anyone who can play them, as most of the world’s high-end instruments are now bought and sold by collectors, who may choose to lend them out to performers, or not. Earlier this week, another million-dollar Strad violin failed to sell at auction when no one met the asking price.

Scottish Opera’s financial crisis is so profound and longterm that the company is being damaged. “With a key board meeting looming early next month, Scottish Opera is reported to be £3 million or more in debt. The Scottish Executive is reported to have turned down a request for more funding on top of a £7.5 million annual Scottish Arts Council grant, while officials say they want a long-term solution to the opera’s woes.”

When a Rio audience booed Gerald Thomas’ reworking of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” he went up on stage and dropped his pants, mooning the crowd. “Now Mr. Thomas, the eternal enfant terrible of Brazilian theater, is paying the price. Acting on a complaint filed by the local chief of police, prosecutors have charged him with public indecency, and on Nov. 11 he is scheduled to appear before a judge who will decide whether there are grounds to proceed with the case.”

“Rock music played lead in giving Hungarian baby boomers the resolve to bring down their communist state, says one of those reformers who today is a government official.”

Alex Ross goes to Disney Hall: “Gehry’s building is enjoying a mammoth wave of publicity, the like of which has not been seen in classical parts since Lenny partied with the Panthers on Park Avenue. My first reaction was of slightly disappointed déjà vu; if more of these silver-winged creations touch down in cities around the world, they will begin to resemble quarter-of-a-billion-dollar Hard Rock Cafés.”

European digital rights management comes to the UK. “While much of what home users do with their CDs, DVDs and videos could now be legally questionable, the directive is instead aimed at large-scale privacy outfits.”