Category: music

The Martin Scorcese blues documentary project currently running on PBS is a riff on the music, but short on the basic facts. So a radio series that looks at the blues from a more clinical chronological perspective was put together. “The film teams knew that once the films aired there would be an outcry because they’re not traditional documentary. There was a feeling that there was a need for that kind of content. So the folks who put the project together – Scorsese and the Seattle-based Experience Music Project – settled into a 13-part documentary that would be a true chronological documentary on what is the blues.”

In the last three years of pianist Vladimir Horowitz’s life, he was forever being labeled the last Romantic virtuoso. “As a younger generation of cooler-headed, more intellectual pianists came to the fore, Horowitz came to be regarded as a lovable dinosaur. The truth, as demonstrated by an outpouring of Horowitz films and CD’s re-released in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, is that he was that rare artist who sums up nothing but himself.”

The drop in CD sales worldwide is accelerating, reports an industry association. “The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) says sales fell by 10.9% in the first half of 2003, but by just 7.1% in 2002. The body blames the fall on commercial piracy and unauthorised internet music sharing.”

A classic David-and-Goliath battle is shaping up over the way concert tickets are marketed and sold in the U.S., thanks to an ongoing dispute between ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster, and a wildly successful Colorado indie band known as The String Cheese Incident. The band has been doing something of an end-run around Ticketmaster, which has exclusive ticketing rights at venues across the country and often incurs the wrath of consumers with its famous “convenience fees” and handling charges which significantly boost the cost of tickets. “Ticketmaster’s dominance is increasingly threatened as technology allows more [musicians] to sell tickets for low costs.”

When the recording industry began suing consumers in an effort to scare users of peer-to-peer file trading networks into ceasing their illegal trading of copyrighted songs, the chorus of protest was heard across the country. The RIAA’s move was called draconian, unnecessary, and absurd. But the strategy appears to be working: new site tracking numbers out this week show that usage of the leading file-trading service, Kazaa, is down 41% over the last three months.

“Lincoln Center has received a $16 million grant from the Alice Tully Foundation toward the renovation of Alice Tully Hall, the center’s prime stage for chamber music and jazz. The gift, announced yesterday, is the largest so far by a private donor for Lincoln Center’s redevelopment project… The grant is contingent on Lincoln Center’s raising two and half times the $16 million for a total of $56 million. Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center, said yesterday that he was optimistic that the center could come up with the rest of the money.”

The San Antonio Symphony, which shut down in May and has effectively cancelled the 2003-04 concert season, says it is close to a new deal with its musicians, which would be a major step on the road back to fiscal solvency. “Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Leif M. Clark gave the symphony and the American Federation of Musicians until October 15 to work out a new deal and submit it to the rank and file for approval. A new contract would insure that the musicians, many of whom have moved on to other jobs, would be available when the San Antonio Symphony is able to resume performances.”

It’s been nearly a month now since the Charlotte Symphony musicians walked off the job in the face of management demands for pay cuts, reduced benefits, and a shortened season. Maria Portone says that the musicians should not have to make up for the mistakes of the orchestra’s executives. “In my 23 years in Charlotte, the CSO has not mounted an endowment drive. As a result, its endowment is a meager $2.3 million. Similarly sized cities have far larger endowments, averaging $60 million, allowing them to support considerably higher budgets than Charlotte’s. Indianapolis, a city about 30 percent larger than Charlotte, has one in excess of $100 million.”

The Florida Orchestra, buoyed by a flurry of last-minute contributions, has cut its deficit for the 2002-03 season to $500,000. The organization had been expecting to run somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in the red, due to slumping ticket sales and a drop-off in contributed income. Last month, the orchestra’s musicians accepted a 16% pay cut in an effort to keep the orchestra afloat during the economic turmoil.

The St. Petersburg, Florida city council passes an emergency ordinance making it “illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes, or to host, promote or sell tickets for such an event.” The council was responding to plans by a local heavy metal band to feature the death of a terminally ill person at a concert this coming weekend. “I’m sickened that we even have to entertain such an ordinance. While I’m reasonably sure this is just a publicity stunt, we can’t just sit idly by while somebody loses their life.”