Maybe the Broadway musicians strike is about live music, but “the truth is, orchestras on Broadway have been becoming virtualized for years. Electronic enhancement is used to juice up the sound of the string section and boost the punch of the brass. Missing instruments — extra woodwinds, a couple of harps, exotic percussion — are rendered through digital keyboards. The chorus onstage is often fortified by taped voices that are blasted through the sound system. But it would be great to see this tired assumption challenged. How often have Broadway audiences been given a chance to experience the truly natural sound of unamplified voices and orchestras? Broadway theaters were once much quieter places.”
Tag: 03.11.03
Fire Back – The Art Of Jazz Protest
What’s become of jazz protest? The question is old, but in an era of international emergency, it’s relevant. So poet Amiri Baraka, playwright Sonia Sanchez, Columbia professor Robert O’Meally, and trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater are discussing dissent in jazz — and maybe exercising it — when Lincoln Center hosts “Jazz and Social Protest” on March 18. But dissent against what? And why? How successfully the panelists address jazz activism, and prescribe a course for it, might depend on how clearly they consider Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln’s legacies…”
R&B Awards Come Without Cash This Year
Winners of this year’s R&B Foundation Pioneer Awards didn’t get the cash awards that have accompanied the prizes in the past. “In the past individual acts have received $15,000 and groups $20,000. But this year the R&B Foundation has significantly altered the size of the awards and the way they are paid because of lagging fund-raising and a decrease in donations from record companies and individuals. Donations from our music industry sponsors are down about 60 percent.”