1.So What – PINK
2. Whatever You Like – T.I.
3. Hot N Cold – KATY PERRY
4. Love Lockdown – KANYE WEST
5. Disturbia – RIHANNA
6. Right Now (Na Na Na) – AKON
7. Love Story – TAYLOR SWIFT
8. Paper Planes – M.I.A.
9. I’m Yours – JASON MRAZ
10. American Boy (feat. Kanye West) – ESTELLE
11. Let It Rock – KEVIN RUDOLF & LIL WAYNE
12. All Summer Long – THE ROCK HEROES
13. Crush – DAVID ARCHULETA
14. Can’t Believe It (feat. Lil Wayne) – T-PAIN
15. Closer – NE-YO
16. Fall for You – SECONDHAND SERENADE
17. Viva la Vida – COLDPLAY
18. Love Remains the Same – GAVIN ROSSDALE
19. Better In Time – LEONA LEWIS
20. Forever – CHRIS BROWN
21. One Step At a Time – JORDIN SPARKS
22. When I Grow Up – THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS
23. Swagga Like Us (feat. Kanye West & Lil Wayne) – JAY-Z & T.I.
24. In the Ayer (feat. Will.I.am) – FLO RIDA
25. Miss Independent – NE-YO

UNITED WORLD CHART (albums)

1. Death Magnetic – METALLICA
2. The Best (Ultra Treasure) – B’Z
3. Year of the Gentleman – NE-YO
4. Mamma Mia! – SOUNDTRACK
5. A Complete (All Singles) – AYUMI HAMASAKI
6. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends – COLDPLAY
7. Brass Knuckles – NELLY
8. Good Girl Gone Bad – RIHANNA
9. All Hope Is Gone – SLIPKNOT
10. Rock’n’Roll Jesus – KID ROCK
11. Rockferry – DUFFY
12. The Cosmos Rocks – QUEEN & PAUL ROGERS
13. A Little Bit Longer – THE JONAS BROTHERS
14. The Recession – YOUNG JEEZY
15. Learn To Live – DARIUS RUCKER
16. Breakout – MILEY CYRUS
17. LAX – THE GAME
18. Gold (Greatest Hits) – ABBA
19. The Carter III – LIL WAYNE
20. We Global – DJ KHALED
21. Black Butterfly – BUCKCHERRY
22. Oú S’en Vont Les Avions – JULIEN CLERC
23. Forth – THE VERVE
24. One of the Boys – KATY PERRY
25. Hard Candy – MADONNA

EMI Australia Launches MP3 Store
September 29, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Andre Paine, London

EMI Music Australia has launched its mp3 store www.musicheadmp3.com.au. The major says it is the first in Australia to offer the format direct to consumers.

Half a million tracks are available ranging from its international artists, including Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Queen, to local signings such as Paul Kelly, Operator Please and Keith Urban.

The site allows downloads to all devices including iPods, MP3 players, and mobile phones, with standard pricing and payment by credit card or PayPal. Technology is supplied by London-based 7 Digital.

EMI Australia chairman Mark Poston said in a statement, “Our goal is always to offer consumers the best possible digital music experience – in all senses of the word. EMI was the first of the majors to provide DRM-free downloads and I see this as a further extension of our commitment to making the music from our extraordinary artists readily available (and legally) to Australian consumers whenever and wherever they want it.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i32e9c3e84ea86c7917ffc994929e189d

MySpace, Majors Make Adjustments For Joint Venture
September 25, 2008 | Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

As the dust settles from the Sept. 25 launch of MySpace’s highly anticipated and somewhat controversial new music service, the broader implications of the initiative are becoming clearer.

A joint venture of the News Corp. subsidiary and Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, MySpace Music Service represents a turning point for the recording industry and MySpace itself.

For the major labels, MySpace Music is the cumulation of more than 18 months of experimentation in new business models and a launching pad for their digital music strategies for the future. While detractors continue to level criticisms against them for their alleged role in hindering the digital music market with complicated licensing demands and other limitations, the majors have largely reassessed their approach to the Internet, spurred by the continued slide in physical music sales.

During the year-and-a-half leading up to the launch, the majors have signed unprecedented deals opening the door to ad-supported free streaming, digital rights management (DRM)-free music sales and reduced licensing costs in return for revenue share and/or company equity.

All these elements are present in the MySpace Music deal. As such, the service represents less of an experiment and more of a template for future agreements.

“It highlights the shift in our business to bring business models to the market that meet where the demand is for our music,” UMG’s eLabs division executive VP Rio Caraeff says. “It’s the single largest thing we’ve done to change the way we do business around the way the customer wants to experience music.”

Caraeff says to expect further flexibility in digital music deals in the near future. Among other things, this means including access to the Universal catalog in software development kits that give developers the ability to create new applications with built-in music licensing.

“You’ll see more from us going forward in this area,” he says. “The notion of creating and enabling more innovation around music than would normally occur under our prior modes of doing business is very important to us. We recognize that the ways we can think of music are not the only ways music can be used online. We would like to see tens of thousands of instances of music being used in creative ways in interesting apps online with less friction and less hassle.”

For MySpace, the service represents a significant expansion from a simple social networking site billed as “a place for friends” to a content-driven service billed as “a place for music,” using its core community features as its foundation.

“The whole consumption patterns for both music and video have changed a great deal in the last five years,” MySpace co-founder/CEO Chris DeWolfe says (see Q&A in this week’s Billboard Magazine hitting stands Friday). “We wanted to put together a music service consistent with those changing patterns and layer a business model around it.”

The social networking giant has long served two masters-the artists with profiles on the service and the music fans with the same. There are more than 5 million bands with MySpace profiles, and while MySpace doesn’t provide a specific breakdown, the vast majority are independent or unsigned artists.

And MySpace’s first foray into digital music sales was very much an indie-led effort. The company two years ago partnered with digital registry firm Snocap to add a DRM-free “MyStores” sales widget to artist profiles. Despite signing content deals with individual artists and larger indie aggregators like Independent Online Distribution Alliance and the Orchard, sales from the initiative proved disappointing. Rival imeem now owns Snocap, which still offers the MyStores service.

But in launching a music service meant in part to take on Apple’s iTunes store, particularly one aspiring to generate advertising revenue based on free music streams and traffic to artist pages, MySpace has opted to focus on the content its members use most.

That means major labels. And while major-label acts represent the minority of artists on MySpace, they account for the majority of content the company’s broader membership seeks out, in terms of music streamed and artist profiles visited, although MySpace doesn’t provide specific figures.

Not surprisingly, independent labels and the digital aggregators that represent them are somewhat miffed that they weren’t invited to take part in the joint venture alongside their major-label competitors. However, that didn’t stop the Orchard and major-owned indie distributors (Warner’s Alternative Distribution Alliance, Sony’s RED, Universal’s Fontana and EMI’s Caroline) from licensing the catalog of their label clients to the service at launch. Negotiations between MySpace and other indie labels remain ongoing. While an equity stake in the joint venture is completely off the table, the terms under discussion focus on the indies’ share of ad revenue from streaming and purchased music and videos.

The majors in the joint venture, meanwhile, will profit not only from a cut of the same ad and sales revenue, but also in the underlying revenue the venture receives, even from content contributed by other labels.

Charles Caldas, CEO of indie music licensing group Merlin, criticized this arrangement, arguing that it allows major labels to profit from the use of indie music at MySpace Music without giving indies the ability to profit from the venture as equity partners.

“Without an equitable participation by independents, that creates a situation that is both unhealthy and dangerous,” Caldas says, acknowledging that Merlin is nonetheless in licensing talks with MySpace Music.

By contrast, Orchard CEO Greg Scholl downplayed the immediate importance of securing an equity stake in MySpace Music.

“The opportunity to create an ancillary and noncannibalistic revenue stream and ignite growth in the sector is, on balance, more important to our clients than holding out for an equity stake of uncertain future value that will likely never come to pass,” Scholl says. “So [we] chose proactive engagement . . . We will continue to press our case for equity or profit sharing for the independent sector, but in the meantime, [we will] ensure our clients prosper from the value MySpace Music creates.”

Time will tell whether this new major-label focus will have better results. But for better or for worse, neither MySpace nor the majors plan to do things the old way anymore.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i145a1d5cabedb4a1f448810fe11d89cf

Jay-Z, Stargate Form Label, Publishing Company
September 25, 2008 | Publishing | RB Hip-Hop

By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Jay-Z and Norwegian songwriting/production duo Stargate have joined forces under the StarRoc banner, which will encompass a record label and publishing company under Jay-Z’s Roc Nation venture with Live Nation.

According to the principals, “the focus is to find new talent and develop
artists through mutually beneficial global partnerships which include music distribution, publishing, touring and merchandising.”

Stargate (Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen) has been behind several big hits for artists Jay-Z nurtured while president of Def Jam, including Rihanna and Ne-Yo. The duo is currently represented on the Hot 100 by Ne-Yo’s “Closer” (No. 7), Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” (No. 27) and Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight” (No. 41).

Stargate work will be heard on upcoming albums from Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce, Monica, R. Kelly and Keyshia Cole. As for Jay-Z, his new album, “Blueprint 3,” is expected before year’s end. It’s his last under contract for Def Jam before he begins recording for Live Nation.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i26351dac86d89015713670a1d2b6a33f

Metallica Edges Ne-Yo, Nelly To Remain No. 1
September 24, 2008 – Retail

By Katie Hasty, N.Y.

Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” holds tight at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 for a second week after its first full frame at retail. The Warner Bros. set sold 337,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan; it debuted with 490,000 last week after just three days of sales thanks to an off-cycle Friday release.

Starting right behind at No. 2 is Ne-Yo’s “Year of the Gentleman” with 250,000. The Def Jam effort comes on the heels of two No. 1 bows for the artist: 2006 debut “In My Own Words” (301,000) and 2007′s “Because of You” (251,000). New single “Miss Independent” continues to climb the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally, moving 16-5 in this latest frame, while first single “Closer” sits at No. 7 on the Hot 100.

Nelly’s “Brass Knuckles” (Derrty/Universal Motown), the rapper’s first studio set since 2004, enters at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 with 84,000. Four years ago, he dropped two separate albums on the same day — “Suit” and “Sweat” – which debuted at Nos. 1 and 2 with 396,000 and 342,000, respectively.

In its 50th week on the chart, Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Top Dog/Atlantic) moved from No. 3 to No. 4 on a 15% decline to 64,000 copies.

Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker debuts at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top Country Albums with the Capitol Nashville project “Learn to Live,” with 60,000. On Hot Country Songs, his single “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” hits No. 1 this week. This marks the second week in a row a singer best known from another genre crosses over to hit No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, following last week’s penthouse debut for Jessica Simpson’s “Do You Know.”

Young Jeezy’s “The Recession” (Def Jam) falls 2-6 on The Billboard 200 with 60,000, a 33% sales decline. DJ Khaled notches his third straight top 15 album as “We Global” (We the Best/Def Jam) enters at No. 7 with 49,000. His first two charting albums — 2006′s “Listennn: The Album” and 2007′s “We the Best” — debuted and peaked at Nos. 12 and 8, respectively.

Buckcherry earns its best sales week ever and highest charting album as “Black Butterfly” (Eleven Seven Music/Atlantic) opens at No. 8 with 47,000. Previously, the rock band went as far as No. 39 with its last album “15,” and had never sold more than 26,000 in a single week with any release. But “15″ wound up spending 126 weeks on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.3 million copies to date.

Lil Wayne’s Cash Money effort “Tha Carter III” slips 9% in sales and descends 8-9 with 43,000 while the Game’s “LAX” (Geffen) moves 7-10 with 42,000 (-16%).

Other debuts this week include All That Remains’ “Overcome” (Prosthetic/Razor & Tie, No. 16, 29,000), Raphael Saadiq’s “The Way I See It” (Columbia, No. 19, 23,000), Avenged Sevenfold’s “Live in the LBC & Diamond in the Rough” (Warner Bros., No. 24, 20,000) and Eli Young Band’s “Jet Black & Jealous” (Universal South, No. 30, 16,000).

At 6.92 million units, sales this week are up 1.1% from last week’s sum and down a 16.5% from the same week last year.

Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield, L.A.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i7e27e06b2dc444484ca12a82edab1307

MySpace Music Launches with Notable Upgrades, Glaring Omissions
September 24, 2008 – Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

MySpace will flip the switch on its long-anticipated MySpace Music service on Thursday, completely revamping every element of the music section of the social network and bringing several elements of the music industry to the table with the launch.

In order to win favorable licensing terms from the major labels, MySpace created a joint venture to oversee the music initiative, which is partially owned by the four major record labels and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. While Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group were known participants for some time now, EMI Music Group and Sony/ATV signed up to the joint venture as stakeholders at the eleventh hour, on the eve of the service’s launch.

And while a slight bit of controversy bubbled around the lack of independent labels or digital aggregators involved in the joint venture, MySpace also unveiled licensing deals with not only the Orchard, but also such independent distribution groups as ADA, Red, Fontana and Caroline.

The new music service, while operated as a separate joint venture from the greater MySpace service, is tightly woven into the fabric of the social networking site. Artists with profiles (as well as licensing deals) on the service may now stream their entire catalog in full from their pages, whereas previously MySpace limited it to six tracks.

Other features at launch include:

-Fans can post up to 10 songs on their profile for others to stream when visiting, and up to 100 songs for their own personal enjoyment via a playlist building function.

-When any MySpace member (artist or fan) adds music to their playlist, their entire friend list is notified via the “Friend Updates” feature, which will contain a link to the song added.

-Wherever a song link appears on the service, there is also an “add” button that allows any member to add that song to their playlists, as well as a “buy” button to purchase and download the song via retail partner Amazon.com. Additionally, members can search for ringtones available via MySpace sister company Jamster (parent company Fox Interactive Media owns both companies).

The MySpace Music homepage has also been revamped, including a more robust “featured artists” section and the addition of a celebrity playlist section.

Noticeably missing at launch are several features promised when MySpace first unveiled its music plans this spring. They include:

-The ability to buy concert tickets and artist merchandise. Ultimately, MySpace hopes to add these sales opportunities to every artist profile in a future update.

- Content: Due to the lateness of the EMI deal, as well as the ongoing negotiations with independent labels and their representatives, music from artists other than UMG, Sony BMG and WMG is not yet available. However, new music will be ingested on a regular basis.

-Music recommendations: While friends linked through MySpace will learn of each other’s music additions and recommendations, there is no function to recommend new music to users based on either listening history via some kind of algorithm or by matching members who don’t know each other but who have displayed similar music tastes.

-A syndication strategy. All the playlists created on member profiles are limited to those profiles only. Users can’t post their playlists to other blogs, websites or in any other way take advantage of widget-based distribution.

However, MySpace representatives stress that it will upgrade the music service with these and other features over the course of the next year.
Aside from the features, the model behind the MySpace Music service is generating the most attention. It is by far the most ambitious attempt to profit from free full-song streaming based on advertising.

Officials at both MySpace as well as the various record labels believe the majority of activity and revenue will come from the free ad-supported full-song streaming throughout the network. As part of the streaming feature, MySpace created a music player that pops up in a separate window, both so users can enjoy music while navigating to other areas of the site and also to display banner ads that monetize the service.

All labels and artists licensing music to the site will receive a share of the service’s ad revenue based on the number of times their music is played. The major labels involved in the joint venture will also share a portion of all underlying revenues.

Neither MySpace nor the labels involved will discuss the exact terms of the venture deal, but insiders have speculated that the labels collectively own 40% of the venture, and in return dropped the standard penny-per-play licensing fee for music streamed online.

Also notable is MySpace’s decision to outsource all a la carte sales to Amazon.com. Ringtone sales are outsourced to Jamster, and expect future ticket and merch sales to be outsourced as well.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3id98c48e90371c111e1236caed59c9e7f

SGAE Launches World Music Label
September 24, 2008 – Global

By Howell Llewellyn, Madrid

Spanish authors and publishers collecting society SGAE has launched a world music label called Musica de Autores del Mundo (MAM), which aims to release five albums a year recorded in Spain by immigrant musicians living in the country. The first two releases were showcased Sept. 23 at Madrid’s National Museum of Anthropology.

Cameroon’s Justin Tchatchoua and his group played several songs from “Lali, El Sueno Africano” (MAM) and Guinea-Bissau’s Simao Felix performed numbers from “Olyly” (MAM). Also performing at the showcase was Peru’s Sara Van, who will have her new album released this fall on MAM. A fourth release this year will be by Galicia-born Olalla Bouzas.

“MAM is an immediate response to the reality of Spanish society today,” says Luis Francisco Garcia, director of SGAE label Sello Autor, which has launched MAM through SGAE’s promotions arm Fundacion Autor.

“In the past few years the immigrant population in Spain has grown enormously, and among the new citizens are authors and artists from many countries who find in Spain the same problems – if not worse – than those experienced by Spanish artists who want to get their work known.”

Garcia said that MAM will not import music from the countries of origin of the artists. “The music will be recorded in Spanish studios in cities such as Seville, Madrid, Ciudad Real and Valencia,” he says.

Despite the risk involved in setting up a new label in the current climate of declining CD sales, Garcia says he is confident MAM has a “prosperous future”. He adds, “The reaction of the Spain-based immigrants among SGAE’s members [to MAM] has been the most numerous and immediate of all the initiatives of Sello Autor since it was formed eight years ago.”

Tchatchoua, who lived in Nigeria for many years before moving to Spain in 1983 and whose Nigerian single, “Love Me The Way I Do” (Rogers All Stars) sold more than 900,000 units in that country, says “MAM is an advance for music, because it opens up the market to other kinds of music that until now had no space in record labels. This benefits many artists who until now could not create freely without wondering if they could ever reach a market.”

Simao Felix adds, “Until now there was nothing similar to this project [in Spain]. All I want to do is to play, have concerts and I think I’ll achieve that with this label”.

MAM had a pre-launch presentation in late May at the Cubadisco music trade event in Havana, Cuba, whose theme this year was Africa and its Diaspora. Tchatchoua and Felix performed with Cuban artists of African roots at concerts in the Cuban capital.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i9b7a0a27a380144f96674e3cfcee5a3f

Industry, Online Services Reach Royalty Deal
September 23, 2008 – Digital and Mobile | Publishing

By Ed Christman, N.Y.

The recording industry, music publishers and online music services have revealed the details of a landmark royalty deal for streaming and limited downloads of music, which was first announced June 18.

The agreement proposes a mechanical royalty rate of 10.5% of revenue, less any amounts owed for performance royalties for composition, for digital service providers that offer interactive streaming and limited downloads such as subscription and ad-supported services. When the settlement was first announced, details were kept confidential until they were submitted to the CopyRight Board in draft regulations.

In the settlement, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Digital Media Association, the National Music Publishers’ Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International and the Songwriters Guild of America have all agreed to the new rate.

The deal doesn’t address rates for physical product, permanent music downloads or ringtones, but all of those issues, as well as today’s agreement, are expected to be ruled on by Oct. 2 by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Judges.

“The music publishers understand that as technology evolves they have to support new applications,” says A2IM president Rich Bengloff. “So the agreement provides for new business models by charging a percentage of revenue, instead of charging a per stream royalty rate, which would be difficult due to the uncertainty of a service’s ultimate revenue.”

Bob Kohn, CEO of music-royalty processing company RoyaltyShare, says the mechanical royalty agreement will provide music subscription services with a welcome bit of certainty that the rates won’t be renegotiated later.

The agreement also confirms that audio-only streaming services like satellite radio and webcasting do not require mechanical licenses.

Also, the agreement allows for promotional interactive streaming to continue without royalty payments. So marketing devices like songs being available for streaming on artists and label website, which promote the sale of music are not subject to royalty payments.

Additional reporting by Cortney Harding.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i98078f6e2a02095d6a7c3bd7c952f8cd

Digital Briefs: Sony BMG, Tesco, IODA, RoyaltyShare
September 17, 2008 – Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

- Sony BMG’s Commercial Music Group unveiled a licensing Web site for filmmakers called MovieTunes. The site allows filmmakers to submit the music criteria they need, which a Sony BMG staffer will then use to help find the right song.

- Warner Music UK agreed to license its music to an MP3 store operated by British supermarket chain Tesco. The deal includes custom album bundles, remixes and interactive booklets.

- IODA has agreed to offer RightsFlow’s accounting and business management music licensing system for mechanical and DPD licensing to its label clients.

-    RoyaltyShare is expanding its digital media management tools to mobile, through a series of deals with mobile content providers. They include LiveWire Mobile, Moderati, SendMe Mobile, Thumbplay, and Zed.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i91c8d15e4e3162055c59584ffd192cf1

EMI Southeast Asia Staff Facing Cull
September 17, 2008 – Global

By Steve McClure, Tokyo

As many as 150 EMI Music employees in Southeast Asian territories stand to lose their jobs following the recently signed deal whereby Warner Music Group will market and distribute EMI’s worldwide repertoire in the region, local industry insiders tell Billboard.

However, says Warner Music Southeast Asia president Lachie Rutherford, “In some instances we’re taking the opportunity to bring some talented people [from EMI] into the organization.”

In the case of EMI Music Malaysia, for example, all staff, with the exception of sales and strategic marketing director Herman Cheng and about five others will be let go at the end of September, according to local biz sources. Cheng is expected to be appointed GM of Warner Music Malaysia. Compensation terms have not been disclosed.

Under the multi-year license agreement, Warner will market and distribute EMI’s worldwide repertoire in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and Thailand.

Rutherford adds that Warner will oversee all aspects of local and regional digital deals involving EMI acts, while EMI will maintain control of deals involving global partners such as YouTube in the region.

Although EMI has been active in the region for decades, its local-talent roster has been relatively thin, apart from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Rutherford says Warner will take over marketing and distribution of major EMI Malaysia acts such as female vocalist Ella, who at her peak in the Nineties sold upwards of 300,000 units per release. She remains the best-selling female solo artist with her 1994 album, “ELLA U.S.A.”, which topped the 350,000 units mark, a record which remains unbroken.

Meanwhile, a regional label source says EMI is in the process of selling its local Indonesian catalog to an unnamed third party.

“International artists and management are very confused” about the deal, says one regional management source. “The other key point is how Warner is going to prioritize what to promote. Surely, they’re going to look after No. 1 – meaning their own product?”

Adrian Cheesley, London-based EMI Music president for Asia Pacific/Latin America, said in a statement: “EMI releases albums from other record companies, including Warner Music, in various countries around the world. This works very well for all sides. In SE Asia, our regional marketing team in Hong Kong and global marketing team based in London will be working closely with Lachie’s excellent team to oversee the local marketing of EMI’s artists’ music in the region.”

Additional reporting by Christie Leo, Kuala Lumpur

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i68343da3c822c82400a8225da282c889

Vivendi Sees Music Biz Hitting Digital Stride
September 17, 2008 | Digital and Mobile

By Georg Szalai, Hollywood Reporter

Vivendi expects the music business could finally hit its digital growth stride, and Universal Music Group will shine, Jean-Bernard Levy, chairman of the management board and CEO, said Wednesday.

“I think we are close to the turning point,” he told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference about the overall music business.

He couldn’t say though if digital music sales would really ramp up this year, next or in two years.

Levy also said Wednesday “we are not in favor of walled gardens” in the digital age.

He told investors he would like to buy out its minority partners in pay TV firm Canal Plus to streamline Vivendi’s corporate structure. It is part of the reason that Vivendi’s stock remains below where it should be, is that it has a complex structure, he argued.

“Buying out our minorities would be a priority,” Levy said.

Vivendi owns 65% of Canal Plus, French media giant Lagardere 20%, and French broadcasters TF1 9.9% and M6 5.1%.

Vivendi has an option at the end of 2009 to buy out TF1 and M6. Levy previously told a French newspaper Vivendi would pay at least 1.15 billion euros if it exercises that option.

Asked if a weaker economy has started dragging down the momentum of Canal Plus and other businesses, Levy said: “On Canal Plus today we’re not seeing an effect. Our subscription-based model is very resistant…We do have very resilient business models.”

The issue of what will happen to Vivendi’s 20% stake in NBC Universal did not come up Wednesday.

Asked about the video game business, Levy suggested the traditional sharp console cycle could be history. “We will see more regular growth,” he suggested. He pointed to competitors’ release of new hardware at different times and PlayStation 2 sales also still being solid.

The CEO also said Wednesday he feels Vivendi has an “insufficient” presence in fast-growing emerging markets.

For example, while its video games and music businesses do business abroad, there is room for them to boost it, he said.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i91c8d15e4e31620524e73395142a91a1

French Biz Defends ‘Three-Strike’ Scheme After Euro Vote
September 26, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Aymeric Pichevin, Paris

The French government and music industry is insisting that the “Internet and Creation” law, which was initiated last year by President Sarkozy and includes provisions against online piracy, can go ahead despite a European Parliament vote defending the freedom of Internet users.

The law is notably designed to circumvent online piracy through a “three-strike” scheme that would see persistent copyright offenders lose their Internet connection through the decision of an administrative body.

While the draft law still has not been debated in French assemblies, its measures are questioned by an amendment adopted on Sept. 24 by the European Parliament. The amendment 138, which is part of the telecoms package, states that “no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users without a prior ruling of the judicial authorities… save when public security is threatened, in which case the ruling may be subsequent.”

This vote is being described as the end of the three-strike scheme by its opponents. European MEP Guy Bono, who carried the amendment, stated on his blog, “European Parliament said no to the ‘riposte graduee’ [three-strike scheme] as advocated in France.”

The “Internet and creation” law is still valid, retorted French minister of culture Christine Albanel in a statement, saying that “the measures considered in the draft law have no impact on the rights and freedoms of end-users.” Albanel also recalled that the amendment has been adopted by the European Parliament in first reading only and believes it is highly unlikely to remain in the final text of law.

In a statement today (Sept. 26), the authors and composers collecting rights body Sacem said it was satisfied with the French governement’s continued support for the draft law.

“Sacem is satisfied with this statement that once again expresses the government’s firm will to defend creators’ rights and see the law on ‘Creation and the Internet’ adopted as soon as possible,” said the rights body.

“The stakes are decisive both for creation and for the remuneration of authors, composers and music publishers. This is also true for the entire music business, in a context that is particularly difficult and threatening for the future of culture in our country.”

In a statement issued yesterday (Sept. 25), French ruling party UMP called the government to have the “Internet and creation” draft law examined by the French Parliament in emergency. While the law was initially expected to be effective in Jan. 2009, debates have not even started yet, allegedly due to an important amount of reforms French Parliament have to deal with.

The law is supported by a large part of the French music industry, notably with labels’ bodies SNEP and UPFI, Sacem and Universal Music France President Pascal Negre each reasserting their support in separate press releases in the past two days.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6d1955ff988810b8c7b1dc2bf06f1db1

McCartney Performs In Israel 43 Years After Beatles Ban
September 26, 2008 – Global | Touring | Rock and Pop

By Sasha Levy, Tel Aviv

“Shalom Tel Aviv, Shana Tova,” [Hello Tel Aviv, Happy New Year], said Sir Paul McCartney, welcoming the estimated 40,000 crowd in Hebrew to his historic performance at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv after the opening “Hello Goodbye.”

But it had been a long wait for his first performance in Israel. In 1965 the Israeli government banned the Beatles, fearing their presence at a planned concert would corrupt the nation’s youth.

Before he had even set foot in the country for this Friendship First concert, McCartney’s concert was the first topic of conversation, his music filled the airwaves and the show was hailed in The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s leading English language daily, as “probably the greatest cultural event in Israel’s history.”

But the Sept. 25 concert was also targeted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel which called on Sir Paul to cancel, and the artist himself was the target of death threats from Lebanon-based Omar Bakri Mohammed, triggering a reported 5,000-strong security and intelligence operation which was barely felt by concert goers.

Israeli audiences are long used to international artists’ last minute cancellations of their shows. But McCartney did perform and he did his best to steer clear of any controversy, telling the audience “I’m sharing the message of peace and love” and avoiding any mention of the ban.

As for the music, McCartney and his supremely professional band played a considerable number of post-Beatles songs, which the audience received with a certain amount of polite confusion. The show came alive when McCartney, whether at the piano, or on electric or acoustic guitar or mandolin, launched into Beatles numbers and the Hebrew-speaking audience cheered and sang along in word-perfect English.

McCartney paid tribute to George Harrison with a ukulele-led version of “Something” and to John Lennon with the politically appropriate “Give Peace a Chance,” telling the audience “this is for you” and inviting them to sing along. For those concerned by the potential threat, there was a heart-stopping moment when the band started “Live and Let Die” and the stage filled with smoke and explosions for the pyrotechnics display.

McCartney closed the show by wishing his audience Shana Tova again for Jewish New Year and pronouncing the blessing for Ramadan, “Ramadan Karim.”

Earlier this year, which marks Israel’s 60th anniversary, Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the U.K., wrote a letter of apology for the “misunderstanding,” paving the way for last night’s historic gig.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6d1955ff988810b86df622cbb3c75462

PRS To Appeal EC Decision On Pan-European Licences
September 26, 2008 – Global

By Andre Paine, London

The Performing Right Society (PRS) has confirmed that it will appeal a decision by the European Commission in July on representation agreements between collecting societies in Europe.

The U.K. collecting society says it will challenge the EC ruling that there has been unlawful coordination between the societies.

It follows a long-running case involving complaints lodged by the broadcaster RTL in 2001 and in 2003 by Music Choice Europe about societies’ reciprocal representation. Both broadcasters had been unable to secure a pan-European licence of worldwide repertoire from a single society and contested that it should be possible.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic87e02f8b99ce3deb5994003656fcd39

Updated: MySpace Music Launch ‘Unhealthy,’ Says Merlin… Not So Says Orchard, MySpace
September 25, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Andre Paine, London and Antony Bruno, Denver

Merlin, the global rights body for independent labels, has described the launch of MySpace Music without its members’ repertoire as “incredibly disappointing.”

However, the London-based trade association says it remains in negotiations to license its members’ music. Merlin says its represents labels who have a 9% share of the U.S. digital recorded music market.

Merlin CEO Charles Caldas was critical of the decision to launch today (Sept. 25) without the indies, and the exclusion of the independent sector from any equity component in the new venture.

“It is incredibly disappointing that MySpace will launch their new service without having finalised a deal with the world’s most important independent labels and artists,” said Caldas in a statement.

Caldas added that it was “absolutely clear that any independent deal struck without an equity component (as was done with the majors), will see independent labels face a situation whereby their major competitors will profit from the use of their [the indies'] repertoire without an appropriate upside opportunity being extended to them [the indies] by MySpace Music and its major label equity partners.”

MySpace launched the service as a joint venture with all the majors – EMI Music Group signed up at the eleventh hour – and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. It also unveiled licensing deals with digital aggregator the Orchard and distribution groups as ADA, Red, Fontana and Caroline.

“Whilst Merlin continues our negotiations, we remain extremely concerned that with MySpace Music the major record labels are acting not only as competitors, but through their equity stakes in the venture, as the clients/end user as well,” added Caldas. “Without an equitable participation by independents, that creates a situation that is both unhealthy and dangerous.”

Updated: Meanwhile, MySpace responded to Merlin’s complaints by noting that it has offered the group a licensing and revenue sharing deal-albeit not an equity stake-and remains in negotiations.

“We have offered a relationship with Merlin that provides equal opportunities to Merlin’s labels and Merlin’s artists that we have provided to ALL labels and artists whether they are Indie Artists, Major Artists or Unsigned artists,” reads a MySpace statement. “We hope that the entire Music Community including the Labels and all Artists will take advantage of the unique relationship that MySpace has built between Artists and Fans.”

By contrast, Orchard CEO Greg Scholl downplayed the immediate importance of securing an equity stake in MySpace Music.

“The opportunity to create an ancillary and noncannibalistic revenue stream and ignite growth in the sector is, on balance, more important to our clients than holding out for an equity stake of uncertain future value that will likely never come to pass,” Scholl says. “So [we] chose proactive engagement . . . We will continue to press our case for equity or profit sharing for the independent sector, but in the meantime, [we will] ensure our clients prosper from the value MySpace Music creates.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ia0422b50eade04b55cdf874d378251d9

Kobalt, Kid Rock Partner For ‘Rock N Roll Jesus’ Songs
September 26, 2008 – Publishing

By Ed Christman, N.Y.

Independent music publisher Kobalt Music Group has signed a worldwide deal to administer Kid Rock’s songs on his most recent album “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Top Dog/Atlantic).

Kid Rock wrote or co-wrote 11 of 12 songs on the album, which has scanned 2.03 million units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has topped charts around the world, according to a press release on the deal.

Executives involved in the deal include Kobalt founder/CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt’s Michael Petersen and Bob Bortnick, Vector Management’s Ken Levitan, and Kid Rock legal representative Ken Krauss. Warner/Chappell still does worldwide administration for the rest of the Kid Rock catalog.

Kid Rock is currently touring through the United States and Europe through the end of 2008.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3if624dc1ee34cd1b55e39a20a34821645

RoyaltyShare Reveals New Tracking Service
September 25, 2008 – Publishing

By Ed Christman, N.Y.

RoyaltyShare Inc. moved quickly to capitalize on the landmark agreement that proposes royalty rates for interactive streams and downloads by announcing a new service designed to track and make payments for licenses covered in the agreement.

In that agreement, the Digital Media Association (DiMA), the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) proposed to pay a 10.5% of revenue for mechanical royalty less any amount owed for composition performance.

RoyaltyShare is pitching the service — which is currently under development and will be available by the end of the year — to music publishers and online retailers. This service will compete against companies already competing for those services, like New York-based Rightsflow and Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Music Reports Inc.

“Setting the rates was the first critical step,” RoyaltyShare chairman/CEO Bob Kohn said in a statement. “The second step is equally important – delivering the technology services scalable enough to handle the complexity and volume of transactions generated by streaming and limited download services. Music publishers and retailers now face a common problem and it must be solved quickly in order to avoid a massive bottleneck of payments owed to songwriters.”

The RoyaltyShare platform allows digital music services to track all of their licenses, including ownership splits, and allocate revenue from streams and limited downloads to agencies, publishing administrators and thousands of independent publishers. The service facilitates the ingestion of song data from publishers and provides a solution for matching songs to transactions.

For music publishers, RoyaltyShare’s data interfaces with all the major digital music services, whether it uses the company’s platform or not, and allows for automated loading and matching transactions and further provides analytics for monitoring performance of songs across different services, according to a company press release on the service.

“For these new statutory mechanical licenses to work in practice, it is essential for a neutral service provider to work with both the publishers and the retailers,” Kohn said.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i8c1ee8232b03c6cc38ab5e8fcb8c5205

Bug Music Secures $200M Credit Line
September 17, 2008 – Publishing

By Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A.

Independent publisher Bug Music has secured a $200 million credit line from nine banks led by JP Morgan. The credit line can be increased to $250 million.

In a statement, Bug Music CEO John Rudolph noted that the credit, priced at a London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) of 2.5%, came even as the market for credit has been tightening.

The expanded funding “will enable Bug Music to continue to have the financial resources to pursue acquisition opportunities and will enable us to continue to grow the company effectively,” stated Rudolph.

Bug Music’s recent acquisitions include songwriter and new “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi’s catalog of hits, sung by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Celine Dion. DioGuardi is also signed to Bug Music, which has an equity stake in her publishing company, Arthouse Entertainment.

Earlier this month, Bug Music announced the acquisition of Iggy Pop’s catalog and a publishing deal with Three 6 Mafia that also covers development of new artists by the duo.

Bug Music is controlled by Rudolph, and Crossroads Media, a joint venture between Bug Music chairman Tom McGrath and Spectrum Equity Investors.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ib739afedb6cdd481c4082378777018fd

Stargate United At EMI
September 16, 2008 – Publishing | Global

By Ed Christman, N.Y.

EMI Music Publishing has signed a global co-publishing deal with Mikkel Eriksen, bringing both members of the Stargate production team under one roof.

Eriksen’s Stargate partner Tor Erick Hermansen has had an EMI Music Publishing deal since 1999. Hermansen and Eriksen will also continue with their joint-venture partnership Stellar Songs, with EMI Music Publishing and the pair’s long-time managers Tim Blacksmith and Danny D, the signing announcement said.

Stargate were named Hitmakers of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year, after co-writing worldwide hits including “Don’t Stop The Music” and “Take A Bow” for Rihanna, “Because of You” and “Closer” for Ne-Yo, “Irreplaceable” for Beyoncé, and “With You” for Chris Brown, according to a statement on the deal.

Stargate songs also had five Grammy nominations this year, while “Beautiful Liar” (performed by Beyoncé and Shakira) earned them the Ivor Novello award for Best British Song alongside fellow EMI Music Publishing writer Amanda Ghost.

In a statement, EMI Music Publishing chairman & CEO Roger Faxon said, “Stargate is a dominant force in both the UK and the US right now, and we’re looking forward to working with both of them to continue to develop their
careers creatively and commercially.”

As part of the agreement, the duo will now work in conjunction with EMI Music Publishing UK president Guy Moot and president of West Coast creative Big Jon Platt, as well as benefiting from the support of the company’s creative and commercial teams around the world.

Hermansen and Eriksen began their songwriting and producing career in their native Norway in 1997, before scoring U.K. hits for a string of pop acts artists including S Club 7, Atomic Kitten, Samantha Mumba and Blue. They relocated to New York in 2005.

The duo has also worked with Mary J Blige, Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis, Jessica Simpson, Jordin Sparks, Nas, Elliott Yamin, Enrique Iglesias, Mario, Usher and Kelly Rowland. Forthcoming releases featuring songs by Stargate include albums by Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson and Ne-Yo.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ie3dba86ef58946368b25fbe7b1a1066f

50 Cent, Kanye Set For December Album Battle
September 19, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop

By Hillary Crosley, N.Y.

In what could be a repeat of their battle for marketplace domination last September, 50 Cent and Kanye West will release new albums a week apart in December.

An Interscope representative confirms 50′s “Before I Self Destruct” will arrive Dec. 9, while West’s “808′s and Heartbreak” is due Dec. 16 via Def Jam. In its debut week last year, West’s “Graduation” easily outsold 50′s “Curtis,” both of which came out Sept. 11.

During a recent performance in Albany, N.Y., 50 Cent took a moment to poke fun at West’s new single “Love Lockdown” with a sarcastic rendition of his own. The rapper also played the new song “Burn.”

Meanwhile, “Love Lockdown” is now available for purchase from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i0401622f490c0f883d3db245b20dfb60

For Record Companies, Optimism Isn’t Irrational

Article Tools Sponsored By
By BEN SISARIO
Published: September 24, 2008

A joke went around Columbia Records last week as the economic crisis spread across Wall Street. Watching financial titans like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch stagger, the label’s executives counted their blessings.

“At least we’re in the record business,” they told themselves, according to Mark Di Dia, Columbia’s general manager.

It’s been a long time since people in the recorded music industry have considered themselves lucky. And the black humor at Columbia underscores that sales of the CD, the industry’s core product, have been in a seemingly inexorable decline for eight years. So far this year CD sales are down 16.6 percent from the same point in 2007, on top of an overall sales slide of more than 36 percent from 2000 to 2007.

But going into the last three months of the year, when more music is sold than at any other time, labels, retailers and others in the business say they are somewhat optimistic — or at least less pessimistic than usual. Potential hits are scheduled this fall from Beyoncé, AC/DC, Nickelback, Taylor Swift, T.I., Fall Out Boy, Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney. In December, Kanye West and 50 Cent are expected to release new albums a week apart; if that happens, the publicity of a big sales showdown could help both rivals sell more records.

As the economy suffers, the music industry is hoping an old truism will hold: that as a relatively low-cost commodity with sentimental attachments, music will prove recession-proof. “In a bad economy people retreat to cheaper forms of entertainment,” said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research in New York. “CDs have held up a lot better than I had expected this year.”

Last week at least Wall Street’s ills did not scare consumers from record stores. Metallica’s new album, “Death Magnetic” (Warner Brothers), sold a respectable 337,000 copies in its second week out, and “Year of the Gentleman” (Def Jam) by the R&B crooner Ne-Yo moved 250,000, Nielsen SoundScan reported. Total sales for the Top 200 albums were at 2.53 million, the highest since July, when Miley Cyrus released her latest record.

Even with the rise of digital music sales and the disappearance of chains like Tower Records, which closed its 89 American stores at the end of 2006, physical retail in the fourth quarter remains critical to the labels. More than a third of music purchases for the year are made in the last three months, according to Nielsen SoundScan; Gallery of Sound, a chain in Pennsylvania, does almost half its annual business in the holiday season, said Joe Nardone Jr., an owner.

Despite its importance — or perhaps because of it — the end of the year has become more chaotic for music retailers, as labels shuffle their calendars and release or delay albums with less and less advance notice. In years past, major release dates would be locked in “probably midsummer,” said Andrew Gyger, senior music product manager for Virgin Entertainment Group.

“Now it’s the end of summer, beginning of fall, and there’s still a lot of movement,” Mr. Gyger said, citing U2’s recent delay of a new album that had been expected for the fall. “For something as big as U2, that obviously makes a huge difference in the planning when we don’t have a massive release like that.”

Retailers are still waiting to hear if new albums by Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z and even Guns N’ Roses will come out this year, as have been rumored for months.

Some independent record stores are enjoying relatively healthy sales as other big chains have died out and they have diversified their offerings to sell more profitable items like DVDs and clothing. Newbury Comics, a chain of music and pop-culture stores in New England, recently opened two shops, expanding to 28 locations. “Four years ago our market had an HMV Superstore, two Tower Records, and then Virgin Megastore came in,” said Mike Dreese, the chief executive. “Those are all gone.”

But big-box stores like Wal-Mart still account for up to two thirds of all music sales, and many of those chains are reducing space for music. That poses a greater threat to sales than a soft economy, Mr. Greenfield said.

“When is the next big step down at Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Circuit City in CD floor space?” he said. “It hasn’t happened this year, but it sounds like it’s going to happen at some point over the next year. The question is just when.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/arts/music/25holi.html?ref=music

Royalties Deal in Online Music

By REUTERS
Published: September 25, 2008

Record labels, music publishers, songwriters and online music services have reached an agreement on how to compensate music creators for online distribution of their content, they said.

The agreement, revealed Wednesday, is designed to settle how the industry calculates royalty rates for limited downloads and music that is streamed online, including when it is provided by subscription and advertising-supported services.

Fans using on-demand music streaming can select the songs they want to hear but do not keep a permanent copy.

Under the proposal, providers of such services will pay a royalty of 10.5 percent of revenue after other royalties are calculated.

The Digital Media Association described the agreement in a statement on its Web site Wednesday as a breakthrough that would facilitate new ways to offer music to consumers online.

The other groups involved include the National Music Publishers’ Association, which represents American publishers, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Nashville Songwriters Association International and the Songwriters Guild of America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/business/media/25music.html?ref=music

For Him, Reggae Is the Family Business

By VIVIEN GOLDMAN
Published: September 19, 2008

KINGSTON, Jamaica

THE new hit-making force in Jamaican music doesn’t live in the steamy downtown ghettos Bob Marley made famous but on a leafy residential road high on a hill here, in the upscale neighborhood Havendale, St. Andrews. Just 18, Stephen McGregor, also known as Di Genius, is a member of one of reggae’s reigning families: the clan of the veteran singer Freddie McGregor.

Big iron gates slowly swing open to reveal a yard with a raised, shaded area designed for playing dominoes. Inside a large villa narrow wooden stairs behind the living room lead up to Big Ship Studio, named after Freddie’s 1981 worldwide hit. With its richly colored walls hung with framed awards and its big black leather couch, Big Ship feels like a cozy clubhouse outfitted with huge speakers and a mixing desk. Here Stephen, who is known as the studio’s Captain, swivels around in an office chair, punctuating a chat by flicking a fader and unleashing yet another monster hit like Sean Paul’s “Watch Dem Roll” and “Always on My Mind,” his collaboration with Da’Ville.

Also in the room are Stephen’s brother Daniel, 25, a popular lyricist and rapper known professionally as Chino, and his sister Yeshemabeth (also known as Shema), 29, an up-and-coming singer. Stephen produces them both.

All three siblings are making sound waves in Jamaica, but Stephen, who looks about 14 with his guileless smile and neat cornrows, is the most prominent. One of the hottest producers on the island (and certainly the youngest), Stephen has a challenging sound that combines playfulness, the spatial drama of a movie soundtrack and orchestral brio.

“Jamaica has a lot of great producers,” said Bobby Konders, a D.J. at the New York urban-music radio station Hot 97, “but people view him as the new kid carrying the flavor; so young but with a proven track record. He took many different influences from hip-hop and reggae and made them into his own sound. Stephen’s that dude, and he’s a winner.”

Since the 1960s Jamaican musicians have been recycling rhythm tracks, called riddims. The success of a riddim is judged by how many artists “juggle,” or make their own vocal interpretations, of it. Marked by a tension between sparse, punching jabs of sound and lush snatches of melody, Stephen’s riddims are so popular that more than a dozen people might sing over them; his thematically linked riddims have their own compilations on the top reggae label, VP Records.

Stephen’s skills are also propelling the careers of the lanky, dashing Chino, whose slightly abstracted air suggests constant mental wordplay, and Shema, whose rich voice and cameo features recall her mother, Judy Mowatt of Bob Marley’s backing trio, the I Three. Shema was in a band with Damian (Jr. Gong) Marley, Bob’s son, and she is now working on her own album, to be released this year on Big Ship Records.

Their father, Freddie McGregor, has been a star since he was a child, recording in the early 1960s for the Studio One label, where Bob Marley was an artist and in-house arranger. “I remember how Bob kept on saying, ‘We must have our own studio, our own thing,’ ” he recalled. “When I recorded songs for different producers, I always wished I owned them. I knew I had to take a chance and build my own studio.” He finally started Big Ship in 1996.

Stephen gravitated to the studio when he was a little boy. “If we saw the door was open, we’d know Stephen was in there,” Freddie said. “He was just so short you couldn’t see him over the mixing desk.”

By the age of 7 Stephen had taught himself to play keyboards, bass, guitar and violin. But his prodigy status was cemented even earlier: he wrote and released his first song, “School Done Rule,” when he was 5. That was Stephen’s sole foray as an artist; he prefers the producer’s role. “It’s psychological, dealing with all the different egos and attitudes,” he said. Clearly, his laid-back but cheery demeanor can coax the best out of artists ranging from the suave Sean Paul to gangster ragamuffins like Vybz Kartel and Mavado.

Stephen’s “whole energy is fresh,” Sean Paul said, “and I feel excited to work with a new sound and a new crazy young talent like him.”

Stephen had his first hits in Jamaica in 2004, while he was still attending the prestigious Ardennes High School; a local D.J. gave him the nickname Di Genius. “I never spoke about my music at school, except to my closest friends,” Stephen said.

Tactfully Stephen won’t identify the big reggae star who promised to sing on his first professional production — and then brushed him off. Instead, on a whim, he and Chino drove to the cassata-colored mansion of the zany reggae star Elephant Man, higher up the Havendale hills. He gave Stephen a break and became the first of about 15 vocalists to put their stamp on his “Cartoon” riddim.

With its cheeky samples of the flatulent trumpet sound familiar from old Warner Brothers animations, “Cartoon” was whimsical, surprising and like no other reggae track. It was followed by a string of hit riddims. “In Jamaica if you do something different that’s working, as soon as one person hears it the whole industry wants to be on it,” Stephen said.

Jamaican dancehall, the quintessential sound of the young McGregors’ generation, is far removed from the spiritually oriented conscious reggae of 1970s artists like their father and Marley. Many of the lyrics of Stephen’s songs with Mavado and Vybz Kartel are brutally violent.

Perhaps Stephen’s appeal to the American hip-hop audience is the way he projects urban tension and alarm. The somber “Darkness” riddims, with titles like “Shadow,” “Darker Shadow” and “After Dark,” sound almost frightening when heard at bone-shaking volume at a bashment, or street dance.

Still, Stephen’s key attribute is his versatility. He has worked with the Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu. He delivers sweet lover’s rock songs for his father (“Sharing the Night”) and radio-ready pop reggae for Chino (“Ruff It Up”), and the siblings’ collaborations tend more toward happy hedonism. “Our ‘Red Bull and Guinness’ riddim actually became a big movement in Jamaica,” Chino said. “Sales of Champagne slowed down.”

Another alcohol-infused McGregor hit was “Ghetto Whiskey,” named after a Jamaican tipple of Guinness, Stone’s Ginger Wine, Red Bull and Magnum Tonic Wine. “It proved the power of music,” Chino said. “People didn’t know if it would poison them, but they had to try it.”

Whether sweet, funny or ominous, Stephen McGregor’s sound palette is always fine-tuned by his domestic think tank. “We have a support system here because we’re family,” he said with a laugh. “More heads are better than one.”

Dee Dee Bridgewater Will Present Red Earth – A Malian Journey in New York

Monday, September 29 2008 @ 01:08 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

Events

American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will be appearing at the Blue Note for a special set of concerts featuring her trio and hand picked musicians from Mali. Drawing on her deep well of talent and inspiration, Bridgewater’s latest release from one year ago, Red Earth – A Malian Journey, is a journey both forward and back. Melding Malian voices, music and traditional instruments with American Jazz vernacular and penning many of the lyrics, Dee Dee Bridgewater has crafted one of her most important musical statements to date.

Dee Dee Bridgewater is first and foremost a groundbreaker, an artist whose projects have traversed the musical kaleidoscope – from traditional vocal jazz to searing scat interpretations. Unafraid and uninhibited, these attributes make her perhaps the most versatile and inspiring artist and producer of her generation.

Bridgewater explains, the new album Red Earth is “the culmination of my decision to find my African roots. It was an idea I first had when doing Horace Silver’s music, which is so syncopated and rhythmic.” The resulting Grammy nominated album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver” solidified her resolve to further investigate African music. With the death of Ella Fitzgerald in 1996 and Dee Dee’s subsequent double Grammy Award winning tribute Dear Ella, the project was put on hold. Her ensuing projects, Live at Yoshi’s, This Is New, and J’ai Deux Amours, incorporated more global sounds and influences and yielded Grammy nominations for two of the albums.

Elected in 1999 as one of the United Nations’ first Ambassadors for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater was granted the unique opportunity to travel to Africa, visiting villages involved with various FAO programs. Over the years, Dee Dee amassed a library of music from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Congo, Benin, South Africa and Madagascar amongst others. As she narrowed her focus, one country’s music came to the fore. “Whenever I heard it, I would get a jolt.” Bridgewater recalls. “In the end of 2003, I started thinking it must be Mali. I had an inexplicable knowledge and ability to scat to and comprehend this rhythm and music.”

However, it was not until August 2004 that Bridgewater decided to make the long-awaited trip to Mali. It was during this first voyage that Dee Dee intensely felt she had found her ancestral home. Her instinctual connection to Malian “blues”, an inexplicable draw to the red earth – the ancient sign of life forces and land of her ancestors – and her amazing resemblance to the Malian tribe called ‘Peul’ all confirmed her suspicions, drawing her in with undeniable spiritual force.

For their first trip to Mali, Bridgewater and co-producer/husband Jean-Marie Durand enlisted the aide of Cheick Tidiane Seck, who had produced jazz pianist Hank Jones‘ 1995 celebrated Verve release Sarala, to serve as their musical chaperone. Seck provided a portal to the country’s brightest musicians and singers and with his involvement the music began to take shape. Cheick Tidiane Seck “is responsible for the involvement of all the Malian musicians on this project, as well as selecting the traditional Malian songs,” says Bridgewater. “We both agreed that the project had to have traditional Malian instruments, as we were fusing traditional Malian music with the traditions of Jazz.” It was during this visit that Seck introduced Bridgewater and Durand to Malian Minister of Culture and filmmaker, Cheick Omar Sissoko, who gave the group use of an official vehicle and driver, allowing them to tour different regions and take in the culture of the country.

During a subsequent visit in August 2006, Mariam Nour, the Malian representative for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, invited Goodwill Ambassadors Bridgewater and Oumou Sangaré to tour villages involved with local FAO programs. One village’s women raise bees for honey, soap, candles and other products and run a cooperative selling these goods near Mali’s capitol, Bamako. In another, a woman was lent the funds to procure livestock with the caveat that they be either sheep or goats. She purchased one sheep and ten ewes, which allowed her to breed animals that could be sold to repay the loan. She then gave a portion of the proceeds to another woman in a different village to continue the program herself. A third village’s women were learning micro-agricultural irrigation practices involving square plots of land from a doctor from Haiti. Bridgewater marveled, “It was a wonderful experience, one that has irrevocably changed my life forever.”

The roles and influences of women are intrinsically interwoven in Malian politics and culture. In this vein, Dee Dee wanted to bring the strong feminine aspect of Mali to Red Earth – A Malian Journey. One song, ‘Bambo (No More)’, composed by Tata ‘Bambo’ Kouyaté, was so powerful that it led the government to abolish forced marriage in the 1960s. In addition to including “Bambo” on the album, Dee Dee made the conscious decision to feature female vocalists like outspoken women’s rights advocate Oumou Sangaré, Ramata Diakité, rising star Mamani Kéita and Fatoumata “Mama” Kouyaté, the “golden voice of Mali.” Bridgewater says, “I felt such a strong sisterhood with all of these dynamic women.” It was important for her to highlight this less explored part of the culture, which she feels has a distinct influence on the people and their music.”

The title of the album Red Earth – A Malian Journey was serendipitous. On the morning of her first day in Mali, Bridgewater was overwhelmed at the view from her hotel room – red earth stretching out before her with the Niger river coursing in the distance. It reminded her of the stories her mother told her of her childhood love of rolling in the red earth of Memphis. Dee Dee pensively offers, “I’m just trying to find my voice and my reason to be. Doing this project I feel that I’ve found something incredible – my African roots and my home, Mali.”

Monday, October 6 – Wednesday, October 8, 2008; Sets @ 8pm & 10:30pm
COST: $35 @ table / $20 @ bar
The Blue Note; 131 W 3rd. St, New York, NY 10012
Doors open at 6pm. Set times are 8pm and 10:30pm nightly.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/dee_dee_bridgewater_blue_note_2008

Mamak Khadem Brings Mystic Song of Persia to Rubin Museum of Art

Monday, September 29 2008 @ 02:57 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

Events

As part of the Naked Soul Series, Iranian singer Mamak Khadem will perform Mystic Song of Persia on Saturday, October 4th at 8:00 PM. The ensemble includes Mamak Khadem on vocals, daf, and setar; Hamid Saeidi on santur and vocals; and Jamshied Sharifi on piano, accordion.

Trained in the classical Persian style, Khadem adapts verses by young, contemporary Iranian poets and revered masters like Rumi and Shamloo to melodies from Iran’s classical and folk repertoires. She has honed this combination during regular and lengthy visits to study with some of Iran’s greatest teachers of the tradition. Khadem has earned invitations to perform everywhere from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., to the House of Culture in Berlin, and the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles.

While recording and performing with some of the greats of Persian music, she has also put her imprint on Hollywood with her work on film and TV soundtracks, including the films Peace Maker, The Cross, and Dracula 2000, and the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Angels, and Battlestar Galactica.

Jostojoo  (Forever Seeking), Khadem’s most recent CD, was inspired by travels to Turkey, Armenia, Greece, and remote parts of Iran. With all vocals gorgeously sung in Khadem’s native Persian, it reflects the music and culture she considers her “home” to this day.

Tickets: $30
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street * New York, NY 10011
212.620.5000 * www.rmanyc.org

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/mamak_khadem_rubin_museum

In Search of the African Banjo: A Polyrhythmic Journey to Mali and Back Again

World Music News Wire

While on his musical mecca to Africa, Jayme Stone rarely let locals know of his accolades and burgeoning recording career in North America. He went to immerse himself in the high-spirited soundscapes, the daily life and lore of Africa.  What he came home with was knowledge of two banjo ancestors never revealed before in the West, aspects of African music that eluded its American counterparts, and musical friendships that reached across continents.

“I played very little occidental music,” Stone recalls about his seven-week Malian adventure, “and was more intent on learning their craft. They thought I was some curious traveler with an ngoni that had gone through the industrial revolution. I ate with my hands out of communal bowls, braved the local transportation, and learned music on their terms.”

Jaymestone_cover Though he began searching for the banjo’s surviving ancestors, the Canadian virtuoso became curious about what aspects of African music did not make it across the ocean with slavery. “The culture of slavery in North America, which nobody likes to talk about, was clearly not the best context for an authentic and meaningful cultural transmission of music,” Stone explains. “I wanted to find out how music is made on their turf.”

The latest benchmark of this journey is Africa to Appalachia, a collaborative album with Mansa Sissoko, a griot singer and master-player of the kora (a 21 string African harp). This project was a long time in the making.  An auspicious four years before setting foot on Malian soil, Stone met Sissoko. “Not knowing how well-loved Ali Farka Toure was over there, I jokingly said I only knew one song from Mali,” remembers Stone, “and I started to play ‘Allah Uya,’ which I had learned from Toure’s Niafunke album. Sissoko lit up and immediately started singing along. Ali Farka Toure is like Bob Dylan over there and everyone knows his songs by heart. In Mali when I’d meet kids on the street corner, I’d play it. It became the ultimate icebreaker.” Now, the song can be heard on Stone and Sissoko’s upcoming release, Africa to Appalachia.

Stone realized that Sissoko was a walking encyclopedia of Malian songs, many of them learned from his mother, a griot singer from the town of Baleya. “The griot is someone who is there to play the role of blood in the society, for the society to live,” says Sissoko. “He gives life to the society, musically, using carefully chosen words.”

“With little common language between us, we turned to music for communication,” Stone recalls of his first meeting with Sissoko. “This tangible heart-to-heart connection was there immediately and I knew that he was the perfect collaborator for the project. African music is not designed to be analyzed. It is learned by doing, by immersing yourself in the sound, rhythm and story. It is participatory. This quality has deeply affected my own relationship to music, compositional philosophy, teaching and audiences. I’ve become more attuned to the communal aspect of making music, particularly the powerful effect it has on our daily lives, emotional experience, sense of ritual and feeling of belonging.”

Through this deep engagement, Stone picked up other life lessons along the way. On one recent visit, Sissoko shared something his mother had instilled in him. “When you make music, you grow a light inside your body. Other people will be attracted to you, but it’s not you they seek but this light.  Don’t mistake the two or the light will be put out.”

Stone also spent time with Mali’s premiere ngoni pioneer, Bassekou Kouyate, learning court music that dates back to the 12th century. One such song, “Bamaneyake,” sings the praises of N’dji Diarra, the once-king of Bambougo who ordered a canal to be dug from the Niger River to his village because his wife wanted to see hippos in her home town. In keeping with tradition, Sissoko chants the lineage of the king, the king’s father, and his grandfather.  But he adds his own egalitarian refrain: “Ndji!  You indeed are mighty, but let’s not forget that all of your friends have helped you. Praises for everyone!”
“There are all kind of things that never got imparted to the Americas,” says Stone. “Like these perpetual polyrhythms and supersonic melodies.  There are hints of it in old-time music, but things got repurposed, recycled into English ballads, Irish fiddle tunes, and African-American blues. Malian music is very inviting, and you can jam along quite easily, as many people have. But once you start digging deeper and learning things note-for-note, you realize there is so much more going on.”

When not absorbing everything he could from elder musicians in Bamako, Stone could be found traveling rural Mali. Unlike most outsiders sealed safely in their Land Rovers, Stone and his guide Hamadi Traore lit out from Bamako on the overheated, overcrowded poky public bus. Snapshot: fifty travelers, forty seats, babies in aisles, and occasional stops for prayer and raw yams. They winded their way through Dogon Country, a millennia-old natural escarpment considered to be one of the geologic and anthropologic wonders of the world. “I was curious to go somewhere where I had never heard recorded music from,” Stone muses. “Every time we got to a village, I would ask if there were any musicians.”

Aside from a burgeoning tourism industry, this collection of electricity-less villages remains largely untouched by the modern world. They walked from village to village, sleeping on roofs, perusing local markets, and looking for music. And they found it, in an artisan village known as Ende, where the people made and played an instrument called a konou, a rudimentary two-string banjo-like contraption made of carved wood and goat skin.

“I was told that a generation ago, fifty people in the village might have played the konou,” says Stone, “and now there was only one person left: Seydou Gindou. A sharp and cultivated young man, Seydou played music, excelled in dramatics, and headed up a coalition to preserve his local culture as it had become threatened by the lure of tourist dollars. He had never listened to a radio nor left his village.”

The incessantly rhythmic music of the konou, Stone learned, is used to cue elaborate story-songs that tell time-honored tales that border on the mythic. There was one about a boy who, upon seeing the sky hanging low, reached up to grab a star to bring light to the village. The villagers all know to listen for a change in the konou’s rhythm to move to the next segment of the story. “The startling discovery for me was Seydou’s playing technique,” says Stone. “It was identical to the old-time banjo technique known as clawhammer, made famous by Pete Seeger during the folk revival. There we were, halfway across the world, seeing first-hand the unquestionable link between Africa and the banjo as we know it.”

Stone was struck by the importance of local knowledge in Mali. “There are no maps or even street signs. There are no books and you can’t Google what is happening in a small village,” explains Stone. “You have to connect with local people on the ground. Communication is all person-to-person, very human, very local. Discoveries are down to earth and full of happenstance. That konou sure was an amazing find!” And it never would have been found without the direct experience of being there.

Ironically, Stone made a similar urban discovery in Bamako. “I started hearing about the existence of a very old, one-string predecessor of the ngoni, called a juru keleni,” remembers Stone. “I first heard about it from Cheick Oumar Mara, history professor at the National Institute of the Arts. Even a cab driver mentioned it to me, saying there might be one in the National Museum’s private collection.” Stone visited the Museum several times, each time meeting a different obstacle. The museum was unexpectedly closed. The gatekeeper for that department was absent. The key was inexplicably missing. Finally, on the day he was set to leave Mali, he tried one last time.

“I was determined to see it,” says Stone. “The man in charge of the archives said they don’t usually let people into the vaults. I got all official, and pulled out a letter from the Ontario Arts Council, who funded my research through a Chalmers Arts Fellowship. He looked at me sideways and retorted, ‘If this is so important, why did you wait until your last day to find me?’ But then he laughed teasingly, ‘Right this way.  I’ve got some instruments to show you.’”

Coming across two banjo ancestors unheard of in North America was a profound metaphor for the depth of African music still unexplored by Westerners. But the countless hours Stone spent with musicians was where much of the real work lay. A tireless practitioner, Stone became lost in the swirling, overlapping rhythms of ancient melodies, with each revolution getting one step closer to the source.

Produced by David Travers-Smith (Wailin’ Jennys), Africa to Appalachia features guest appearances by bluegrass fiddle ace Casey Driessen, celebrated ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate, and haunting vocals by Toronto’s “Snow Griot” Katenen ‘Cheka’ Dioubate.

On Africa to Appalachia, Stone and Sissoko blur the lines of time and location. Africa and America come closer together with the banjo being the bridge. The unshackled American banjo has gone back to Africa and returned with many stories left to tell.

www.worldmusicwire.com

Who Gave the Freaks the Salsa Controls? Bio Ritmo Gets All Bionic Boogaloo on You

World Music News Wire

An era of re-definition and experimentation, the seventies had a burgeoning fascination with science-fiction as the age of technology began to blossom. It was also a time of great musical innovation with the dawn of the remix, disco, and hip-hop DJ’s borrowing from all over the musical map and meshing new sounds—many of them influenced by technology—to create music that made the Me generation dance. And this was the decade that birthed the nine members of the post-salsa band Bio Ritmo, who bring that seventies style to their evolving brand of bionic Latin dance music on their latest release, Bionico.

Full of innovation, groovy throwbacks, and futuristic adaptation, the band’s latest record is what lead man Rei Alvarez calls “a logical step in our evolution.” Following their trajectory of writing original songs that stay true to the soul of salsa, Bionico takes the classic style and zaps it, electrifies it, and what comes out is a super-Latin-dance-groove still oriented in great playing. This essence is pushed further thanks to the engineering skills of multi-GRAMMY winner Jon Fausty, whose presence is heard on many of the classic salsa recordings throughout the 1970s, including most of the FANIA albums.

Bioritmo_cover “Years ago,” recounts Alvarez, “our keyboardist Marlysse came up with this riff, the montuno [the repeated piano vamp of classic salsa]. For some reason I just thought of the Bionic Man theme song, which I’ve always liked, so we put it over the riff.”

So what happens when the Bionic Man gets his salsa groove on? Just listen to “Bionic Boogaloo,” a song which Alvarez says is “purely us.” Everyone added a little piece of their own style, influences, and musical backgrounds and now Bio Ritmo, known for playing classic salsa in their own style, was playing their own style of music on a salsa foundation. The song represents a logical new era for the band. “Salsa is perfect for us; we’re such a crazy mix of people, influences, and styles. That’s what salsa is,” explains Alvarez. “We play on top of this foundation, so it’s a given that deep down it’s salsa. But now our other influences come through too.”

Experimentation is as much an evolution of the band’s personal lives as it is an aesthetic choice. “The years leading up to our last album contributed to the sad tone of my lyrics but this year I feel more positive than ever,” says Alvarez, ”and as a band we’re having more fun.” On the song “Muchacho,” Alvarez cannot resist turning his past stagnation into a message to others, preaching to himself while calling all young men to wake up, appreciate life, and take action to make their lives better. “I love how Rei plays with words,” says percussionist Giustino Riccio, “but there is always a deeper meaning. You don’t hear that in many salsa albums anymore. There is no tongue in cheekiness, often only a very superficial romantic approach. Salsa lost what it was. Rei is more salsa than salsa.”

Just as the Six Million Dollar Man was rebuilt after an accident to be a superhuman man plus machine, so Bio Ritmo is rebuilding a better Latin music machine out of bits and pieces of musical worlds colliding. The band’s players range from a formerly dreadlocked dub reggae drummer, a hardcore punk rocker, jazz, rock, disco, and Miami funk players, and a classically-trained pianist. “That’s what makes us unique; there are so many influences. We come from this generation, because of our age, and where we grew up… We’re so enriched with these influences, so many different styles and aesthetics, the places we hang out at. It’s time for all this stuff to come through,” says Alvarez.

On “A la cha,” Riccio composed a nod towards Egyptian icon Abdel Halim Hafez, adding a Middle Eastern feel. “I had no idea who he was when I picked up an album while we were on the road,” explains Riccio. “We listened to this 40-minute suite over and over. This sound eventually made it into this song. We added a great horn opening reminiscent of the Dapkings and voilà.” The band also adds an Afrobeat style coda to Bobby Valentin’s classic “Seguiras Criticando,” another example of the varied styles that influence Bio Ritmo’s sound.

The “biological and technological mixture is a concept that applies to both Bio Ritmo’s music and influences” says Rei, and Bionico is “more us than ever before. We like to sit down with an acoustic guitar or make weird sounds on a keyboard. We started out as an acoustic project. I remember one of our past band members exploding at the sound man for putting too much reverb at a show once.  But electronic music plays a big part in our taste and we’re not afraid to move in that direction.”

This comes through in wacky samples, vocal effects, and the incorporation of a circa 1970’s drum machine called the Drum Fire—an instrument with a “cult following” that produces spacey sounds and reverb-y beats that give Bionico a share of its unique flavor. In some cases the electronic beats are fused to acoustic drums making them indistinguishable.

“Bionic Boogaloo” represents a whole process of innovation for a band playing in—and busting out of—a genre hemmed in by conventions and formulas. “We appreciate now that sometimes being loose is better. Many salsa bands wouldn’t do that. They have such a polished sound. We aren’t like that. We love salsa as a musical genre and also as a beautiful soundtrack to our lives, but it’s not the only facet to our musical personalities.”

Spontaneity abounds on Bionico. What may have started as a jokingly-inserted, weird drum fill, was left in the final mix because of its fresh sound. Impulsive whistling and handclapping pop up. On “Dime Viva,” a spaced out plena, Riccio and Simmons picked up two thumb pianos that happened to be in the studio at the time and incorporated the sound.

Complementing Bionico’s retro feel is a dose of that old-school longing that defines the genre. The song “Lisandra” is a classic tale of unrequited love, but metaphorically harkens back to a time and place that are unattainable by this group of thirty-somethings living in Richmond, Virginia. The song was written on the band’s last trip to Puerto Rico, and inspired by its beautiful women. “It’s the band’s love song to the island”, says Riccio. It is “that perfect thing that you can’t ever attain, that you know you can never get. The subject of the song represents more than somebody named Lisandra; it represents our trip to Puerto Rico; we had this great time and we weren’t able to stay.” It may have a light-hearted feel, but “Lisandra” also carries a message, and this is one part of the classical salsa formula that Bio Ritmo is keeping. “I’m still sending a message, I can’t help that,” says Alvarez, “I feel a duty and a responsibility to not only be creative but to talk about something that matters. I don’t wanna talk about sexiness or dumb shit. I want to relate what I say to real life.”

www.worldmusicwire.com

Senegal’s Magical Snakes, Dancing Jesters, and Taxi Chases: Seckou Keita’s Take on a Traditional Instrument Heralds a New Dawn

World Music News Wire

Call it fate, but a bit of what was in store for Seckou Keita—one of the world’s foremost innovators on the kora (African harp-like instrument)—was already playing out when he was just a kid. The seeds of independence and adventure, which eventually led to the press alternately calling him “the Hendrix of kora” and “the Clapton of kora,” emerged at the tender age of five.

His uncle, a well-known griot in the southern Senegalese Casamance region, was asked to play at a function. Young Seckou desperately wanted to go with his uncle and play the kora with him for the expected crowd. “No!” said his uncle, “you are too young. Go inside!” Pleading with him, the boy sat crying on the front step. When his uncle finally drove off in a taxi, the boy chased him on foot, hiding behind trees when the angry driver stopped to shoo him away. Losing sight of the taxi, he didn’t give up, letting the distant sounds of the kora guide him to his uncle and the crowd he was playing for. The child grabbed an instrument, pretending to play, until the exhausted boy fell asleep on the spot and was carried off to a neighbor’s house before being returned safely to his worried family.

Seckoukeita_cover_2 It’s rare for the unrelenting, focused determination of youth to last beyond childhood. But that’s just what happened for the now-grown Keita, who continues to follow his heart’s passion by letting his ears be his guides and who has performed for worldwide audiences on over 800 stages in the past five years. Surrounded by an international cast of musicians, the Seckou Keita Quintet, SKQ, releases their newest album, The Silimbo Passage [World ArtVentures], an innovative effort that establishes a new framework for an old instrument. The album received acclaimed critical reviews in the UK with a 4-star rating in The Financial Times and The Guardian, which describes it as “a subtle and inspiring set.”

At the heart of The Silimbo Passage is the kora, the traditional stringed instrument in Mandinka society that’s typically associated with griots. Although played from Mali to Guinea Bissau, regional variations exist not only in styles of playing but also in tuning. The traditional tuning mechanism of adjustable leather straps is not easily or quickly manipulated, and if a kora player wanted to play traditional songs from more than one region, at least two koras—fairly large instruments—are usually required. Keita explains: “I wanted to change this, to see if I can tune in a way to play Gambian style or play Senegalese or Malian or Guinean styles without changing the tuning. That first started eight years back. I did one song, and got inspired.” On The Silimbo Passage, new tunings that Keita mastered since his last album Tama Silo can be heard on “Chelima,” “Fondinke,” and “Dingba Don.”

Keita performs a kind of auditory magic through innovation and, on one track, invention: he created a double-neck kora that allows several different tunings to be played on one instrument. The subtle flip between tunings can be heard on “Chelima,” where halfway through the song listeners can hear chords utilizing two different tunings systems. For many, such technical innovation—praised in the rock world with notables like Jimmy Page using a double-neck guitar in “Stairway to Heaven”—lies far outside of the “traditional music” comfort zone. But through such innovations, Keita hopes to change people’s perception of the kora as a static musical instrument.

Keita’s instrument sometimes rings with the lyricism of Western classical music, sometimes bewilders with unexpected jazz chords, and sometimes lilts with a reggae groove. “The kora is a complex instrument,” Keita elaborates, “but it is known as a very limited instrument. I want to expand the framework. Musically, it is very challenging for me. But I want to show that you can push it to this level without losing the tradition.”

True to his words, tradition rings through on the album in a way that’s deeply personal to him. The first track, “Bimo,” is consciously built around a traditional Senegalese mbalax rhythm that defined the world he grew up in. Translated colloquially as “betrayal,” the song is also a gentle warning, born of personal experience, to not let the temptations of the world betray who you are and where you came from. “Dingba Don” is built upon a whimsical and complex traditional rhythm that was typically used in celebratory dancing by jesters. And “Miniyamba” relays a generations-old story about a magical snake that assisted a pregnant woman in a time of great need, going into labor while collecting firewood. In a larger sense, the song celebrates all African women. “They work harder than we men do!” exclaims Keita with a smile in his voice.

Keita was born into the griot tradition on his mother’s side, and although he considers himself an artist rather than a griot—many of the tracks are in the griot praise tradition. “Souaressi” is a popular traditional song that Keita reinvents in his own musical voice to celebrate the well-known singer Kouyate Sory Kandia. And “Konte Djula” is a touching song Keita wrote in praise of his own grandmother, who raised him after his mother’s early death and with whom he had a very close relationship.

Keita composed and arranged many of the pieces on The Silimbo Passage, which refers to that special time of day when darkness gives way to the light of dawn, in the early morning hours. “I woke up inspired,” says Keita. The album contains a message of hope through unity. “Fonding Ké,” directly addresses African youth and all the youth of the world, in a call to put differences aside to build a future together: “I am talking to you/young hope of tomorrow./Be patient my friends/Make patience become your friend./My young friends, be patient.” Musically, the song springs from a very traditional style of Southern Senegal where Keita is from. “My village Casamance is full of different ethnicities,” Keita explains. “They have different styles of playing and the village is well-known for polyrhythms. It’s a source of music so many people go to Casamance to find music.”

The effort to create beauty out of difference is nowhere more apparent than in the makeup of his band. Keita left Senegal with his uncles at a young age to perform in a family band, but right away he was introduced to musicians from vastly different traditions. He played with musicians from Cuba, India, and Norway, and was soon approached by Italian bassist Davide Montovani, who was brought to tears by Keita’s 2001 performance at WOMAD. The two began playing together, eventually joined by Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai, Keita’s Gambian brother Surahata Susso on drums, and most recently Keita’s sister, Binta Suso, on vocals. This unique combination of musicians has given Keita’s music a new dimension, one that is unexplored yet which has a genuinely universal appeal.

“The first time I heard the song ‘Konte Djula’,” says Bishai, a classically trained musician, “I asked Seckou is it in three, four, six, eight or 12? What the hell is happening? And you know what he said… ‘Well, it is a bit of all of them really.’ That was a breakthrough moment really,” Bishai concludes with humor in his voice as he accepted the challenge. Bass-player Davide Montovani has learned that he has to turn off his thinking to play with Keita. “For me ever since I came to Africa I switch off from what I know,” says Montovani, “and I just play, play, play, until it becomes natural.”

The international combination of musicians has led to interesting musical journeys and adventures, like “Mande Arab.” In this track, Keita’s innovations, along with the violin playing of Bishai, who had never heard West African music before joining SKQ, allow him to use the kora as a kind of interpretation of history, suggesting historical cultural connections that can be illustrated in one single instrument. The track—which features Keita’s newest kora tuning—goes from a Mande musical style to a pentatonic (five-note) scale like that of the Tuareg, to an Arab/North African musical style, mixed with flamenco. “I kept dreaming about this tuning. I said, ‘There must be a line going from here to there,’” professes Keita. “I had a feeling about it for a long time. In my Quintet, I can see the musicians doing it.”

Audiences may not recognize it’s the historical interpretations peppered throughout The Silimbo Passage. And a great many listeners may not care that history is being made with Keita’s technical and musical innovations. What shines through is the beauty of the music, born from the heart and soul of a little boy chasing tradition and fulfilling his lifelong passion.

www.worldmusicwire.com/

ITUNES TOP 25 (songs)

1. So What – PINK

2. Disturbia – RIHANNA

3. Just Stand Up! – BEYONCE

4. Whatever You Like – T.I.

5. I’m Yours – JASON MRAZ

6. Paper Planes – M.I.A.

7. Hot N Cold – KATY PERRY

8. In The Ayer (feat. Will.I.am) – FLO RIDA

9. When I Grow Up – THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS

10. Viva la Vida – COLDPLAY

11. Forever – CHRIS BROWN

12. Closer – NE-YO

13. One Step At a Time – JORDIN SPARKS

14. Can’t Believe It (feat. Lil Wayne) – T-PAIN

15. Fall for You – SECONDHAND SERENADE

16. Better In Time – LEONA LEWIS

17. Love Remains the Same – GAVIN ROSSDALE

18. I Kissed a Girl – KATY PERRY

19. Crush – DAVID ARCHULETA

20. Got Money – LIL WAYNE & T-PAIN

21. Shake It – METRO STATION

22. Burnin’ Up – JONAS BROTHERS

23. Dangerous (feat. Akon) – KARDINAL OFFISHALL

24. Cyanide – METALLICA

25. Let It Rock – KEVIN RUDOLF & LIL WAYNE

UNITED WORLD CHART (albums)

1. All Hope Is Gone – SLIPKNOT

2. LAX – THE GAME

3. Mamma Mia! – SOUNDTRACK

4. Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends – COLDPLAY

5. Forth – THE VERVE

6. Point de Suture – MYLENE FARMER

7. Rock n’ Roll Jesus – KID ROCK

8. A Little Bit Longer – JONAS BROTHERS

9. Rockferry – DUFFY

10. Good Girl Gone Bad – RIHANNA

11. Gold (Greatest Hits) – ABBA

12. Best Fiction – NAMIE AMURO

13. Tha Carter III – LIL WAYNE

14. Back To Black – AMY WINEHOUSE

15. Hard Candy – MADONNA

16. Breakout – MILEY CYRUS

17. Spirit – LEONA LEWIS

18. Love On the Inside – SUGARLAND

19. Jonas Brothers – JONAS BROTHERS

20. Sol-Angel & The Hadley St. Dreams – SOLANGE

21. Camp Rock – SOUNDTRACK

22. We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. – JASON MRAZ

23. The Illusion of Progress – STAIND

24. Ultra Beatdown – DRAGONFORCE

25. Somewhere – EVA CASSIDY

BRITs Set 2009 Date

September 08, 2008 – Global

By Juliana Koranteng, London

The 2009 BRIT Awards will take place Feb. 18 at London’s Earls Court Arena.

The flagship event — the U.K. equivalent of the Grammy Awards — will again be broadcast live on ITV1, the country’s No. 1 commercial TV channel.

The list of nominees for the awards will be unveiled Jan. 20 at London venue the Roundhouse and be broadcast on ITV’s sister digital network ITV2.

Ged Doherty, chairman of the BRITs committee, said in a statement: “The success of BRITs 2008 gives us a great platform to now take it on to even greater heights.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i8f41b4ad7b54e90029a9674106ff9b77

EMI Slashes Operations in SE Asia

September 08, 2008 – Global

By Juliana Koranteng

EMI Music is shuttering its operations in a string of Southeast Asian markets, handing its distribution and marketing over to Warner Music Group (WMG).

The move, which was announced today and is effective immediately, followed several weeks of industry speculation that EMI might be scaling down its operations in Asia. Described in a statement from EMI as a “multi-year license agreement,” it will see WMG market and distribute EMI’s worldwide repertoire in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.

In Indonesia alone, Warner will handle marketing and distribution while a dedicated EMI office will continue to deal with A&R tasks for domestic repertoire — including new signings. EMI declined to comment on whether new local signings would be made in the other territories, but Billboard understands it is unlikely.

WMG will exclusively handle exclusive all physical and digital distribution of EMI Music releases.

Lachie Rutherford, Warner Music Asia Pacific’s president, said in a statement: “EMI’s artists will now be able to fully leverage our South-East Asian operations, specifically our marketing teams and vast distribution network of traditional retail, wireless and online partners, through which we’ve seen great success in recent years.”

EMI says it still plans “to develop global digital partnerships” in the territories covered by this new deal. According to EMI’s London-based president of Asia Pacific/Latin America Adrian Cheesley: “In Southeast Asia, EMI will retain a small regional team in Hong Kong to oversee the local marketing and distribution of our artists’ music, working closely with Lachie and his team.”

It is as yet unclear how many job losses are involved; however, it is understood that EMI is currently in consultation with all its employees in the affected markets. An EMI spokesperson would not disclose the staff numbers involved.

The two majors already have a partnership in place covering India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI has marketed and distributed WMG physical products since 2005. The new agreement is expected to have no impact on other Asia/Pacific markets — India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand — where EMI will continue its wholly owned operations.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ie53ddac733c873cc3c4716696ba825b3

Downtown Links With Fontana, Interscope

September 05, 2008 – Indies

By Cortney Harding, N.Y.

Downtown Records has inked an exclusive distribution deal with Fontana and has also entered a strategic relationship with Interscope Records, Billboard has learned.

Under the agreement, Interscope will provide strategic marketing and promotion for select albums. Cold War Kids, Eagles of Death Metal, Kid Sister, Mos Def, Spank Rock, Amanda Blank, Carla Bruni, MSTRKRFT, Femi Kuti, Asa and all the acts signed to Downtown’s three distributed labels-Dim Mak Records, Fools Gold Records and Mercer Street Records-will be distributed by Fontana.

Downtown acts Gnarls Barkley and Kevin Michael will remain part of the label’s existing upstreaming alliance with Atlantic Records and will continue to be actively worked by Downtown and Atlantic. Santogold, Justice (Because/Downtown) and Brett Dennen (Dualtone/Downtown) will continue to be distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance.

Not affected by the deals is Downtown’s publishing arm, which owns or controls more than 3,000 titles recorded by acts including Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus and the cast of “High School Musical 2,” as well as writer/artists signed to Downtown Records such as Dennen, Cold War Kids, Spank Rock and Carla Bruni.

The first record to be released under the new agreement will be Cold War Kids’ “Loyalty to Loyalty,” which streets Sept. 23. Downtown co-founder/CEO Josh Deutsch says that albums from Eagles of Death Metal, Mos Def, Kid Sister and MSTRKRFT are all slated for fourth-quarter releases.

“Downtown has a huge release schedule, and we’re very excited to start working the records,” Universal Music Group Distribution (UMGD) CEO Jim Urie says. “I’ve admired Josh for a long time, and we wanted them onboard.

They’re exactly the type of label we started Fontana to do business with.” Deutsch says that “Fontana has such enthusiasm for Downtown’s artists, and we have a common vision about how best to work our upcoming releases.”

A source close to the situation says that Fontana paid a $1.5 million advance for distribution, with Interscope throwing in another $1 million for its role, paid incrementally. Urie says the deal has a term of three years.

Recent releases by Downtown artists haven’t been huge sellers. The last Cold War Kids album, “Robbers & Cowards,” has sold 169,000 copies, while Eagles of Death Metal’s 2006 album, “Death by Sexy,” has moved 72,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The picture is much the same for the most recent releases from Mos Def and MSTRKRFT, who signed to Downtown and Dim Mak, respectively, during the past year. Mos Def’s “Tru3 Magic” (Geffen) has shifted 72,000 units, while MSTRKRFT’s “The Looks” (Last Gang) has moved 18,600.

Deutsch, however, stresses that sales figures provide only part of the story. “You look at the Cold War Kids and you can see a tremendous long-term artist development story,” he says. “Our roster represents the next generation of artists to cross over. I would love to see people move away from focusing on first-week and first-album sales numbers, especially when discussing developing acts.”

Deutsch points to Eagles of Death Metal, who sold 18,600 copies of their first record, 2004′s “Peace, Love and Death Metal,” and then sold nearly four times as many units of their second effort.

Urie says that “it’s good to be in business with labels like Downtown, who are hungry,” adding, “They bring great indie cred and a wonderful management team, and they are a high-visibility label.”

What can Fontana offer Downtown? “The whole concept of Fontana is different,” Urie says. “Our goal is to use all the resources that Universal has to offer. Labels have access to retail partnership marketing and nontraditional sales areas. We give indie labels the leverage and access, because we believe that Fontana is an integral part of UMGD.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i66bd53726b7c8c35ea6668d021c6e3d9

Warner Scores With Brazilian Soccer Club

September 04, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Juliana Koranteng, London

Warner Music International (WMI) has teamed up with leading Brazilian soccer club Sport Club Corinthians Paulista to create and distribute Corinthians-branded content and market WMI’s catalog to the club’s fans worldwide.

The Corinthians are Brazil’s second most popular soccer team, after Rio de Janeiro’s Flamingo, in a country where the sport is the national pastime. The club says it has a dedicated following of about 24 million fans worldwide.

The partnership will see WM Brazil create Corinthians-themed ringtones, wallpapers, video tones and mobile games for wireless distribution. In a country with a population of 192 million, mobile penetration is more than 60% at 120 million, according to the CIA World Factbook, and 3G technology is among the most developed in Latin America.

Other plans include producing the team’s official anthem in different genres, such as samba, pop and rock, and distributing full-length versions physically via CDs and digital downloads.

The two partners will jointly develop marketing campaigns in the form of mobile and online competitions and promotions.

WMI will also capitalize on the Corinthians’ global fan base by marketing its local and international repertoire to them.

“By connecting Corinthians’ fan base with our extensive digital footprint, we are also opening up an exciting opportunity to our local and international artists to reach a vast new audience,” said Sergio Affonso, WM Brazil’s president, in a statement.

Crooner Conte Unveils New Universal Album

September 04, 2008 – Global | Jazz

By Mark Worden, Milan

Veteran Italian singer/songwriter Paolo Conte unveils his new album tomorrow after changing record labels at the age of 71 to join Universal Music Italy.

The veteran artist, who had been with CGD/ Warner Music Italy for most of his recording career, unveils his first album with his new label, “Psiche,” at a live show at the Salle de Peyel in Paris tomorrow (Sept. 5). The album is scheduled for European release Sept. 19; Universal Music Italy says it is currently looking at licensing deals for North America.

Conte, who started out as a small-town lawyer in Asti (northern Italy), penned hits for Italian actor/singer Adriano Celentano and singer Patty Pravo during the 1960s and 1970s before making his recording debut in 1974.

He released five albums with RCA between 1974 to 1982, before signing with CGD in 1984. CGD had been an independent Italian label since the late 1950s before it was sold to Warner in 1988.

Pianist Conte’s jazzy musical stylings and debonair stage personality have won him a considerable following in France and other European territories. U.S., movie fans would have come across his hits in soundtracks for Hollywood films “Mickey Blue Eyes,” “Welcome to Collingwood” (itself a remake of 1958 Italian movie “Il Soliti Ignoti”), and the 2007 Catherine Zeta-Jones vehicle “No Reservations.”

Long a top-selling act in his homeland, Conte’s debut release in the United States came in 1998 with a self-titled compilation album released through Warner Music.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic8fa818f78acd5776664f2ad256df9d9

Universal Australia Scores Classical Chart Record

September 04, 2008 – Global

By Christie Eliezer, Melbourne

Universal Music Australia has set a chart record on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Classical album listing by taking every place in the Top 20 with its own labels or distributed product.

Dutch violin player Andre Rieu occupies positions No. 2 to No. 9, with his latest release “Romantic Nights” debuting at No.12.

Rieu has been a phenomenon Down Under: he has sold 2 million units of CDs and DVDs in the market since Universal took over local distribution in 2005, the label’s Sydney-based general manager of commercial affairs Rod Cameron tells Billboard.biz.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, who toured Australia last month with his Serendipity Tours, holds No.1 spot with “Vivere,” while his “Romanza” and “Tuscan Skies” re-entered at No.15 and No.16.

Other titles include Sting and lute virtuoso Edin Karamazov’s “Songs From The Labyrinth” at No.11, and soundtracks from the musicals “Wicked” and “Phantom Of The Opera” and Aussie imprint ABC Classics’ “Folklorica” and “Dads Love Classics.”

Universal labels releasing classical music Down Under include Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips and UCJ; it currently accounts for 70% of the territory’s classical-music market, according to retailers’ estimates.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic8fa818f78acd577ec7fd3f93d199355

 Blogger Arrested Over Guns N’ Roses Leaks

August 27, 2008 – Rock and Pop

By Associated Press

Federal authorities say they have arrested a blogger suspected of streaming songs from Guns N’ Roses unreleased album, “Chinese Democracy,” on his Web site.

FBI agents arrested 27-year-old Kevin Cogill this morning (Aug. 27) on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. Federal authorities say Cogill posted nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on Antiquiet.com in June. The songs were later removed but spread quickly across the Internet.

According to an arrest affidavit, Cogill admitted to agents that he posted the songs on his Web site.

“Chinese Democracy” has been in the works for more than a decade, with frontman Axl Rose the only remaining original member of the once mighty group. Rumblings that the album may finally be out this fall, possibly as a Best Buy exclusive, have not been confirmed by Guns N’ Roses or its management.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3id8dfe313e4e793c7decaf6c7e05a4d6b

BMI Posts $901 Million Annual Revenue

August 25, 2008 – Publishing

By Ed Christman, N.Y.

BMI kept alive its 24-year record-breaking revenue and payouts streak by posting $901 million in revenues for the fiscal year ended June 30, a 7.4% increase from what it collected in the prior year.

What’s more, BMI will disperse $786 million to songwriters, composers and copyright owners, an 8% increase over the prior year. Both figures represent milestones for the organization. Of that $901 million, $664 million, or 73.7%, came from domestic license income while $238 million, or 26.3%, came from international revenues.

Breaking out BMI domestic revenue, cable and satellite radio and television accounted for $208 million, or 23.1%. Traditional broadcast radio and television accounted for $340 million, or 38%, of revenue. General licensing income (i.e. stores, bars, etc.) generated $97 million, or 11%, of BMI revenue. New media revenues like ringbacks and licensing to social networks garnered $15 million last year.

BMI’s President & CEO Del Bryant pointed out that BMI has consistently embraced new media businesses that use music, using innovative licensing solutions to permit those companies to reach new audiences, while assuring fair compensation to creators and copyright owners.

“Our pro-technology and pro-business attitude has made it possible for BMI to continue to grow our revenues more than 7% each year, on average over the past 10 years, almost doubling our income in that period,” Bryant said.

During the year, BMI added more than 30,000 new songwriters and composers to its roll, which now total 375,000.

“BMI has been extraordinarily successful in signing the brightest and most popular new music creators across all genres, building upon a repertoire that already includes the most beloved songs of America’s legendary songwriters and composers,” Bryant said.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i67f2ad037eba0dd61c1ca0de0dafa37e

Italian Indie Label Plots U.S. Expansion

August 27, 2008 – Global

By Leila Cobo, Miami

Italian indie Planet Records, which has pioneered the entry of multiple tropical acts into the European market, is opening offices in the United States by the beginning of 2009.

Planet, which licensed the likes of Monchy & Alexandra and Papi Sanchez in Europe, is perhaps best-known for its success with Aventura. The urban-bachata group first found European success via Planet, which licensed their albums and took their song “Obsesión” to No. 1 on the Italian charts. “Obsesión” would eventually reach No. 1 on the Eurochart.

Planet has already signed several artists for the U.S. market and plans to release albums by Papi Sanchez, Kinito Mendez and Juan Formell y Los Van Van, among others, by November.

Although Planet’s offices are not officially open yet, the label has already begun to operate with veteran Al Zamora heading radio promotion and Glitter Promotions for press and publicity.

Planet founder Roberto Ferrante will head operations, commuting between Italy and Miami.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3id8dfe313e4e793c7e2d30a4741f84da8

Wippit Was Victim Of Playing By The Rules, Says Analyst

September 05, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Juliana Koranteng, London

A leading U.K. analyst suggests that this week’s collapse of the U.K.’s first legal file-sharing music and entertainment service, Wippit, proves that complying with rights-owners demands does not always pay off.

The service’s founder Paul Myers, who stepped down from his post as Wippit CEO last year, “was a first mover in the Internet-access business, who played by the rules and paid a price for that,” U.K.-based Jupiter Research senior analyst/director Mark Mulligan tells Billboard.biz.

Wippit announced its closure Sept. 3 on its Web site through a statement saying: “After eight years of pushing digital boundaries, Wippit can no longer compete in the current climate.”

Mulligan suggests Wippit suffered from Myers’ decision from day one to stay firmly on-side with labels, rather than adopting the tactic of certain other services of launching an illegal offering first then using an established audience as leverage to get label licenses.

Mulligan also posted a note on Jupiter’s Web site (www.jupiterresearch.com) saying that Myers “ultimately didn’t get the licenses he needed and Wippit was left as a well-meaning but ultimately compromised offering that never really managed to achieve mass-market share.”

Myers, an entrepreneur who co-founded the U.K.’s first free Internet service provider X-stream, launched Wippit in 2000 with catalog from the four major labels and indies. He could not be contacted for any comment on job losses or the financial implications of the closure.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i187b1de8cecc50d01046cc268baaee65

Beijing’s Modern Sky Festival Returns

September 04, 2008 – Global | Touring

By Berwin Song, Beijing

Beijing-based independent rock label Modern Sky will hold its second annual Modern Sky Festival on Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Beijing’s Haidian Park — China’s first outdoor concert event since security concerns around the Beijing Olympics led to several being postponed or cancelled (Billboard.biz, May 30).

A statement posted on the label’s website reads: “the Modern Sky Festival will return on time for the ‘Shi-Yi (Oct.1, National Day)’ holiday.”

Performances will be held on two band stages and one DJ stage, but the artist line-up has yet to be announced. Although the label claims it had considered Lou Reed, Blonde Redhead, and Bright Eyes as possible headliners, the online statement says it has “cancelled” those plans.

While Modern Sky CEO Shen Lihui said in the statement that it was “regrettable” that the international performers could not be invited, he added: “for the young Modern Sky Festival, the important thing is its annual continuation and growth.” No reason has been give for the decision not to invite overseas performers.

Last year’s inaugural festival was designed to celebrate the label’s 10th anniversary. It was also held at Haidian Park over three days around the October 1 National Day holiday.

The line-up featured more than 120 Chinese bands on four stages, with New York City-based Yeah Yeah Yeahs headlining. The label reported that over 50,000 people attended.

It appears the Modern Sky Festival will effectively serve as this year’s replacement for the Midi Music Festival, the longest-running outdoor pop/rock music event on China’s festival calendar. As previously reported, this year’s Midi Festival was cancelled in May due to security concerns around the Beijing Olympic Games. No rescheduled date has been announced.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic8fa818f78acd577eccbddc69d77fdf7

Metallica Goes Paperless In U.K.

September 03, 2008 – Global | Touring

By Juliana Koranteng, London

Metallica has become the first act to use Ticketmaster’s ground-breaking paperless ticketing system in Europe.

The system, introduced commercially in the United States with Tom Waits’ U.S. theater tour earlier this year, makes its European debut when Metallica uses its charity-benefiting “fan party” at London’s O2 Arena on Sept. 15.to launch its new album “Death Magnetic” (Vertigo).

The 15,000 capacity show is only available to Metallica’s official fan club members and subscribers to the band’s missionmetallica.com Web site. Tickets, priced at £5 ($8.93), went on sale Sept. 1 and are close to selling out, according to Ticketmaster.

The show is promoted by London-based Kilimanjaro Live and AEG. Fans also had the option to buy conventional tickets. “Paperless ticketing means no box-office collection queues for these tickets with entry being given on the swipe of the credit card used for the book and photo ID checked by venue staff,” said Ticketmaster U.K. managing director Chris Edmonds in a statement. “This benefits both the consumer and the venue allowing secure, smooth and fast entry to events.”

Kilimanjaro CEO Stuart Galbraith added: “by working closely with Ticketmaster and the Paperless Ticket technology, we can deliver the band’s wishes and minimize the possibility of charitable tickets being resold in the secondary market.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i496ceda549540e4d7544adaab6a04433

T-Pain Named Top Songwriter at BMI Urban Awards

September 04, 2008 – Publishing | RB Hip-Hop

By Gail Mitchell, L.A.

With eight songs on BMI’s most-performed list, songwriter/artist T-Pain was honored earlier this evening (Sept. 4) as the performing rights organization’s songwriter of the year. The presentation took place during BMI’s annual Urban Awards show, held at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills and hosted by BMI’s president/CEO Del Bryant and VP, writer/publisher relations, Atlanta Catherine Brewton.

T-Pain also shared producer of the year kudos with fellow producers Jonathan “J.R.” Rotem and Kanye West. Rounding out the list of BMI’s top urban producers were DJ Montay, Mr. ColliPark, Polow Da Don, Rodney Jerkins, Soulja Boy Tell’em and will.i.am.

Earning the statuette for song of the year was Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable,” co-written by Ne-Yo, Amund Bjoerklund and Espen Lind. Claiming the publisher of the year title was Universal Music Publishing Group, with 20 hits on the most-performed list.

Among the eight BMI songs that featured T-Pain’s songwriting contributions are “Bartender,” “Low,” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’),” “Kiss Kiss” and “Good Life.”

After multiple trips to the podium to accept his several awards, T-Pain jokingly commented: “Being that I received all these awards tonight, I’m not picking up another fucking pen for the rest of my life.”

Also recognized during the ceremony were the BMI-affiliated writers whose songs reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and The Billboard Hot 100 charts during the past year. That list of winning songs included Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” West’s “Stronger” and Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls.”

The evening’s highlight was a musical tribute to the Jacksons, who were presented with the BMI Icon Award. Though many attendees held out hope that Michael Jackson would make a surprise appearance during BMI’s salute to the Jacksons, he ultimately did not. Also noticeably absent was Jermaine Jackson, as the Jacksons (Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Randy) worked the red carpet and later stood on stage.

However, those absences didn’t dampen audience spirit as the JabbaWockeeZ, winners of MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,” performed the first of several Jackson hits. Wearing metallic face masks and large, curly Afro wigs, the troupe earned a standing ovation for its high-stepping on “Dance Machine.” Also earning enthusiastic responses were newcomer R&B quartet O.N.E. doing “I Want You Back,” JoJo and Lloyd dueting on “I’ll Be There,” Mario cutting loose on “Heartbreak Hotel,” Keri Hilson belting out “Who’s Loving You” and Lloyd, Ray J and Mario coming together on the closing tribute number, “Never Can Say Goodbye.”

Halfway through that song, an emotional Janet Jackson surprised the room as she came onstage to present the Icon award to her siblings. On the red carpet, Marlon told Billboard he thanked BMI for being the “only organization to honor the Jackson legacy” in this way. Calling it an incredible night after accepting the award , Marlon also thanked the “creator for blessing this family with the musical gifts that we have. We are very honored to receive this award and please keep supporting us.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i66bd53726b7c8c35639d3414c823aabf

Rodgers & Hammerstein Show Tunes Catalog For Sale

September 02, 2008 – Publishing

By Reuters

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization is in talks to sell its catalog of Broadway musical show tunes and standards to major music companies for between $150 million and $200 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing are all looking over the catalog, which includes songs from shows including “The Sound of Music,” “The King and I” and “South Pacific.”

The catalog includes over 3,000 songs by founder songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and nearly 100 other writers like Irving Berlin and Lorenz Hart.

The company is said to be looking for more than $250 million, according to the people who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity. But several of these people expressed doubt that music company bids for Rodgers & Hammerstein would go higher than $200 million.

The Rodgers & Hammerstein catalog has also attracted interest from hedge funds and private equity companies, which are attracted to song publishing assets as a soure of regular cash flows through song licensing.

Rodgers & Hammerstein spokesman Bert Fink declined to comment on the matter.

Publishing companies can make new revenue from catalog assets by licensing show tunes for use in a range of outlets such as advertising, video and television, in a process known as synchronization.

“This catalog has not been exploited to its full potential,” said one person.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i9e7f602573f2a544563a855be4d10444

West Prepping New Album

September 04, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop

By Hillary Crosley, N.Y.

In addition to crafting tracks for Jay-Z’s upcoming album, “Blueprint III,” Kanye West is hatching the release of his own as-yet-untitled album, according to his management.

West initially named his fourth album “Good Ass Job” several years ago, to follow the thread of “College Dropout,” “Late Registration” and “Graduation”; however, an official title has yet to be confirmed.

Still, the LP may well hit shelves this fourth quarter and management says West is seriously contemplating that timeline. Most recently, the MC has been performing a new track called “Love Lockdown,” which is rumored to be his first single.

MTV also announced West as a performer on the upcoming Video Music Awards. This announcement follows the MC’s vow to never perform on the VMA’s again after his performance was relegated to a side stage instead of the production’s main hall. The Video Music Awards air September 7.

West’s label Def Jam was unavailable for comment

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i0c67f62c8fff2860b6284c7bcaee0c50

Kanye West Salutes Obama At DNC Party

August 28, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop

By Associated Press

Kanye West’s regret on the day Barack Obama was nominated for president: That his mother, Donda, hadn’t lived to experience it.

“It’s an incredible time to be around. I wish my momma could have seen this day,” the 31-year-old rapper told a crowd gathered for his performance early this morning (Aug. 28) in Denver.

Jamie Foxx then joined West onstage and delivered what was easily the strangest Obama song dedication at this week’s Democratic National Convention.

“We make history, man,” Foxx declared at the ONE campaign party. “With Obama, we make history. If you ready for Obama, make some noise. Yo man, let’s do this for Obama.”

Nobody said politics and entertainment always mix smoothly. The pair then launched into their hit “Gold Digger,” about money-grubbing women.

The party, sponsored by Bono’s ONE anti-poverty campaign and the Recording Industry Association of America, drew celebrities including Forest Whitaker and Ashley Judd, who arrived with Foxx waving an American flag. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle also walked the red carpet.

Some, including Daschle, left the club before West took the stage and roared through hits such as “Touch the Sky,” “Home” and “Stronger.”

Backed by a band clad in black outfits that seemed inspired both by Mad Max and the riot police ringing the convention arena, the hip-hop star also tried out two new songs he said he’d written in the past several days — both more focused on relationships and heartbreak than politics.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i1ceb4468ca0772e71e80632398a5e38b

CRITICS’ CHOICE

New CDs

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: September 7, 2008

EMILíANA TORRINI 
”Me and Armini“
(Rough Trade)

On her enchanting 2005 album “Fisherman’s Woman,” the singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini sang small, ruminative songs in an intimate hush. She seemed watchful and a bit careful, with the stir of stringed instruments framing her voice like a cushion beneath a gem. So it’s no surprise that Ms. Torrini begins a song on “Me and Armini” with an airy suggestion – “Let’s stay awake/And listen to the dark” – against a fingerpicked acoustic guitar. The sound, like the image, feels right.

But that’s just one moment on this new album, which presents Ms. Torrini as a bold eclectic, musically and emotionally. Produced by her longtime collaborator Dan Carey, “Me and Armini” includes electronic textures and jostling grooves, along with spacious reverb. Its title track is a portrait of obsessive infatuation, set over a deceptively breezy reggae lilt. Another hymn to dislocated affection, “Ha Ha,” pairs its spiteful lyrics with a brooding guitar part traceable to the Velvet Underground. A song called “Big Jumps” literally urges risk taking, before yielding to a chorus of multitracked nonsense syllables.

A native of Iceland, Ms. Torrini must endure her share of Bjork comparisons, especially since she has dabbled in trip-hop and electronica. Here, on “Ha Ha” and the archly seductive track “Gun,” she suggests another steely chanteuse, Keren Ann. And “Me and Armini,” with its palatably diverse array of moods, has a parallel in “The Reminder,” which propelled a certain Canadian named Feist into the pop mainstream.

What sets Ms. Torrini apart, if ever so slightly, is her incisive way with romance. She captures the bloom and decay of love with equal vigor. Smack in the center of the album are two songs in which she observes a thrashing in her ribcage. “My heart is beating like a jungle drum,” she cries, giddily, in one. Then, at the outset of the next: “Hold heart, don’t beat so loud/For me keep your calm/As he walks out on you.” NATE CHINEN

BOBO STENSON TRIO
 “Cantando” (ECM)


This record, by the Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson, embodies two qualities that usually don’t go together: extreme breadth and extreme humility. Often when a jazz bandleader serves up a program as mixed as “Cantando” – folk song, an Ornette Coleman jazz tune, lieder, tango, free improvisation – he wants to show you that he has a battling spirit: he can’t be classified; he hasn’t bought into any particular aesthetic. An assertiveness of touch tends to go along with that.

But Mr. Stenson makes fairly sublime piano-trio records without over-arranging, over-playing or over-bandleading. In his mid-60s now, he’s the repository of half a century of the development of free jazz, in particular the European post-’60s kind, with its folk and classical leanings. Yet he wears it all lightly. In his recent records you don’t hear strategies or contentions, but a natural working flow.

On “Cantando” he’s comfortable sharing equal space with his long-time bassist, Anders Jormin, and his new drummer, Jon Falt. It’s a thoughtful, moderate performance, using bass and drums more for coordinated melodic counterpoint and color than for groove or swing. And this moderation continues for nearly 80 minutes: “Song of Ruth,” a beautiful melody by the Czech composer Petr Eben (so beautiful it appears in two versions here) has the same quiet confidence as “Pages,” a long track made up of several different free trio improvisations fused together. It’s all relatively quiet music, and not too stylized. It’s pulsating, lumpy with long improvised phrases; it’s alive. BEN RATLIFF

Big Boi’s Balance of Body and Soul

By NATE CHINEN

Published: September 5, 2008

JOB losses, gas prices, the health care crisis: these aren’t the usual agenda items for a mainstream hip-hop single. But they all play a role in “Sumthin’s Gotta Give,” from the forthcoming solo album by Big Boi of OutKast. And they aren’t the only issues raised.

The album – “Sir Luscious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty” (LaFace/Zomba), due out next month – strikes a self-conscious balance among mind, body and soul. It has aspirations beyond the dance floor, though it has strong commercial ambitions too.

“Since Day 1 being in OutKast me and Dre didn’t want to seem preachy,” Big Boi said in a recent interview. (Dre is shorthand for André 3000, his lankier partner in the duo.) He pointed to a history of socially conscious party tracks that runs back to “Git Up, Git Out,” a self-help exhortation from OutKast’s 1994 debut, and includes parts of his half of the group’s blockbuster double album from 2003.

But “Sir Luscious Leftfoot” presents a starker dichotomy between hard times and a good time, as “Sumthin’s Gotta Give” illustrates. “Across the world they live in fear,” Mary J. Blige cries in the song’s chorus, “but it’s the same thing over here.” Another single from the album, “Royal Flush,” features guest verses from André 3000 and Raekwon; together with Big Boi, they touch on a host of contemporary issues, over a funky bass line.

“You can come with the record that people are just going to dance to,” Big Boi said. (He allowed that the new tracks that were guest-produced by Scott Storch and Lil Jon, as opposed to the longtime OutKast collaborators Organized Noize, fall under this heading.) “But with the social and economic climate of the world right now,” he added, “I feel responsible. With us it’s always been a responsibility to make people think.”

He caught himself. “I keep saying ‘we,’ even though it’s a solo album. Me and Dre are like brothers, man. I’m putting this solo disc out, and then we’re going to come back with the next OutKast record.”

From a Field in the Country with Bob Marley to a Day of Peace in Kenya: Reggae Legend Burning Spear Lives Marcus Garvey’s Message of Self-Reliance and African Unity on Independent Release Jah is Real

World Music News Wire

August 19, 2008

Reggae legend Burning Spear has been through more than his share of trials, but the biggest test of Spear’s positive message of unity, peace, and love came on his first trip to Kenya last year.

The country had been rocked with violence when a bitter election campaign sparked intergroup conflict that raged for months. The United Nations called on Spear, who had adopted at the start of his career the nom de guerre of Kenyan freedom fighter and first president Jomo Kenyatta, to perform in Nairobi. Spear was welcomed like a long-lost king and stayed on the spot where Kenyatta fought for the country’s independence from the U.K. Nonetheless, the concert organizer was so nervous about the potential for bloodshed among listeners that she was sick to her stomach.

 ”Kenya was really rough at that time; people bang against people,” Spear recalls, in his Jamaican accent. “All the guys were fighting each other, hurting each other in some viscous and terrible ways.” But the 65,000 Kenyans gathered at the outdoor venue came together peacefully, waved their flags, and walked home without incident. “I bring them together for about three hours. They were hugging and jumping up together. One can see the force of the music.”

This force is evident on Spear’s new album, Jah is Real (Burning Music), the latest in a long, productive career that began with a chance meeting with Bob Marley and has finally reached a place of peace and self-sufficiency that shows the relevance of Marcus Garvey in the age of the Internet.

Burning Spear’s musical journey began in a field in his home parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, where he ran into Bob Marley and struck up a conversation about breaking into the music world. “Bob was traveling with a donkey and all these various plants. We were there talking,” Spear explains. “Bob was young, dreadlocks just start to spring. I was asking Bob how I could get started and where could I go to get that start. He asked me if I know Studio One.”

Studio One was the Kingston-based center of the Jamaican music storm brewing in the 1960s and 1970s, often compared to Motown. Its main producer, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, was one of the first people to hear Burning Spear’s songs, and he asked him to come back and record. Spear was so excited, he returned to Studio One early the next morning. “When I get there so early, the place didn’t seem open. I was so anxious. I stood there until the place open and musicians show up. I go in, do my thing. It came out sounding good,” so good that Spear eventually cut four singles and two albums for the label.

But despite Spear’s strong songs and growing popularity, getting paid for his work became a nightmare. After repeatedly wrangling with Dodd, Spear sighs, “I just get fed up and decided to stop going. Then I start to think, ‘Because I am a Rastaman, that is why Mr. Dodd is not doing what he should do for me.’ So I decided to cut my dreadlock and back to Studio One, thinking I am doing the right thing. It became worse. It became worse.”

Discouraged, Spear headed back home and chilled on the beach until his singing attracted the attention of young producer Jack Ruby. With Ruby, Spear cut one of reggae’s most important records, Marcus Garvey, which set the musical tone and message for Spear’s long career. Garvey, philosopher, activist, orator, and prophet to Rastafarians, became one of Spear’s greatest inspirations, and he still reads Garvey’s writings on a daily basis. Garvey’s message of self-reliance, economic independence, and self-respect gradually took on new meaning for Spear as his career blossomed, yet he reaped none of the benefits.

After years on the road, multiple successful albums, and endless hard work, Spear found himself back in Jamaica in the 1980s, struggling to provide the basics for his family. Labels, distributors, and booking agents along the way bilked Spear of payment for his music. He began to realize that he had to go into business for himself to gain the respect he deserved: “I insist that I need to own something. I would do anything which is good to own something. But it take time and patience and discipline.” Much as Marley did when he founded Tuff Gong, Spear knew he had to apply Garvey’s teachings to the business end of his music and he has succeeded. While much has been said about new models for independent musicians in the age of the Internet, Spear is one of the few who has come to it from the teaching of a Black nationalist.

Last year on his blog (yes, the 63-year old has an eight-year old blog), Burning Spear wrote, “You cannot remain silent while people trample on your rights. For year reggae artist have been going through hell. None ‘as any respect for us. Records label continue to collect our publishing, and royalty without paying us, even when agreements are up. Then when I man manufacture my own CDs and watch as this illegal Distribution label start to control all what mines. I decided I would no longer be silent’s.”

Now thriving in Queens, New York as an independent artist and a vital Rasta elder, Spear is done with compromise: No shady industry shenanigans, no bikini-clad babes on the cover, no nonsense, just good solid music, thanks in part to America’s founding funk fathers Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell, who appear on Jah is Real, and a remix of “Step It” by Brian Hardgroove of Public Enemy fame. Spear has made it his mission to remind both staunch fans and new listeners of their historical and musical roots, drawing on his own experience.

“Grandfather” reminds listeners of slavery’s mark on places like the Carolinas, a mark that Spear feels too many have forgotten, as proven by media reports of enslaved workers on Long Island and nooses hung on doorknobs. “Stick with the Plan,” harkening back to the days of Studio One when Spear cut his hair, reminds listeners that “We can’t turn our back on our trail, the original trail.”

“One Africa” reflects the lessons Spear learned while in Kenya, and asks African leaders to band together and look forward, setting aside old grievances for the good of all.  His social involvement in Kenya is reminiscent of the time he wrote “First Lady,” which called for Jamaica to elect its first female prime minister and which appeared on the album Our Music. When Portia Simpson-Miller became the country’s first female head of state, she insisted on meeting Spear personally, with tears in her eyes. Spear’s wife and manager Sonia Rodney recalls Simpson-Miller saying, “Burning Spear, people don’t know you, they don’t know what you do for Jamaica.”

It’s striking that in a year when an African-American of Kenyan descent secured the Democratic nomination and the most successful woman’s bid for the U.S. presidency occurred, Burning Spear releases an album that continues his multi-decade career calling for justice and unity. It turns out the man in the hills was ahead of his time and America is finally catching up with him on Jah is Real.

http://www.worldmusicwire.com/2008/08/19/index.html

Senegal’s Magical Snakes, Dancing Jesters, and Taxi Chases: Seckou Keita’s Take on a Traditional Instrument Heralds a New Dawn

World Music News Wire

September 3, 2008

Call it fate, but a bit of what was in store for Seckou Keita-one of the world’s foremost innovators on the kora (African harp-like instrument)-was already playing out when he was just a kid. The seeds of independence and adventure, which eventually led to the press alternately calling him “the Hendrix of kora” and “the Clapton of kora,” emerged at the tender age of five.

His uncle, a well-known griot in the southern Senegalese Casamance region, was asked to play at a function. Young Seckou desperately wanted to go with his uncle and play the kora with him for the expected crowd. “No!” said his uncle, “you are too young. Go inside!” Pleading with him, the boy sat crying on the front step. When his uncle finally drove off in a taxi, the boy chased him on foot, hiding behind trees when the angry driver stopped to shoo him away. Losing sight of the taxi, he didn’t give up, letting the distant sounds of the kora guide him to his uncle and the crowd he was playing for. The child grabbed an instrument, pretending to play, until the exhausted boy fell asleep on the spot and was carried off to a neighbor’s house before being returned safely to his worried family.


            It’s rare for the unrelenting, focused determination of youth to last beyond childhood. But that’s just what happened for the now-grown Keita, who continues to follow his heart’s passion by letting his ears be his guides and who has performed for worldwide audiences on over 800 stages in the past five years. Surrounded by an international cast of musicians, the Seckou Keita Quintet, SKQ, releases their newest album, The Silimbo Passage [World ArtVentures], an innovative effort that establishes a new framework for an old instrument. The album received acclaimed critical reviews in the UK with a 4-star rating in The Financial Times and The Guardian, which describes it as “a subtle and inspiring set.”



At the heart of The Silimbo Passage is the kora, the traditional stringed instrument in Mandinka society that’s typically associated with griots. Although played from Mali to Guinea Bissau, regional variations exist not only in styles of playing but also in tuning. The traditional tuning mechanism of adjustable leather straps is not easily or quickly manipulated, and if a kora player wanted to play traditional songs from more than one region, at least two koras-fairly large instruments-are usually required. Keita explains: “I wanted to change this, to see if I can tune in a way to play Gambian style or play Senegalese or Malian or Guinean styles without changing the tuning. That first started eight years back. I did one song, and got inspired.” On The Silimbo Passage, new tunings that Keita mastered since his last album Tama Silo can be heard on “Chelima,” “Fondinke,” and “Dingba Don.”



Keita performs a kind of auditory magic through innovation and, on one track, invention: he created a double-neck kora that allows several different tunings to be played on one instrument. The subtle flip between tunings can be heard on “Chelima,” where halfway through the song listeners can hear chords utilizing two different tunings systems. For many, such technical innovation-praised in the rock world with notables like Jimmy Page using a double-neck guitar in “Stairway to Heaven”-lies far outside of the “traditional music” comfort zone. But through such innovations, Keita hopes to change people’s perception of the kora as a static musical instrument.



Keita’s instrument sometimes rings with the lyricism of Western classical music, sometimes bewilders with unexpected jazz chords, and sometimes lilts with a reggae groove. “The kora is a complex instrument,” Keita elaborates, “but it is known as a very limited instrument. I want to expand the framework. Musically, it is very challenging for me. But I want to show that you can push it to this level without losing the tradition.”



True to his words, tradition rings through on the album in a way that’s deeply personal to him. The first track, “Bimo,” is consciously built around a traditional Senegalese mbalax rhythm that defined the world he grew up in. Translated colloquially as “betrayal,” the song is also a gentle warning, born of personal experience, to not let the temptations of the world betray who you are and where you came from. “Dingba Don” is built upon a whimsical and complex traditional rhythm that was typically used in celebratory dancing by jesters. And “Miniyamba” relays a generations-old story about a magical snake that assisted a pregnant woman in a time of great need, going into labor while collecting firewood. In a larger sense, the song celebrates all African women. “They work harder than we men do!” exclaims Keita with a smile in his voice.



Keita was born into the griot tradition on his mother’s side, and although he considers himself an artist rather than a griot-many of the tracks are in the griot praise tradition. “Souaressi” is a popular traditional song that Keita reinvents in his own musical voice to celebrate the well-known singer Kouyate Sory Kandia. And “Konte Djula” is a touching song Keita wrote in praise of his own grandmother, who raised him after his mother’s early death and with whom he had a very close relationship.



Keita composed and arranged many of the pieces on The Silimbo Passage, which refers to that special time of day when darkness gives way to the light of dawn, in the early morning hours. “I woke up inspired,” says Keita. The album contains a message of hope through unity. “Fonding Ké,” directly addresses African youth and all the youth of the world, in a call to put differences aside to build a future together: “I am talking to you/young hope of tomorrow./Be patient my friends/Make patience become your friend./My young friends, be patient.” Musically, the song springs from a very traditional style of Southern Senegal where Keita is from. “My village Casamance is full of different ethnicities,” Keita explains. “They have different styles of playing and the village is well-known for polyrhythms. It’s a source of music so many people go to Casamance to find music.”



The effort to create beauty out of difference is nowhere more apparent than in the makeup of his band. Keita left Senegal with his uncles at a young age to perform in a family band, but right away he was introduced to musicians from vastly different traditions. He played with musicians from Cuba, India, and Norway, and was soon approached by Italian bassist Davide Montovani, who was brought to tears by Keita’s 2001 performance at WOMAD. The two began playing together, eventually joined by Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai, Keita’s Gambian brother Surahata Susso on drums, and most recently Keita’s sister, Binta Suso, on vocals. This unique combination of musicians has given Keita’s music a new dimension, one that is unexplored yet which has a genuinely universal appeal.



“The first time I heard the song ‘Konte Djula’,” says Bishai, a classically trained musician, “I asked Seckou is it in three, four, six, eight or 12? What the hell is happening? And you know what he said… ‘Well, it is a bit of all of them really.’ That was a breakthrough moment really,” Bishai concludes with humor in his voice as he accepted the challenge. Bass-player Davide Montovani has learned that he has to turn off his thinking to play with Keita. “For me ever since I came to Africa I switch off from what I know,” says Montovani, “and I just play, play, play, until it becomes natural.”



The international combination of musicians has led to interesting musical journeys and adventures, like “Mande Arab.” In this track, Keita’s innovations, along with the violin playing of Bishai, who had never heard West African music before joining SKQ, allow him to use the kora as a kind of interpretation of history, suggesting historical cultural connections that can be illustrated in one single instrument. The track-which features Keita’s newest kora tuning-goes from a Mande musical style to a pentatonic (five-note) scale like that of the Tuareg, to an Arab/North African musical style, mixed with flamenco. “I kept dreaming about this tuning. I said, ‘There must be a line going from here to there,’” professes Keita. “I had a feeling about it for a long time. In my Quintet, I can see the musicians doing it.”



Audiences may not recognize it’s the historical interpretations peppered throughout The Silimbo Passage. And a great many listeners may not care that history is being made with Keita’s technical and musical innovations. What shines through is the beauty of the music, born from the heart and soul of a little boy chasing tradition and fulfilling his lifelong passion.

http://www.worldmusicwire.com/2008/09/03/index.html

This week on Celt in a Twist

September 6, 2008 Radio Production No Comments

Download our podcast this week, or tune in to AM1470 Sunday, September 7, at 4 pm, (Metro Vancouver area) and you’ll hear these great Celtic artists! Click on the band names to go to their websites (and maybe buy one of their albums).

-Village Band

-Boiled in Lead

-Glenn Graham

-Cara Luft

-The Finlay MacDonald Band

-Feufollet

-Mark Knopfler

-Serras

-Flogging Molly

-Baka Beyond

-Breabach

http://calcopyrite.com/

The voice, the legend, of Rupa

September 8, 2008 Industry No Comments

The Times of India has a nice background piece on world musician Rupa. It describes how she has given

gypsy swing to the Indian ragas. When Rupa sings her favourite song, La Pêcheuse (The Fisherwoman) in French, her voice has a tangy multicultural echo. Currently, Rupa and her band April Fishes are swaying the alternative music scene in the US. She’s the songwriter and bandleader, and also plays the guitar, but she’s quick to say, “Every new song starts in my stomach!” 
 

With smooth easiness, she shifts her songs between a multitude of languages – French, Spanish, English and Hindi! And there’s uniqueness in her narrative, her music has a strange ability to stimulate and soothe. Caught amidst high media frenzy in the US, Rupa admits her life as a musical adventurer is reaching a feverish pitch. Are you creating a unique genre of world music? “I believe most people’s identities are becoming a fluid thing. We are born in one place, travel to another in search of work and our dreams. I believe in a borderless world and music. My music explores the political tensions in the world.”

http://calcopyrite.com/

Popular Serbian Romani Band Kal Will Perform in Berkeley

Sunday, September 07 2008 @ 02:20 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

Romani band Kal will perform at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center on September 23. Kal, playing music from Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia, are the young Belgrade-based Romani (Gypsy) band whose self-titled album (Kal ) topped the European world music charts on its release in March with its dynamic blend of traditional instruments, hard driving rhythms, and soulful yet confrontational style.
 
 The disparate sounds of Kal’s music describe a new, post-modern Roma identity that confronts romantic Gypsy clichés. Dragan Ristic, who founded the band with his brother Dushan, says, “We are not living in the past… I’m an urban person, belong to the modern world, [and] go to rave parties… so mixing traditional and urban elements is the best way of presenting our culture.”

“Kal – Romany for “black” – are more than pure spectacle, and they spit indignation at being called “Gypsy”. “I’m a Roma,” says the band’s leader and vocalist Dragan Ristic. “Gypsy is pejorative, a misnomer. We’ve always called ourselves Roms, so I find it distasteful to be called a Gypsy.”

Ristic’s family were beneficiaries of Yugoslavia’s President Tito’s desire to involve the Roma in Yugoslav society, and his father, a schoolteacher, emphasized education. The multilingual Dragan worked as a theatre director before focusing on music.

The Kal concerte is part of Romani Routes, a project of Voice of Roma, a nonprofit organization based in Sebastopol, California. The aim of Romani Routes is to present the virtuosity of Romani musicians and the richness and depth of Romani music in a way that counteracts the hype of the mythologized “Gypsy”. It is routine for presenters of sensationalized “Gypsy” music and even traditional Romani music to surround those performances with half-truths and stereotypes about Roma and Romani culture. Furthermore, in an atmosphere of rampant prejudice and unfair discrimination against Roma, far too many presenters exploit Romani musicians unjustly. Voice of Roma, through Romani Routes, seeks to lead the way out of this situation by ensuring connections among the musicians, Romani culture, and the cause of Romani rights.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/kal_romani_band_berkeley_2008

Putumayo Explores the Acoustic Side of Arabic Music

Saturday, September 06 2008 @ 07:46 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

New York (NY), USA – With Acoustic Arabia, Putumayo turns its attention to the subtler, more organic music of the Arabic world which has been inspired by the region’s traditional music. With their stripped-down arrangements and softer, more introspective quality, the songs on Acoustic Arabia highlight the fundamental beauty of the music of the Arabic world. This collection features several international stars and new discoveries. 
 
 One of the best-known featured artists is Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi, whose contemplative songs address social and political issues and were banned by the conservative government. Maurice El Medioni, a world-renowned Jewish piano legend from Oran, Algeria first began performing alongside Arab musicians during the golden age of the Algerian music halls of the 1940s and 50s, and is still tickling the ivories as an octogenarian. The band Tiris hails from Western Sahara and is made up of refugees who have been part of the struggle to reclaim their homeland from Morocco which now controls the region.

Les Orientales, fronted by three divas – Mouna Boutchebak, Saléha and Sylvie Aniorte-Paz, revisits Algerian music hall songs of the post-World War II era.

For more than 20 years, musicians from all over the world have met in the RAS, a magical oasis in the Sinai desert by the Red Sea. Sudanese singer Jamal Porto’s “Gamar Badawi” was written and recorded at the RAS oasis. Zein Al-Jundi was born and raised in Damascus, Syria and moved to Austin, Texas where she performs, teaches belly-dance and owns a store selling Middle Eastern arts and crafts. She not only provided a song, “Wijjak Ma’ii,” but also wrote the album’s liner notes.

A portion of Putumayo’s proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to the Saïd Foundation in support of its efforts to bring positive and lasting change to the lives of children and young people in the Middle East.

1 Jamal Porto – Gamar Badawi 


2 Les Orientales – Alger, Alger 


3 Rasha – Azara Alhai 


4 Charbel Rouhana and Hani Siblini – Mada 


5 Tiris – Tiris Nibreeha 


6 Souad Massi – Ghir Enta 


7 Zaman – Batalti Eli 


8 Mousta Largo – Les Larmes de Boabdil 


9 Maurice El Medioni – Tu n’aurais jamais dû 


10 Zein Al-Jundi – Wijjak Ma’ii

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/acoustic_arabia_putumayo_2008

Irresistible Sabrina

Saturday, September 06 2008 @ 03:00 AM EDT

Contributed by: ARomero

Brazilian singer-songwriter Sabrina Malheiros is back with another gem, a CD titled New Morning. Malheriros attracted a lot of attention with her previous CD, Equilibria. With New Morning, Malheriros combines the best of the past and the future. Her musical arrangements take you back to the fun disco and samba-soul years of the 1970s, with well crafted horn and string arrangements, irresistible rhythms and captivating melodies. Nevertheless, Sabrina Malheiros is a product of her generation and she adds new elements to her music such as a variety of electronic music known to the club goers as “house,” as well as incursions into jazz and bossa.

For this recording, Malheriros called a dream team of Brazilian musicians, including  Jose Roberto Bertrami, Ivan Conti, Zé Carlos, Idriss Boudrioua and Paulinho Braga as well as legendary Brazilian arranger and composer Arthur Verocai.

Sabrina Malheiros comes from a reputable musical family. Her father is Alex Malheiros, the bassist of legendary jazz band Azimuth and you can tell Sabrina spent many of years listening to a wide variety of great music. Equilibria is so far one of the best Brazilian releases of the year.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20080905150139690

International Experts Gather to Save Vietnamese Music

Friday, September 05 2008 @ 03:07 PM EDT

Contributed by: ARomero

The Ministry of Culture of Vietnam is collaborating with international agencies to develop a national action plan to safeguard nha nhac music.
 
 Local and international experts gathered in the former imperial city of Hue last Friday for a workshop to discuss the action plan. At the two-day workshop were representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Cultural Heritage Department, UNESCO, the Japanese embassy, and court music artists and practitioners.
 
 The safeguard plan aims to strengthen transmission of the music, create a group of young and skilled musicians and performers, and document reminiscences from the nha nhac community.

The plan takes into consideration all of the required elements emphasized in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguard of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The project is supported by UNESCO through the UNESCO-Japan Fund in Trust for Intangible Cultural Heritage programs.

According to UNESCO, Nha Nhac, meaning “elegant music”, refers to a broad range of musical and dance styles performed at the Vietnamese royal court from the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Nha Nhac was generally featured at the opening and closing of ceremonies associated with anniversaries, religious holidays, coronations, funerals and official receptions.

Among the numerous musical genres that developed in Vietnam, only Nha Nhac can claim a nationwide scope and strong links with the traditions of other East Asian countries. Nha Nhac performances formerly featured numerous singers, dancers and musicians dressed in sumptuous costumes. Large-scale orchestras included a prominent drum section and many other types of percussion instruments as well as a variety of wind and string instruments. All performers had to maintain a high level of concentration since they were expected to follow each step of the ritual meticulously.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/save_vietnamese_nha_nhac_2008

Arab-Andalusian Music of Morocco Tours United States in September

Friday, September 05 2008 @ 01:37 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

New York (NY), USA – The master musicians of the Orchestra of Tangier will present a program of vocal and instrumental suites from medieval Andalusia in New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and Atlanta, during a U.S. September tour.
 
 Performing sung poems of love, pleasure, wines and nature, Tangier Ensemble will tour four cities in the U.S., starting on September 24 in Washington, D.C. The concerts in D.C. and Atlanta will mark the first appearance of a leading Arab-Andalusian music ensemble from Morocco in these two cities. The musicians will then visit Boston and New York.

Wed. Sept. 24 Washington, D.C. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre at Rockville Civic Center Park

Thurs. Sept. 25 Atlanta, Ga. Rich Theatre at Woodruff Arts Center

Sat. Sept. 27 Boston, Mass. First Church in Cambridge

Sun. Sept. 28 New York, N.Y. Merkin Concert Hall

In the Arab world, Andalusian music refers to “art music” as opposed to traditional and popular music. Arab-Andalusian music is believed to have originated in Moor-ruled southern Spain in the 9th century, and these musical and poetic traditions based on ancient poems have been preserved and developed in North Africa by descendants of Muslim and Jewish populations who left Andalusia during the Christian Reconquista.

The Andalusian repertoire consists of vocal and instrumental suites called Nawbat, or Nubas. As Morocco was never ruled by the Ottoman Empire, its Andalusian music has the least influence of Middle Eastern musical styles, especially when compared to Algeria and Tunisia.

Tangier Ensemble is a small formation derived from Orchestra of Tangier. Led by the legendary master Ahmed Zaitouni, the orchestra toured the U.S. in September, 2007, before enthusiastic audiences. The visiting ensemble consists of five virtuosi on lute, violin, rebab (2-stringed hand-held bass) and tambourine with celebrated tenor Mohammed Arabi-Serghini on viola and vocals.

The ensemble members have received international recognition for the last two decades for their recordings of Arab-Andalusian music for European labels, extensive tours in Europe and the Arab world, and collaboration with Spanish musicians.

MENA Music will launch “Andalusian Music Festival of New York” in February, 2009, and the current tour is a festival preview, introducing Arab-Andalusian music to American concert-goers in N.Y., Boston, D.C. and Atlanta.

MENA Music  was established in 2006 in New York City by Ms. Kazko Kawai in an effort to enhance mutual understanding between the U.S. and the Arab world through music in the post 9/11 world. The organization is committed to bringing the best musicians from the Middle East (ME) and North Africa (NA) to North America to develop audiences for music from these regions. To date, MENA Music has produced several concerts to introduce North African music to the American people, which includes two Arab-Andalusian orchestral debuts in the U.S. and live performances by leading Moroccan Arab-Andalusian musicians broadcast for the first time in the U.S. on national television and NPR.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/arab_andalusian_tour_2008

Cape Crusaders

Thursday, September 04 2008 @ 01:51 AM EDT

Contributed by: TOrr

Mayra Andrade – Navega (Sony BMG 886971005642, 2007)

Tcheka – Lonji (Times Square/Four Quarters Entertainment FQT-CD-1809, 2008)

How can a country like Cape Verde- a small, remote, rather barren archipelago a few hundred miles off the west coast of Senegal -produce so much great music? I don’t know. There must just be something inspirational about the place. Whatever it is, I hope it continues.

When I first heard Cape Verdean music, what immediately attracted me was the similarity it bore to that of Brazil, another former Portuguese colony. But soon, through hearing the distinctively Cape Verdean styles of morna, coladera and funana, it began to take on its own voice. That said, I must disclose that if I had heard Mayra Andrade’s album Navega without knowing her nationality, I might well have guessed her to be a Brazilian singer with Cape Verdean leanings rather than the other way around. But the Cuban-born Andrade is Cape Verdean sure enough, though she spent parts of her childhood in Senegal, Germany and Angola as well and currently calls Paris home.

Before she was even 20 years old Mayra Andrade was an acclaimed vocalist, winning contests and captivating audiences in both the Americas and Europe. Navega  is her debut disc, and this still-very-young singer possesses a warm, nimble vocal style that makes the early acclaim understandable. Several of the players providing instrumental support on the CD are in fact Brazilian, thus accounting for a samba-like feel for much of the album’s first half. But keep listening (and believe me, you’ll want to) and a vibe more befitting Andrade’s true homeland seeps in.

By the time the closing track “Regasu” unfolds in true morna style worthy of Cesaria Evora (whom Andrade once opened for), you’ll want to hear the whole lovely disc again just to catch the subtlety and sparkling beauty with which Andrade vocally spans the Atlantic to connect Brazil and Cape Verde.

There’s likewise something of a Brazilian bottom line to Tcheka‘s Lonji, which was produced by Brazilian rocker Lenine. But Tcheka‘s sound is based on Cape Verdean batuku, a voice-and-makeshift-percussion style originally sung primarily by women on both celebratory and sad occasions.

While there is some strange percussion accompaniment mentioned in this disc’s credits (including kitchenware and brushes on a telephone book), the main focuses here are Tcheka‘s voice and guitar. His singing suggests Angola’s Bonga without so much gravel, and his acoustic picking deftly guides his whispery delivery through the breezy but insistent rhythms of the songs.

Decorative touches like the accordion that weaves through “Tuti Santiagu” and the trombone enrichment on “Lingua Pretu” shed some light on the shadows of Tcheka‘s intimate style, which is every bit as inviting as more established Cape Verdean stars like Tito Paris. Lonji prompted me to revisit Tcheka‘s previous release Nu Monda (which I lazily never got around to reviewing) and marvel at the hints of jazz and blues (as well as “real” percussion) that Tcheka adds on both discs while maintaining an unspoiled sense of underlying simplicity befitting the music’s traditional sources. So consider Lonji a must if you like your Cape Verdean sounds especially tasty, and check out Nu Monda as well. 


http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/mayra_andrade_tcheka_2008

Nomad Blues Act Etran Finatawa Returns to United States for September and October 2008 Dates

Wednesday, September 03 2008 @ 01:07 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

Nigerien sensation Etran Finatawa returns to the US for the third time this year. Etran Finatawa. They are six Tuareg and Wodaabe musicians now based in Niamey, Niger. Etran Finatawa, whose name literally translates as “the stars of tradition,” began as a group of ten musicians who wanted to unite these two nomadic cultures as a symbol of peace and reconciliation, forming around the time of the 2004 Festival in the Desert near Timbuktu.

The touring and recording band consists of six players, three Tuareg and three Wodaabe. In Niger, the Wodaabe and the Tuareg live side by side on the desert’s fringes, sharing pastures and water sources, which sometimes leads to feuding. Here they work together for unity and strength and to give their culture a future in an ever-changing world. The music of the two tribes is very different but the way it has been combined produces a powerful and hypnotic sound, one which could be called “Nomad Blues.”

Concert dates:

9/20 Madison Madison World Music Festival

9/21 Chicago Chicago World Music Festival

9/22 Chicago Chicago World Music Festival

9/23 Los Angeles Amoeba Music (in-store)

9/25 Los Angeles Japan American Community Cultural Center

10/3 Bloomington Lotus Festival

10/4 Bloomington Lotus Festival

10/6 World Café

10/7 Philadelphia Crossroads Music (Calvary Church)

10/8 Boston Museum of Fine Arts

10/11 Pittsburgh Carnegie Mellon University

http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/etran_finatawa_american_tour_oct_2008

UNITED WORLD CHART – ALBUMS

http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums.htm

ITUNES TOP 25

1. Whatever You Like

T.I.

2. Disturbia

Rihanna

3. So What (Main Version)

Pink

4. Paper Planes

M.I.A.

5. All Summer Long (Radio Version)

Hit Masters

6. Crush

David Archuleta

7. Viva la Vida

Coldplay

8. I Kissed a Girl

Katy Perry

9. When I Grow Up

The Pussycat Dolls

10. Dreamer

Chris Brown

11. I’m Yours

Jason Mraz

12. Change

Taylor Swift

13. Forever

Chris Brown

14. One Step At a Time

Jordin Sparks

15. My Life

The Game & Lil Wayne

16. Burnin’ Up

Jonas Brosters

17. Fall for You

Secondhand Serenade

18. The Day That Never Comes

Metallica

19. Closer

Ne-Yo

20. Better In Time

Leona Lewis

21. Dangerous (feat. Akon)

Kardinal Offishall

22. Shake It

Metro Station

23. In the Ayer (feat. Will.I.am)

Flo Rida

24. Corona and Lime

Shwayze

25. Hot N Cold

Katy Perry

Destra To Shed Entertainment Division

August 22, 2008 | Global

By Christie Eliezer, Melbourne

Australian digital media company Destra Corporation plans to shed its entertainment division, Destra Entertainment, during the 2008/9 financial year.

“The entertainment division has been adversely impacted by the current retail environment and a disappointing performance from the theatrical release films business,” the company said in a statement filed with the Australian stock exchange (ASX). “In addition, the global structural decline in the CD market and maturing DVD market, both of which have negatively impacted the company, have not yet been offset by growth in the corresponding digital businesses.”

Destra Entertainment incorporates Destra Media which includes record labels Rajon Music (various genres), Central Station Records (dance), Compass Records (country) and MRA Entertainment (world/adult contemporary); Destra Vision, which distributes children and documentary video and DVD titles; and budget audio and video content publisher and distribution company Payless Entertainment.

Destra has approached a number of major labels about buying the division. A source at Destra tells Bilboard.biz, “We’re not the only ones in this boat. A number of other Australian indie labels are also looking to sell.”

Set up in 2003 by Domenic Carosa, Destra Corporation was one of the success stories of the digital era down under. In the last three years, it went on a spending spree, setting up a series of online community sites and media entertainment distributor networks.

But in March this year, losses in the Australian stock market left Destra vulnerable. On April 21, regional TV operator Prime Media Group increased its stake in Destra from 19.6% to 43.96%. Twenty four hours later, it had ousted Carosa and set up an interim board.

In June, the new board informed the Australian stock exchange its estimate of earnings for the 2007/08 financial year was $2.5 million Australian ($2.2 million) and $3 million Australian ($2.6 million).

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5e840c8f576b9c7d6144ccd8aec593d0

Gut Records’ Future Uncertain

August 20, 2008 – Global

By Andre Paine, London

There is speculation that U.K. indie label Gut Records is in financial difficulty and facing an uncertain future. Calls have not been answered at the label’s London offices for the past few days.

It is not clear whether Gut has gone into administration. According to online media reports, the label’s regional promotions arm Intermedia has shut down.

Gut was founded by Guy Holmes 20 years ago and its current roster includes Fightstar, Lazytown and The Polyphonic Spree. The label also released novelty tracks by Crazy Frog.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ib059277af12a465595fe99b53c24d5f6

Judge Declines To Toss Claim Against UMG

August 21, 2008 – Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, N.Y.

Universal Music Group suffered a setback in its defense of a lawsuit over a YouTube takedown notice, when the presiding judge declined to dismiss the case. The ruling opens the door to how “fair use” may be taken into account before demanding a video be removed.

The dispute focuses on UMG’s request to remove a short video of a baby dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” YouTube removed the video at UMG’s request, but later put it back up. The Pennsylvania mother who posted the video, Stephanie Lenz, joined forces with the Electronics Frontier Foundation and filed suit against UMG last October for abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in making the takedown request.

That original lawsuit was dismissed in April. The plantiffs then filed a second complaint, which the judge this week declined to throw out. In its motion to dismiss, UMG argued that it need not take fair use into account, a position the judge rejected.

“Fair use is a lawful use of a copyright,” reads the ruling (link to pdf). “Accordingly, in order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with ‘a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,’ the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright.”

The EFF hails the ruling as a milestone in the fight against, what it calls, a “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” attitude that content owners have taken when demanding content be removed from user-generated content sites. Most sites that accept user-submitted content agree to remove any content on request from copyright holders, which ostensibly protects them from copyright infringement under the DMCA law.

The EFF lawsuit against UMG seeks to retain some measure of user rights in the process, as takedown notices are issued rather broadly as a blanket protection measure. While the ruling represents a small victory in this fight, it also predicts the lawsuit will ultimately fail.

“The Court has considerable doubt that Lenz will be able to prove that Universal acted with the subjective bad faith,” he wrote.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iea21f1e73054412870ee004d0219e8ec

Latin Rock Bands To Anchor Red Bull’s Soundclash

August 19, 2008 – Latin | Branding

By Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A.

Red Bull is bringing its Soundclash event to the U.S. for the first time Sept. 18, where it will present Latin rock bands Allison and Rabanes in a “musical conversation.”

Like other Soundclash shows presented in Japan, Russia, Hungary and the Netherlands, the Los Angeles show at Leonardo’s will present two bands on stages at opposite ends of the venue with the audience in the middle. For $5, audience members can watch Allison, a Mexican pop-punk act on Sony BMG, and Rabanes, a Latin Grammy-winning Panamanian rock-ska group on Universal, face off in various rounds of musical challenges.

Sony BMG artist Amandititita will host the event.

Red Bull will hold additional Soundclashes in L.A., Seattle, Boston, Belgium, Poland and New Zealand. The energy drink brand has previously brought its Latin hip-hop competition “Batalla de los Gallos” to New York, with rappers from around Latin America competing in the finals in Venezuela.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i11533547aab0683ea44120ab93a21ae0

HMV Site To Fill iTunes ‘Gaps’

August 22, 2008 – Digital and Mobile | Global

By Andre Paine, London

HMV’s new social discovery site getcloser.com has launched a function that it says will help users complete their iTunes music and movie library.

The U.K. entertainment retailer says the ‘gap analyser’ allows people to import their iTunes library into their getcloser.com profile and find out what they’re missing, whether it’s b-sides, remixes or director’s cut editions of films.

“There has been a dramatic shift in the way in which people buy, store and play music and film, meaning people’s collections are very broad due to the ability to have instant access to a variety of genres,” said E-commerce director Gideon Lask in a statement. “However, there is a lack of access to the depth, detail and background knowledge needed for people to expand their collections in the way they would like to.”

Getcloser, which launched in July, allows people to discover, rate, and recommend their favourite music and films to fellow users. The full version of the site is due to launch in the fall, with plans to add live footage of in-store performances as well as content created and uploaded by users. It recently secured an exclusive online preview of the Slipknot album “All Hope Is Gone” (Roadrunner Records).

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i547cbaa7bd3438aca62fddbdfae0e9f6

Judge Declines To Toss Claim Against UMG

August 21, 2008 – Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, N.Y.

Universal Music Group suffered a setback in its defense of a lawsuit over a YouTube takedown notice, when the presiding judge declined to dismiss the case. The ruling opens the door to how “fair use” may be taken into account before demanding a video be removed.

The dispute focuses on UMG’s request to remove a short video of a baby dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” YouTube removed the video at UMG’s request, but later put it back up. The Pennsylvania mother who posted the video, Stephanie Lenz, joined forces with the Electronics Frontier Foundation and filed suit against UMG last October for abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in making the takedown request.

That original lawsuit was dismissed in April. The plantiffs then filed a second complaint, which the judge this week declined to throw out. In its motion to dismiss, UMG argued that it need not take fair use into account, a position the judge rejected.

“Fair use is a lawful use of a copyright,” reads the ruling (link to pdf). “Accordingly, in order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with ‘a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,’ the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright.”

The EFF hails the ruling as a milestone in the fight against, what it calls, a “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” attitude that content owners have taken when demanding content be removed from user-generated content sites. Most sites that accept user-submitted content agree to remove any content on request from copyright holders, which ostensibly protects them from copyright infringement under the DMCA law.

The EFF lawsuit against UMG seeks to retain some measure of user rights in the process, as takedown notices are issued rather broadly as a blanket protection measure. While the ruling represents a small victory in this fight, it also predicts the lawsuit will ultimately fail.

“The Court has considerable doubt that Lenz will be able to prove that Universal acted with the subjective bad faith,” he wrote.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iea21f1e730544128d27c96fbee6aa95e

Japanese Digital Sales Grow

August 21, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Steve McClure, Tokyo

Japan showed healthy gains in digital music sales in the April-June quarter, with PC-based and mobile-based full-track downloads showing especially strong growth, according to data released Aug. 21 by local labels body the Recording Industry Assn. of Japan (RIAJ).

In value terms, digital sales – including mobile- and PC-based downloads – rose 28% to 22.5 billion yen ($204.8 million) in the April-July period. In unit terms, digital sales rose 7% to 119 million units.

While mobile-based master-ringtone sales by the RIAJ’s 46 member companies in the quarter were down 17% from the corresponding period of 2007 to 45.5 million units, for a value of 5.1 billion yen ($45.7 million), down 16%, ringback-tune sales rose 11% to 23.9 million units, for a value of 2 billion yen ($18.1 million), marking a 31% rise.

Sales of mobile-based full-track downloads, meanwhile, increased 42% to 36.3 million units, for a value of 11.9 billion yen ($108.7 million), up 52%.

Overall, mobile-based downloads rose 4% to 108.6 million units, for a value of 19.8 billion yen ($180.2 million), up 24%.

PC-based music downloads in Japan in the second quarter were up 52% to 10.3 million units, for a value of 2.2 billion yen ($20.3 million), up 71%.

The RIAJ defines the PC-downloads category as comprising singles, albums, mini-albums and “other related content” sold over wired networks, with albums and mini-albums counting as single units regardless of the number of tracks they contain. The association says that although the data doesn’t differentiate between sales of single tracks and albums, singles account for the overwhelming majority of download sales.

The mobile category comprises sales over wireless networks of full single tracks, ring tones, master ring tones and other related content.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6c255e1c4f2d23686d6a087056e57ead

Retailer Sanity Launches Aussie Subscription Service

August 20, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Christie Eliezer, Melbourne

Market leading CD and DVD retailer Sanity Entertainment has launched what it claims is Australia’s first online music subscription service. The company has licensed the digital catalog of all the major labels.

The LoadIt music store is built into Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 11 and boasts over one million music tracks. Between 20% to 25% of these will be by domestic acts.

For $29 Australian ($26.26), subscribers can download up to 300 tracks a month to three registered PCs and two portable media players. The cost works out to 10 cents per track. Apple’s iTunes and Telstra’s BigPond stores charge $1.69 Australian ($1.47) a track.

Tony Quinn, Sydney-based general manager of LoadIt Ltd tells Billboard.biz that as providers of the country’s first subscription service, Sanity’s challenge is to convince music fans that it will be quicker, easier and provide more access to new music than other download services.

“If this proposition is presented to the customer in a way that makes sense, they’ll take it on,” Quinn says. “The solution will come through education at retail. Australians understand the concept of [subscribing to] pay TV and magazines, so why not for music?”

The service will also be offered through kiosks shortly. Sanity Entertainment has 220 bricks and mortar stores that includes the Sanity, HMV and Virgin Megastore brands. It has a market share of about 22% to 25%, according to label executives. It has trialled 50 kiosks in its stores in the past two years.

Sanity also signed a three year deal with digital photo centre supplier Fujifilm, meaning LoadIt will also be available through the 6,000 Fujifilm digital kiosks installed in over 750 non-music stores around the country.

Negotiations are also taking place with mass merchants to deliver the service through their systems.

LoadIt was initially to be unveiled in January 2007 and had its launch date delayed twice for technology reasons.

Sanity’s strategy is to eventually deliver the service through online computer games, cell phones and bundled as part of broadband services. This will allow it to introduce a multi-tiered pricing system for a number of various services. These could include consumers who buy a concert ticket being able to download the act’s back catalogue and artists educating new fans about their music.

Customers are offered a free 14-day trial. Those signing up for a 12-month plan are eligible for a free portable music player to store their music. However, the service will not be available to Apple Mac and iPod users and the Windows Media format has more restrictions than MP3.

John Gillhespy, Sydney-based consumer partner development manager of Microsoft Australia, said in a statement, “The vast majority of PCs use Windows Media Player, and it has become one of the most popular ways for people to enjoy digital music. Using Sanity LoadIt is like adding an entire music store to your PC that offers access to all the music you could want 24/7, along with information on bands and playlists.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i9623deb3503a61e37b5f9e8645c2fe46

Rights Management Firms Expand Reach

August 20, 2008 – Publishing | Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

With music rights, licensing, and fees becoming top-of-mind issues lately, rights management firms RightsFlow and RoyaltyShare are expanding their footprint in the space.

RoyaltyShare has acquired Broad Street Digital from Arbinet to gain access to its Rightsrouter digital content licensing management and distribution platform. Broad Street Digital has agreements with more than 500 record labels. The deal also includes RoyaltyShare working with Arbinet on future market opportunities in the telecom space. Financial deals were not disclosed.

Meanwhile RightsFlow jointed forces with CD Baby-which was recently acquired by Disc Makers-to give CD Baby clients the ability to administer digital phonorecord delivery licenses, as well as collect, pay and distribute the resulting royalties.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ib059277af12a4655d603c6b6ab7229b8

Warner Makes Friends With Online Music Community

August 19, 2008 – Global | Digital and Mobile

By Andre Paine, London

Warner Music International (WMI) has agreed to a content and revenue partnership with European online music community Music Makes Friends.

The Luxembourg-based company has already signed deals with the three other majors as well as thousands of indie labels. Warners’ digital catalog will be available on the service with immediate effect.

The on-demand streaming platform is available in France, Germany, UK, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Under the agreement, WMI and Music Makes Friends will share in revenues generated by the ad-supported streaming and subscription services.

Members can use the ad-supported streaming service to share full track playlists for free. A premium service costs £7 ($13) a month and provides users with access to the premium catalog of more than two million songs and greater storage space for uploaded tracks.

“In partnering with a social networking site with music at its heart, we bolster our ability to directly connect with audiences who like to discover and share music,” said WMI VP Digital Business Eric Daugan in a statement. “Our agreement with Music Makes Friends is another example of how we continue to embrace and develop new ways to enjoy music, whilst ensuring that rights holders and artists are appropriately compensated.”

WMI-owned tracks have been uploaded by users of the free ad-funded service since Music Makes Friends launched in March, but the company says it disclosed this to the major and negotiations were already under way for their catalog to be licensed for the online community.

Music Makes Friends CEO Bruno Chauvat adds, “Our objective is to offer Music Makes Friends users streaming and on-demand access to as much music as possible. This partnership is a successful new step in that direction, considering that we are the first streaming platform able to offer in nine European countries the catalogs of the four majors and more than 9,000 independent labels.”

Warner Music U.K. recently agreed a partnership with ad-funded free streaming service We7 from October. Its digital catalog will also be available for purchase on the Oxford-based company’s intergrated download store.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i56cb34c420625079d73f032179b81031

Muxtape Offline As Service ‘Sorts Out’ RIAA Issues

August 19, 2008 – Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

Big changes may be in store for the Muxtape online music discovery service. The company’s Web site says the service is temporarily unavailable while it “sorts out a problem with the RIAA.”

Muxtape users create customized playlists by uploading MP3s, which others can then both stream and download. The company has not paid royalties for the use, and was long considered a target for legal action.

The RIAA this morning issued the following statement: “For the past several months, we have communicated concerns to Muxtape on behalf of our members. Muxtape has not yet obtained authorization from our member companies to host or stream copies of their sound recordings.”

No word yet on what changes Muxtape is making or when the service will come back on line.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i11533547aab0683e2b2786eb5ef2acae

Fonovisa To Unveil New Regional Mexican Series

August 22, 2008 – Latin | Global

By Leila Cobo, Miami

Fonovisa Records is preparing to launch a new branded series of regional Mexican music albums. Titled “Idolos (De Mexico Para el Mundo),” which translates to “Idols From Mexico to the World.”

The first edition will feature tracks by the likes of Marco Antonio Solis, Grupo Montez de Durango and Jenni Rivera. The set will go to retail on Sept. 16 and will be promoted via a national TV spot campaign, and also through a direct marketing campaign on multiple TV channels.

“Everyone who’s had a Top Ten hit in the last 14 months is in there,” says Fonovisa/Disa president Gustavo López.

López is describing “Idolos” as the regional Mexican version of the “Now” series. Although “Now” has a Latin series in place, its repertoire has been largely pop and reggaetón-driven.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i547cbaa7bd3438ac62af0fc816327392

Mobos Moves To Wembley

August 21, 2008 – Global | RB Hip-Hop

By Andre Paine, London

The MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards is moving to the Live Nation-managed Wembley Arena for its Oct. 15 2008 ceremony, after being staged at London’s O2 Arena last year.

The awards were launched in 1996 and last year’s winners included Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse and Dizzee Rascal. The show will be broadcast in 75 countries and digital station BBC Three will screen the ceremony live, with a highlights show to follow on BBC One.

“We’re absolutely delighted that MOBO has selected Wembley Arena to be the venue for this year’s most exciting MOBO Awards Show ever,” said Live Nation U.K. president Paul Latham in a statement.

Nominations for the awards will be announced next month and tickets to the event go on sale Aug. 27. Western Union will again be the headline sponsor of the awards.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6c255e1c4f2d2368ab52725ded8498b2

Live Nation Moves Into Latin America

August 21, 2008 – Touring

by Ray Waddell, Nashville

Live Nation has made a major foray into South America in cutting a five-year exclusive distribution deal with CIE and T4F (Time For Fun), giving LN a huge presence in Brazil and Mexico. CIE is the third largest concert promoter in the world, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The deal effectively locks down Mexico and South America for Live Nation on most major tours in this vital and growing region, where LN has previously not been a dominant promoter.

“Wherever we can we want to have a Live Nation office executing, and we haven’t had that in Latin America, largely because CIE is just so dominant,” Jason Garner, Chief Executive Officer, North American Music, tells Billboard.biz. “In a region where we had zero market share, to form an exclusive deal like this gives us immediate entry, it didn’t cost us a lot of money to get in, and we get the most proven execution and venue partner in the region.”

Though this deal has been in the works for a year, Garner says Live Nation and CIE already had a relationship in place through LN’s Global Touring division. “We wanted to formalize that relationship to make it exclusive and then add on the important South America piece to really complete our Latin America play,” he says. “It was driven by a mutual desire between the two companies to find a way to formalize what has been a very friendly relationship. They were looking for a steady supply of talent and we were looking for an exclusive execution partner and that brought the two of us together.”

Producing live concerts that drew over six million music fans in 2007, CIE generated more than $1 billion in revenue and margins approaching 21 percent, according to Live Nation. CIE, which is publicly traded on the Mexican stock exchange, also operates its own ticketing platform in many markets including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and others.

LN says CIE produces more than 85% of all the live concerts by international talent in Mexico, a country with a population of more than 100 million people. T4F operates top venues in Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Porto Alegre, all of which are emerging as important new markets for international talent.

Ocesa, CIE’s live entertainment division in Mexico, is a vital component of the deal. “If you’re a world class artist, you don’t work in Mexico without working with Ocesa,” Garner says. “By having an exclusive relationship with them it really gives us a nice advantage when we’re sitting down talking with an artist, that we have this great partner South of the border.”

George Gonzalez will continue as president of Ocesa in Mexico, Fernando Alterio will remain as president of T4F, and Bruce Moran will be president Latin America for Live Nation based in Los Angeles. “When you enter into a relationship like this, what you want to know is when you take a band that trusts Live Nation and you walk into Latin America, that you have solid operators,” says Garner. “The key here is we have trustworthy, solid partners, a well financially backed, publicly traded company, and the best part is they’re our friends.”

Alejandro Soberón Kuri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CIE says in a statement: “It is very clear to us that Live Nation’s global platform is attracting the world’s most exciting and successful artists, cementing their position as the leading provider of talent on a global basis. By forming an exclusive alliance with Live Nation, we are ensuring that our distribution channels will be filled with a steady stream of live concerts from the greatest artists in the world.”

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6bae08a1a1ddbd7324e6d6e44934e578

Lordi To Launch Album At Popkomm

August 20, 2008 – Global | Rock and Pop

By Andre Paine, London

Monster rock band Lordi will launch its new album at this year’s Popkomm. The Finnish act releases “Deadache” (Sony BMG) internationally on Oct. 27.

The international music and entertainment business trade show takes place in Berlin from Oct. 8 to 11.

Lordi, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, will be part of the Popkomm Festival, which showcases hundreds of acts from around the world.

Lordi is playing the Finnish music industry’s “Helsinki in Berlin” showcase at the K17 Club on Oct. 10.

Billboard is a media partner for Popkomm. Last year, the conference and exhibition had 886 exhibitors from 57 countries and attracted 15,420 visitors.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i9623deb3503a61e3d66d4c5d0181c8c4

Funeral For Irish Folk Legend Ronnie Drew

August 20, 2008 – Global

By Nick Kelly, Dublin

The funeral has taken place for Ronnie Drew, former singer with legendary Irish balladeers The Dubliners.

Drew was buried yesterday (Aug. 19) in his adopted home of Greystones, Co Wicklow, after losing a two-year battle with cancer on Saturday. He was 73.

One of Ireland’s best-loved musical figures, Drew was a founding member of The Dubliners in the early Sixties, and he played a pivotal role in popularizing traditional Irish folk music.

The group, who counted Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jimi Hendrix among their fans, scored a number of Top 10 hits in the U.K., including “Seven Drunken Nights” (No. 7 in 1967) and “The Irish Rover” (No.7 in 1987), their collaboration with The Pogues, who styled themselves as “the bastard sons of The Dubliners”.

After Drew was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006, his admirers in the Irish music industry – including Bono and Shane MacGowan – gathered in a Dublin studio to record a song in his honour, titled “The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew.”

U2 manager Paul McGuinness was among those who attended the funeral mass at the Church of the Holy Rosary, along with members of The Dubliners.

Drew was buried next to his late wife, who died last year, in Redford Cemetery in Greystones.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ib059277af12a4655f05e937b61d90dda

Sony/ATV Signs Middle East Licensing Deal

August 19, 2008 – Global | Publishing

By Andre Paine, London

Sony/ATV Music Publishing has made a license agreement with Rotana Audiovisual, a leading producer, distributor and publisher of Arabic music and film. The deal covers the Middle East and gives Rotana’s publishing arm the right to license and collect for Sony/ATV across the region.

“We are very excited to be working with Rotana in the Middle East and we applaud Rotana’s efforts in opening up new, legitimate markets for our songwriters,” says senior VP Sony/ATV Music Publishing International Guy Henderson in a statement. “With Sony ATV’s global reach and its desire to find and develop new opportunities for its writers, we see this agreement with Rotana as a natural progression for our worldwide business plan.”

As well as having 120 local artists on its recorded music and publishing roster, Rotana has a track record of licensing media networks including radio and television conglomerates. The company’s film division has the licence for Fox releases. Rotana is also attempting to expand in digital exploitation and synchronization.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i56cb34c42062507915e148af530085fa

Sony/ATV Signs Johnta Austin

August 21, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop | Publishing

By Gail Mitchell, L.A.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed Grammy Award-winning songwriter Johnta Austin. The long-term, worldwide publishing agreement – covering his future ouput – becomes effective in October. Austin had spent the last 13 years with Chrysalis Music Publishing, which signed him at the age of 15. During his career, Austin has co-written seven top 20 hits.

“Topline writers like Johnta don’t come along a lot anymore,” says Jody Gerson, co-president of Sony/ATV. “Whereas today you can have five or six people writing a hit song, he can write a hit song on his own. Having worked with Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, among others, he’s looking to branch out and do other things, including film and TV. And we want to do those with him.”

During his career, Austin has co-written seven top 20 hits. Those include Carey’s “We Belong Together” and Blige’s “Be Without You.” Both songs earned Austin a Grammy for best R&B song. Named ASCAP’s pop songwriter of the year in 2007, Austin has written for such artists as Usher, Leona Lewis and Chris Brown.

“I’m definitely motivated about expanding into uncharted waters,” says Austin. “Whether it’s a TV theme, a song for a major movie or a country song for Kenny Chesney, I want to be a part of it.”

Austin joins a Sony/ATV urban roster that includes Akon, Rick Ross, The Game, Flo Rida and Midi Mafia.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iea21f1e730544128608aff71d8116aef

Johnta Austin (June 28, 1980) is a two-time Grammy Award-winning [1]American upcoming singer-songwriter on Jermaine Dupri‘s So So Def Recordings.

Johnta Austin grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1989, at the age of eight, Austin hosted the daily television show, “Kid’s Beat” on CNN. Covering current events, sports and the entertainment world, Austin went on to become the Atlanta Bureau Chief for the CNN weekly news program, “Real News for Kids” and the reporter for the TBS half hour weekly, “Feed Your Mind. Austin grew up singing in church choirs and wanted to become an actor, and he interviewed such celebrities as Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan, among others, and in 1993, made his television debut on The Arsenio Hall Show, where he admitted he loved singing and was offered to sing with Arsenio Hall‘s band. [2]

Austin has been extremely busy and successful during the last several years. He co-wrote Mariah Carey‘s hit 2005 singles, “We Belong Together“, “Don’t Forget About Us“, “It’s Like That“, and “Shake It Off” from her album “The Emancipation of Mimi“. Johnta Austin also co wrote Mary J Blige’s single “Be Without You” from her #1 selling CD “The Breakthrough” and Monica’s single “Everytime Tha Beat Drop” from her latest album “The Makings of Me“. He is also featured as a guest artist on Jermaine Dupri’s 2005 single, “Gotta Getcha” and has co-written a few songs on Chris Brown‘s self-titled debut album in 2005, as well as “Can I Call You” from Marques Houston’s debut album in 2003. Very little is known about his personal life.

Austin produced and was featured in Shortie Like Mine and Outta My System, both singles by rapper Bow Wow off his album The Price of Fame. Both of the songs were successful, Shortie Like Mine reaching #9, and Outta My System reaching #22 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The release of his debut album has been pushed back repeatedly, due in part to So So Def changing its affiliation from Virgin Music to Island Records. It is currently scheduled to be released later in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnta_Austin

Female Stars Team For Cancer Charity Tune

August 19, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop

By Associated Press

What would it sound like if 15 of the hottest female singers joined voices? The answer will be revealed Sept. 2.

That’s when “Just Stand Up” hits airwaves and iTunes. The song features Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood. All sales of the star-studded single will benefit cancer research.

The charity tune was conceived by Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who produced it with longtime creative colleague Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds.

All 15 singers will share the stage to perform the song live on Sept. 5 during the “Stand Up to Cancer” television special, set to air simultaneously on ABC, NBC and CBS. Other stars expected to turn out for the hour-long fund- and awareness-raising program include Jennifer Aniston, Lance Armstrong, Katie Couric, Sally Field, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker and Reese Witherspoon.

Founded in 2007, Stand Up to Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation that calls on entertainment-industry people and platforms to help fight cancer.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i56cb34c420625079364387e19e43996a

R&B Briefs: Will Downing, Pioneer Awards, Aretha Franklin

August 19, 2008 – RB Hip-Hop

n     Dionne Warwick, Bonnie Raitt and Jerry Butler will co-host the Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s 20th anniversary Pioneer Awards. The ceremony will take place Sept. 9 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. This year’s special honorees include Chaka Khan, Bill Withers, the Whispers, Kool & the Gang, Donny Hathaway and former Stax and Motown label chief Al Bell.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i2540573003aeb12cd5377db0a247a240

Sounds of Africa (the Four-Hour Mix)

By NATE CHINEN

Published: August 21, 2008

Cultural exchange rarely gets more rapturous than it did on Wednesday night at Damrosch Park, in a free concert of African music presented by Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Over the course of about four hours, an overflow audience beheld the efforts of several imposing legends from Ethiopia; a raucous art-punk band from the Netherlands; a jazz combo from Cambridge, Mass.; and a group with roots in Kenya and Washington. The show started strong and never flagged, helped along by an enthusiastic crowd.

The show’s biggest stars were Mahmoud Ahmed, a transfixing vocalist, and Getatchew Mekurya, an authoritative saxophonist. Both artists have reached global audiences through “Éthiopiques,” the acclaimed reissue series on Buda Musique, a French label. And both artists used their stage time to evoke the exuberance of Addis Ababa in the 1970s. But they appeared in separate sets, and with two strikingly different groups.

Mr. Ahmed, 67, began his portion of the evening with “Atawurulegn Lela,” wafting a sinuous melodic line over briskly tumbling polyrhythm. His voice was strong, even youthful, and his phrasing was supple. Later he sang “Ere Mela Mela,” an anthem with a more meditative groove, and here his singing grew rich and plangent; at times its microtonal shivers suggested the somber beauty of an Islamic call to prayer.

His accompanying coterie was the Either/Orchestra, a light-on-its-feet big band led by the saxophonist Russ Gershon, an Ethiopian-music specialist. As they do on “Ethiogroove,” a DVD issued last year, Mr. Gershon and company refurbished the sound of Mr. Ahmed’s old records, with sharper horn intonation and less rhythm-section distortion.

In addition to Mr. Ahmed, the Either/Orchestra backed Alemayehu Eshete, a singer with an equally assertive but less transcendent style. Opening with “Addis Ababa Bete,” Mr. Eshete was at his charismatic best; each verse began with a single clarion note and then plunged into rapid-fire patter. He tried a few other approaches in his set, like an insinuative croon and a bark befitting his nickname, the Ethiopian James Brown.

Extra Golden, the Kenyan-American band, hit upon funk as a byproduct of its style, which blends Nairobian benga music and old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll. With a steady-thumping downbeat but much variation elsewhere — Onyango Wuod Omari, the band’s drummer, is a mischief-maker — the group made its hybrid feel unlabored.

But there were subtle indications of an arduous exchange. Some songs juxtaposed English and Swahili, a bit jarringly. And at one point Opiyo Bilongo sang “Obama,” a song of gratitude for a certain United States senator and his crucial assistance with artist visas. (Earlier Bill Bragin, Lincoln Center’s director of public programming, had similarly thanked Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. There was no tune called “Schumer,” though.)

The concert closed with a gripping performance by Mr. Mekurya, the king of Ethiopian saxophone, and the Ex, the punk band from Amsterdam. Drawing primarily from their 2006 album “Moa Anbessa” (Terp), they dug in deeply together, creating a cyclone of stomping rhythm, brash distortion and fluttering modal melody.

There were vocal turns by G. W. Sok, the band’s hyperdeclarative frontman, and Katherina Ex, its rigidly propulsive drummer. But the stage belonged to Mr. Mekurya, who held his ground against two scabrous guitars on his trademark, “Shellela,” his tone a mixture of husky stoicism and earnest supplication. At another point, when he played an unaccompanied cadenza, he earned one of the biggest cheers of the night.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/arts/music/22gold.html?ref=music

Johnny Moore, 70, Ska Trumpeter, Is Dead

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 20, 2008

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Johnny Moore, a trumpeter and founding member of the pioneering Jamaican ska and reggae band the Skatalites, died on Saturday. He was 70.

He died at a friend’s house after being released from the hospital where he had cancer treatment last week, said Herbie Miller, a music promoter.

Mr. Moore helped form the Skatalites in 1964 along with the saxophonists Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso and the trombonist Don Drummond.

In the months the group was together, it set about infusing jazz, movie themes and other genres with ska style. It broke up in the mid-1960s, but regrouped in New York two decades later. Two of the group’s albums, “Hi-Bop Ska!” and “Greetings From Skamania,” were nominated for Grammy awards.

Their music has influenced bands like 311, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt.

Mr. Moore lived in New York City for 14 years but returned to Jamaica in the early 1980s. He last toured abroad about eight years ago with the reggae artist Bunny Wailer, and in recent years he made occasional appearances at Kingston clubs.

He is survived by four children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/arts/music/20moore1.html?ref=music

Dorival Caymmi, Singer of Brazil, Is Dead at 94

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: August 19, 2008

Dorival Caymmi, a Brazilian singer and songwriter who helped lay the foundations of bossa nova, wrote Carmen Miranda’s first hit and gave legendary voice to the romance of the beaches, fishing villages and bathing beauties of his native Bahia, died on Saturday at his home in Rio de Janeiro. He was 94.

The cause was multiple organ failure, according to accounts in the Brazilian news media. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, praised him as “one of the founders of Brazilian popular music.”

Mr. Caymmi’s career encompassed 60 years and about 20 albums, the last one released four years ago. But his influence transcended such measurable milestones and found enduring expression in the music of Brazilian greats like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

In an introduction to an anthology of Mr. Caymmi’s work in 1994, Jobim, the driving force behind bossa nova, a sophisticated jazz style derived from samba, wrote: “Dorival is a universal genius. He picked up the guitar and orchestrated the world.”

From the beginning of his career, Mr. Caymmi musically imbued his country with a rhythmic, romantic identity that went well with Brazil’s enticing geography and sultry, bikini-clad women. His first and immediately popular song, written at 16, “O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?” (“What Is It About Brazilian Women?”), set the tone.

That song became the first hit of Carmen Miranda, whose well-displayed limbs, extravagant hats and exuberant voice made her a global sensation as the Brazilian Bombshell. In 1996, the publication News From Brazil said Mr. Caymmi taught Ms. Miranda to move her arms and hands with the music, which became her trademark.

Songs like “Marina” (1944) and “O Samba da Minha Terra” (1941) inspired the greats of bossa nova.

Mr. Caymmi’s easygoing style was compared by some to that of Bing Crosby, not least because of his similar velvety baritone.

The laid-back Andy Williams and Perry Como sang Mr. Caymmi’s “Das Rosas,” translated as “And Roses and Roses” by the American lyricist Ray Gilbert.

Romero Lubambo, a Brazilian guitarist who lives and plays in the United States, said in an telephone interview on Monday that it was impossible to overstate Mr. Caymmi’s public recognition in his own nation.

“Everybody who is alive in Brazil today has probably heard of him,” he said.

Writing in The New York Times in 2001, Ben Ratliff said Mr. Caymmi was perhaps second only to Jobim “in establishing a songbook of this century’s Brazilian identity.” A large part of this was evoking the life and dreams of working-class people, particularly fishermen.

Dorival Caymmi was born on April 30, 1914, in Salvador, the capital of Bahia state. He had several jobs, including that of journalist, and won a songwriting contest in 1936 as part of Salvador’s carnaval. Two years later he went to Rio de Janeiro to study law and perhaps look for a job as a journalist.

But he went into the music business, and firmly established himself with the song Ms. Miranda performed in the movie “Banana-da-Terra” (1939). He became a regular on Radio Nacional, and his fame grew. He recorded for five decades, both singing solo with his own guitar accompaniment and backed by bands and orchestras.

Mr. Caymmi married the singer Adelaide Tostes, who used the stage name Stella Maris. She survives him, along with their sons, Dori and Danilo, and their daughter, Nana, who are all also successful musicians.

News From Brazil reported that Mr. Caymmi’s nearly 70-year marriage survived some carousing on his part. It told of his wife’s finding him in a bar surrounded by women. She slammed a table, broke a glass, punched him, and left.

“He was a hard act to follow,” she said, “but it was worthwhile.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/arts/music/19caymmi.html?ref=music

G-Unit Producer Jake One Signs to Rhymesayers for LP

Debut album features MF DOOM, Busta Rhymes, Brother Ali, Young Buck, De La Soul’s Posdnuos

Mainstream meets underground in a big way on White Van Music, the debut studio album from Jake One. The Seattle producer is part of G-Unit’s production team, and in the past, he has worked with 50 Cent, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, Young Buck, E-40, and Lil Scrappy, among other folks.

For White Van Music, Jake has fused this world with the world inhabited by his new label, Rhymesayers. Thus, the record features appearances from a wide variety of hip-hop heads, including Posdnuos (De La Soul), Busta Rhymes, MF DOOM, Young Buck, Freeway, M.O.P., Slug (Atmosphere), Little Brother, Prodigy, Keak Da Sneak, Black Milk, Alchemist, Casual, Ish (aka Butterfly from Digable Planets), Royce Da 5’9″, and Bishop Lamont.

Rhymesayers will release White Van Music on October 7.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news

BK venue Bodega is closed ‘for the foreseeable future’

“Hello everyone,

If you are receiving this email, it is because we have scheduled a show with you and/or your band at BODEGA in the coming weeks.

It is with great disappointment that we have to cancel all BODEGA shows in the coming weeks. As some of you may know, we had a problem with the bathroom last week that revealed serious structural damage to the space. At risk of injury and serious disaster, we have been forced to close down for the foreseeable future in order to repair damages and conduct major renovations.

I am very sorry, certainly we do not want to cancel shows and close our doors but the situation is dire and catastrophic. Even right now, there is a massive hole in the floor, no bathroom, and structural damage to the building.

We hope to reopen in October, if possible. Again, I am very sorry and hope to reschedule these shows when the repairs are completed.

All the best,


Andy”

That didn’t last very long. Andy is Andrew Smith the event coordinator at Bodega. Hidden Power and Frat Dad were scheduled to play there Friday night (and are looking for a new venue if you know anywhere).

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/index.html?page=3

18 August 2008

Monday’s mp3: The Buena Vista Rumba Club Loses its Founder

I first heard Congolese crooner Wendo Kolosoy (born Antoine Kalosoyi) some eight or nine years ago, and immediately started spinning his tunes on the radio. I mean, what’s not to like about a septuagenarian singer who has also worked as a boxer and a riverboat mechanic, and was having a resurgence thanks to a Buena Vista Social Club-like musical resurrection? Not to mention that the upbeat music was a joy to the ears.

If you know anything about Kolosoy, you’ve probably heard the legend of his song “Marie-Louise.” It’s said that when he sang that song, the dead got up and danced. It became his first Pan-African hit in 1948, which illustrates the man’s staying power.

His music isn’t easy to find, with the exception of the album listed below, released in the last decade. If anyone has earlier Wendo, I’d love to hear it. But his sweet voice stayed with him right to the end at age 83. I haven’t yet seen the recently released film On the Rumba River (movie trailer), but I understand it’s a beautiful biography of both Wendo and the joyous, lyrical music of which he became the grandfather.

I was saddened to learn recently that Kolosoy passed on a couple weeks ago. The world will be a little less joyful without him singing new songs.

http://soundroots.org/

15 August 2008

World Music Top 10 – August 2008 selections

Spin the Globe Playlist for 15 August 2008

Top 10 new releases – August 2008 – as heard on radio KAOS

Selections from our favorite new releases, plus concert previews and other global stuff.

hour 1

10-Hanggai — My Banjo and I — Introducing Hanggai

9-Seun Kuti — Think Afrika — Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80

8-Delhi 2 Dublin — Apples — Delhi 2 Dublin

7-Niyaz — Molk-E-Divan — Nine Heavens

6- Chanchiki — Yagaefu — Rough Guide to Japan

5-Nation Beat — Sobe A Poeira — Legends of the Preacher

4-Grupo Fantasma — El Sabio Soy Yo — Sonidos Gold

-Niyaz — Hejran — Nine Heavens

3-Sidestepper — La Paloma (12” mix, radio edit) — Buena Vibra Sound System

2-Malouma — Yarab — Desert Blues 3

1-Mounira Mitchala — Zarlie — Talou Lena

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex — Eywat Setanafegagn / See How Much I Miss Her — Moa Anbessa

http://soundroots.org/

14 August 2008

Mauritania On Air

Mauritania has been on my mind recently. And not just because the relatively unknown nation in northwest Africa has been in political turmoil since a military coup last week. My mind was also led there by a fascinating article on Radio Mauritanie, which broadcasts from Mouakchott.

It seems that every evening from Sunday to Thursday, a man named Yahya ould Taleb ould Sioli (or, simply, Yahya) broadcasts a program called Al-Balaghat wa al-itissalat al-shaabiya (or, simply, Al Balaghat — “the messages”). The format is simple: Short messages are sent in by listeners around the desert nation, announcing births, deaths, weather, travels, and other social news.

“Radio was what connected Mauritanians, taught us that there was a state, that there was a president, and there were ministers, and there was a parliament,” says Mauritanian radio personality Mohamed Lemine Salleck in explaining the show’s importance. “There were shows with singers, and we took time to sit and listen to the music, but when Al-Balaghat came on, it was more important. The other world was for leisure, but this was something that could change your life.”

[mp3] Al Balaghat sample

You can read the complete story and listen to more audio here.

I can’t understand the language, but I can appreciate the artistry in the musical reading of the announcements. The show has been on for 42 years and continues undaunted by the advent of high-tech forms of communication.

I don’t have a lot of music from Mauritania, but one artist who has released music internationally is the singer Malouma (full name Malouma Mint Moktar Ould Meidah — what is it with Mauritanians and king-sized names??) comes from a griot family and started to sing at age 12, inspired by traditional songs and by the singers she heard on the radio: Oum Kalthoum, Hlim Hafez, Fairouz, Dine, Nasri Cherns, and others.

Malouma’s music frequently explores themes of injustice, gender inequality, and oppression, though this one is more of a love song. She sings: “With a destructive song / She wraps a scarf around her head / Or slips into her bubu to seduce me / All the time I spend loving her.”

http://soundroots.org/

* CKUT radio in Montreal has posted a two-part special on World Music Immigration that you can stream or download.

* Oliver Mtukudzi is featured on the new album by jazz saxophonist Max Wild. While the album isn’t out until next year, the single “Teerera” (sample) is out and Obliqsound has posted a video showing some of the studio recording.

http://soundroots.org/

World Festival of Sacred Music 2008 in Los Angeles

Friday, August 22 2008 @ 09:08 AM EDT

Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

For 16 days in September, the 2008 World Festival of Sacred Music–Los Angeles will present nearly a thousand artists performing in 41 sacred events of music and movement throughout Los Angeles, crossing neighborhoods and cultural, religious and ideological boundaries in the spirit of peace.

 The fourth World Festival of Sacred Music–Los Angeles will fill the city’s historic landmark theaters, churches, temples and outdoor spaces with renowned international and local artists expressing many diverse forms of musical creativity, from grass-roots folk music to jazz and formal European and Asian classical traditions.

 Occurring once every three years, the World Festival of Sacred Music–Los Angeles has become a global music destination since its inception in 1999, following a call from the Dalai Lama to mark the millennium with a message of peace, cultural understanding and spirituality. The goal was to present the festival on four continents.

http://worldmusiccentral.org/

full article at http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/World_Festival_of_Sacred_Music_2008

African Deluge

Thursday, August 21 2008 @ 07:35 AM EDT

Contributed by: TOrr

A flood of great reissued African music continues to pour forth, and I have no complaints. It’s been many years since the joys of African music first became known to me, yet I’ve still barely made my way down from the tip of the iceberg.

The Sterns Africa label has long been instrumental in presenting new African sounds and giving old ones a fresh go-around. Their latest in the latter category is a double CD recounting a dozen years worth of Guinea’s Balla et Ses Balladins, who, along with Bembeya Jazz and Keletigui et Ses Tambourinis, completed a triumvirate of Guinea’s most popular post-independence bands.

The bulk of the group were a breakaway faction from Syli Orchestra National, one of the first musical outfits established in accordance with Guinean president Sekou Toure’s policy of authenticite, in which artists of all types were urged to look to traditional sources for inspiration. Balla et Ses Balladins (named for their leader Balla Onivogui) did indeed incorporate plenty of traditional linguistic and musical ideas into their sound, but borrowed liberally from jazz, Cuban and Congolese music as well. So the tracks on the two discs, lifted from the band’s prolific 1968 to 1980 output, are gloriously tight jams that swing liberally with tart guitars, punctuating horns, Latin-speckled percussion and vocals that both croon and soar.

Detailed liner notes tell the story of the band (including a rather humorous account of name changes brought about by varying degrees of government favoritism) and provide song-by-song specifics. A superb package, one not to be missed.

A couple of recent releases in Sheer Sound’s African Classics series likewise spotlight some very fine moments from two of Africa’s many great voices. Kenya’s Samba Mapangala and his band Virunga have long fused the rhythms of Kenyan benga music with the similarly swaying feel of Congolese and Tanzanian rumba. Mapangala’s warbling, emotion-rich voice is matched by tingling, caressing guitar riffs and rhythms that are sparse by African standards but perfectly edify these songs of love, human foibles and personal praise for a couple of gents named Fonseka and Mabiala who were influential supporters of Virunga. Anything by Samba Mapangala is well worth hearing, and this is a great introduction to his work if you happen to be in need of one.

Senegal’s Fallou Dieng specializes in m’balax, the driving, sabar drum-punctuated style first popularized by Youssou N’dour. Like the Mapangala disc, this African Classics consists of key tracks from past works, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re listening to early Youssou N’dour as you’re getting a dose of Fallou Dieng.

All the characteristics of classic m’balax are here: the skittering rhythms, lickity-split guitars and bass, deft punctuation from horns, keyboards or both, and Sufi-inspired call-and-response vocals. But listen closer and compare, and you’ll find that Dieng is no mere imitator. His vocals have their own sense of timing and phrasing, his nimble intonations twisting, turning and scatting with what eventually emerges as a signature style full of grace and nuance.

Nearly every song here is well past the five-minute mark, and Dieng never falters in delivering the often fast-paced vocal goods. The liner notes are sparse almost to the point of non-existence and the back and inside covers list track running times that are entirely inaccurate, but the music here is crisply superb.

Worldmusicentral.org

War Zone: Georgia Is on Our Musical Minds

We’ve all watched the conflicts in the Caucasus nation of Georgia in recent days with great sadness, and perhaps with some perplexity. Listening to music from the region may not help alleviate the sense of sorrow. Like the perhaps better-known music of neighboring (and culturally related) Armenia, the sounds of Georgia seem stitched with sadness. But, again as with its neighbor’s music, it bears an equal measure of beauty. And similarly, there is both a sense of fierce pride in national identity and the weathered melancholy of centuries of oppressive domination and displacement.

The strategic location of Georgia — stretching from the Black Sea nearly to the Caspian, a threshold between Central Asia and Eastern Europe — is not just behind the current strife but many other tragic episodes of the past, the mix of Turkish Ottoman, Russian, Armenian and other peoples often simmering in tensions. But those same things, the geography and the mix of peoples, have also brought a vibrant richness to Georgian art, culture and, most certainly, music.

Just last year, England’s Topic Records label released a remarkable collection, ‘Songs of Survival: Traditional Music of Georgia.’ In 2002, Topic released another collection that included several songs from Georgia. Both very much spotlight the crossroad aspects of the country’s geography.

The 2007 release is a comprehensive exploration, the two-CD/51-track set covering the full range of sounds from the area, the subtitles of each disc giving a sense of what’s here: ‘Work, Lament, Celebration’ and ‘Seasonal, Sacred, Family Life.’ These are the “table songs” (the table around which these tales of work and romance are sung usually holding generous servings of wine), the “city songs” of Tbilisi, dance tunes rooted in rural life and the complex polyphony of choirs directly descended from medieval church music, a distinctly Georgian feature.

The other album, which also features music from various other countries, starts off with a song from Ossetia, the region that overlaps the Russian-Georgian border and is at the crux of the fighting (and of which most of us had never heard a couple of weeks ago), plus two Georgian pieces from Tbilisi.

Here’s the thing, though: ‘Songs of Survival’ was recorded this decade by ethnomusicologist Michael Church in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and in various villages around the small country. The other set comes from not just before the current crisis, but before the breakup of the Soviet Union brought about Georgian independence, before détente and perestroika, before the entire Cold War, before World War II and Stalinist repression, before Lenin became entrenched, before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and five full years before the start of World War I. ‘Before the Revolution: A 1909 Recording Expedition In the Caucasus and Central Asia by the Gramophone Company’ contains fruits of a 5,000-mile journey through some at-times rough country of the Tsarist Russian Empire with an early, bulky gramophone recorder in tow.

On the newer one, the opening ‘Idjassi’ showcases the duduk, the double-reed instrument often identified with Armenia but which Church in his liner notes says is found under various names commonly in Azerbaijan and Turkey as well. Other songs show European tonality (the love lament ‘Ananuri,’ sung by the female Kesane Quartet), a kind of nonsense-syllable yodeling that can be heard all the way down along the Adriatic coast (the wedding song ‘Makruli,’ sung by the Georgian Voices) and Orthodox church modality and elongated phrases (both in secular settings such as an epic ballad of medieval Queen Tamar, also performed by the Georgian Voices, and sacred as in “Girso chesmarito” for the Virgin Mary by the Patriarch’s Choir). And some selections by the Mzetamze Ensemble, a group concentrating on women’s traditions, could slot well alongside things from the Carpathians of Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, the Ossetian track from the 1909 set, ‘Kudari Zarond Lechi Zarag’ (credited to the choir Uarzley) sounds both Asian and European, rustic and sophisticated, the male voices highly assertive and yet yearning. Georgian song ‘Lezghinka,’ by Bagrat Bagramiants, carries a very Turkish/Persian tone in its burbling doli percussion and droning duduks, and ‘Ekhlandeli Kalebi,’ sung by Nikol Baveyents, matches an Asian/Middle Eastern-sounding tar lute strum with vocals in the exaggerated dramatic style you might hear on an old Caruso recording.

There are, of course, clear differences between the 1909 recordings and Church’s 2007 release. But a strong case could be made that those are more to do with the simple fact that performance styles have been shaped in the intervening time by the simple fact that performers get to hear their (and others’) performances — something pretty much impossible a century ago. While some aesthetic aspects have changed, the essence has not.

Additionally, there are parallel circumstances of the culture around the music from the two eras. Both sets reflect times marked by great nationalistic pride, not just in Georgia but throughout the area — both manifested in and fueled by music. It was the very ability to record and share music across borders in the early 20th century that helped galvanize national and ethnic cultural identities — think of how Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly in those years went on their own gramophone expeditions collecting and recording disappearing Magyar music in Transylvania and beyond, tunes that they then embraced in their own compositions to create a true Hungarian music apart from the dominant central European romantic traditions. Similar things happened all over the continent and in Asia. Of course, it was the reassertion of national identities that also brought about the conflicts and strong counterreactions that exploded into World War I and then led the Soviet system to squash the colorful cultural varieties under blocks of uniform gray.

And there is little question that the end to Soviet domination in the late 20th century was in part spurred by a new sense of national/ethnic pride as expressed in music. Again, look at Hungary and the roles played by a young generation of musicians (led by Muzsikas and Marta Sebestyen) reviving the nearly lost village music, and the unlikely international profile gained by the “mysterious” music of the Bulgarian women’s choirs. The latter certainly created an interest in more such sounds, which brought attention to Georgian polyphony. Elektra Records, which had released the initial Bulgarian women’s recordings in the West, did the same with Tbilisi’s male Rustavi Choir, with the 1989 album ‘Georgian Voices’ collecting highlights from various sessions done for Moscow’s state-run Melodya label. It was just a year later that the Soviet bloc crumbled, and the attention for the Rustavi ensemble fueled a new flowering of music from the now-independent, quasi-democratic Georgia. Sony Records released several notable albums from Georgia (and other former Soviet states) as part of a mid-’90s series titled ‘St. Petersburg Classics.’ And in 1993, Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records released ‘Table Songs of Georgia,’ another Melodya recording by the Tsinandali Choir.

That international reinforcement spurred renewed interest within Georgia for the music very much the nation’s own, and as a result there’s been considerable recording activity in recent years, and thanks to the Internet quite a few are available outside of the country. Dozens of albums are distributed by the Art Land label on various digital download sites, titles ranging from the most traditional to the most modern-pop, church-rooted chant to disco. (You can survey the selections and listen to clips of all the offerings at such sites as eMusic)

The lesson in all this? Nothing new. Simply the old truism that music knows no borders. If people shared other things as readily, it would be a different world.

http://www.spinner.com/2008/08/19/war-zone-georgia-is-on-our-musical-minds/