An 11-year-old Japanese girl, Li-sa-X, shreds a speed metal rendition of Schubert’s Lullaby on her electric guitar in this commercial for JNB Visa Debit cards.
A First For Amazon: Live Streaming Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Concert Tonight
Amazon is partnering with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis to live stream an intimate hometown show the hip-hop duo is playing in Seattle this Friday night. Macklemore and Lewis are playing the show to celebrate the release of their new LP This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, and Amazon is taking its first step into the world of musical live streaming. (It’s following in the footsteps of its live stream of President Obama’s final State of the Union address last month.) The concert will be available in most major browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer, and even Opera — on both PCs and Macs, and you don’t need an Amazon Prime subscription to watch. (It’s available around the world, too — no need to live in a country with Amazon Prime Music.) The stream isn’t accessible on mobile devices, though, and it won’t be archived. If you want to see it, you’ll have to be ready when the concert starts at midnight ET on Friday. (The live stream itself is kicking off at 10:30PM.)
Via The Verge
Canadian Arts/Media Job Posts For February 25, 2016
Verve Records to Celebrate Sixty Years With Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Billie Holiday and More
One of the most prestigious labels in the history of jazz, Verve Records will celebrate its 60th anniversary throughout 2016 with a trove of historic reissues and stunning new collections from its legendary archives. The release schedule constitutes a who’s-who of jazz legends, including such pioneers as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, and the label’s heart and soul, Ella Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald will be honored with the release of Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set, a new compilation bringing together all of her Jazz at the Philharmonic performances previously issued by Verve on various albums, on a single collection for the first time ever. The collection—which includes concerts from 1949, 1953 and 1954 and features appearances by Parker, Lester Young, and Hank Jones among others—will feature newly re-mastered music and an essay by author Will Friedwald.
The first set of releases, due out in March 2016, is also highlighted by the new digital collection Verve 60, featuring 60 stellar tracks by 60 different artists from throughout the label’s history, spanning from Ella and Oscar through Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Diana Krall and Christian McBride. In addition, five favorites from the Verve catalogue will be reissued on vinyl, including Ella & Louis, the first pairing for the label of Fitzgerald and Armstrong; Billie Holiday’s Lady Sings the Blues; Charlie “Bird” Parker’s innovative Charlie Parker with Strings; Oscar Peterson’s Night Train; and Count Basie’s April in Paris.
Several classics will also make their debuts in HD digital audio and iTunes, including titles by Fitzgerald, Evans, Parker, Wynton Kelly, and Stan Getz. Organ master Jimmy Smith’s classic singles for the label will be compiled into a digital box set.
The release schedule continues in May and June with more vinyl and digital reissues, including Getz/Gilberto and albums by Wes Montgomery, Blossom Dearie, Coleman Hawkins, and Anita O’Day. A new CD collection will compile unreleased music by Charlie Parker, while Louis Armstrong’s complete studio recordings for the label will be collected onto one multi-disc set.
Verve was founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the forward-thinking impresario responsible for the hugely popular Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, which brought the music to new audiences and garnered jazz an unprecedented level of respect in the popular culture. Granz also managed Ella Fitzgerald and launched the label in large part to create new opportunities worthy of the singer’s immense talent, including her landmark series of Songbook recordings.
Under the visionary leadership of Granz and later Creed Taylor (after MGM purchased the imprint in 1961), Verve continued to set new trends. The label sparked the Bossa Nova craze with the 1964 release of the Grammy Award-winning Getz/Gilberto and brought a lush, elegant new sound to jazz with the arrangements of Claus Ogerman and Oliver Nelson. Its focus also encompassed groundbreaking comedy, and later widened to embrace folk and rock recordings, including now-iconic releases by The Velvet Underground, Richie Havens, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and Janis Ian.
It was its jazz legacy that cemented Verve’s place in the popular imagination however, and after a fallow period in the ’70s and ’80s Verve was revived in the mid-1990s, again signing many of the biggest names in the music: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Jeff Lorber, Chris Botti and Incognito all recorded for Verve during this period. Its diverse and distinguished lineage continues today through the work of artists like Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan and Third Story.
Over the course of its six-decade history, Verve has become synonymous with the very best in jazz, venerating the music while charting its course and helping to break down racial and stylistic barriers. There’s no better way to celebrate that legacy than with the music itself, and 2016 will allow listeners to revisit the breathtaking sounds of Verve in new and exhilarating ways.
Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set will be released on March 25.
- 1949 First Set
- Norman Granz Announces Ella Fitzgerald
- Robbins Nest
- A New Shade Of Blues
- Old Mother Hubbard
- I’m Just A Lucky So-and-So
- Somebody Loves Me
- Basin Street Blues
- Ow! Introduction of Ella Fitzgerald
- Flying Home
- 1949 Second Set
- Oh, Lady Be Good!
- Black Coffee
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket
- How High The Moon
- Norman Granz Announcement
- Perdido
- 1953 Set
- Bill
- Why Don’t You Do Right?
- 1954 Set
- A Foggy Day (In London Town)
- Lullaby Of Birdland
- The Man That Got Away
- Hernando’s Hideaway
- Later
Slacker Radio Adopts XAPP Interactive Audio To Connect Mobile Listeners To Content
Slacker Radio, a leading Internet radio service, and XAPPmedia, the leader in interactive audio services for advertising, content discovery and app navigation, announced that Slacker is leveraging XAPP’s Content Discovery service to drive listener engagement across its stations.
XAPP Content Discoveries are served between music tracks, to promote stations, songs and artists and other features available on Slacker. For example, while listening to the popular “Today’s Hits” station on Slacker a listener may be presented with a teaser for related programming. Requiring no touch screen interaction, each XAPP prompts a user with the exact phrase to say if they are interested in the promotion.
Providing Slacker listeners with XAPP integration enables an exciting way of surfacing recommended programing to each user based on their listening habits. In a recent survey of test listeners, 54 percent reported XAPP prompts are a fun and easy way to interact with Slacker Radio.
“At Slacker we’re one hundred percent focused on delivering the best lean-back listener experience, so we’re constantly looking at innovative ways to improve how our users discover new content,” said Duncan Orrell-Jones, CEO, Slacker Radio. “Allowing users to interact with content recommendations using audio prompts is a natural evolution of Slacker’s commitment to making personalized listening experiences effortless.”
The preliminary Content Discovery campaigns started in November 2015, and Slacker Radio delivered an average response rate of more than 11 times higher than mobile audio promotions that relied only on touch for listener interaction. Additionally, 14.8 percent of the total targeted Slacker audience actively engaged with at least one promotion within the first five impressions, thanks to the convenience of XAPP’s voice interaction.
“Slacker has done a fantastic job of integrating the best features of broadcast radio into the Internet radio user experience with it’s DJ-hosted stations that complement personalized listening,” commented Pat Higbie, CEO and co-founder, XAPPmedia. “It delivers a great lean-back listening experience and XAPP is excited to facilitate the discovery of Slacker’s curated content.”
Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey: Streaming Music Is Mainstream In The Nordics
Music streaming services represent the mainstream for music consumption in Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden: 9.4 million Nordic consumers streamed music in 2015. This is evident from the Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2015, which was commissioned by three collecting societies Teosto (FIN), Koda (DK) and Tono (N).
The Polaris Nordic Digital Music survey was carried out in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden in September 2015. The survey, which was was conducted by YouGov, was targeted at Internet users aged 12 to 65 and attracted a total of 3,200 online respondents (800 per country). The survey was commissioned by the three Nordic collecting societies Koda (Denmark), Teosto Finland) and Tono (Norway), who formed the Polaris Nordic Alliance in 2013. The survey is the second of its kind; the first was carried out in 2014.
Alltogether 58% of Nordic respondents aged 15 to 65 (an estimated 9.4 million) say they have consumed music content within the previous twelve months from one or more music streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal/Wimp or TDC/YouSeePlay. Looking at all online music sources, Spotify, YouTube and Apple iTunes are the top three music destinations for Nordic consumers.
The survey shows that a steady number of Nordic Internet consumers also pay for their online use of music. In 2015 a total of 23% of respondents aged 15 to 65 stated they had paid for their digital use of music within the last year (e.g. as downloads or via streaming services).
64% of all respondents also agree or strongly agree that music creators should be paid when their music is played on online services.
Radio remains the most often cited source for new music discovery in all four countries, followed by YouTube and dedicated music streaming services. 40% of Nordic respondents selected “I heard it on the radio” when prompted for the source of discovery for the latest new track found to be good. At the same time, also the role of music streaming services for music discovery seems to increase as the number of streaming music users keeps rising.
For young respondents the role of friends, social media and music streaming services was higher for music discovery, even though the role of radio remained considerable. They were also more likely to share music, music videos and playlists, and listen to shared or curated playlists on music streaming services.
A Behind-The-Scenes Look At John Williams’ Soundtrack For Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Go behind the scenes of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack, as composer John Williams discusses his approach to crafting music for the film, including characters new and classic.
A Short Documentary on Crispin Glover, The Actor and The Myth
Crispin Glover: the man, the myth, the mystery. He’s known for playing George McFly in Back to the Future, and has continued to bring his unique flair to the roles he plays. There’s no one like him.
https://youtu.be/-o7y46538dU
Read Annie Lennox And Gary Oldman’s David Bowie Tribute Speeches From The Brit Awards 2016
Annie Lennox: “On the 10th of January this year, the world was stunned and shaken by the news that David Bowie had suddenly passed away. I suspect that everyone is still trying to process this sadly unexpected event. Even if they didn’t know him personally, many people must feel as if things will never be quite the same again. He had that special kind of significance.
“For me, it’s almost impossible to mention Bowie’s name in the past tense. Everything he represented as an artist was, and always will be, vital and incredibly present. As a cutting-edge artistic genius, he continues to live on through his music. David Bowie is deeply embedded in the heart of British culture, as a fixture within our collective inner psyche, influencing every decade from the moment he first appeared on the airwaves with ‘Space Oddity’ in 1969 right up to the present day.
“Like the miraculous moon landing that inspired the song, he drew us away from our suburban lives, expanding our horizons, turning everything on its head into gloriously subversive technicolour. As an innovative writer, performer and rock star, there was no one and nothing else like him. He was truly unique: a quintessential visionary, pushing the limits of his shape-shifting persona. The ultimate iconoclast – gracious, dangerous and legendary. The legacy of his extraordinary sound and vision will be loved and revered for as long as the earth still spins.
“The Brits Icon Award is only presented to unparalleled artists whose writing, recording and performance set them apart as having made a lasting impact on the nation’s culture, recognising the very highest level of British music achievement. To accept the award, I’d now like to invite David’s dear friend Gary Oldman to the stage.”
Gary Oldman: “We are all coming to terms with the magnitude of David’s passing. The Jones family lost a husband and a father. Those closest to David lost a dear friend and the world lost a man, an artist of transcendent talent. As Annie so gracefully said, David’s contribution, his influence on popular music – on culture itself – has no equal. He was the very definition, the living embodiment of that singular word, ‘icon’. I am so deeply touched and honoured to be here tonight to accept this award for David and his family.
“In recent years David spoke sparingly about music and his process, but in one of these rare instances he graciously and eloquently expounded, ‘Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences. I can’t say that life’s pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it, but it has allowed me so many moments of companionship when I have been lonely, and a sublime means of communication when I have wanted to touch people. It has been both my doorway of perception and the house that I live in.’
“Over his career David challenged and changed our understanding of the medium. Whether in music or in life he emphasised originality, experimentation, exploration, and in his very unique way he also reminded us to never take ourselves too seriously.
“David was funny. He was funny, hilariously so, and the laughs were many and massive and I shall miss them. A related story: a few years ago we were standing on a street corner and he was approached by this big fella – rocker type, long hair, leather-clad – and he offered up this piece of paper for David’s autograph. David signed the piece of paper and as the fella walked away he said, ‘Well he’s going to be disappointed’ – I said, ‘Why?’ – he said, ‘Cause I just signed it Gary Oldman.’
“His outlook was always positive and I never once heard him complain. I can share with you that David faced his illness with enormous courage and dignity and grace, and customary humour, even in dire circumstances. When he wrote to tell me the bad news that he had cancer, he added, ‘The good news is, I’ve got my cheekbones back’.
“He was the sweetest soul ever, with the best cheekbones, until it was done. David, you were mortal, but your potential was superhuman and your remarkable music is living on. We love you and we thank you.”
Via NME
