Spoleto Festival USA has just announced its 2009 festival schedule and tickets are now available for sale on the festival’s Web site. Due to the economic crunch, Spoleto has had to cut back on the number of performances it is offering in 2009. This season there are 120 performances, which is down by 22 from last year’s 142. The budget for this year’s festival is significantly less than 2008’s as well, going from $8.4 million to $6.2 million. Raking up $372,000 in debt, 2008's festival was the first in 13 years to be in the red.
The 2009 schedule features Gustave Charpentier’s Louise as the only opera performance of the season. Questions were raised about whether or not the Wachovia Jazz series would continue given that the bank had been purchased last year. It will in fact continue under the same name, bringing in five acts. The Westminster Choir also returns with Bach, Buxtehude, Josquin Desprez, Frank Martin, and Moses Hogan as just a few composers included in their program.
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I'm not exactly sure why, but I received a Google Alert the other day with a link to an article published in 1999. (Way to keep things timely, Google.) I didn't notice the publishing date until I'd read the whole thing and gotten super excited about learning something new about how the Mostly Mozart Festival came into play at the Lincoln Center. Lack of timeliness aside, I'm going to share with you the highlight of my Google Alert "news."
We all know that the Mostly Mozart Festival takes place in the summer at the Lincoln Center in New York City. And if you didn't know, shame on you (!!!) for not checking out one of Festival Preview's favorite new 2.0 features, the festival profile page. Anyway, according to reporter Howard Kissel, back in the day (mid-1960s) Ol' Blue Eyes had written a check out for $25,000 to the Lincoln Center with a little love note attached saying he'd like to perform there sometime in the summer. (By today's standards, that would be analogous to writing a check for $250k.) This was during the time when Frankie, known as a saloon singer, was accused of having Mafia associations. The management at the Lincoln Center, gearing toward keeping the venue classical music only, decided not to bring Sinatra and his pop music to what was then called Philharmonic Hall, lest Sinatra's bad boy reputation harm the classy reputation of the Center. Read more »
With two feet planted firmly in bluegrass, Claire Lynch’s interests and versatility take her comfortably into country, Americana with a tinge of jazz, swing, and blues in her compositions and her performances. Her career, spanning thirty-five years, includes stints with several bands and working as a house singer/songwriter with Universal-Polygram where her name appears on 160 projects, if I’m counting right. She’s been nominated for a couple of Grammies and was named IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1997. Many of her songs are immediately familiar to bluegrass fans as is her youthful, clear, and expressive voice. Her signature songs include the recent hit “The Day that Lester Died,” “Hills of Alabam’”, and the yearning “Kennesaw Line.” Her version of “Wabash Cannonball” gives the entire band a chance to strut its stuff while always staying true to the great country original made famous by Roy Acuff.
Woodwind wonder Jeff Coffin will be splitting his time between his regular gig with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones and the Dave Matthews Band. From Jeff's Website: Read more »
There have been many people asking and, yes, I will be joining Dave Mattews Band starting in 2009. I am honored to be asked to be part of such a fantastic group of musicians and people and am looking forward to making some great music! Thanks to all the many for their support and encouragement. See you out there. peace, jc
Next year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will be the fortieth time jazz-lovers have convened at the Fair Grounds Race Course to enjoy jazz as well as music from other genres. The festival takes place on April 24-26 and again on April 30 - May 3. The schedule of performers is starting to fill up and includes some musical giants like The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, the Neville Brothers, Chicago's Buddy Guy and the legendary Wynton Marsalis.
Marsalis will perform a concert-length piece entitled "Congo Square" that he first premiered in 2006 in the Crescent City. The work was composed with Yacub Addy and will be performed with the Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as Addy's ensemble, Odadaa!. The piece focuses on the influence of the West African roots of jazz and its progression in America.
The festival will also present rock and pop acts like Chicago's Wilco, Dave Matthew's Band, Joe Cocker and James Taylor. Read more »
The Boston Globe cites lack of "corporate sponsors" as a cause, but as one who has been close to the festival for the past seven years, as well as in tune with WUMB's format changes (from roots and folk to AAA), I suspect other factors are at work.
For the last few years the festival has been on the decline, shrinking from two days to one, creating an unfriendly "us and them" vibe by catering to "VIP's" with private concerts and providing high backed chairs down front, eliminating the dance stage two years ago and the workshop and busker stages last year), a scarcity of vendors, running the main stage as a workshop stage, and following the Duncan Donuts Festival's lead by headlining country and pop artists in place of folk artists.
News of the Boston Folk Festival's demise reached me via Google alert at 2:12am that "hit" this Boston Globe gossip column story.
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I've alway been a bit of an Inspector Gadget type, and can usually be found w/a utlity pack brimming w/accessories, doodads, what if's and just in cases. There's just something appealing about knowing that if I was stranded on a desert island, my trusty backpack and hideway pockets contain everything I'd need to live high on the hog without having to knaw off my own toes to survive.
I tend to take the same approach when heading out to a multi day festival. Whether we're talking Reggae On the River, All Tomorow's Parties or Burning Man (good god, especially Burning Man), you always have to consider the elements when on musical pilgrimage.
Every fest is a little different. The sun could be burning a hole through your vintage t-shirt or the rain might be pounding harder on the roof of your tent than the music outside. But one thing rings true for the multi-day, bring-your-own-everything concert-goer: comfort baby, comfort. Read more »
GIANT, a nightclub chain based in Los Angeles, is about to throw its epic New Year's Eve party, entitled GIANT Maximus, for the third time, with Moby, Paul Oakenfold, Dirty South and Benny Benassi set to headline.
Giant Maximus 2008/2009, in keeping with the omitted but implied "Circus" in its title, will not only feature some of electronica's best acts on three stages (actually three heated big tops) and a "Monster Midway Club" at its Downtown LA site, but also an entire amusement park (complete with ferris wheel), ongoing acrobatics shows and other interactive delights during its operation.
Entering its second year at a new site in Oak HIll NY, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival released the beginning of a lineup as an inducement for holiday ticket purchases. Through December 31, full festival admission and camping is available at a discounted $135. The first performers named to the 2009 lineup are perennial festival hosts Dry Branch Fire Squad pllus Del McCoury Band, Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, The Steeldrivers, Crooked Still, Red Stick Ramblers and Farewell Drifters. That's a solid foundation, but we'll reserve judgment untill we see more names. FP festival page.
AT&T Blue Room has added a bunch of videos to its site that, like many of the others, cater to the folks that were unable to attend a given festival or that were able to attend and want to relive part of the experience. Only a handful of bands are featured on the site, but the selling point is that Blue Room offers a virtual front row seat, as well as backstage footage and interviews. These free webcasts have become immensely popular among consumers nationwide.
The site is best utilized during the actual festivals, when large portions of sets (sometimes full ones) are streamed live and on-demand. This past year, Blue Room has collaborated with SPIN to bring interviews and concert videos from events like Mile High, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo. Bits and pieces of Austin City Limits remain on the site, featuring artists like The Raconteurs and Jakob Dylan. Performances from SF's Outside Lands Festival by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, as well as Cake, are posted on the site's What's New page. Read more »
World Music Central’s list of musicians, scholars and music industry professionals who left us in 2008.
Jimmy Carl Black, 70, musician and singer. Mr. Black was a drummer and vocalist best known for his membership in the group The Mothers of Invention with Frank Zappa. Mr. Black was also a member of the groups Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band and The Grandmothers. His discography includes Ella Guru The First Album, Strange News from Mars with Jon Larsen, Tommy Mars and Bruce Fowler and The Jimmy Carl Black Story with Jon Larsen.
