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.
Quite possibly the most prestigious musical event today, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has hit the big 4-0 and in turn, has outdone itself in booking nothing less than the cream of the crop. The 2009 lineup is incredibly diverse, both stylistically and chronologically, and will take music from jazz, pop, rock, soul, gospel, folk, salsa, blues, R&B, funk, and lots of music rooted in Louisiana, such as Cajun and zydeco. The event is scheduled to take place the weekends of April 24-26 and April 30-May 3 and it's a wonder how they've managed to cram hundreds of artists into a mere seven days. There are so many artists that one wouldn't know where to start unless they have a specific genre in mind. So for now, let's extract some of the rock bands that will be playing.
Although an official schedule has yet to be released, the lineup has been broken up between the two weekends. During the first weekend, Dave Matthews Band will be featured as one of the headliners (sadly, sans the original sax player). Wilco, who strangely drew in a larger crowd than Rage Against the Machine at Lollapalooza, will undoubtedly be received with open arms. Read more »
Tickets for 2009's Langerado Music Festival will be available this Friday, December 12. A weekend pass for the festival, taking place March 6-8, are starting at $120, or you can buy individual day tickets for $75 a piece. Unlike most other concert tickets, there is no additional charge. Children under 8 get in free with an adult ticket buyer. Early-bird tickets are limited, though, and prices only go up from there. The tickets will be shipped out the third week in February.
Now in its seventh year, Langerado has moved from its old home at the Big Cypres Indian Reservation in Fort Lauderdale. It will now relocate to dowtown Miami's Bicentennial Park, just a couple weeks prior to the Ultra Music Festival, held in the same venue. With the attendance growing seemingly exponentially on a yearly basis, the venue change may prove to be a deal-breaker, seeing as how downtown Miami certainly isn't lacking in people. Read more »
The 8th installment of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is scheduled to take place June 11-14. Produced by Superfly Productions in association with A.C. Entertainment, the 4-day event will remain in the same venue in Manchester, TN. Tickets can be purchased for pre-sale from December 4- 31. General admission tickets will be available for 5 payments of $50 or you can buy VIP tickets for $1,349.50 (not including fees). Read more »
The summer rock festival is a hallowed tradition, and the mere mention of a Lollapalooza or a Bonnaroo calls to mind more than a few indelible images: The restless multitudes massed outside the brimming porta-potties, the eight-dollar hot dogs washed down with twelve-dollar beers, so many sunburned and shirtless party warriors being carried to the quiet mists of the chillout tent. The sun is out; people are on vacation; sometimes it rains, and we get naked in the mud.
Although displayed on the site's main page as running from November 14th-16th, the schedule indicates that a day appears to have been added at the beginning. So the event will supposedly start on Thursday the 13th, featuring additional performances by Perpetual Groove and The Motet. Other headliners include JJ Grey and Mofro, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Yonder Mountain String Band, Soulive, The New Mastersounds, Lettuce, The Everyone Orchestra featuring Jon Fishman and Michael Kang, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dr. Claw (another Ivan Neville outfit), and many more. Read more »
The festival's immediate future is tied up in questions before U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jeffrey R. Hughes on the suggested sale of the bankrupt Double JJ Resort. The attorney for the bankruptcy trustee told Hughes that festival organizers have given a Wednesday deadline for a new Double JJ owner to come to an agreement on a 2009 festival at the resort.
This past Sunday was one of those beautiful, crisp fall days. The sun was shining brilliantly in a clear, blue sky. The temperature got up to the upper 70s and there was a slight breeze. And my son and I were attending our second Voodoo Fest and considering the time well spent!
Stephen Rehage lost thousands of dollars in the making of the first New Orleans Voodoo Experience, the outdoor music festival he first produced in 1999 that only drew about 8,000 people.
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Chicago's Ears and Eyes Festival will take place this Friday through Sunday at The Hideout, a small venue/bar converted from a 19th century house. It seems that the origin of the venue was built on similar principles as CBGB, seving as an artistic safe-haven for those who classified themselves as outcasts. The Hideout is described as, "small, and small is beautiful. It’s not for everyone, but for every one!" This is further proof that festivals don't need to be epic, 100,000-person spectacles like the simultaneously occurring Voodoo Music Experience.
One artist featured at Ears and Eyes is experimental lounge/jazz/rock hybrid, Maurice. It's gotten to the point where the terms "experimental" or "jazz fusion" make the average music fan turn the other cheek. That being said, it's nice to come across a band that can actually pull that kind of thing off without being pretentious. Their tunes, all of which are instrumental, can best be described as short stories in song form. Within one song, the band provides a sound ranging from Sigur Ros-style ambience to manic trumpet riffing.
