Music

Under your skin review posted

19/10/09 21:52 Filed in: Website Updates

My review of Jaine Rogers' 'Under your skin' jazz album is posted in Other Writing here and on the Woodshed Jazz site here.

Tags: Music

University of Calypso review posted

13/07/09 22:31 Filed in: Website Updates

My review of Andy Narell and Relator's University of Calypso is posted here...
Interested in Caribbean Jazz? Visit The Woodshed for serious instruction.

Tags: Music

BitDepth 687 posted

06/07/09 19:18 Filed in: Website Updates

BitDepth 687, a look at the confluence of media and magic that made Michael Jackson a worldwide sensation is posted here...

Tags: Music

On MJ and his brothers

27/06/09 20:48 Filed in: Website Updates

In February 1978, The Jacksons were adrift. They were gone from Motown, the label that had nurtured them from childhood to stardom. Now they were with Epic Records, the beginning of a long and ultimately unsatisfying period that yielded almost no additions to their significant repertoire.
In just over a year, little brother Michael would begin a trajectory of fame and stardom that would eclipse his most remarkable moments under Berry Gordy. In short order, he would emerge as the saving grace of the film version of The Wiz and record the first solo album on which he would exercise his growing production and songwriting skills.
The Jacksons in 1978 seemed very much in flux, caught between the glories of their past and an uncertain future, the band was confident in performance and capable in public presence.

My brief encounter with them during the few days that they spent in Trinidad and Tobago would forever change the arc of my own career, the photo that I stumbled into of Michael and Penny Commissiong forever lifted my profile from writer with a camera to photographer and changed my own perception of my capabilities and potential.
The Jacksons tour of 1978 didn't change my life, but it accelerated my travels along an inevitable path and gave me both the confidence to pursue a shaky professional venture and the will to stick with it when things didn't work out.

I have no doubt that Michael and his brothers forgot all about me before they even set foot on their flight back home and I will confess to have thought little about the encounter over the past three decades, but in reposting the story I sold to Owen Baptiste's People Magazine (my first major story in a magazine and pictures on a glossy cover) I hope to share something of what happened during those few days and to pay homage to the young star who passed away on June 25.

Related...
Fifteen minutes of fame
Michael Jackson in Trinidad, a remembrance
Jacksons Mania, 1978

Tags: Music

Playing pan with powder posted

07/04/09 10:11 Filed in: Website Updates

The story Playing pan with powder about an entrepreneur's plan to bring durable colour to the national instrument is posted here...

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Jazz on the Greens review posted

02/04/09 22:42 Filed in: Website Updates

The full review of Jazz on the Greens 2009 (the review is abruptly truncated in the paper and on its website) at the UWI Centre for the Creative Arts is posted here, along with the full selection of photographs offered to the paper for publication.

Tags: Music

BitDepth 663 posted

26/01/09 20:58 Filed in: Website Updates

BitDepth 663 an update on the progress of TrinidadTunes.com and the Free + Legal campaign is posted here...

Tags: Music

More on Free + Legal

19/01/09 21:25 Filed in: BitDepth+

The Free + Legal campaign jointly announced by Columbus Communication's Flow and TrinidadTunes.com marked a coming of age for the music download service.
As the team behind Riddums Music and Trinidad Music Store closed in on their first anniversary, Flow approached the music distributors looking for ideas on a meaningful collaboration.
Flow had first approached 3 Canal about doing a jingle, but the group doesn't do that kind of work, so the idea of Free + Legal was born, offering music for a limited time with a sponsor footing the cost.

As noted here in BitDepth, 3 Canal will be offering their new album Joy + Fire exclusively on TrinidadTunes.com until they release the CD later in the Carnival season.
The idea was stimulated by the October 2008 visit of Gerd Leonhard, a futurist thinker with a special interest in music and its distribution in the digital age.
"Flow has been amazing," said Lorraine O'Connor. "We thought that the phone companies would have jumped on this idea, but Flow didn't even want to limit it to their customers on their network."

3 Canal apparently left their meeting with Flow astonished at how open minded the company proved to be in their discussions.
TrinidadTunes hopes to start hosting music videos on the website before the end of the Carnival season.
"We're not philanthropists," said O'Connor.

"But we see that it's to the long term benefit of both our businesses to build interest in legal downloads," her business partner Roses Hezekiah continued.
"The most astonishing thing is that Flow's team is just bright, bright women and the meetings just blaze on," said O'Connor, "Rhea (Yawching, Flow's Communications chief) will just hold up her hands and bawl, 'no more ideas, no more, I have no budget left'."

Tags: Music