Protocols has the Only Simchas ad for the Fried/Blue Fringe concert being presented by Yeshivat Noam next month.
One of these things is not like the other...
Friday, January 30, 2004
On Working With Vocalists
Frequently, in the "club-date" end of the business, bands often have to back up JM singers they don't regularly perform with. This happens either when the client has a special request for a "name" vocalist, or when said vocalist is a guest at the affair and is either asked to/or decides to come up and sing.
(I'm not referring here to the friend or relative who "has a good voice." I'll leave that can of worms for perhaps another post.)
Oftentimes, these vocalists show up without sheet music and want to sing their latest "hit" with the band. These are not complicated songs, and usually, the band has no trouble 'comping' them sans music. It is annoying though. The assumption that the band is familiar with their music is presumptuous -- especially when it's not a "hit" song. Also, the music would sound better if the band had the chart in front of them. I think that if a vocalist knows that he's going to sing a few songs at a gig he ought to bring sheet music for the band -- not because we can't get the job done, but because we'll sound better if we know what we're playing. It's much easier for musicians to voice chords and play appropriate melodic fills when they know where a melody is going, and the end result will actually be musical.
During the dance set at one recent gig, the vocalist segued into a tune no one in the band knew. Following him was challenging because his intonation was off and he was singing almost a quartertone off. It's not that easy to comp a tune you've never heard before when you're not sure what key it's in and the vocalist is singing "in between" two keys. I know that he had the lead sheet to that song at home and it would have been simple courtesy to bring it. In general, musicians do their best to make these vocalists sound good, sometimes under extremely adverse conditions, and it would be nice if it were reciprocated.
Some vocalists do bring charts when they are singing at a wedding or performing at a small concert, and invariably, they sound better then their peers who don't bring music. In general, these performers appear to have much more respect for their audience –as well as the band – and it shows in the way the audience responds to them.
Also, as I've noted in the past, some vocalists send their new CD's and the accompanying sheet music to musicians/bandleaders so that they can familiarize themselves with the material and perhaps play it at gigs. For those who don't do this, sending these to a bandleader before an upcoming gig would ensure that they have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the tunes that will be performed.
If the artist does bring sheet music, then he should make sure that it is correct. A bad chart isn't better than no music, and quite often is worse!
One time, the band was hired to back up a vocalist at a concert. He showed up with a bunch of lead sheets, handed them to us, and started the show. While we were playing one song, we realized that it was missing the second half. It was a two page lead sheet, and the performer had only brought the first page. Of course, we only realized this when we got to the high part of the tune, which we didn't have music for. We got through it just fine, but the lack of professionalism was startling.
More than once, a vocalist has handed us a chart for one melody, and then proceeded to sing a totally different melody with the same words -- sometimes in a different key. These glitches are easily avoidable. A little bit of prep before the gig will go along way towards making sure everyone sounds good.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this and a good "jam" can be a lot of fun, but there's a time and place for everything, and in general, a little respect for the band and the audience will go a long way towards helping a singer sound as good as possible.
(I'm not referring here to the friend or relative who "has a good voice." I'll leave that can of worms for perhaps another post.)
Oftentimes, these vocalists show up without sheet music and want to sing their latest "hit" with the band. These are not complicated songs, and usually, the band has no trouble 'comping' them sans music. It is annoying though. The assumption that the band is familiar with their music is presumptuous -- especially when it's not a "hit" song. Also, the music would sound better if the band had the chart in front of them. I think that if a vocalist knows that he's going to sing a few songs at a gig he ought to bring sheet music for the band -- not because we can't get the job done, but because we'll sound better if we know what we're playing. It's much easier for musicians to voice chords and play appropriate melodic fills when they know where a melody is going, and the end result will actually be musical.
During the dance set at one recent gig, the vocalist segued into a tune no one in the band knew. Following him was challenging because his intonation was off and he was singing almost a quartertone off. It's not that easy to comp a tune you've never heard before when you're not sure what key it's in and the vocalist is singing "in between" two keys. I know that he had the lead sheet to that song at home and it would have been simple courtesy to bring it. In general, musicians do their best to make these vocalists sound good, sometimes under extremely adverse conditions, and it would be nice if it were reciprocated.
Some vocalists do bring charts when they are singing at a wedding or performing at a small concert, and invariably, they sound better then their peers who don't bring music. In general, these performers appear to have much more respect for their audience –as well as the band – and it shows in the way the audience responds to them.
Also, as I've noted in the past, some vocalists send their new CD's and the accompanying sheet music to musicians/bandleaders so that they can familiarize themselves with the material and perhaps play it at gigs. For those who don't do this, sending these to a bandleader before an upcoming gig would ensure that they have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the tunes that will be performed.
If the artist does bring sheet music, then he should make sure that it is correct. A bad chart isn't better than no music, and quite often is worse!
One time, the band was hired to back up a vocalist at a concert. He showed up with a bunch of lead sheets, handed them to us, and started the show. While we were playing one song, we realized that it was missing the second half. It was a two page lead sheet, and the performer had only brought the first page. Of course, we only realized this when we got to the high part of the tune, which we didn't have music for. We got through it just fine, but the lack of professionalism was startling.
More than once, a vocalist has handed us a chart for one melody, and then proceeded to sing a totally different melody with the same words -- sometimes in a different key. These glitches are easily avoidable. A little bit of prep before the gig will go along way towards making sure everyone sounds good.
Obviously, there are exceptions to this and a good "jam" can be a lot of fun, but there's a time and place for everything, and in general, a little respect for the band and the audience will go a long way towards helping a singer sound as good as possible.
Re: Performers Contact Info
I've been getting a bunch of emails asking for various singers phone numbers/email addresses.
I really don't know what I'm supposed to think when I get an email from someone I don't know that says:
I really don't know what I'm supposed to think when I get an email from someone I don't know that says:
Can you please forward me Abie Rottenbergs email adress.?or
I want to wish him a big Yasher Koiach on journys 4. I think he did a superb job.
yakov shwekey 2 is good!!!! Do you know Shwekey's phone number???Folks, most artists have contact info on their CD's. Please use that info to get in touch with them. I simply don't feel comfortable giving out people's private contact info. If the artist wanted be reached them that way by the public, then they would have included the info in their album liner notes.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Playing With History
The Forward has the details on the newly opened musical "Crown Heights" and they are quite disturbing.
Naturally, because misrepresenting facts to represent Jews in an unvavorable light is pro-Jewish. Shameful.
The play is produced by the All Stars Project. According to the article:
Here is Bear Stearns contact info.
Here's the contact info for New York Life Insurance Company.
In the play, Scheerson's own car hits the child; both his car and a Jewish ambulance leave the scene immediately, implying that the Jews are guilty of leaving the children to die. 'There's a black boy bleeding,' actors sing, 'as the rabbi just runs.'"Disgustingly, the play's authors claim "the play is pro-Jewish."
Naturally, because misrepresenting facts to represent Jews in an unvavorable light is pro-Jewish. Shameful.
The play is produced by the All Stars Project. According to the article:
The All Stars Project recorded an income of $2.5 million in 2002, without any government funding, thanks in part to support from a roster of Fortune 500 companies including Bear Stearns and New York Life Insurance Company.I think these corporate sponsors ought to be made aware of how their money is being used.
Here is Bear Stearns contact info.
Here's the contact info for New York Life Insurance Company.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Fun With Plagiarism
Back Row Of The 'Beis notes an apparent plagiarism of the text of his website article on MBD's plagiarism of "Yidden."
Ironic, isn't it?
Ironic, isn't it?
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Not One of the Shiva Devarim
This NY Newsday article on 'hip' Jews includes the following:
For that matter, looking at the text might help artists to realize that they are omitting words and thereby making their lyric meaningless. For instance, there is a popular version of "Hamalach Hagoel" which omits the words "viykareh vahem sh'mi." As a result, the lyric on the high part, "V'sheim avosei ..." bears no connection to the lyric on the low part and is essentially meaningless!
"Annette Ezekiel, of the klezmer rock band Golem, comes from a nonreligious background, but says she is now studying ancient Jewish texts, along with Yiddish, to deepen her appreciation of the music. 'My Yiddish teacher says that you don't have to believe it, but you have to know about it.'"If some of the "frum artists would have taken a look at the context of their source material before they recorded a lyric, they might have avoided the embarrasment of having recorded a pasuk ("Chazak") talking about Jews encouraging each other to worship idols, or a pasuk ("V'haya Machanecha Kadosh") about the obligation of a soldier to carry a shovel to war in order to dig a latrine outside of the encampment. The words in both cases sound nice when viewed in isolation, but the context is indisputable.
For that matter, looking at the text might help artists to realize that they are omitting words and thereby making their lyric meaningless. For instance, there is a popular version of "Hamalach Hagoel" which omits the words "viykareh vahem sh'mi." As a result, the lyric on the high part, "V'sheim avosei ..." bears no connection to the lyric on the low part and is essentially meaningless!
Musicians Unveil Digital 'Manifesto'
The Miami Herald reports on Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno who are starting a new musicians' alliance that would let artists sell their music online instead of only through record labels.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Attention Bandleaders!
Need a female Chinese vocalist to sing Broadway, Xmas carols, and the Carpenters?
Thoughts On the New Sameach Music Mag (for A.G.)
A lot of people have been asking about my thoughts on the new Sameach music magazine. I picked up the new free magazine last month. It's called the Jewish Music Review, and is essentially a magazine full of promo articles on recent Sameach releases. It's a great concept, but the execution is disappointing. Hopefully they'll make some (major) changes in the next one.
Unlike some, I have no problem with the concept of a music distributor – in this case Sameach – promoting their own artists and products; that is, as long as it is done transparently. As long as Sameach is open about their goal -- to increase awareness of their artists and spark interest in their offerings; I believe that there is no inherent conflict of interest.
For the past ten years or so, Tower Records has been doing something similar with their magazine, "Pulse", which is a free giveaway in their stores. (They're ceasing publication soon as Tower is having massive financial difficulties.) I think that Tower's customers understand that the point of the magazine is to sell CD's, but, since the writing is interesting, descriptive, and accurate, they have an interest in reading the articles and frequently purchase some of the music they've read about. Now, there is no doubt that Tower works with the record companies to promote certain artists and recordings, but since "Pulse" is genuinely informative about the artists and CD's, the customer has a good idea of what they're getting when they buy a featured CD.
In general, this is something that has been missing from the Jewish music PR typified by the ads in Country Yossi Magazine, the Jewish Press, et al. In general, these articles are a combination of poor writing, clichés, silly analogies, and meaningless descriptions that rarely if ever give the reader a sense of what is truly unique about a given album or artists. In a sense, these articles are kind of like "Mad-libs" where the writer simply plugs the artist's name, album title, and song titles, into a preconceived framework that is meaningless at best and condescending or dishonest at worst.
The idea of a promotional magazine probably makes a lot of sense for Sameach from a financial standpoint too. Given the high cost of advertising in Country Yossi magazine and the Jewish papers, Sameach will save money in the long run, assuming that the new mag can pick up readers. I think that it can be successful because people are interested in reading about Jewish music – I think that the music "articles" are a big part of CY's appeal -- but they'll need to make some changes to really make it work.
The debut issue of Jewish Music Review uses pretty much the same writers/writing style as Country Yossi magazine. These writers have developed a style that is simply foolish. The articles generally manage to be meaningless, condescending, and dishonest all at the same time!
I think that Sameach ought to hire good writers to write the articles for their magazine, and it would help if they were musically literate too. It frequently seems as though the CY-style writers have no understanding of basic musical concepts. The general MO these writers use is to pick a few themes or ideas to emphasize in their articles.
These usually emphasize such inane ideas as:
(This is a representative sample taken from recent JM PR.)
The 'artist' "knows what we want to hear."
The 'artist' has " his finger on the pulsebeat [sic] of the Jewish listening public."
"Today's audience will not be fooled"
"We'd like to congratulate 'the artist' on his outstanding achievements so far."
The album, artist, or song being promoted is "unbelievable."
"No matter what your taste or background, there's something on this album that's perfect for you."
And they typically include foolish and/or condescending statements like:
"Just call him the King Midas of Jewish music." (As an aside, the King Midas story is a parable about greed, which is not something I'd want to bring up in association with an artist.)
"That's a very powerful message" about a song that mentions the z'chus of davening in Yerusholayim.
"Artist "X" exploded onto the scene…" (Brings an unpleasant image to mind, doesn't it?)
"The album contains multiple harmonies and chord progressions."
You get the idea…
It shouldn't be that hard for Sameach to find good writers who have some musical knowledge (and possibly even like this sort of music) to write for them. I think that if they hired writers who could write interesting and descriptive articles without resorting to inanities, clichés, and a general over-hyping of the product, the new magazine will do quite well, and will help to increase sales of their CD's well beyond the possibilities of its current incarnation. It will also help positively impact the state of JM PR, which is currently quite low.
Having established the framework, it should be quite easy for Sameach to raise the quality of their mag in both style and substance. It seems that, as with much in JM, when it comes to PR, people simply emulate what "everyone else" is doing. If Sameach decides to publish a magazine which features quality writing and insightful interviews, it would have quite an impact on JM marketing in general, and on Sameach's bottom line in particular.
Unlike some, I have no problem with the concept of a music distributor – in this case Sameach – promoting their own artists and products; that is, as long as it is done transparently. As long as Sameach is open about their goal -- to increase awareness of their artists and spark interest in their offerings; I believe that there is no inherent conflict of interest.
For the past ten years or so, Tower Records has been doing something similar with their magazine, "Pulse", which is a free giveaway in their stores. (They're ceasing publication soon as Tower is having massive financial difficulties.) I think that Tower's customers understand that the point of the magazine is to sell CD's, but, since the writing is interesting, descriptive, and accurate, they have an interest in reading the articles and frequently purchase some of the music they've read about. Now, there is no doubt that Tower works with the record companies to promote certain artists and recordings, but since "Pulse" is genuinely informative about the artists and CD's, the customer has a good idea of what they're getting when they buy a featured CD.
In general, this is something that has been missing from the Jewish music PR typified by the ads in Country Yossi Magazine, the Jewish Press, et al. In general, these articles are a combination of poor writing, clichés, silly analogies, and meaningless descriptions that rarely if ever give the reader a sense of what is truly unique about a given album or artists. In a sense, these articles are kind of like "Mad-libs" where the writer simply plugs the artist's name, album title, and song titles, into a preconceived framework that is meaningless at best and condescending or dishonest at worst.
The idea of a promotional magazine probably makes a lot of sense for Sameach from a financial standpoint too. Given the high cost of advertising in Country Yossi magazine and the Jewish papers, Sameach will save money in the long run, assuming that the new mag can pick up readers. I think that it can be successful because people are interested in reading about Jewish music – I think that the music "articles" are a big part of CY's appeal -- but they'll need to make some changes to really make it work.
The debut issue of Jewish Music Review uses pretty much the same writers/writing style as Country Yossi magazine. These writers have developed a style that is simply foolish. The articles generally manage to be meaningless, condescending, and dishonest all at the same time!
I think that Sameach ought to hire good writers to write the articles for their magazine, and it would help if they were musically literate too. It frequently seems as though the CY-style writers have no understanding of basic musical concepts. The general MO these writers use is to pick a few themes or ideas to emphasize in their articles.
These usually emphasize such inane ideas as:
(This is a representative sample taken from recent JM PR.)
The 'artist' "knows what we want to hear."
The 'artist' has " his finger on the pulsebeat [sic] of the Jewish listening public."
"Today's audience will not be fooled"
"We'd like to congratulate 'the artist' on his outstanding achievements so far."
The album, artist, or song being promoted is "unbelievable."
"No matter what your taste or background, there's something on this album that's perfect for you."
And they typically include foolish and/or condescending statements like:
"Just call him the King Midas of Jewish music." (As an aside, the King Midas story is a parable about greed, which is not something I'd want to bring up in association with an artist.)
"That's a very powerful message" about a song that mentions the z'chus of davening in Yerusholayim.
"Artist "X" exploded onto the scene…" (Brings an unpleasant image to mind, doesn't it?)
"The album contains multiple harmonies and chord progressions."
You get the idea…
It shouldn't be that hard for Sameach to find good writers who have some musical knowledge (and possibly even like this sort of music) to write for them. I think that if they hired writers who could write interesting and descriptive articles without resorting to inanities, clichés, and a general over-hyping of the product, the new magazine will do quite well, and will help to increase sales of their CD's well beyond the possibilities of its current incarnation. It will also help positively impact the state of JM PR, which is currently quite low.
Having established the framework, it should be quite easy for Sameach to raise the quality of their mag in both style and substance. It seems that, as with much in JM, when it comes to PR, people simply emulate what "everyone else" is doing. If Sameach decides to publish a magazine which features quality writing and insightful interviews, it would have quite an impact on JM marketing in general, and on Sameach's bottom line in particular.
Etan G Goes Shopping!
The Yada Blog posts that J-rapper Etan G is going to be a contestant on the PAX network's "Shop Till You Drop" game show this week.
Friday, January 23, 2004
Superbowl Ad Preview
Read about Pepsi''s iTunes promotion featuring teens sued by the RIAA for illegal downloading here.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
More Fake News
ScrappleFace reports that the "International Brotherhood of Vocal Metal Workers (IBVMW)" is suing Dean.
Fake News From The Onion
Some music articles you probably missed:
"Parents' Record Collection Deemed Hilarious"
"Phish Collapses Onstage"
"Five-Disc Jazz Anthology Still Unopened"
"Area Man Hasn't Told Co-Workers About His Billy Joel Fanpage Yet"
" 'Weird Al' Yankovic Nears Completion Of 'Livin' La Vida Mocha'"
"Parents' Record Collection Deemed Hilarious"
"Phish Collapses Onstage"
"Five-Disc Jazz Anthology Still Unopened"
"Area Man Hasn't Told Co-Workers About His Billy Joel Fanpage Yet"
" 'Weird Al' Yankovic Nears Completion Of 'Livin' La Vida Mocha'"
Business Opportunity
Maybe this trend will be good for business!
On a serious note, read the comments where Ephraim writes:
On a serious note, read the comments where Ephraim writes:
As usual, the goyim look at our customs and religion, think "Hey, that's pretty cool, let's copy it", and promptly get it wrong.
Of course, it's really our fault in this case. The kind of Bar/Bat Mitzvah parties the goyim are aping represent the kind of garish excess in which social climbing, noveau-rich Jewish parvenus indulge when they want to show they've "arrived".
Now, if the goyim saw a real Bar/ Bat Mitzvah ceremony and said "My, what a beautiful, spiritual, and uplifting experience" and copied that instead, we might have something here. Instead, we show them our cheap and vulgar side, and like fools they copy it.
We really ought to treat our own traditions with more respect.The other comments (two at this time) also make good points.
But Will They Still Pay The Band?
NBC reports that Ben Affleck and J. Lo have broken their engagement after postponing their wedding last September 'cause they feared the overbearing media presence would "compromise the "happiest day of their lives."
There's one gig I'm glad I didn't book!
There's one gig I'm glad I didn't book!
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