High School Talent @ The GRAMMYs

While attending a reception in LA for nominees of the 53rd GRAMMY Awards, I was blown away by two jazz ensembles that were performing. These groups are part of the education programs established by The GRAMMY Foundation, which bring high school age students together with working professionals.

The students featured in the two video clips below attended GRAMMY Camp in LA during GRAMMY week, and only met each other for the first time six days prior to this performance. It was truly amazing to see such young talent, which is a tribute to the rich, valuable programs that The GRAMMY Foundation offers.

This clip features a 13-piece big band, performing George Russell's "Aesthetic."


This clip features a small jazz combo with a choir.

Backstage @ The 53rd GRAMMYs: What It Is REALLY Like

One of the audio mix control rooms
backstage at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards

Yesterday, the day before the 53rd GRAMMY Awards, I was lucky enough to get a behind-the-scenes tour of what it takes to pull off this one-of-a-kind live music broadcast. Robbie Clyne, President and CEO of Clyne Media, provided access to the inner workings of the entire setup at the Staples Center, and it’s nothing short of spectacular.

You might think that it’s a total celebrity “hang” back there, but think again. The operation it takes to execute what music producers claim is the most complex live music telecast in the world is so masterfully detailed that what really happens backstage is a case study in the most comprehensive multitasking and coordination effort I’ve ever experienced. The truth is, the artists have to stay out of the way until their call to take the stage – and even then, it’s on and off, and out of the way. With dozens of the biggest acts in the music biz, you get a real appreciation of what it means to say “the show must go on.” Egos and attitudes take a backseat because this broadcast waits for no one. Doesn’t matter if you’re Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Usher -- or yes, even Justin Bieber – you don’t get in the way of keeping this thing off the ground. Or “off the air” I should say.

One of the things I found particularly amazing is that the entire show is actually scripted from start to finish. Yes, that’s right… scripted. I got a glimpse of the script in action as Justin Bieber and Usher were rehearsing. In a mobile trailer unit powered by NEP's Denali Broadcasting, the executive producer is looking at 20 live camera feeds and aggressively calling out camera shots to a switcher operator who presses buttons to bring up the preferred camera. There are about 10 people in this room, it’s hot, loud, and intense. Seconds before the producer calls out each camera shot, a woman (known only to us a “Christine”) is actually calling out every single action in the script so that the exec producer knows exactly what is about to happen next. Now think about this. The script for the entire GRAMMY Awards show is in a binder that is about 5 inches thick. “Christine” knows every word of every song, every movement, every action of every singer, dancer, musician, visual graphics, pyro technics – you get the idea. Watching these guys rehearse the show was jaw dropping – and then Justin Bieber’s stage director runs into the room with changes. Christine rips out a page from the middle of the binder, places the new page in it and keeps going without missing a beat. Come to find out, changes from all the acts are coming in all day long during the three days of rehearsals before the event. Each act only gets 1 hour of rehearsal time prior to the show. It’s only today, Sunday, the morning of the telecast, where they do a full run through of the entire Awards Ceremony starting at 10 am. No changes are allowed today – or I think someone might actually die!



Backing track room.  Pro Tools session
for Justin Bieber's Never Say Never
on the computer screen.

We got to check out all of the technical areas – for example, there is one room dedicated solely to backing tracks. This is where artists come in with their studio recordings done in Pro Tools and two operators have to sync these digital files up to the live stage performance to enhance, per the artists’ requests, any live performance with pre-recorded material. It’s another spectacle, considering how attentive these guys have to be. Hit the play button 2 seconds after Katy Perry starts singing, and, well… not good.



 

The "mic" waiting area.  Eminem's mic is

second from the bottom on the right.

Another interesting tidbit is the staging area for lead singer wireless microphones. Every singer usually has a preference of the mic they use – and because there are over 50 wireless mic systems running in the venue, they need to keep the mics shielded from one another when they are not in uses so that they don’t cause interference and introduce glitches to the signal processing. So at the base of the backstage stairs where each artist will access the stage sit a couple of 8’ folding tables with about 50 tinfoil meatloaf containers – each with a microphone resting inside. Yes, that’s right – Eminem’s microphone (and everyone else’s) is resting quietly in a $0.25 tinfoil meatloaf cooking pan waiting to be snatched up for 3 minutes of use before heading back to its shiny, crinkled resting place. Batteries are replaced twice a day in every mic from Thursday to Sunday regardless of how much juice they have.



In the bowels of the Staples Center is a sea of countless self-contained risers on rollers with the band equipment and any set design to be used during each performance. Every drum, amplifier, etc. is already mic’d and sound checked – essentially the risers are rolled on stage, cables plugged in, and the band starts to play. When they are done, the riser is rolled out the other side of the stage to make room for the next, and in most cases, when the gear leaves the stage it is rolled right out of the Staple Center and into the artist’s truck. By 11pm EST, with only 30 mins left in the show, the sea of risers will become a ghost town.



Drum kit for Katy Perry.



Stage pieces for Katy Perry.



Moving a piano riser to the stage.

 It’s hard to capture all of the elements required to produce this incredible event in a blog post, but it really is an amazing spectacle of coordination and effort. I guess it’s not that surprising when you think about all of the acts that will perform tonight, but thinking about it and seeing are very different. More to come…

Emily Elbert: Making an Impression, One Song at a Time

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a fundraising event for the Berklee College of Music. It was a very cool set up in the Westin Hotel in Boston, with a series of meeting rooms on different floors filled with various music-related activities. One room was a silent auction, complete with guitars donated by local merchants, music memorabilia from successful artists, and more. Yes, I bid... but no, I didn't win! There were also rooms set up to showcase different artist performances of all genres – and this is what really made the night special. One room featured folk-urban pop music icon, Patty Larkin, who played for a standing room only crowd of about 250 people with the energy and eclectic flair for which she is so well known. Another room featured a large stage where I caught a Latin jazz ensemble of about 20 students who got the dance floor pulsing with a wall of syncopated percussion and horns memorable of classic Tito Puente.

But the highlight of the night was a small “student performance” room, where a select handful of Berklee students each had the opportunity to perform individually and show off their talents. To say that the room was small is an understatement; there may have been 30 seats, with a little extra space for overflow. It wasn’t the most hip atmosphere either – if you've ever been in a hotel meeting room, you know what I'm talking about.  As antispetic as it gets. I caught the tail end of a pop singer (reminiscent of a younger Lady Gaga) who was singing her own songs set to a mix of backing tracks. She was good for the style of music she performed, although I can’t remember her name, which is somewhat of an indication of how differentiated I found her to be in the dance/pop genre.

The turning point came when the next artist, Emily Elbert, took the stage. As she approached the stage and donned her acoustic guitar, the very soft-spoken, seemingly shy Elbert thanked the crowd for sticking around. Honestly, I was a little nervous for her as she didn’t seem to project an overly confident presence, tuning her instrument and making a few other comments to the audience. The room was still packed, though, with about 50-60 people including those standing in the aisles, and you could feel nervous anxiety growing in the room. What was this perfromance going to turn out to be? And then... it happened.

With no warning, Elbert ripped in to a percussive, dynamic, arpeggio-driven acoustic riff that would have dropped Dave Matthews’ jaw. A few minutes later, she opened her mouth and layered a dreamy, slightly delaying melody on top of her aggressive picking – and within 15 seconds, she had the room in the palm of her hand. Whatever feeling of anxiety I had for her evaporated instantly and was replaced with an overwhelming feeling that this woman is destined for musical greatness. (If you want to see what I saw, check out this totally stripped down acoustic performance of the tune on a webcam, In the Summertime.)

Come to find out, Elbert is no newcomer to music and performing. Although a Berklee student, she’s been at it for more than a decade, and while attending classes in Boston, has also worked a deal with the college that gives her the flexibility to tour and perform, which she does extensively. After learning more about her (reading a quick synopsis on wikipedia and watching many of her YouTube performances, some of which have garnered an impressive more than 300,000 views -- like her rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller), and introducing her to some of my colleagues at Avid, we were able to arrange an interview and recording of Elbert on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus (of which Avid is a leading sponsor). You can view this interview, hear her perform The Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" and share some thoughts on her rising career here on YouTube. 

And keep your eyes and ears open for Emily Elbert -- the world is going to be hearing a lot of her in the years to come.

A Rare Moment with Keith Urban

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I attended a conference held by The CMO Club, where roughly 80+ chief marketing officers gathered to share perspectives about the challenges they face at their companies. There were many great things about this conference, but for someone like me who is not just in marketing but is also musician, it was even more enjoyable because there were a couple of really special musical moments at the event as well.

The first was by Keith Urban, which was pretty amazing, considering that he would come and perform for such a small group of people. One thing that struck me about Urban was how personable he is. I can’t imagine that this was a gig he was really looking forward to… playing for a bunch of corporate business types in a hotel ballroom. I’ve seen other A-list performers do this kind of gig, and outside of the performance, they keep their distance from the audience, quickly leaving the stage after the last song or being whisked away in a limo, ensuring that they don’t have to mingle with anyone.

This is one thing that sets Urban apart. He was amazingly personable. If he didn’t care to be there, you never would have known it. He joked around during and between songs, even got the conference organizer up on stage to sing Steve Miller’s “The Joker” with him. When Urban was introduced, we were told not to take any flash photos, to which he replied, “That’s ridiculous… take photos, videos, whatever… you can even multi-track record this if you want!” Throughout his 5 song set, in which he was promoting his upcoming album, Get Closer, he showed this small audience his human side, and very quickly reduced the awe of his celebrity (that usually surrounds musicians of his stature) to that of a normal guy who happens to play guitar and sing amazingly well. He hung around afterwards for photo opps with as many who wanted them, and also did meet and greet with a few select folks. (I was lucky enough to be in that meet and greet – and was able to thank him for being a customer of my company, Avid, and present him with an Eleven Rack, a product we make for professional gigging and recording guitarists. That’s what you see him holding in the picture above.)

If you want to get a glimpse of a rare Keith Urban performance, you can check it out below, where he brings Pete Krainik (founder of the CMO club) up on stage to sing The Joker. Like the performance or not, you have to admit that it’s pretty humble for a guy like Urban to surrender the stage to someone he doesn’t even know to do something like this. (Keep in mind this is nothing more than my handheld flip cam, so apologies in advance for the shaky cam! ;-)

We also were introduced to a very talented up and coming group, Threes and Nines, a central California acoustic rock band. Only two of the four band members performed for us - Jake Brebes on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Tasha Powers on upright bass - but they delivered a very high energy performance of uniquely crafted original songs at a time where many artists are repurposing the all-too-common formula. The word on Threes and Nines is that Gordon Gano, lead singer of the Violent Femmes is a big fan and supporter, and based on what I saw, I won’t be surprised if Threes and Nines becomes more of a household name in the years ahead.

Paula Cole Returns in a State of Grace

There's often a formula behind great songwriting. Some artists work really hard to crack the code, seeking that musical hook equivalent to a needle in a haystack. Some swear that today's pop hit has to reach the chorus before the song reaches the 1 minute mark - and that the long musical, artistic intro can be hit killer if it takes too long to draw the audience in. Others advise that the lyrics must be a series of clever word plays, using a mix of oxymorons, juxtapositions, silly social terms of the day, etc. And still others insist that it all starts with a catchy loop manufactured using the latest technologies and electronic tools.

Then there are the purists. The storytellers who don't worry so much about writing the "next best thing" -- they just write. They tell the truth about what's going on in their lives. And therein lies a different kind of artist - real, inspiring, moving.

This is Paula Cole, and on her most recent release entitled, Ithaca (just out a few days ago), Paula bares her soul for all to see and hear - and the result is an incredible collection of material; deep stories that capture some of the triumph and turmoil that Cole has endured in recent years.

I've seen her perform many times, including her show at the Berklee Performing Arts center last night. From the minute she took the stage, she wanted everyone to know what's been going on in her life - in both the words she spoke and in the songs she performed from Ithaca. This is a great collection of stories from someone who has been on top (with chart toppers and a Grammy), but who has been somewhat absent from the music industry in recent years. There's no question that activities in her personal life provided the fodder for her latest set of songs, and that's part of what makes them so good. She speaks the truth in songs like Music In Me, Something I've Gotta Say, Prenup, and Sex -- nothing clever about them, just honest, heartfelt stories that draw the listener into a world personal struggle and triumph, which are places that most of us have been at one point or another. The other part that makes her material so wonderful is the music itself. Paula always surrounds herself with incredible musicians, particularly drummers and guitarists who are great players but invest heavily in textural performances that breathe in a way that balances a playful tension with a rich accompaniment to Cole's stunning vocals. Her voice has never sounded better, and the instrument-like sounds she achieves with such great control are nothing short of spectacular.

At one point early in her performance she commented how lucky she is to have a second chance in the music business. The real irony here is that the music business is lucky to have an artist as pure and real as Paula Cole return to it.

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The "Big Label" Distribution Problem

I've found myself in many conversations recently about the state of the music industry. Everyone has an opinion - many of which have valid points - largely because the industry is in such a massive state of transformation, making it easy for most any idea to have some merit for how the biz should move forward.


When people ask for my thoughts, I have many ideas as well. But as I consider the wide array of ideas in my head, most share a common thread: distribution. To put it simply, the business model for music distribution has changed significantly (it is still evolving as I type this) and the fatal flaw for the big labels is that they have not hired technologists to strategize about how they can best leverage new technologies for distribution - and drive new business modeling for the industry. They have resisted and fought change for too long when embracing it could have put them in a position to enjoy further success rather than shrinking revenue streams and massive distaste among artists.

Walk into any retailer that carries CDs - the selection is terrible because the retail chain doesn't want to over invest in inventory that they may never sell because fewer people are going to brick and mortar stores to purchase music (see the graph above, courtesy of xbitlabs.com). The distribution model is now online - figure that out (um like Apple has, for example) and your business can ride the wave.

The iTunes model is great, but it is still an intermediary delivery solution at best. Services like Pandora suggest that alternatives have a shot. Think about a future where you may never purchase a physical music asset again (e.g., a CD, file, etc.) in favor of paying a monthly subscription fee to a provider for access to their massive library of music that is hosted in the cloud. Different subscription levels may unlock additional genres of music for the listener. The music may stream to you mobile device - or your home entertainment system - where you can enjoy the high fidelity experience of your home equipment and read the liner notes, watch video footage on your integrated TV/computer, meet other fans of the artists you're listening to.... you get the idea.

The issue for the big labels is that they are not working to solve this. Small technology companies are popping up left and right with interesting offerings because they see how unresponsive the labels are - and unresponsiveness breeds opportunity for the nimble who have the ability to execute new ideas. Rather than embrace this revolution by developing solutions to drive change, the big labels have been doing more to preserve the empire they built over be last 5 decades.

There are many key drivers behind this change that the labels haven't been able to figure out. One is the fact that labels used to decide what the masses would get to hear. They would choose who to make successful - and choose who they would not support, meaning you'd never even know about most of talent out there. Today, that doesn't work. Unknown artists can't be silenced - they have the tools at their disposal to create, publish, distribute and monetize their music. Do you think the labels like not having that control anymore? But rather than strategize about how to support these emerging dynamics, they have resisted - and will likely fail to survive as other businesses emerge and take over.

There are also many, many factors that I haven't discussed here, like the need for marketing (sure any artist can make and distribute music, but like a tree falling in the woods, no one will know about it if there is no awareness-generating activity behind it). But the irony to me is how the labels that have held the power, money, and resources to drive change haven't really done anything but resist it - and so they are simply handing the opportunity to someone else to figure out.

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Pat Metheny & His "Band of Robots"

This month's Electronic Musician magazine features an amazing cover story about the legendary Pat Metheny and his latest endeavour, which involves a studio album and live tour where he is the only "human" musician - and he is accompanied by a vast array of robotic instruments that he triggers remotely while playing guitar. His unconventional - and truly
revolutionary "band" - consists of multiple types of drums, glass bottles, digital pianos, four one-stringed guitar necks (he calls it the "Guitar Bot") and many other unusual sound makers. In addition, Metheny uses a range of software solutions when performing with this mechanical orchestra - from Abelton Live, Motu Digital Performer, and Avid Sibelius.

The article not only covers Metheny's vision behind the project, but also profiles the pioneering mastermind behind most of the robotic instruments - Eric Singer - who is also behind "LEMUR" (the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots) which builds robotic musical instruments for many situations.

As a longstanding Metheny fan and admirer, he never ceases to amaze with his groundbreaking drive to try entirely unconventional methods for making wonderful music. If you're a fan, give the article a read - and if you're not a fan of his but just a general music lover, I'd encourage you to check it out as well. It's quite an incredible story.

Also, check out amazing videos of Metheny and his "band" as well as listen to a podcast at: www.emusician.com/bonus_material

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