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Featured Artist: Cy Coleman

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Cy Coleman Featured Artist: Cy ColemanArtist: Various Artist
Title: The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman
Label: Notable Music
Genre: Pop : Alternative
UPC: 607396617326
Territory: World
Digital Release Date: 01.04.11

Cy Coleman’s name is often counted within the greatest composers of the 20th century. He was considered by many to be a musician’s composer, penning many a standard in the jazz world as well as writing hit songs for broadway. His musical legacy can be tangibly recognized by his 19 Tony Award nominations with three wins, three Emmys, and two Grammys. Besides these easily recognizable awards, Coleman was also elected to the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and American Theatre Hall of Fame, and received the the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award (1995), the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award for lifetime achievement in American musical theatre. He wrote hits for Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee among many other legendary performers.

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Featured Label: Mello Music Group

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Mellomusicgroup logo1 300x66 Featured Label: Mello Music Group

Mello Music Group has quickly earned a reputation as one of today’s finest underground hip-hop labels around. Since first releasing an album by Oddisee in 2008, the label has made it into the indie hip-hop spotlight with their talent-loaded roster and fantastic group of renowned graphic and graffiti artists. Founded in 2007 by DJ Michael Tolle, the label has signed some of hip-hops best up and comers including Apollo Brown, Georgia Anne Muldrow, The Left, Boog Brown, Trek Life, yU, Oddisee, Sareem Poems, and Diamond District. For their releases, they sport some eye-catching covers created by artists including Mear One, Gene Pendon, Tokio, and Josh Beyer. All in all, this is a great label with some really original music consistently coming out. They’ve thought of some great promotional projects including giving away an mc-seleceted pair of Nike Dunks every month with a grand prize of a custom-painted pair from their artists. Their music is always awesome and lives up to their philosophy: “Like Lao Tzu in hip-hop, Mello Music Group provides music for the soul, from the heart of American culture, opening the realm of the intelligent hip-hop experience through melodic evocations, beats that corroborate the truth, and voices that roar above the rising void and impose order on the terrible & triumphant moments of everyday life.”

While all of MMG’s artist are quality, we’re highlighting Georgia Anne Muldrow, the funky vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has a new instrumental album entitled VWETO coming out early next year. Muldrow is the daughter of the late jazz guitarist Ronald Muldrow and Rickie Byars-Beckwith, the Musical director of Agape Spiritual Center in Culver City, CA. Coming up from such a background has clearly had a great impact on her, as she plays most of the instruments on her recordings and of course uses her unique and exciting voice. Her music is hard to corral into a single genre, its R&B with clear touches of jazz, funk, and hip-hop in a perfect blend; New York City’s Other Music calls her sound “Chaka Khan produced by J-Dilla.” The result is very unique, mature, and forward thinking. VWETO, which means gravity in Swahili, has just that: a significance that rings true on a deep and profound level, a mixture of dreamscape and fOnk. Each instrumental journeys through sonic realms that wash over the listener with ease, taking them out of their body and into the spirit plane. The vibrations knock hard enough for any Hiphop head, yet bend and curve through the recesses of mind in a much more esoteric way. This is a fantastic collection of Muldrow’s unique and inspired beats; don’t miss out on VWETO!

Georgia Anne Muldrow Featured Label: Mello Music GroupArtist: Georgia Anne Muldrow
Title: VWETO
Label: Mello Music Group
Genre: R&B : Hip-Hop
Release Date: 01.11.11
UPC: 673790026927
Territory: Worldwide

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Featured Artist: Alan Gilbert and The New York Philharmonic

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

NYPhil screenshot 300x178 Featured Artist: Alan Gilbert and The New York PhilharmonicAlan Gilbert and The New York Philharmonic have returned with a follow up to last year’s successful Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season. The highly acclaimed classical team is pleased to announce Alan Gilbert and The New York Philharmonic 2010–11 Season, a 12-release series covering nearly 30 works from their in the 2010-11 symphonic season. This will be released as part of iTunes’ Pass program, a digital recording subscription series. The releases will be available internationally as a package on iTunes for $49.99, representing a savings of more than 50% on the individual downloads that range from $9.99 to $13.99. The Pass subscription will automatically download each program onto the subscriber’s computer in high quality audio as soon as each part of the series is released, one per month till August 2011. The individual records will also be available in select other online music stores within 30 days of their iTunes releases.

Alan Gilbert’s journey of musical discovery can be traced on Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010-11 Season; the series’ wide-ranging repertoire reflects his programmatic belief that individual works, both familiar and brand-new, should be combined in innovative ways in order to surprise, challenge, and delight the listener. The new season includes new music, old favorites, and the Philharmonic’s highly anticipated production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Featured performers include Gerald Finley, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Hampson, Emanuel Ax, and Lisa Batiashvili. The new recordings represent the breadth of Alan Gilbert’s programs in his second season as Music Director. Building on the success of last year’s Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the first time an orchestra offered a season’s worth of recorded music for download, the new series is more accessible and more flexible, offering performances either as a complete series or as individual works. The 2010-11 series allows listeners to explore and own music that spans world premieres of Philharmonic commissions to works by past masters. Subscribers also receive bonus content, including audio recordings of Alan Gilbert’s onstage commentaries, the program notes published in each concert’s Playbill, and encores given by the soloists-all in the highest possible audio quality available for download.

The first release in the series, R. Strauss, Dutilleux and Hindemith, is available today. Check out the iTunes Pass program or pick up the individual recording to hear some of the finest classical around today!

Alan Gilbert Featured Artist: Alan Gilbert and The New York PhilharmonicArtist: New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert
Title: R. Strauss: Don Juan – Dutilleux: Métaboles – Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes of Carl Maria von Weber
Label: New York Philharmonic
Genre: Classical : Orchestral
UPC: 847108098955
Territory: World
Release Date: 12.14.10

Featured Artist: USA for Africa

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

we are the world 300x232 Featured Artist: USA for AfricaThe historic 1985 “We Are The World” charity project is still remembered today as one of musical history’s brightest moments, when the day’s top artists met with past legends to band together in an effort to help their fellow man. Egos, wallets, and glory aside, some of music’s biggest names united to create a super group on a scale never before seen. Formed by Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones, the group USA for Africa included Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina turner, Stevie Wonder, Lindsey Buckingham, Ray Charles, Hall & Oats, The Jackson Family, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Waylon Jennings, Huey Lewis and the News, and more. It truly was a noteworthy and momentous musical occasion. A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history. The first ever single to be certified multi-platinum, “We Are the World” received a 4-x certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of “We Are The World”, USA for Africa is re-release the historic 1985 recording of the song as the lead track on the digital compilation We Are The World/United In Song. USA for Africa has assembled a stellar line-up of international artists to contribute songs to the project with proceeds from this effort going to assist Africa and Africans with the current challenges facing the continent. Besides the original song, the record features contributed tracks from some really big names including Michael Franti & Spearhead, Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project, Youssou N’ Dour, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, Vieux Farka Touré, Bombay Dub Orchestra, Thievery Corporation, and G. Love & Special Sauce. The record is a fantastic update on a monumental classic and a fantastic way to support a really great charity.

Here’s the original 1985 performance:

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Featured Artist: Haystak

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

19755820 260x300 Featured Artist: HaystakOver the course of his respected career, Haystak has proved time and time again that white rappers deserve respect. A twelve-year veteran of the game, his Southern flows have garnered respect from all corners of the underground hip-hop scene. However, unlike many of his Southern peers, Haystak has built his legacy not on musings regarding material possession or greed, but rather through exploring the social dimensions of being white and underprivileged in the South. He’s proven that white rappers are legitamate MC’s while showing the world how life is in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, in 2010, Haystak is prepared to unleash his 13th studio album, an ambitious double-record entitled Easy 2 Hate, a follow up to his 2008 release Hard 2 Love.

Haystak first broke through the scene being labeled as another huge white-boy rapper ala Bubba Sparxxx. However, after releasing respected album after album, it became clear that he possessed a sincerity his peers lacked. His raps weren’t about how much money he had or his car, it was more about a lack-thereof. He grew up among impoverished surroundings and turned to crime at a young age, faced with a two-year sentence at 15. Haystak turned to rapping as his salvation, crafting honest rhymes that told the story of so many people like him. His debut album, Mak Million, was released in 1998 after a period of struggle. He then released it’s follow up, Car Fulla White Boys, which pushed him into the underground spotlight and really achieved some momentum. The ensuing buzz landed him a spot on the Koch Records roster, eventually leading to his third album, The Natural. Since then he’s cranked out quality albums every year on labels including Real Talk Ent. And Select-o-Hits. In addition to rap music, he embarked on an acting career, landing a cameo in the Academy Award nominated film Hustle and Flow and a feature in the documentary White Boyz Can’t Rap.

The Natural would eventually sell over 80,000 copies, cementing Haystak as one of the top Southern rappers. Later, in an ambitious deal with 40 West Records, Stak released a planned trilogy of albums: Portrait of a White Boy, From Start To Finish, and Crackavelli; they would go on to sell over 135,000 units to date. With the release of Easy 2 Hate, Haystak is poised to match such numbers and once again push the limits of what a white MC can accomplish.

Haystak Featured Artist: HaystakArtist: Haystak
Title: Easy 2 Hate 
Label: Haystak, Inc./Sic Sound Records
Genre: Rap : Rap 
UPC: 097037005818 
Territory: World
Release Date: 11.30.10

Featured Artist: Kevin Eubanks

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

mac 1054 kevin 9106 rgb3002 300x199 Featured Artist: Kevin EubanksIn the world of today’s guitar player, landing a gig as prestigious as the Tonight Show Band leader is a truly covetable position; why then would Kevin Eubanks leave Jay Leno’s side to release his own tunes? Well, after 18 long and fruitful years at the helm of one of the most venerated talk show bands (he even composed the show’s closing theme), Eubanks is on his own and ready to embark on a new adventure. His muse struck and prompted him to resume the solo work he did outside the Tonight Show, and focus on creating a new original record. The result is Zen Food, his debut record for the respected Mack Avenue Records.

Even when Kevin was playing on the Tonight Show, he still explored musical ventures, touring everywhere in the country and world when time permitted, plus releasing several CDs on his own imprint. Before taking the TV slot that boasted talents like Branford Marsalis and the venerated Doc Severinsen, Kevin had an acclaimed recording career spanning several labels, and garnering many awards and a host of followers along the way. His first recording as a leader, Guitarist, was released on the Elektra label when Eubanks was 25 years old. It led to a seven-album contract with the GRP label and four albums for Blue Note. In total, Eubanks has appeared on over 100 albums with artists such as Art Blakey (1980–81), Roy Haynes, Slide Hampton and Sam Rivers. Like his brother Robin, he has played on record with world renowned double bassist Bill Dryden. In 2001, he founded the label Insoul Music on which he has released six albums. Besides his stunning recording career, Eubanks has taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, Rutgers University, and the Charlie Parker School in Italy. He also has an honorary doctorate from the prestigious Berklee College of Music (which he also attended for a time). On the whole, he’s got quite a rap sheet going without even taking into account his Tonight Show gig.

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