The is is the final day for the Set List on variety.com and I plan to re-start it elsewhere, though where that will be is unclear.
It has been an interesting ride, attempting to create original content and offer news and opinion that otherwise would not make it into the pages of Variety or the website. Some days it felt like a full-time job on its own and other times I was wondering if I would ever have anything interesting to write about again.
I am leaving Variety as a full-timer without bitterness or anger at management, just a frustration with American magazine and newspaper publishing. Music has become such a secondary concern that it has been relegated to the fringes in publications run by editors who do not possess the passion or knowledge of those who came before them. Sources for trustworthy information about music seem to dying constantly.
We're seeing an American press attempting to react to the Internet whereby all we see are personality stories about stars who appeal to teens. Look at Yahoo's entertainment news on almost any given day: the movie section is filled with reviews and interviews; the music sections are dominated by legal incidents, ringtone deals and superstar tours and release dates. The Daily Swarm does aggregation with passion and a sense of the bigger picture; elsewhere "music news" seems limited to items that attracts hits. That's discouraging to anyone who wants to write about music without using the words "Miley Cyrus nude."
I cringe every time read some snarky commentary trashing someone's plea to salvage newspapers and the traditional news-gathering system. Each time a newspaper shuts down or eliminates sections and staffs, a community loses a filter. And in the arts that is crucial. The lesser-known, more artistically sound acts still needthe press and whenever a band like the Fleet Foxes breaks through due to positive press, it helps validate the system. How the New York Times gets away with weekly reviews of often obscure records is beyond me - but I'm glad it's there.
Of course there's Pitchfork, a tremendous resource for independent music with outstanding Q&As, a solid news service and dubious reviews. It has a focus, but bizarrely does nothing to promote a community among its readers, writers and artists, something that Big Media attempts to do because some consultant told them they should. Too many sites feel unfiltered, which makes it hard for anything to take hold and matter. People who became intense music fans between the deaths of Buddy Holly and Kurt Cobain are more comfortable with curatorial efforts than peer-to-peer advice. 
Late last night, I was looking at amazon.com's list of best-sellers. 

U2 - No Line on the Horizon
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live
Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack
Plant & Krauss - Raising Sand
Chris Isaak - Mr Lucky
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Dark was the Night compilation
JJ Cale - Role On
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Diana Krall - Quiet Nights

Springsteen, Jason Mraz, Adele. Lily Allen, M. Ward and Kings of Leon were also in the top 25. The original "Astral Weeks" was No. 44.
It looks like no one under the age of 30 shops there, but these are acts the press writes about. There's still an audience out there looking for music that is more than love songs about jewelry and adventures that go beyond a night at the club. Tom Waits, Sun Ra, Muddy Waters, Elvis Costello and NRBQ are illustrtaing this post because I have an undying poassion for their music.  If no one is left to chronicle it, though, it will disappear. Just ask people who work in jazz. 

Art and rock 'n' roll  join forces Sunday afternoon to benefit the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
Raymond Pettibon, whose work includes Sonic Youth and Black Flag album covers, will perform with his Niche Makers; Ron English, famed for his take on pop culture in paintings and billboards, leads his Electric Illuminati;and Mike Watt, bassist for the Minutemen, fIREHOSE and the Stooges, will bring out his band the Secondmen.
Tickets are $35 and include complimentary refreshments from Library Alehouse in Santa Monica; Casa Noble Tequila and Iron Horse Vineyards, who make some interesting sparkling wines.
Concert is in addition to an art exhibit at the Robert Berman Gallery featuring works by Pettibon, English, Daniel Johnston, the three frontline members of Sonic Youth and Gibby Haynes. Opening reception is Saturday at 7 p.m.

Quincy Jones had a two-fold purpose in taking the podium at Wednesday’s announcement of the 31st annual Playboy Jazz Festival. First he continued his advocacy for a minister of the arts Cabinet position; second he introduced 23-year-old Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, whom he has taken under his wing over the last few years.
Rodriguez, who performed two tunes at the Playboy Mansion Wednesday, will make his highest profile appearance since defecting to the U.S. last year on the festival’s second day, June 14. Jones first heard Rodriguez, a composer for Cuban TV programs, in 2006 at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
He is on a bill headlined by the Wayne Shorter Quartet and features Kenny G, Patti Austin, King Sunny Ade from Nigeria, the Dave Holland Big Band, Monty Alexander’s reggae project Jazz and Roots, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All-Stars and the Anat Cohen Quartet.
Cohen will also perform Saturday in the band hand-picked by emcee Bill Cosby, which this year features Dwayne Burno, Ndugu Chancler, Luis Conte, Tanya Darby and Geoff Keezer. The Neville Brothers will headline the June 13 show, which includes a “Kind of Blue” @ 50 band led by drummer Jimmy Cobb, Jon Faddis Quartet, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding and the New Birth Brass Band. Longtime Southern California bandleader and trumpeter Jack Sheldon will make his festival with his orchestra; the Pete Escovedo Orchestra is also on the bill.
The concerts are held at the Hollywood Bowl.

  Prince's post-Oscars "Purple Party" at the Avalon in Hollywood, started after 1 a.m. Monday and finished around 3:30. He's pitching his website LotusFlow3r.
Not sure about the order of the tunes, but people who forked over 100 bucks to get in the door, along with celebs such as Tyler Perry, Taraji P. Henson and Taye Diggs heard him play:
Let’s Go (the Cars) / Crimson and Clover (Tommy James and the Shondells) / Wild Thing (Troggs)/ Come Together (Beatles) / Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones) / The Middle (Jimmy Eat World) / Cream / The Bird / Jungle Love

It's an intense, visceral thrill to stand next to Eddie Van Halen while he plays a series of riffs that pass at whip-cracking speed, each note articulated with clarity and purpose. The sound and the force of the music are unmistakable; he looks up while strumming an open chord at length, shouting that he’s playing the runs that other guitarists could not figure out in the 1970s. I assume he is referring to his use of harmonics in the middle of a run with the occasional bent note.
The song he is playing is a new one, a possibility for the next Van Halen album, work on which is expected to start in the summer. The tune makes effective use of his patented detuner, a metal bracket the size of a Tic-Tacs box at the tail of the guitar that alters the key he is playing in. He yanks on the device, the tonal quality shifts and I immediately hear a Pete Townshend influence. When he finishes, Van Halen’s comment is “it’s got an old Who thing in there.” It’s good to know we’re on the same page.
Van Halen, the greatest hard rock guitarist since Jimmy Page, is for once not talking about lead singers, reunions or his personal life. The subject is the guitar, specifically the introduction of the EVH line by Fender. Van Halen’s famous guitars, especially his “Frankenstrat” with the red, black and white stripes, have been duplicated by manufacturers, but the new instrument -- called the Wolfgang -- is the first to be design by Van Halen with Fender’s team of designers.
He took four prototypes on the road during the last Van Halen tour, tweaking, redesigning and reworking the instrument until Van Halen put his stamp of approval on it. Fender says it has worked more extensively with Van Halen to design this six-string electric than any other instrument in its catalog; Eddie says he wants to offer consumers the exact same instrument he plays onstage.
“What they do with it is up to them,” he said. “They won’t necessarily sound like me. I hope they’ll do something different.
“A lot of companies rest on what they designed in the ‘50s. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I like to squeeze out everything out of every idea. I have the painstaking job of making it work. It’s like writing a song -- why do (I hear in my head) stuff that is harder to play than to hum. To get the patent, then get someone to believe that it works is insane, too.”
AT 54, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen is still not a big picture guy. He does not encapsulate what his playing means to generation of followers, of how guitar design fits within his legacy or even pinpointing the differences between his approach to the David Lee Roth material the first time around and again 20-odd years later. What he is remarkably capable of doing is remembering precisely how he recorded a specific sound, what went into building a guitar from factory seconds and the tweaks he has done over the years to everything from the screws to the tuning pegs.
Visitors who enter Van Halen’s 5150 studio are encouraged to walk around the performance area to understand how vastly different every space in the studio sounds. He not only is aware of the sonic differences -- and the space would be cramped if a five-piece rock band were set up in it -- he employs that knowledge in the way he makes recordings.
“It’s very basic, the way I mike things. I hate to say it, but it’s different from the ways others do it. I want the sound as pure as possible.”
That credo, which Van Halen has lived by for three decades, has played a key role in keeping the Van Halen sound distinct from others. His band, though, is at a crossroads. A 2007-08 reunion with David Lee Roth pulled in $93 million for 74 dates, evidence the demand remains for classic Van Halen material. They have not released an album of new material in the digital age, which makes the release of the EVH guitar seem more relevant in that desire to connect the artist with the fan. It’s an expensive route, but it takes the iconic and makes it lifesize. These days, that’s a path for survival in the music industry.

Here's a few of Eddie's other comments:

(His favorite analogy): It's kinda like a race car. My brother and I race all the time. It's a very fine line between how one person will do it and another - you experiment until your lap time improves. It's similar to reaching that elusive sound in your head.
 Lets say your best lap time is 1:22. I'm down to 1:25 - only a few seconds behind, but in a race a long time. Say the guitar is at a 1:25, so the increments are more difficult. Going from 1:35 to 1:30 is easy if you have a natural instinct. Once you get down to (a competitive speed) no stone can be left unturned. Every little tiny aspect - tire pressure, what tires you use and how you brake.It all applies to the guitar. To make a better guitar, you really have to analyze every little thing if you want high performance guitar.

(What makes his guitar unique): Placement of the pickup is important. I measure with my finger. It's got to be at a specific harmonic. On a dissonant harmonic, I'd get a weird sound. Also potting pickups. I was the first one to do that, dipping a pickup in wax. Most guitars only have one truss rod. The Wolfgang has two on the sides, one down the middle. I prefer bolt on necks.
Everything has been upgraded to highest quality. It took long time to find the pieces to put it together. This is all identical to what I use. I'm not out to prove jackshit. I need what I hear in my head.
(He takes two guitars off the wall to have me feel the necks).
I don't have my necks sealed. The ones that will be sold will have a little oil. My guitars only have my natural skin oil. Your own oil is so much better than any synthetic. Depending on how much you play, in six to 10 months it will feel 10 times better than any other guitar. That's why I don't like anyone playing my guitars. I never clean them. A Wolfgang is a down and dirty, heavy-duty precise instrument that will hold up against anything you do to it.

(On recording): Very basic. It's all in the way I mic things. It sounds brght over here, sounds dead over there. I used six mics on Alex's drums once. Andy Johns walks in because he could only hear it and couldn't see what was going on. 'That's an amazing drum sound,' he says. 'How'd you do that?' I got on a ladder and listened everywhere. I hate to say it but its different from the ways others do it. Engineers know their pro-tools but don't trust their ears. I don't EQ. The more EQ you use and then try to remove it, you make it worse.

(His disdain for compression): On the radio, they compress more. So if you compress too much on the master, it will sound like shit on the radio. I tend to try to not compress. It's a gamble, a throw of the dice out there on the radio. I want the sound pure as possible. Compression tends to make the loudest thing stand out and that's usually the kick drum. Again all I go by is what sounds good to me. That applies to my instruments.

David Sprague reports from New York:

Leonard Cohen waited more than two hours before playing “First We Take Manhattan” — a conquest-minded song that took on a decidedly more celebratory tone at this, his first stateside show in 15 years — but it only required a few moments for him to actually seal the deal laid out in the song’s title.
Absence may have had some effect on making the aud’s collective heart demonstrate fondness for the septuagenarian poet-singer, but over the course of his three-hour, three-encore perf, Cohen proved again and again that this was no mere nostalgia trip. Yes, the offerings went back as far as “Suzanne” — the first track on his now 42-year-old first album — but none of the two-dozen-plus pieces were presented as if preserved in amber.
Some of Cohen’s alterations were subtle — a chilled-out-but-pulsing bassline appended to “Everybody Knows,” a storefront-church arrangement on “Bird on a Wire” — while others were quite bracing. The latter aspect was most evident in Cohen’s own delivery, which was palpably looser than one might expect from a performer of his vintage and portent — notably a light, almost winking take on the doom-laden “Tower of Song.”
One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is Cohen’s dark-hued, deep baritone, a sound that can give him the air of an Old Testament prophet one moment and a honeyed lothario the next. Even at this stage of his life, he’s a remarkably seductive presence — nattily clad in black suit and fedora, ambling around the stage with a quiet confidence that positively permeated versions of “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and “If It Be Your Will,” the latter of which was leavened nicely by the harmonies of the Webb Sisters.
As the program progressed, the breadth of Cohen’s influence came into sharper and sharper focus, with song after song evoking memories of covers heard in smoky clubs or on middle-of-the-night radio assays. But as Cohen dug into the marrow of “Famous Blue Raincoat” and, especially, a hypnotically incantory “Hallelujah,” it became amply evident that he still has far more of an impact in the flesh than he does in the mist of memory.
He will start a North America tour in April. The dates:

4/2             Michael and Susan Dell Hall at Long Center            Austin, TX

4/3             NOKIA Theatre at Grand Prairie                            Grand Prairie, TX

4/5             Dodge Theatre                                                       Phoenix, AZ

4/7             Copley Symphony Hall                                           San Diego, CA

4/10           NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE                                   Los Angeles, CA               

4/13           Paramount Theatre of the Arts                                Oakland, CA

4/17           Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival                  Indio, CA                           

4/19           General Motors Place                                             Vancouver, BC

4/21           Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre                          Victoria, BC

4/23           WaMu Theater at Qwest Field Events Center         Seattle, WA

4/25           Rexall Place                                                            Edmonton, AB

4/26           EPCOR Centre’s Jack Singer Hall                          Calgary, AB

4/28           Credit Union Centre                                               Saskatoon, SK

4/30           MTS Centre                                                           Winnipeg, MB

5/03           Orpheum Theatre                                                   Minneapolis, MN

5/05           The Chicago Theatre                                              Chicago, IL

5/09           Fox Theatre                                                            Detroit, MI

5/11           Merriweather Post Pavilion                                     Columbia, MD

5/12           Academy of Music                                                 Philadelphia, PA

5/14           Palace Theater                                                        Waterbury, CT

5/16           Radio City Music Hall                                             New York, NY

5/19           Copps Coliseum                                                     Hamilton, ON

5/21           Pavillon de la Jeunesse                                            Quebec City, QC

5/22           K-Rock Centre                                                      Kingston, ON

5/24           John Labatt Centre                                                 London, ON

5/25           National Arts Centre – Southam Hall                      Ottawa, ON

5/29           Wang Theatre                                                         Boston, MA

6/02           Red Rocks Amphitheatre                                        Morrison, CO

The Los Angeles Times looks at the financial aspects of producing Wagner's Ring Cycle in this economic climate. I play the role of cheerleader, trying to get the film community to pay attention to something that might be great. Here is this week's column:

Hollywood, prepare to witness a live blockbuster.
L.A. Opera will debut the first part of Wagner's Ring Cycle, "Das Rheingold," on Saturday, a moment long in coming to Los Angeles that was first expected here nearly a decade ago. It is an enormous production that Achim Freyer has designed and staged, a traditional rendering of the 1869 masterpiece based on Nordic mythology. Yes it runs 2½ hours and it's in German, but if there is one opera the Hollywood creative community should see, this is it.

"Rheingold" contains everything a Hollywood blockbuster could want: Giants, monsters, maidens, blood, a fight for world domination, a magic rainbow and an even more magical helmet. The L.A. production is also launching a potential new star, Ukrainian tenor Vitalij Kowaljow, in his role debut as Wotan.

It even makes a case for buying the cheaper seats: The rehearsal played visually most clearly in the second and third balconies, areas that can feel distant and removed from the action on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's stage. Add to that a score that, at least in the early going, clearly influenced film music of the last 60 years; for the uninitiated, it's not foreboding music.

Budgeted at $32 million -- the price of four expensive world premiere operas -- it is the largest undertaking in L.A. Opera's 22-year history. It will certainly attract the "Ring" fans who travel the globe to see various attractions. But there has to be some trepidation about whether it will take hold with the locals whose absence at recent easy-to-digest favorites such as "The Magic Flute" have added to the company's financial shortfalls that have resulted in layoffs and pay cuts.

James Conlon, the company's music director who will conduct the seven performances of "Das Rheingold" through March 15 and "Die Walkure" April 4-25, is convinced that Wagner's operas transcend language and as heavy as they may be, are a perfectly acceptable entry point for opera. He has watched his mother, his housekeeper's family in Paris and others fall in love with Wagner's music despite no education in the subject.

"Opera is for everyone, Wagner is for everyone," is Conlon's simple answer. "Some people are inhibited, thinking it's long and heavy. I say it's long and exciting and powerful, one of the most impressive operas."

We lived in a different world when the season started in September. The universal focus was the presidential race and a slumping economy; many arts presenters were still thinking grand scale rather than scaling back. Woody Allen dazzled auds with his inventive and humorous staging of "Gianni Schicchi"; the operatic interpretation of "The Fly" was befuddling musically but it boasted impressive singing and stagecraft. And yet there was no doubt the highlight was yet to come.

To bear the cost of the Ring Cycle, L.A. Opera reduced its staff by 17%, cut the number of performances next season to 48 from 64, postponed a Pavilion renovation and delayed the premiere of Daniel Catan's "Il Postino." Canceling the Ring was apparently not an option.

By most industries' standards it seems audacious to go so bold in one season -- let's not forget Conlon has a revival of Walter Braunfels' forgotten "The Birds" in April as this year's installment in his "Forgotten Voices" project.

Playing out against the backdrop of a recession this season may make a statement for the ages. If they sell seats and attract new audiences based on the strength of the productions, it will be a triumph for the performing arts that all too often take a back seat to film here. It would be a sign that even when times are tough there is a demand for art that focuses our attention on the bigger picture, providing more than just an escape.

"Arts are especially important now," said Conlon, who won two Grammys this month for the L.A. Opera's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." "We lived with an illusion that there was no limit to material (growth) but we have found out there is. But there are no limits to intellectual and spiritual value. Art and theater and music are more important than ever -- they are life giving, it's not over when you leave the theater. It opens feelings inside us the way yoga or therapy or going to church does. It opens a bigger vision of the universe."

One of the great voices and musical minds that was silenced when Indie 103.1 pulled the plug will return to over-the-air radio.
Henry Rollins will be the 6-8 p.m. Saturday DJ at KCRW, the station where he got his start. Show  will air live beginning March 7. Each show will also be available on demand until the next show airs.  Rollins will appear Thursday as a guest DJ on Morning Becomes Eclectic with KCRW music director Jason Bentley.
One of the great things about Rollins is the way he crosses multiple genres with authority and presents the music with a passion for everything he plays. Here's one of his cool jazz-oriented playlists. (Others can be found here).

01. Billie Holiday - I Can't Face The Music / Billie Holiday on Verve 1945-1959
02. Duke Ellington - Tiger Rag / The Small Groups, Vol. 1
03. Count Basie & His Orchestra - Feedin' The Bean / Complete 1929 - 1941
04. Cab Calloway - A Blue Serge Suit With A Belt In The Back / 1942 –1947
05. Art Tatum - Ain't Misbehavin' / 1944-45
06. Coleman Hawkins – Lamentation / Complete Recordings 1929 – 1941
07. Charlie Parker - Be-Bop / The Complete Live Performances On Savoy
08. James P. Johnson - Euphonic Sounds / 1944
09. Benny Goodman - Life Goes To A Party / Carnegie Hall 1938
10. Jelly Roll Morton - The Murder Ballad Pt. 1 / Library of Congress
11. Scatman Crothers - I Got Rhythm / Kings Of The Cotton Club
12. Sidney Bechet - Rip Up The Joint / The Victor Sessions/ Master Takes 1932-43
13. Charlie Christian - Lips Flips / Immortal Charlie Christian
14. The Harlem Hamfats - Bad Luck Man / Harlem Hamfats Vol. 1 1936
15. The Quintet - A Night In Tunisia / Jazz At Massey Hall
16. Slim Gaillard - Slim's Jam / 1945 Vol. 2
17. Ella Fitzgerald - Black Coffee / Jazz At The Philharmonic
18. Bunk Johnson - Tiger Rag: Take 2 / 1944
19. The King Cole Trio - How High The Moon / Capitol Transcription Sessions
20. Dexter Gordon - Ernie's Tune / Ballads
21. Lester Young - All Of Me / Pres & Teddy
22. Louis Jordan & Louis Armstrong - (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You, Rascal You / Decca Recordings
23. Fats Navarro - Move / The 1946-1949 Small Group Sessions
24. Cootie Williams - Diga Diga Doo / Echoes Of Harlem
25. Willie Smith - Harlem Joys / Willie "The Lion" Smith & His Cubs
26. Duke Ellington / Bubber Miley - Poor Bubber / Complete RCA Victor Recordings
27. Clifford Brown - Minority (Tk 2) / Clifford Brown / The ClB Sextet In Paris
28. Fats Waller - There's Going To Be The Devil To Pay / Complete Vol. 3
29. Babs Gonzales - Prelude to a Nightmare / Babs Vol.

Over the weekend, I spoke with a couple of people who attended the Jon Hassell and Maarifa Street concert at UCLA's  Royce Hall with Dhafer Youssef opening. The drummer was all anyone was talking about. Here's a review written Sunday:

At intermission between the jubilant global melange assembled by oud player Dhafer Youssef and the dreamscape provided by trumpeter-composer Jon Hassell, the Royce Hall lobby areas were a buzz with talk about the inventiveness of Youssef's drummer Satoshi Takeishi. His wizardry on the trap set had multiple functions in the collection of tunes rooted in Sufi traditions, from twisting time signatures to providing straight-ahead propulsion; little did the audience know that Hassell would be putting the idea of multi-dimensional musicianship to rest.

Hassell, unquestionably a visionary whose work reaches from film scores to "The Practice" theme to Bjork, has taken the concept of "celestial jazz" to an extreme in his Maarifa Street project. In a program of music from his first ECM recording in 23 years, "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street," Hassell and his band of violin, bass and electronics created at Royce Hall the musical equivalent of a still night sky that stretched, uninterrupted, across 70-plus minimalist minutes.
His trumpet, clear in tone and meditative in spirit, had a carefully gauged prominence in the sound, a bit of an aural walk in the woods. With the trumpet setting the scene much like a gentle steady breeze, the electric piano and electronic sounds dropped in as randomly as leaves falling and birds calling.
Peter Freeman set bass motifs on a couple of tunes that gave them a bit of movement -- one was played only once and then looped by the samplers who toyed with its position in the mix; another required him to repeat a nine- or 10-note passage for nearly 10 minutes. No much happens in the music - bits of electronic percussion twinkle in places, the violin tightens the sheet on the musical bed, sporadic bass notes remind us that the compositions are indeed tethered.
No matter how well the music was executed - and beyond the precision of Hassell's sound he has created a united effort - there is no getting around the static nature of the performance. All were still, playing their parts and rarely making even eye contact with one another. One of the samplers danced as he tweaked elements of the beat-free music and it actually was unnerving: If he hears something that inspires movement, why can't the rest of us?
Youssef, a Tunisian based in Austria, was a polar opposite. His set opened with a shapeless, trance-inducing number that could easily be pulled from Hassell's songbook. But as the band explored various Eastern twists on Western musical forms such as jazz and blues, the multi-dimensional aspects of the act took shape, sounding like a jam band early on and closing out in a place that sounded like an early edition of the Pat Metheny Group taking on Black Sabbath's "Iron Man."

The genre mish-mash means the group forsakes a sense of place in their overall sound, choosing instead to emphasize seamless interaction - the sort that distinguishes the best jazz bands. Scott Colley, a gifted acoustic bassist, had as prominent role as a lead instrument as pianist Tigran Hamsyan, who merges a folk base with the major chords of romantic music. Graceful as it was when it gelled, it was still the drummer that everyone was talking about.

It's quite possible we're all burned out on the Grammy Awards and anything that happened at Staples Center or in the same time frame. LA Weekly has a report in its current edition from a writer who was attending the ceremony - or at least viewing it in the press room - for the first time. When I read it, I got a bit defensive and tense, thinking how dare he criticize people who succeed at the grind of reporting news in a timely fashion. 
After looking at it a second time, I decided he was right: These are "lifers" who have attend countless shows and documented who says what and who wins how many and, since it's not the Oscars, it's a bit of a thankless job. It does not matter how many years I attend this ceremony, some things never change - the people hunched over their computers are on daily deadlines and the people who are able to take a breath and look around are employed by weeklies. (And I was trained by Adam Sandler, the master at tuning out the superfluous and turning in a full story just as the show ended). 
It's unfortunate that this year, the talk in the Grammy newsroom concerned layoffs, newspaper bankruptcies and the demands papers are placing on those who cover music, either by assigning them an increased number of non-music stories or by cutting their expenses or work hours. It's dire out there.
The 2009 newsroom is a far cry from the first one I worked in a good dozen years ago. That room was packed with people who knew music and knew what to ask of various artists. The person who received no questions? That would be a TV star who appeared as a presenter and then, for some odd reason, decided to come backstage and see if the music press would want to talk to him or her. Usually there were no takers. One year, when Sheryl Crow spoke about working with "Keith" the groans and looks of disdain that greeted a woman who asked "Keith who" probably kept her from ever returning.

Only in the last few years have we heard "reporters" ask who designed their clothing or inquired about where one might keep their Grammys. LA Weekly's Randall Roberts reports on Jason Reitman referring to the next "120 winners" and what makes that room tick is the presence of reporters who take it upon themselves to make sure that every winner feels respected, people like George Varga out of San Diego, whose encyclopedic knowledge makes him one of the most valuable people every year in the Grammy pressroom. It may be a collection of lifeless lifers, but there may not be a greater collection of people committed to the idea of disseminating information about music and the artists to make it.

One thing should be corrected about the LA Weekly dispatch - the press room is actually inside Staples Center. If he had been there the year Staples  opened, he would know the difference. We were placed in a tent that actually was outside and erected after it had rained. We all had our feet planted in puddles while a heater made sure the front fo the room was 85 degrees while the back came in around 55.

Secondly, and  don't mean to poke fun or boast, he mentioned how he asked Paul McCartney a question. Well, truth be told, anyone can ask a Beatle a question. I took delight in him reporting on what the founder of Dust-to-Digital (pictured at left) had to say. Those responses are generated by questions from people who truly want to know about music far below the radar.  I asked about his label  because I believe in what he does for a living and I hope he has continued success. I had no other motive when asking him about the operations of his label.

David Sprague reports from New York:

Paul Simon reunited with Art Garfunkel at the end of Simon's two-set performance at the re-opening of the Beacon Theater. The duo slid smoothly into the comfortable grooves of "The Sounds of Silence," "The Boxer" and "Old Friends/Bookends” with rust-free harmonies and tension-free banter.
They gave no clue as to whether this was a one-off or the beginning of a new chapter in their storied career, but the amount – and quality – of new material that Simon sprinkled throughout his two hours onstage would seem to point to the former. 
Simon has found another singing partner – Brazlian Luciana Souza. Their voices melted together sensually on Milton Nasciemento’s “O Vendedor de Sensos”; Souza was allowed an unaccompanied take on the as-yet-unrecorded “Amulet.” 
As far as the Beacon’s renovation goes, they deserve a solid “A.” The venue’s seemingly unsalvageable collection of intricate, 80-year-old murals were restored to near museum quality, and accoutrements like vintage lighting fixtures and tiles were likewise renewed rather than replaced. Perhaps more importantly, the theater’s sound system was treated to a significant upgrade – one that allowed a single guitar note or percussive slap to cut through the mix with a previously unheard precision.

In a video on his website, Peter Gabriel has announced that he is withdrawing from performing at the Academy Awards, hoping the Soweto Gospel Choir will be booked to perform "Down to Earth" from “Wall-E.”

Gabriel was told he would perform for only 60-65 seconds in a medley of the nominated songs. When he said yes to performing the song he co-wrote with Thomas Newman, he was under the impression they would be able to perform the song in its entirety. He does not believe the song will work in such a truncated form.
“It’s a bit unfortunate,” he said in a video on his website. “The songwriters are a very small part of the filmmaking process but we still work bloody hard and deserve (a bigger poart in the ceremony).”
Calling himself “an old fart” who can afford to “make a little protest,” Gabriel’s hope is that the Oscarcast producers will reconsider the move next year and reinstate full performances of songs.
The Feb. 22 show is a maiden voyage for producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon. Gabriel still intends to attend the ceremony.
The Academy had no comment.
Nikki Finke reports on the letter Gabriel sent to producers.

One of the cool things about Eric Clapton is that he will never show up a musician he considers a superior artist or a true peer. Watching him in a jam session with a guitarist such as Buddy Guy, he lays back a bit, avoids the cliches and focuses on creating a dialogue rather than demonstrate his speed and dexterity. Too often, when he's performing solo in front of one of his own ensembles, he plays it too safe, reproducing the recorded solos or emphasizing repeated lightning-fast notes high on the neck followed by a sustain and an agonizing grimace.
Put him onstage with Steve Winwood and he has a brilliant foil, a man whose voice goes places Clapton's never will and whose R&B grounding gets Clapton's train a-rolling at a better rhythmic clip.
Maybe not a holy grail of reunion tours, but one that certainly will demonstrate the staying power of one of the world's first supergroups. Clapton and Winwood will embark on a 14-city U.S. tour beginning June 10 in E. Rutherford, N.J.
The lead guys from Blind Faith reunited at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago in July 2007 and played three shows at Madison Square Garden. A two-disc DVD/CD of the the Garden shows will be released this Spring. The set list included Blind Faith classics and solo hits from each artist.

JUNE TOUR SCHEDULE:

10             East Rutherford, NJ                   Izod Center
12             Philadelphia                        Wachovia Center
13             Washington, DC                        Verizon Center
15             Columbus, oH                          Schottenstein Center
17             Chicago,                                United Center
18             St. Paul, MN                             Xcel Energy Center
20             Omaha, NE                               Qwest Center
21             Denver                               Pepsi Center
23             Dallas                                 American Airlines Center
24             Houston                              Toyota Center
26             Glendale, AZ                             Jobing.com Arena
27             Las Vegas                         MGM Grand Arena
29             Oakland                              Oracle Arena
30             Los Angeles                       Hollywood Bowl

In the week after Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl, the four songs he performed in the set were downloaded 57,000 times as individual tracks. The leader was the new tune, "Working on a Dream," with 24,000 downloads, nearly half of its current cume of 54,000. "Glory Days" was No. 2 with 15,000 followed by "Born to Run" (12,000) and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" (6,000). All the figures were provided by Nielsen Soundscan.
Album sales beyond the Wal-Mart-only "Greatest Hits" were not particularly strong. The two catalog albums on which those songs appear, "Born in the U.S.A." and "Born to Run," were up only slightly, to 4,000 and 3,000 respectively.
The new disc took a 55% hit on its second week, selling 102,000 copies.
What is rather cool is thepost Springsteen made on his website regarding his NFL experience.

Late last year, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir sat down to chat with
director Danny Clinch about their music, fans, history and politics. To promote their tour that starts April 21, the group's publicist has released a transcript of that chat.
Bob Weir probably best encapsulated the difference between the old days and the upcoming tour this way: "We've finally learned this, and I think taking a little time off has actually helped us with that. I'll sit back now. I'm going to listen to these guys and see where that takes me. And so far every time I've done that, it's taken me somewhere new."

TOURING IN 2009

Bob: We have some unfinished business.  It has been awhile, we've all been off in our own directions. Everybody has a whole new bag of tricks; we all have the body of material that we worked up over the years.  We have a little mind meld going here--it would be a sin to let that just wither and die.

Phil: A mind meld is a terrible thing to waste.

Mickey: It’s just the right time to do this while we're all healthy and we feel the way we do. It’s just one of those things that came around. 

Bill:  The reason I'm going out on tour is I know there are a whole lot of Deadheads out there that would love to hear us play again, and that to me is a really good thing to do, plus what Bobby just said…I wanna play for the folks again.

Mickey: Once it's in your blood, come on.

Bill: I mean yeah, you gotta play.

Mickey: Music is what we do and we do it together really well and it seemed like the right time. We kind of cleaned out our closets and came back for the right reasons to play together.

Bob: I think all of us are playing a little less and listening a little more. This is something that happens to musicians as they mature but it’s happened to us and we're benefitting mildly from it.

Mickey: Well, the rest of it is going to be fulfilled in the music--that's really where it’s all at. It comes right down to the experience on stage, and I look forward to bringing the best possible version of me to the stage and I'm sure everyone else is going to do the same, so it can be really exciting, a lot of fun.

Bill: I get goose bumps just talking about it, just thinking of the possibilities.

EVOLVING AND REINVENTION

Bob: In the last 14 years since Jerry checked out, I've evolved, we've all evolved. We still have our brotherhood and so we still react.  We can still hear each other think, we can still intuit each other’s moves and stuff like that, but there are many, many more surprises in store that each of us has for one another.  That's a delight you know--you get that surprise and it spurs you, it kicks you up and straightens your back up a little. It’s fun.

Mickey: It’s kinda like a reinvention of our music. That’s what we've done over the years--we've grown personally and as a group. In coming together like this, it’s a real thrill to see the evolution and this journey that we are all on, and it’s really very fortunate that we can enjoy ourselves at this time of our lives. Like Bob said, this is the most fun that we can ever have.

Phil: I'm pretty much on the same page as these guys.  I've been working with my own band now for almost 10 years and the perspectives of other musicians that have come through my band have helped evolve my appreciation for the music in a way that makes me want to see what's going to happen when we get back together. A lot of it is curiosity on my part; it’s the question mark that’s really pulling me in, what's gonna happen and the fact that we cannot predict what's going to happen.

Bill: No, there's no prediction, but I can guarantee it’s going to be new music. I can guarantee that.

Bob: The surprises are going to come thick and fast because we'll be free and we'll get freer and freer with each other and with what we are doing individually.  The stuff we've picked over the last few years when we haven't been playing with each other is going to start coming out and I can't wait to see what comes of that.

Phil: Yeah, when you walk out onstage the possibilities are infinite.

IMPROVISATION

Mickey: Improvisation is built out of trust, love, and time in the groove.

Bob: And intuition.

Bill: And listening really closely.

Mickey: And conversation. You need to have something to say and someone else has to be able to come back and counter that.  Then they go with it or take off and you have to give people space to do what they're supposed to do, and like Bill said, listen really deep.

Phil: Listen more than you play really.

Mickey: Yeah, it's about listening.

Bob: And if you're hung up for something to say, then you sit back and sandbag it for a while and listen to everybody else.

Bill: Because something's coming your way.

Phil: Something's gonna come up.

Mickey: And that's where the trust comes in.

Bob: We've finally learned this, and I think taking a little time off has actually helped us with that. I'll sit back now. I'm going to listen to these guys and see where that takes me. And so far every time I've done that, it's taken me somewhere new.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES

Phil: For me they kind of melt together into an alloy--that's what Grateful Dead music is. When you can't see where the pieces are, it's all one seamless whole really. Even when we're playing a blues tune, not all of us are playing blues music all the way through that tune.  Other elements come in there and make an appearance in the strictest genres like blues or even reggae. So to me, the magic and the wonder of it all is the way that all these different music styles flow together so you don't necessarily identify them as the genres that they come from.

Bob: When I was a kid, like 8 or 9 years old, my brother taught me how to tune a radio and that was it for me. I knew I wasn't going to be a fireman or an Indian chief…I was going to be a musician. I was all over that dial and I'd listen to classical stations, jazz stations, R&B stations, country stations, the rock and roll stations.  I listened to everything and I couldn't get enough of any of it--I'm sure it was like that for these other guys. The [San Francisco] Bay Area was a great place for that because there were so many different cultural aspects.  We listened to it all.  I remember when we were riding all together in a car to or from a gig or to rehearsal and we'd be hammering all the buttons on the radio all the way there and back.  We listened to all of it and we loved all of it.

Phil: And it sank in. All of that music--not so much the individual songs or the...

Mickey: Sensibilities.

Phil: Yeah, exactly.

Mickey: Like Bob said, the Bay area was a spawning ground for a lot of different music that came to America, like the Indian influence.  Phil gave me a record back in '67 that changed my life, by an Indian drummer, Alla Rakha.  We brought that into the band, we studied that, and we started doing these revolutions, rhythmic things and Phil brought his influences, so did Bobby. 

Bill: Phil turned me onto John Coltrane, living together in Haight-Ashbury, and I said, ‘God, you can do that on the drums?’ I mean once I heard that music…that was it.

Phil: That's the thing about music, it's infinite. There is no end to it.  There's no back wall, there's no ceiling, there's no floor, it's infinite and therefore you can still explore it until the day that you die and you'll never find the end of it. And that to me is the most magical thing about it.  You can just keep finding new thrills, new toys, new ideas.

THEIR MESSAGE

Bob: [The overriding message is] the song.

Phil: At the moment that we're playing the song, it would be the song.  In the extended, the medium is the message…that’s the way I see it.  The message that I've seen go out from our band, and from other rock bands from our era, is that this is what you can do if you agree to cooperate completely, fully without ego and without worrying about who's going to get credit or get paid more. This is what you can achieve. This is what cooperation can achieve. This is what Americans can achieve, together. It's really a metaphor for our society and how we can make it better by working together.

Bill: I think that our audience shows that really clearly. The audience is one of the most unique audiences there is and the peacefulness and love that they express for one another is probably the highest thing there is.  One message that I hear really clearly from Deadheads is that we miss you guys, we wish you guys were playing again--and that really makes you want to do it for one thing, you give that expression.

Bob: It's going to be a dream come true for a lot of Deadheads. There are roughly a million of them out there, a dream come true for most of them, if we can live up to it and I think we can.

Mickey: I see the energy that the band is capable of raising in the group, and also personally, and then you take that energy out into the world and do some good with it, and that's the thing that the Grateful Dead does.  At the end of the line that's one of the things I can really get behind because it's a force for good and we we're putting the good into it and they're getting it--and if they can take it and do yet again another good deed, that's for me what the Grateful Dead is about.

FAVORITE PLACES TO PERFORM

Mickey: Every place that we play good is a great place, it doesn't matter where it is. I think the criteria is of course a place that can make you feel good and everything. The [Madison Square] Garden is so special because it's suspended on big cables so the Deadheads now know how to make the whole Garden sway. At first it's a little unsettling but then you get used to it and you go with the rhythm, 
Phil: That place literally rocks. It literally rocks.

Bob: I remember the first time we experienced that phenomenon. I went right into earthquake volcano mode.

Bill: Red Rocks is great to play--it sounds so wonderful there.

Bob: It sounds great. 

COMMUNITY

Bob: You know it used to be that we were kind of hamstrung by the transits of the heavenly bodies. If it was astrologically a bad night for us, or if there was some predictor that made it so that it was going to be a bad night for us, we went down. Over the years we got more consistent at being able to play the ball as it lies.

Phil: Without even knowing where it lies.

Bob: Without working at it.  It’s just practice makes perfect, even if you don't know what you're practicing. Over the years we got to tune ourselves to what the night was giving us. It's like in football--you take what they're going to give you. Or in any sport, you take what they're giving you and we're a team, we play that way. We play together and whatever the nights giving us, we go there.

Mickey: You can look at the Grateful Dead as a tuning system, not only for ourselves but for people to become in tune with us and that makes for a lot of power. I mean, that shows solidarity.

Bill: And creates community.

Mickey: That's a really important part of it.

Phil: That’s the goal.  To fuse that greater community together.

Mickey: Community between us and community between them and then community between them and us…both. This is a real interesting dichotomy.

Phil: And then community between them and us and the wider world.

Bill: The Mobius strip between the audience and us. There's no beginning or end, you know?

Phil: When it's really happening we're all the same.

Bob: You know, when it's really happening, there is a guy up there singing. For instance, if we're doing a song he's telling a story. But if I'm singing and I'm telling a story, I'm not there.  I might look like me but I'm not, I'm the guy in the song…the character.  I'm just telling my story and the story of that character. My job is to get out of the way and let that character tell its story. When we're on, and we're on more than not these days, we're all that guy.  We're all his different faces, different incarnations and we're all telling that story.

THE FANS

Bill: [We have] three or four generations of fans.

Phil: In the shows that I've been playing in the past five years or so, there are more and more young people showing up.  It’s interesting because they’re all too young, or they seem to be too young, to have heard the Grateful Dead with Jerry, so somehow they found out about this music. It's touched them in some way and they’re coming to see what it's all about. I'm personally very glad that we're going to be able to get back together and give a great The Dead experience, from us.

Bob: My theory all along, or for the longest time now, has been that they're kindred spirits. They're like us; they're people who require a little adventure in their lives. Therefore they require a little adventure in their music, and we're nothing, if not all about that. So it’s a rite of passage for them to discover us and through us they discover jazz and improvisational music and they'll discover life that way. And these are our folks.

Mickey: Remember there would be no “us” if it wasn't for them. I mean, you can't just go out and play for an empty arena.

Bob: Even though we have played some of our best music to smaller crowds.

Mickey: There used to be more of us than them!

JERRY GARCIA’S PRESENCE

Bob: I can hear him.

Phil: He's all over, he's all through the music.

Bob: I can hear his harmonic overtone structure and all that kind of stuff. I can't hear individual notes anymore but often times when we were playing I couldn't hear the individual notes anyway, if the sound wasn't good, but I could hear his harmonic structure and know what he was up to and I can still hear that. And I can also feel now just as much as ever that telepathic, that intuitive. I can feel him, ‘No don't go there, yea go there, no, no don't go there, go there, yea go there’ and I either do it or don't, just like I always did.

Bill: You got a guy on each shoulder.

Phil: “No, I don't want to go there Jerry.”

Bob: “Not tonight.”

Phil: So yea, his presence will never diminish for us.

Bob: Couldn't possibly.

Mickey: This music was born with that kind of nuance. He brought a nuance to it, besides the obvious melody and so fourth, inner workings and how it all flowed. It’s inherent in the music now because that’s the way it is. We can’t hear the individual notes, like Bob said. It’s all of that other stuff, the weave of it all.

Phil: That’s the spirit.

Mickey: It’s the spirit thing too, yeah.

Bob: At the risk of sounding like abnormal psychology…yeah Jerry is still there. I can hear him, you can hear him, you can hear him.

Phil: It’s an incontrovertible fact.  He is still with us.

Bob: What I really miss most were the jokes backstage, the humor backstage. That also was a huge factor in our longevity--we kept each other entertained.

Mickey: Oh yeah, it was a big laugh.  A very funny guy, his laugh was too.
 

EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY

Bob: I miss a lot of the analog sound because digital is much, much thinner. I could show you, playing the same material at the same volume at a distance of 50 feet through the same system.  Analog source and digital source are the same material, it’s really abundantly clear which one holds together and which one doesn't. That said, if you're clever in how you use digital, you can overcome a lot of hurdles.

Bill: We're all internet freaks.
 
Phil: I know I spend a lot of time on the net but, since we don't make studio records anymore, we haven't had an occasion to be dealing with that aspect of music distribution agenda.  We do have a download series, that's coming out from Rhino [Records], of older shows. So in the future I'm sure that we're going to be offering some of these tour shows for download depending on how good they are. And so you know, we're trying to be with it.

Bob: It’s been a long dream of ours to digitize our entire vault but it’s going to be very costly and labor intensive, and I don't know how realistic it is. If we can get around to it we probably should, so that anybody can have any show or song from any show.

PERFORMING THE CHANGE ROCKS CONCERT IN PENNSYLVANIA IN SUPPORT OF BARACK OBAMA

Phil: Well, our country is in a pretty serious mess and has been even before this whole economic situation. One of the things that Grateful Dead music tried to bring, and tried to convey to everyone we play to, is hope for the future, hope and joy in life and a feeling of infinite possibility. It was just something that we felt that we wanted to do also because the campaign that Barack Obama is running is not so much a campaign, or even a movement, as it is a community. We are all about community and we're all about trying to get people to work together.

Bob: I also see it as our last and best hope to regain democracy in this country because what we have now is essentially not democracy, it is plutocracy. Plutocracy is government of the people by the elite, for the elite, and if you look at the situation in Washington and most state capitals, that's exactly what we have. That's not what the founding fathers had in mind. It’s not what we purport to be exporting to the rest of the world. We're being a little two-faced about this and I see this as an opportunity to reestablish democracy and I think it's worth it even if you have idiots voting. I think it’s still worth it.

Phil: I think it’s important no matter who you vote for. As far as I'm concerned. voting in this country, or in any democracy, is not a privilege…it's a duty.

Mickey: Yeah, well these are amazing times and there are great scares out there. Senator Obama is the right man at the right time, as I see it, and perhaps a great statesman that's come along very much in the mold of Abraham Lincoln, a young man with a vision and a lot of magic, a lot of power and his views on some of the most critical issues, like climate change which is perhaps the largest overriding issue of our day, are visionary and very powerful. He has the smarts, he has the ability and I think he has the trust of a lot of people. 

Bob: He'll gain the trust of more of them.

Mickey: He's a great man, there's a lot of hope with him.

Phil: It's been a long time since we've seen it.

Bill: What really turned me on about him was I read his second book and the way he wrote, and the way he spoke, was so human and so personal.

BEING GREEN

Bill: I would love to be the greenest tour possible; I would love to emphasize that aspect in any possible way. My view now is that I'm going totally green. I put solar panels all over my place in Hawaii and I'm doing everything I can to get off the grid.  I know that our country and our world would benefit from being green. That's my biggest change.

Bob: I'm into that as well. I've got solar panels and a couple hybrids in the garage.

Bill: It also affects the music because you're doing good for the whole world.  Yeah, if you feel good you play better.  If I'm not having a great night or I'm feeling bad, I'm not going to play that good. At least I think I'm not playing that good. But it's much better to feel good and play good.

Bob: All the buses are going to use bio-diesel so we'll be doing that. We're going to be looking into it extensively because there are several of us who are really keen on this.

Phil: I've heard rumors of some new venues that are being constructed now that have more solar power and have more sustainable energy resources so that they're not drawing as much power from the grid. I don't know where they are but it would be interesting to try to see if we can play places like that.

Bob: We've also taken the step to becoming somewhat politically oriented. We're older guys and it’s coming on us to exhibit a little leadership in regards to the green issues and I think we will just have to step up and bite the bit and do it

Whitney Houston sang. Barry Manilow did a new tribute. Kanye West changed his mind about leaving the tribute to Clive Davis on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton and came back to say:
"A big part of the game means being part of the game. I had a pompous attitude last year. You don't chose the Grammys; they choose you. Being hip-hop... being black, you don't get away with that. For people to have confidence in you ... you've got to deal. ... I feel like I have spearheaded taking pop back to a new level of respect. I feel like Katy Perry (has done it). You make the emotions cut through. Peop le heed quality and greatness. The reason why I walked back in was I came to see Puffy. I am humbled by the greatness in the room."

Props to Kanye for seeing that. There was a palpable sense that this was the end of  an era, that future bashes under the Recording Academy's auspices will never be as elaborate or star and executive packed. Some of that owes to stars no longer having the sort of relationship with the starmakers that Davis and his artists have shared. 

Babyface and L.A. Reid talked about the faith Davis invested in them and every part of their speech rang out with sincerity. Clive can pour it on at these bashes with a unique blend of ego and humility - and that's part of the charm. Besides, at what other cocktail party will you see Joan Collins and  Dave Grohl?
In the room Saturday: Paul McCartney, Prince, Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, Sean Combs, Berry Gordy, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swft, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Ashford & Simpson, Babyface, Dave Grohl, Leona Lewis, Andy Williams, Natalie Cole, the heads of Sony Music, Universal Music and  Warner Music Group along with CBS' Leslie Moonves.

Houston was the final performer in the transitional Clive Davis party in which Davis was an honoree under the Recording Academy's auspices. She sang well without hitting any of her trademark notes, closing out with a version of the Chaka Khan hit "I'm Every Woman."  

Jennifer Hudson and Rod Stewart delivered the highlights in the show. Rod sang "Some Guys Have all the Luck" and John Fogerty's "Have You Every Seen Rain?," which appeared on his '70s rock covers album. He could have knocked our socks off by playing "Stay With Me" and announcing a reunion of the Faces, but that would only happen in a dream. 

The New York Times reported Saturday that Columbia Records has not been running as smoothly as expected until the dual head of Steve Barnett and Rick Rubin and that after almost two years, Rubin's roles is still unclear. It's quite likely that the story is a response to the New York Times Magazine story from September 2007  that made his appointment to co-head the label sound like a visionary decision by Rob Stringer.
Naturally, few people are willing to disparage management at Columbia or Sony Music. But what is truly remarkable is how the people who are hired to be mouthpieces not only won't talk, they won't allow themselves to be identified.  
Here are the four paragraphs that lead up to the final paragraph. (This is truly comical): 

Executives at Sony Music are sensitive to questions about who wields authority within the Columbia label and about the state of the power-sharing arrangement between Mr. Rubin and Mr. Barnett.
A spokeswoman for Columbia Records, Yvette Noel-Schure, referred inquires to (Rubin's spokeswoman) Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald. 

Notably, Mr. Rubin, and Mr. Barnett and Mr. Stringer, as a pair, have outside public relations executives representing them, which is unusual for top executives who work at corporations that have an in-house communications department.

The outside spokesman for Mr. Barnett and Mr. Stringer, who insisted that he not be identified, said that neither man would comment.

For its second annual lunch to celebrate the inclusion of a Cajun and zydeco Grammy category, the state of Louisiana put on a full court press selling the state's culture and locations to the L.A. entertainment industry with good food and great music. After the pitches, video clips, testimonials and regional music were proffered, a jam session that brought together gospel singers, a brass band and early jazz might well be responsible for a spike in airfare sales to New Orleans out of LAX. Last year it was about the nominees; this year it was about the greatness and enduring nature of the culture. 
The three Blind of Boys of Alabama were named honorary New Orleanians for making an album there last year and they put the designation to immediate use by singing "Free at Last" with an "Iko Iko" beat and followed it with "Amazing Grace" set to the meldoy of "House of the Rising Sun," the legendary ode to a French Quarter brothel. Joined by members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Blind Boys raised the roof of a Millennium Biltmore ballroom with a raucous take on "Down By the Riverside." The Dirty Dozen closed out the afternoon with their classic "My Feet Can't Fail Me Now."
Afternoon of music ran the gamut from the rural to the city streets. The Pine Leaf Boys tap into the rusticity and dance tempos of Cajun fiddle tunes; Michael Doucet, singing and performing solo on his fiddle, weaved a medley of French and English Cajun tunes; Steve Riley led his accordion-guitar-fiddle trio through several story-songs; and Irma Thomas, backed by David Egan at the piano, offered two reflective gospel tunes.
Quint Davis, who runs the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, producer-songwriter-performer Allen Toussaint and trumpeter Terence Blanchard were among the day's speakers. It was Blanchard who best drove the meaning of living in a post-Katrina New Orleans.
He and his family moved to Los Angeles for six months after the hurricane hit and he was struck by the effort his mother put in to family, friends, community and culture. "I saw the importance of those relationships," he said, explaining the moment he knew he was back home. "We went back - and I wasn't thinking about it - but we were at Brigtsen's (restaurant) and I ordered the spinach salad. It had a fried oyster on top and when I bit into it a tear rolled down my cheek.
"I had the same experience at the first Jazz Fest after the hurricane. We were concerned - what if nobody shows up? But people were there from all over the world and the locals had come in from Atlanta and Houston. We persevered the best way we know - by having a good time. 
"I loved what Herbie Hancock told me after the hurricane. It is imperative that New Orleans comes back. It is the heart and soul of our culture."
Amen.  

Neil Diamond was saluted at the annual pre-Grammy Awards MusiCares dinner and concert Friday, which concluded with Diamond singing his own best-known anthems and thank yous to his mother and kids who were in the audience.
He told a story about talking guitar lessons because he was in a deep depression over the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn. And after year of guitar, he switched to piano but went back to the six-string, which he declared was his one instrumental love.
In a packed house of solid performances, Jennifer Hudson brought the goods on "Holly Holy." Her perf was big and gospel-driven; the band's accompaniment swampy and sparse. It created a tremendous gap that neither side gave in to, allowing the song to breathe deeper than any other in the night.
Second in the distinctive interpretation department was the teaming of jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson and trumpeter Terence Blanchard on "September Morn." They turned the often overwrought tune into a neo-bossa ballad, the two soloists keeping the rendition sultry and swinging. Raul Malo accented his astutely tense performance of "Solitary Man" with impressive use of tremolo on his guitar; Coldplay played "I'm a Believer" like subway buskers with acoustic instruments. 
Comically, Diamond told a story - on videotape - of his attempt to call Eddie Vedder and request that he come to the event and perform. Deep into the conversation, Diamond learns he is talking to a musician in Seattle named Eddie, but his last name is Rodriguez. His band is not Pearl Jam, it is the Volcanoes. They made the journey to play a tejano version of "Red Red Wine."
After most of the acts used the house band that included Don Was on bass, Benmont Tench and Jim Keltner on drums, Diamond brought up his band and delivered performances that were mighty similar to ones he gave a few months ago at Staples Center.
The set list:
Jonas Brothers: "Forever in Blue Jeans"
Jennifer Hudson: "Holly Holy"
Kid Rock: "Thank the Lord for the Night Time"
Adele: "Cracklin Rosie"
Urge Overkill: "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon"
Coldplay: "I'm a Believer"
Eric Benet: "Heartlight"
Chris Cornell: "Kentucky Woman"
Raul Malo: "Solitary Man"
Wilson and Blanchard: "September Morn"
Rodriguez & the Volcanoes: "Red Red Wine"
Tim McGraw: "Hello Again"
Foo Fighters: "Delirious Love"
Josh Groban: "Play Me"
Neil Diamond: "Cherry Baby"/ "Love on the Rocks"/"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Faith Hill/"Pretty Amazing Grace"/"America"/"Sweet Caroline"

One gripe: Could these people please learn their music history? The auctioneer at the pre-concert auction was soliciting bids for two plaques awarded to John Lennon, one for "Let it Be" and one for "Hey Jude." He referred to both as "John's great songs." Most people in the building would refer to them as Paul's.

And emcee Jimmy Kimmel made a crack about "the clowns at Bang Records." Bang was an acronym for the first names of Bert Burns, Ahmet Ertegun, Neushi Ertegun and Gerry Wexler. (Yes, it's usually with a J). There are plenty of clowns in the music business but those four men were not among them.  

To honor Lux Interior, founder and singer in the Cramps who died Wednesday at the age of 62, it seemed appropriate to list the efforts for which the band was best known - great song titles. The Cramps had the ability to be Ed Wood and the bastard offspring of half the cats who recorded for Sun Records in the late '50s. Sometimes it was the heroin talking, but for the most part, the Cramps stayed on point as well as the Ramones; you always knew what you were gonna get from a Cramps show or record, grinding, molten rockabilly. "Goo Goo Muck" served 50 different ways.

10. The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon
9. I Wanna Get in Your Pants
8. Eyeball in My Martini
7. The Most Exalted Potentate of Love
6. Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs
5. Fissure of Rolando
4. Journey to the Center of a Girl
3. Don't Eat Stuff off the Sidewalk
2. Two Headed Sex Change
1. Bikini Girls With Machine Guns

Bruce Springsteen's "Working on a Dream" sold 224,000 copies in the week ended Sunday, hitting the mark that was widely expected among industry observers.
Of his three albums with the E Street Band this decade, it posted the lowest opening week. "Magic" sold 335,000 copies in its opening stanza 15 months ago and "The Rising" sent off 525,000 in August 2002.  
Sales period ended prior to his performance at halftime of the Super Bowl, which should keep his tally high next week. 
"Working on a Dream" is the third album in which Springsteen has kicked promotional efforts into high gear, agreeing to print and TV interviews. In addition, iTunes offered a free download of the title track a month before the release of the album and Amazon streamed the video of the new album's "Life Itself." Springsteen also appeared at the We Are One concert in Washington, D.C., just days before the album's release.
It was a novel move with "The Rising" to have Springsteen and the E Street Band reconnect with audiences by increasing his promotional appearances that now appears to be a necessary ingredient for any veteran star hoping to have a commercial impact. 
The rest of top 10 fell between 55,000 sold by Taylor Swift's "Fearless" at No. 2 and Britney Spears' "Circus" moving 28,000. Two albums debuted in the top 10: the "2009 Grammy Nominees" various artists disc from Rhino sold 33,000 to open at No. 6 and Franz Ferdinand's "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" (Domino) sold 31,000 (No. 9). 

A mesmerizing piano solo on "Maiden Voyage" by the song's composer Herbie Hancock taught the high school ensemble behind him a thing or two about what it takes to become a jazz master at Tuesday's Grammy Salute to Jazz at Club Nokia. This year they paid tribute to the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records with performances by several of the label's jazz veterans, Joe Lovano, Cassandra Wilson and Terence Blanchard. But it was the pianist who spent the second half of the 1960s with the label who made the evening extra special.
Lest anyone forget, Hancock won the album of the year trophy for "River," an album that merged pop, folk and jazz in a near-meditative state. On Tuesday, though, there was nothing clam of folky in the song selection. Hancock took his band of teens through two mid-60s exercises - "Dolphin Dance" was other extended jam - that were reminders of the strength of Hancock's compositional skills and the openness with which he approaches an improvisation. 
Each headliner performed two pieces each as the high-schoolers played either as 18-piece ensemble, a quintet and a quartet. Wilson impressed with a New Orleans take on the antique "Hesitation Blues"; Blanchard took the band on an extended funk journey. Upright bassist Kate Davis of West Linn, Ore., was particularly impressive in her intonation and time-keeping; Noah Kellman, a pianist from Fayetteville, N.Y., displayed impressive feather-weight touches in certain passages.
A few musicians from Blue Note's initial heyday shared stories of the label founded in 1939 by Alfred Lion. Charlie Haden had two, the first of which concerned him getting a call from Ornette Coleman to come to a studio in Greenwich Village and record. 
"Denardo's going to play with us," Haden remembers Coleman saying. "But Ornette, he just turned 9 years old."  
So he cabs it and lugs his bass up seven flights of steps, the most vertical walking he had done in 20 years of living in Manhattan. "And here's Denardo all set up. We made beautiful music that day. It became 'The Empty Foxhole.'"
The other one involved Haden approaching label president Bruce Lundvall, who is celebrating 25 years at the helm, in 1990 with a plan to record his Liberation Music Orchestra. It was obviously an expensive project and Lundvall needed to fund it by getting money from two international labels in the EMI family. 
Haden was told to call back in a few days to get the final answer. Meanwhile, he left Lundvall with a cassette of pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, with whom Haden had played in Havana. Nearly a week passed and Haden called Lundvall's office about the orchestra recording only to be told Bruce was not in the office.
"He's on a plane to Cuba," was the assistant's answer .

Songwriter-performer Amanda Ghost has been named president of Epic Records, a roll of the dice for Columbia/Epic Label Group chairman Rob Stringer.
Ghost, whose released a digital-only compilation in April and most recently wrote songs for Beyonce's current album, starts Feb. 16. She replaces Charlie Walk, who left at the end of last year and is starting his own company. It  makes Sony Music the only major distrib with members of the creative community running its top labels; producer Rick Rubin is the co-head of Columbia Records.
Stringer wrote in an email to staff, "In the changing environment of the music business record labels undoubtedly need to be complete partners with the artistic community and Amanda will be the perfect executive to meet that challenge." 
Ghost noted, "I'm not a conventional choice as an executive in the music business, but it is testament to the new mood at Sony where content is now king and the music business is being put back in the hands of creative talent such as myself. I'm here to draw on my experiences as an artist, songwriter and producer."

Ghost also co-wrote James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" and Jordin Sparks' first single "Tattoo." Epic employees, here's your new boss:

Potent, Ferocious. Brilliant song choices. Using a choir to enhance "Working on a Dream" and make it more viscerally exciting  than the recorded version. Altering "Glory Days" to make it applicable to football star instead of worn out out baseball pitcher. Showing off Bruce the Preacher. Reminding everyone that the core remains Bruce, the Big Man Clarence Clemons and Little Steven Van Zandt no matter how much their presence seems to dwindle with each recording. Remind America - and alert some for the first time - of the redemptive power of rock 'n roll. Great as "The Rising" was in D.C., that was hardly a fluke. "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" was elevated to a position of rock royalty, the kick-off tune for Springsteen's first Super Bowl performance. (In truth, "10th Avenue" never rates higher than middle of the pack in one of the Boss' marathon performances).  His half-time show was Springsteen giving yet another great performance, the sort that we expect from him, the type that makes us return time and time again to feel something that no other experience in our lives provides. No one delivers shows like this and he reminded us once again. Not Tom Petty. Not the Rolling Stones. Dylan was heard in a well-done Pepsi ad and part of me squirmed while the other half was appreciative of the fact that Bob was being exposed to people who don't know the genius of his words and music. Same thing with Bruce, but this was the artist at work, demonstrating why he sits atop a mountain that many are afraid to climb. 

He played one bona fide hit, "Born to Run," two songs that everyone knows and a new number. Who else does that at the Super Bowl? And on Monday, when tickets go on sale for the chance to experience the sort of rock 'n' roll show that exist only when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are on tour, it will break records in terms of sell-outs. I have an avid love/hate relationship with the NFL - that's what happens when you're a Jets season ticket holder - but tonight all I can say is thank you, NFL, for bringing us Springsteen. He was as amazing as the 100-yard interception run back, Larry Fitzgerald Jr.'s run and the spectacular Rothlisberger-to-Holmes TD pass. Steeler Nation. Springsteen country. A perfect match.  

And to be a sports and music fan whose employment future is up in the air due to economic circumstances that have rendered my job expendable, I hear the words in "Born to Run" the way I did when I was a 17-year-old, the song was brand new and he was expressing something I had never heard from another songwriter:  
"Together we could break this trap
Well run till we drop, baby well never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
`cause baby Im just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild, girl I want to know if love is real."