Category: people

Compay Segundo, the Cuban singer and guitarist who came to international attention in the 90s with the ‘Buena Vista Social Club’has died at the age of 95. “Mr. Segundo, who rose to global fame in his 90’s after decades of obscurity, was the most accomplished of the dozen or so Cuban musicians gathered in Havana in 1996 by the American producer Ry Cooder for a recording session meant to recapture the lost music of the pre-Revolutionary Havana nightclub scene.”

Jazz axophonist Benny Carter died over the weekend. “Carter’s career was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement, from his first recordings in the 1920’s to his youthful-sounding improvisations in the 1990’s. His pure-toned, impeccably phrased performances made him one of the two pre-eminent alto saxophonists in jazz, with Johnny Hodges, from the late 1920’s until the arrival of Charlie Parker in the mid-1940’s. He was also an accomplished soloist on trumpet and clarinet, and on occasion he played piano, trombone and both tenor and baritone saxophones. He helped to lay the foundation for the swing era of the late 1930’s and early 40’s”

“Reports of director Franco Zeffirelli’s decline – physical, artistic and mental – have been exaggerated. He may be 80, and suffering balance problems – the result of an inner-ear ailment, contracted after a botched hip operation – but in the past six months alone, he has completed a film about Maria Callas, staged opera productions in Italy and the US, and had a huge success with Luigi Pirandello’s Absolutely! (perhaps) in London. He is now back at Covent Garden, for the first time in nearly 40 years, to direct Pagliacci.”

“Susan Solt, dean of the school of theater at CalArts and the school’s Center for New Theater, has resigned. She will take a position on the faculty and work as dramaturge in the theater writing program headed by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks.”

The Grant’s Tomb Memorial Association is protesting a televised concert last week that used the New York memorial as a backdrop last week. “Beyoncé performed in front of Grant’s final resting place for the July 4 special NBC aired Friday night. The singing siren was surrounded by a band, gyrating dancers and hundreds of screaming fans in a show that was taped days before Independence Day. “This particular memorial also happens to be the man’s tomb. … This is something I think people should take into consideration.”

Maria Vandamme is on a crusade to promote Australian classical music. “Founder and artistic director of the embryonic and critically acclaimed – locally and internationally – music label, Melba Recordings, Vandamme has also established the philanthropic Melba Foundation. Her motivation behind the record label is the fact that Australian music is not particularly well known overseas. Vandamme believes our image internationally is skewed, at once bizarre and unbalanced. ‘We are a sporting nation, we have lovely beaches, a few famous movie stars and directors – end of subject. This means that our music isn’t recognised and that needs to be corrected’.”

John Hichborn is a one-man royalty tracker. “Royalty tracking, as an industry, has become increasingly important in the electronic age, when well-known songs are sampled for commercials, thrown onto cheap CD compilations, and even used for video games. There can be considerable money at stake. A publisher is supposed to be paid 8 cents per song for each copy sold. The writer then receives his share from what he has agreed to as part of the deal. That can add up. ‘The record industry is a swamp of disappearing money’.”

Playwright Arthur Miller was awarded this year’s Jerusalem Prize, but for last week’s ceremony he sent a videotape in which he criticized Israel’s policies. This angered Jerusalem’s newly elected ultra-Orthodox Jewish mayor who said “Miller was a ‘universal dramatist’ who had reached his peak more than 50 years ago. He condemned the tendency of intellectuals to ‘always criticise the actions of the state of Israel and sometimes even impose colonial criteria on the issues’. He further attacked Miller for sitting on a ‘literary Olympus tens of thousands of kilometres from here to voice criticism’.”

Last year when the Long Island Philharmonic went looking for a new top executive, they came back with Christopher von Zwehl. Of course he had no background in music; apparently the orchestra’s board was impressed that von Zwehl had raised money for “a proposed freight ferry from Kennedy Airport to New Jersey” and had been instrumental in “bringing the battleship USS New Jersey to that state.” Last week the orchestra let von Zwehl go, admitting he wasn’t up for the job. The problem? “Lack of knowledge about music and the classical music business was a hindrance.”

“Not content with continuing to sing both old roles and new in defiance of his 62 years, Placido Domingo is preparing to embark on another new project. For Domingo is about to sing in an opera – and then to conduct it. Far from passing the baton, he intends to pick the baton up.”