Wynton Marsalis is at the top of the jazz world. And his various projects animate the field. “The jazz world should love him, as audiences seem to. In fact, Marsalis seems to provoke equal amounts of admiration and loathing. Those who dislike him say he is a reactionary, holding back the progress of jazz and stifling innovation in his attempts to make jazz respectable and establish a canon of the ‘greats’.”
Tag: 01.20.03
Deficit Surprised Artistic Director
Three months ago Robert Egan moved to Seattle to be artistic director at ACT. “In what he calls ‘a shocking disclosure,’ Egan says he learned two weeks ago that ACT’s big fall fund-raising push had fizzled amid a flagging economy in the Pacific Northwest.
Annual donations totaled $1.8 million instead of the budgeted $2.4 million. Had he known then what he knows now, would Egan have taken the job? ‘That’s a very good question,’ he says. ‘I don’t know’.”
Golden Globes Share The Wealth
“Chicago” picks up two awards, “Adaptation” and “Gangs of New York” also win. “In a harbinger of what is likely to be a closely fought Oscar race, the Globes split its trophies among a variety of critically praised films ranging from late-life crises to historical drama to a sendup of Hollywood screenwriting.”
Music Industry Pushes For End Of VAT Tax On CD’s
The European music industry is pushing to eliminate the VAT on CD’s. “The Give US A Break campaign is supported by all the major trade and professional groups, including composers and music publishers, the record industry and retailers. The price of compact discs has long been a complaint the music industry has faced from consumers, and in 2001 was the subject of an investigation by the European Commission.”
Music Jobs At Risk If Piracy Isn’t Solved, Says Official
Jay Berman, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), tells a conference in Cannes that “all jobs in the European music industry could be in jeopardy if record executives do not tackle the problems of music piracy. That’s 600,000 jobs, he said. “In truth, online music piracy is not about free music. The music creators and rights holders, denied the right to choose how their music is used and enjoyed, are in fact paying the price.”
The Orwell Contradiction
How is it that George Orwell is interpreted in such contradictory ways? “Legacy is not the best word to use to describe Orwell’s influence. He was a contradictory fellow: people read him in his own time in part because they didn’t know what he would think about an issue, and he often took positions against the conventional wisdom of even the political groups with which he was most closely allied. So it is impossible to know what Orwell would have said about anything. Yet people have been playing that game for fifty years.”
Even Literary Books Have To Make Money Now
Why is Random House cutting up one of its most-praised divisions? The literary world is apalled. “Despite the many core strengths of the Random House Trade Group, they have been the only Random House, Inc. publishing division to consistently fall short of their profit targets. To ensure its publishing continuity, it has become imperative to improve the Random House Trade Group’s financial success.”