Marshall Crenshaw Comes to Yoshi's

Marshall Crenshaw's magnificent, "Blues is King" is one of my all-time, personal favorite songs, and I can hardly believe it's been 25 years since breaking through to critical and commercial acclaim with his 1982 self-titled debut and its infectious, era-defining pop hit "Someday, Someway." Crenshaw returns with an incredible new chapter in his career with his 429 Records debut "Jaggedland", his first studio recording in more than six years is his most musically dynamic and lyrically intimate collection yet. Next Monday, April 30th, Crenshaw rolls into Yoshi's San Francisco with what promises to be another, unforgettable evening of music.

"Classic Crenshaw attributes including an indelible sense of melody and tuneful essence combine to create a rich warmth and intimacy on every song of Jaggedland. The recording has a powerful vibe of immediacy thanks to Crenshaw's warm vocals and riveting guitar work. He takes the production to its highest levels working with a roster of well known musical heroes and veteran producers. Crenshaw first recorded two tracks in Upstate New York with Stewart Lerman (The Roches, Dar Williams), the melancholy "Sunday Blues" and the fiery rocker "Someone Told Me." Crenshaw did seven of the tracks at Sage and Sound Studios in Los Angeles with producer/engineer Jerry Boys (REM, Richard Thompson, Buena Vista Social Club), who had been his "wish list" since he heard the Mambo Sinuendo album Boys engineered for Ry Cooder and Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban in 2003. Highlights of these West Coast sessions are "Passing Through," the hopeful "Eventually" and the powerful "Long Hard Road."

A quote from Trouser Press sums up Marshall Crenshaw's early career: "Although he was seen as a latter-day Buddy Holly at the outset, he soon proved too talented and original to be anyone but himself." All Music Guide captured Crenshaw's vibe perfectly: "He writes songs that are melodic, hooky and emotionally true, and he sings and plays them with an honesty and force that still finds room for humor without venom."

As Crenshaw was developing Jaggedland's mix of poignant and incisive love songs and musings on mortality, he ventured once again into the film world, co-penning the title track to the hilarious, critically acclaimed John C. Reilly film "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"; the track was nominated for a 2008 Golden Globe and a 2008 Grammy Award.

Over the last few years, Crenshaw has played 40 - 50 shows a year on what he dubs "the NPR singer-songwriter circuit." Says Crenshaw, "This album took a lot of wear and tear on my emotions, but in the end I think it's one of my best ever and I am so excited to have worked with so many of my favorite players on it. When people ask me why I keep making music after all these years, I have a simple answer: because I have to. For lack of a more colorful term, there is truly something magical to it and I never take it for granted."

Marshall Crenshaw - Solo Acoustic
Yoshi's San Francisco
Monday, April 30th @ 8pm
Tickets $15 adv, $18 at the door

The Alicia Mangan Quintet Comes to the Berkeley Arts Festival

Alicia Mangan is an amazing musical anomaly; an advanced, free-style and avant-garde tenor saxophonist from Southern California. In high-school, she won state-wide acclaim in classical competitions on alto saxophone. Later, she even played baritone with a Mexican band in SoCal, and traveled with them as far as Australia on tour. In the late '90s she found her true love on tenor sax and broke new ground in the creative sounds of free improv and creative music while living in the Bay Area.

Mangan is back in the Bay Area for a short visit and has gathered some of her colleagues from the time she lived and played here with Jim Ryan's "Forward Energy" group, and Marco Enedi's big bands. She's formed a quintet with Ryan that will play two sets at the Berkeley Arts Festival, next Monday, April 23rd, at 8:00 pm.


Mangan honed her chops in bebop, classical, and Latin based music, but opted for total dedication to the calling of avant-garde jazz. Her music is influenced by the exploratory methods used in the tradition forged by Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and Charles Gayle. Much of her early straight-ahead experience was gained in southern California with the popular L.A. salsa group "Son Mayor" where she played baritone saxophone and in the music program at San Diego State where she studied jazz with pianist Rick Helzer. Mangan spent the next ten years in the San Francisco Bay area where she performed with Eddie Gale’s Orchestra for World Peace, Ryan’s "Forward Energy", and Eneidi’s "American Jungle Orchestra". Mangan has also worked with the late Peter Kowald, Karen Borca, Donald Robinson, Lisle Ellis, Sabu Toyozumi, Ijeoma Thomas, Bonnie Barnett, Wadada Leo Smith, and Spirit.

Some of her recent projects included tours with Ryan’s Forward Energy to Minneapolis, Chicago, Long Beach, L.A., San Diego, and Santa Barbara; participation as a soloist in a Santa Barbara avant-garde music series; performances Dana Reason-Meyers Parallel 66 series in Claremont CA; performing at Disney Hall’s Red Cat Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles as a duo with Lisle Ellis for EarJam, and performing as one of the six soloists at the Schindler House in a SASSAS presentation of Exquisite Corpse II.

Mangan's recordings include releases with L.A. Reeds, a CD of solos from Los Angeles reed players, as well as three albums with Jim Ryan's Forward Energy: "Configurations" (2002), "Concept" (2003), and "Where Are They?" (2004).

Her band for next Monday's concert will feature Mangan on tenor sax, as well as a stellar ensemble of label-mates from Edgetone Records, including Jim Ryan on sax/flute/trumpet, C.J. Borosque trumpet, and the one and only "Doctor Bob" Marsh on contra bass.

The Alicia Mangan Quintet
Monday 4/23/12 8:00PM
The Berkeley Arts Festival
2133 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Tickets $8-$10

Anil Prasad and the "Economic Reality of Streaming for Musicians"

The modern world of digital music streaming has opened a Pandora's Box of issues and challenges for artists and labels, both indie and mainstream. Famed guitarist Robert Fripp (King Crimson/David Bowie/Brian Eno), and other notable musicians have been litigating against companies like Grooveshark, for using their music without permission and or adequate compensation. Spotify, one of the newest and biggest companies to offer online streaming, has also come under scrutiny for the amount of monies actually paid to their artists.

Anil Prasad, one the most respected music journalists in his field and author of the critically acclaimed book, Innerviews, (a culmination of some of his fantastic interviews with many of the world's best musicians), recently flew to New Zealand to present the keynote address for the "2012 Sounds Aotearoa Music Expo", on the pros and cons of streaming. It was an informative presentation that gave the viewer an impressive overview of where we've been, where we are and where we may be heading in this labyrinth known as digital streaming. Prasad has graciously allowed me to present his latest version, specifically designed for US audiences that will hopefully clarify the conundrum facing musicians today.

Prasad begins by walking viewers down memory lane through the "tangled" history of online music, beginning with Napster in 1999, the first of the peer-to-peer services; the advent of Limewire and KaZaA in 2002, the seemingly indestructible Pirate Bay in 2003 and MegaUpload in 2005, escalating the era of music and video filesharing and piracy to unprecedented heights.

To combat the pirates, services like iTunes, Amazon, emusic and others were born, ushering in a new era of legal streaming. Prasad notes that despite those efforts, music sales continued to decline, much to the chagrin of the RIAA, the Recording Industry of America. Lawsuits soon followed, snaring college students, grandmothers and yes, even dogs. Of the $64 Million spent, only $1.4 Million was ever recouped.

Prasad also cites some compelling data to illustrate the disparity between the payouts by services like iTunes and the newer services like Spotify. At first glance, these services look great. Imagine paying $5 to $ 10 per month for unlimited access to all of your favorite music for your computer, or mobile device. Your entire library in the palm of your hands sounds pretty nifty.

The big issue notes Prasad, comes from the disparity in the payouts to the musicians and songwriters. Prasad looks at Spotify for example, which has about 15 Million users and growing, with a target of 100 Million. In 2011, Spotify took in $266 Million and with groups like Sony, BMG, Warner, Universal and EMI as investors, it's 300 employees will be sitting pretty when they go public.

How much of that revenue is actually going to the artists? "Spotify pays out $0.005 per play to musicians. If you compare that to US minimum wage for example, ($7.25 per hour), one song would have to be played 1,450 times to equal $7.25", notes Prasad. By comparison, a typical indie artist makes $14 on a $15 CD, and $8.40 from $12 album on iTunes. On Spotify, the same album would have to be played 100 times in order for the artist to make $6!

It is this kind of unsustainable math that has artists in an uproar. "How can I survive selling music if it's streaming dirt cheap, 24x7 on any device?" Artists like the Paul McCartney, Adele, Cold Play, Tom Waits, Black Keys, Porcupine Tree, Zoe Keating and even Pink Floyd among others, decry this way of making a living through streaming and are withholding their music from Spotify, much to their chagrin.

Prasad believes there is hope for artists, but they will have to take control of their destiny, citing alternative monetization methods like Bandcamp, Top Spin, CD Baby, Cash Music, and even Kickstarter, allowing the artist to keep a much larger percentage of their revenues as well as promoting through great social networking.

I believe Prasad is correct in his assessments, as it will likely take as he puts it, "An artist and fan revolt, the lack of new music, and fading back catalog interest", to change the paradigm. Piracy may never die, but it is imperative for these new services to "fairly compensate artists". If not, artists and the fans alike will be giving in to what some have called the new, legal piracy. "The future, is in the artists hands", says Prasad."If you can make the streaming work for you great, but do it intelligently."

Conspiracy of Beards Comes to the Buddhist Center

San Francisco's "Conspiracy of Beards is a 30-member a capella male choir which performs exclusively the songs of the legendary poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Inspired by the late performing artist Peter Kadyk and directed by Daryl Henline, the group performs gritty, uplifting renditions Cohen's songs." This Saturday, April 7th, the Beards, and special musical guests Peter Whitehead and Hazy Loper, perform at the SF Buddhist Center in a benefit for Jai Bhim International educational projects in India.

The Beards' website bio revealed that "since its foundation in 2003, the choir has performed to dozens of enthusiastic audiences around the San Francisco Bay Area. Notable performances include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco City Hall and the Great American Music Hall, as well as appearances on PBS television station KQED, radio stations KFOG and KPFA, and national radio program West Coast Live.

The group became an official non-profit organization in 2006; in 2008, the Beards completed their first mini-tour of the East Coast, performing on radio station WFMU and at several venues in the New York City area, including the Highline Ballroom and the Bowery Poetry Club.

Transforming Cohen's simple melodies into complex 4 to 5 part harmonies, their sound ranges from tender to robust. One can hear influences of contemporary, jazz, gospel, barbershop, classical and even doo-wop styles in the unique arrangements by chorus members.

Using the genius of Cohen's words, the Beards inspire the audience to ponder personal, political and spiritual life throughout the show, amid laughter and cheers. The songs have real and relatable meaning which affects listeners in an intimate manner. And when sung by a group of sincere gentlemen, it is a rare phenomenon which touches audience members on many levels."

Jai Bhim International "collaborates with youth from the Dalit/ex-untouchable community in India to offer Communicative English workshops which incorporate dance, music, yoga, and creative writing. In India JBI also leads youth meditation retreats, and sponsors arts events and leadership trainings, and in the U.S creates curriculum and conducts workshops on Caste as a Human Rights Issue.

The Dalit community, those considered "untouchable", were brutally oppressed by an unjust caste system for 3,000 years. Thanks to the Indian humanitarian Dr. Bhimrao ("Bhim") Ambedkar, who wrote the Indian Constitution in the 1940's, a vibrant social justice movement has been alive in the Dalit community for more than half a century. Our name is a tribute to this visionary man and our work is part of this inspiring global movement.

JAI means "long live" and BHIM refers to Dr. Ambedkar. JAI BHIM INTERNATIONAL creates youth projects guided by Dr. Ambedkar's international vision of liberty, equality and fraternity, heeding his call to "Educate, Agitate, Organize!" Jai Bhim International is empowering a new generation of youth, a "caste-free generation"..."


"Educate, Agitate, Organize!"
An evening of song, with performances by The Conspiracy of Beards,
and special musical guests Peter Whitehead and Hazy Loper,
to benefit Jai Bhim International educational projects in India.
April 7th @ 8 pm at The SF Buddhist Center in The Mission.
This is a smoke-free and alcohol-free event and the space is handicap-accessible.
$20 donation requested at the door.