CADILLAC RECORDS PREMIERS
12/1/2008 | Cadilac Records chronicles the rise of Chess Records and its recording artists. In this tale of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in Chicago of the 1950s and 60s, the film follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's greatest musical legends.
The story of how the blues became popular and gave birth to rock and roll begins at a dingy bar on the rough South Side of Chicago in 1947, where an ambitious young Polish emigre, bar owner Leonard Chess (Academy Award-winner ADRIEN BRODY), hires a talented but undisciplined blues combo that includes quiet and thoughtful guitar prodigy Muddy Waters (JEFFREY WRIGHT) and impulsive and colorful harmonica player Little Walter (COLUMBUS SHORT). Fascinated by the sound of the music - and eager to cash in on the record burgeoning record business - Chess arranges a recording session for Waters. Waters' early recordings start moving up the R+B charts and receiving heavy play.
Chess treats his musicians like family -- he buys them a Cadillac when they record their first hit record -- although the line between business and personal sometimes causes conflict with his increasingly talented and successful stable of artists. After backing up Muddy on his early recordings, Little Walter becomes a star in his own right, but his quick temper and loud manner often run him afoul of friends and the law. He also finds that the only woman he can talk to is Muddy's girl, Geneva (GABRIELLE UNION), who struggles to remain loyal despite Muddy's poorly concealed affairs. Big Willie Dixon (CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER), a songwriter and bandleader, also is a key member of the Chess Records family, as is Howlin' Wolf (EAMONN WALKER), an intense and proud blues singer who develops a musical rivalry with Muddy.
But it's not until 1955 when a Chess artist finally "crosses over" into the realm of mainstream ("white") America - a skinny guy from St. Louis named Chuck Berry (MOS DEF), whose dynamic "duck walk" and catchy, country-tinged tunes mark the birth of rock-and-roll. When Berry is arrested and jailed at the height of his career, Chess finds another talented performer to cross over singer Etta James (BEYONCE KNOWLES), an emotionally scarred young woman whose vulnerability tempts Chess' loyalty and concern in unexpected ways.
As rock-and-roll grows more popular, the Chess artists find themselves revered by a new generation of musicians, but they have also each earned and lost a small fortune on booze, women and the high life, and their addictions begin to take their toll. Even as tragedy befalls, their music and their spirit remain strong: as the sixties wind down and Leonard Chess gets out of the record business, the blues live on. --© Sony Pictures [Less]
The film stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Emmanuelle Chriqui as Revetta Chess, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf, Eric Bogosian as Alan Freed, Marc Bonan as Keith Richards.
Directed by Darnell Martin, who also scripted the film, based on an original idea. Her previous credits include 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and 'I Like It Like That.'
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/cadillacrecords/
CADILLAC RECORDS SOUNDTRACK IS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE.
Sony BMG will be releasing the soundtrack to 'Cadillac Records' on December 2nd. The film opens on December 5th.
'Cadillac Records' follows the rise and fall of Chess Records, which launched the careers of such greats as Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry. Chess, who co-founded the label with his brother Phil, was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Soundtrack listing goes in the following order:
1. At Last (Beyoncé) 2. I'd Rather Go Blind (Beyoncé) 3. Once In A Lifetime (Beyoncé) 4. No Particular Place To Go (Mos Def) 5. Nadine (Mos Def) 6. Hoochie Coochie Man (Jeffrey Wright) 7. I'm A Man (Jeffrey Wright) 8. My Babe (Columbus Short) 9. The Sound (Mary Mary) 10. Let's Take A Walk (Raphael Saadiq) 11. 6 O'Clock Blues (Solange) 12. Last Night (Little Walter) 13. Bridging The Gap (Nas w/Olu Dara)
One of our new Artists Jay Brown Review
10/13/2008 | Jay Brown: "Take What You Need "(Independent, 2008)
Singer-songwriter fare possessing no little flair with matching guile
With a wonderful, easy flowing groove and a singing voice to match it is hard to ignore Jay Brown’s powerful music. Not that you would want to.
Fuelled by electric lead guitar, sax and a constant driving rhythm "Sweet Sophia" opens the album with a bang and never looks back. Honest and thoughtful in what he does he combines superbly with the harmony vocals of Kerry McGregor ("Get Me High" etc.) as he digs beneath the surface to sing about a wide range of subjects.
When it comes to highlights, and songs the listener can’t afford to miss or needs to hear before giving judgement you have the shuffling "Cold Wind" coupled with the pithy and mournful "No One Left To Blame" that features dark, lonesome to the bone guitar to leave the listener like Brown engulfed in a moody angst-filled world.
Alternating from the keen, hard driven, shackles thrown off "Visions Of Cody" to such dreamy, measured affairs as "Mrs. Leanne" the album flows freely. More subdued still we have the wonderful "Mary Brown" as he runs music’s gamut with great confidence.
So honest and strong are his lyrics and commitment to the emotion of the song —the album rarely slips beneath a standard less than noteworthy. Although on one or two tracks the music gets a little cluttered for my taste as he strives for a bigger sound than he needs.
CHESS RECORDINGS FOR A NEW GENERATION !
7/10/2008 | UNIVERSAL RECORDS RELEASES CHESS MOVES
The classic Chess catalog remixed by the legendary Keith Le Blanc
Read more...
Morgan Kraft Nevous Boogie Album Reveiw
7/7/2008 | Our collection of Surf songs were recently redone with a Twist by musician extrodiniare Morgan Kraft with some help from the late Sean Costello and Production by Mitch Easter we have our first review of the album.
This is quite remarkable. Imagine surf instros inverted to fit a blue jazz construct. It's amazing how some of these familiar surf classics just seem to naturally fit into this entirely different way of imagining them. The Kraft Quartet are Morgan Kraft - fretless guitar, Fender Rhodes, Madison Rast - double bass, and Dave Durst - drums, joined by various fourth members to complete the quartet, and fronted by Lex Samu - trumpet, flugelhorn.
Picks: I Wish You Would, Continental Missile, Tom Cat, Pills, Tragic Wind, Johnson Machine Gun, Roller Coaster, El Conquistador, Nervous Boogie, Boss, Whose Muddy Shoes, Pipeline, Ice Cream Man
ALL THESE SONGS ARE FROM THE ARC CATALOG.
Check out some more responses
http://www.reverbcentral.com/reviews/s/samu6202.html
Berndette Gorman
6/4/2008 | Fomer General Manager of Arc Music Group Bernadette Gorman, 59, died peacefully on June 6 in her home in NYC.
Bernadette worked at Shelter Records in the 1970s after leaving her home town of Chicago, and she subsequently worked in video production in London, England. For many years thereafter, Gorman was a music publisher in NYC, including stints as a paralegal for the Law Office of Michael Sukin, General Manager of the Arc Music Group, and most recently as Publishing Administrator for Denise Rich Songs.
Steeped in the international music business, she leaves friends and colleagues around the world in mourning.
A Tribute to Bo Diddley Rock and Roll Pioneer...
6/3/2008 |
The musician the world knows as BO DIDDLEY has, over the past five decades, indelibly stamped his mark on rhythm 'n' blues, rock 'n' roll and popular music. His innovative trademark rhythm, his electric custom-built guitars, his use of female musicians, his psychedelic guitar sounds, his wild stage shows, and his on-record and on-stage rapping, pre-date all others. His influence on other musicians, both black and white, is immeasurable. We think it's time to set the record straight....BO DIDDLEY put the Rock in Rock 'n' Roll.
Tom Petty
Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), born Ellas Otha Bates, aka "The Originator", was one the most important, influential and imitated American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Often cited as a key figure in the transition from blues to rock and roll, he introduced more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound. He was also known for his characteristic rectangular guitar.
Bo broke new ground in rock and roll’s formative years with his unique guitar work, indelible African rhythms, inventive songwriting, and larger-than-life persona. He will forever be known for popularizing one of the foundational rhythms of rock and roll: the Bo Diddley beat. He employed it in his namesake song, “Bo Diddley,” as well as other primal rockers like “Mona.” This distinctive, African-based 5/4 rhythm pattern (which goes bomp-bomp-bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up from Diddley by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock and roll through the decades. It can be heard on Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” (later covered by the Rolling Stones), Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive,” the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” the Who’s “Magic Bus”, U2 "Desire", The Smiths "How Soon Is Now?"and Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One,” to name just several songs.
Bo Diddley is the only artist with a beat named after him, the "Bo Diddley beat," a rumba-like beat (see clave), similar to "hambone", a style used by street performers who play out the beat by slapping and patting their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks while chanting rhymes. Diddley came across the beat while trying to play Gene Autry's "(I've Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle".
His songs (for example, "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love?") often have no chord changes; that is, the musicians play the same chord throughout the piece, so that excitement is created by the rhythm, rather than by harmonic tension and release. In his own recordings, Bo Diddley used a variety of rhythms, from straight back beat to pop ballad style, frequently with maracas by Jerome Green.
He also was an influential guitar player, with many special effects and other innovations in tone and attack. Bo Diddley's trademark instrument is the rectangular-bodied Gretsch, nicknamed "The Twang Machine" (although he had other similar-shaped guitars custom-made for him by other manufacturers), a guitar that he developed himself around 1958 and wielded in thousands of concerts over the years. In a 2005 interview on JJJ radio in Australia, Bo implied that the design was born from embarrassment. In an early gig, while jumping around on stage with a Gibson L5 guitar, he landed awkwardly hurting his groin. He then went about designing a smaller, less restrictive guitar so he could keep jumping around. He also played the violin, which is featured on his mournful instrumental "The Clock Strikes Twelve", a 12-bar blues.
His lyrics were often witty and humorous adaptations of folk music themes. The song "Bo Diddley" was based on the lullaby "Hush Little Baby." Likewise, "Hey Bo Diddley" is based on the folk song "Old MacDonald". The rap-style boasting of "Who Do You Love", a wordplay on hoodoo, used many striking lyrics from the African-American tradition of toasts and boasts. His "Say Man" and "Say Man, Back Again" both share a strong connection to the insult game known as the dozens. For example: "You got the nerve to call somebody ugly, why you so ugly the stork that brought you into the world ought to be arrested".
The later years of his life he resided in Archer, Florida, a small farming town near Gainesville, Florida, where he attended a born again Christian church with some of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He continued to tour around the world, and as of the summer of 2006, he was planning to record some faith-based songs, at least some of which would be utilizing his own original music.
He will be missed.
Arc Music Group New Web Site is up and running
5/9/2008 | The Arc Music Group has introduced a new web site with a new look for the twenty first century. The site is designed with an easy search engine to make licensing a quick and easy process.
"This is great for anyone who wants to license songs for TV Film Advertising or Print and doesn't know all the ropes" says Kenneth Higney Sr. VP of Licensing and Copyrights. "A simple click on the mouse when you have finished filling out the forms will get your request sent to the right place with all the proper information."
Marshall Chess, COO of Arc adds, "We have always been technology pioneers in music publishing and this is just another step in the future of music publishing".
"It's so efficient and looks great!" says Sr. Director of Licensing and Copyright Caitlin Broderick. "Any questions anyone asks can be submitted and responded to quickly. I love the efficiency of it."
If you are reading this you are on the site.
Little Walter in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
3/10/2008 | Walter (Little Walter) Jacobs was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
by Ben Harper at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City today.
Little Walter (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968) Although Little Walter might not have been the first person to amplify the harmonica, his pioneering use of the microphone helped establish the modern blues harmonica. With a mike clasped to his harp, Little Walter created echoing, moaning, hornlike sounds that redefined the capabilities of the instrument. Walter Jacobs had fourteen top ten hits on the R&B charts in the 1950’s including two number #1 songs “Juke” and “My Babe.” Little Walter toured and recorded extensively with blues great Muddy Waters in the 1950’s. He also recorded with Jimmy Rogers, Memphis Minnie, Otis Rush and Bo Diddley. Little Walter’s influence was pervasive, especially in England where the next generation of harp players such as Mick Jagger listened to his records over and over
The 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performer inductees were chosen by the 600 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recording is released.
In addition to being honored at the March ceremony, each inducted artist is commemorated at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland Ohio, which serves as a monument to rock and roll’s impact on our culture. There, this year’s inductees will be honored – along with previous year’s inductees and hundreds of other artists – with exhibits, video and interactive presentations and programs that serve to tell the story of modern music. The Hall of Fame itself will include artifacts from this year’s inductees, a multi-media presentation with highlights from each artist’s career and their signatures permanently engraved in the glass walls of the Hall of Fame.
5 Grammy Nominated Albums Contain ARC Songs!!!!
10/30/2007 | 2007 was a good year for people covering Arc Songs we have songs on five Grammy nominated releases including:
Album: 10 DAYS OUT: BLUES FROM THE BACKROADS
Artist: HUBERT SUMLIN, HOWLIN' WOLF BAND, KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD, GEORGE BUTLER, HENRY GRAY, CALVIN "FUZZ" JONES, CHRIS LAYTON
Including our song:SITTIN' ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Album: LIVE...AND IN CONCERT FROM SAN FRANCISCO
Artist: OTIS RUSH
Including our song: ALL YOUR LOVE (I MISS LOVING)
Album: LE COWBOY CREOLE
Aritst:GENO DELAFOSE, FRENCH ROCKIN' BOOGIE
Including our song: PROMISED LAND
Album: LIGHT YOUR LIGHT
Artist: TOOTS & THE MAYTALS
Including our song:PAIN IN MY HEART
Album: DIRT FARMER
Artist: LEVON HELM
Including our song: FEELING GOOD
Cool, eh?