Returning the Gift
Drummer Billy Higgins started his remarkable career backing up R&B musicians such as Amos Milburn and Bo Diddley around the LA area before embarking on his jazz path with the Jazz Messengers (led by Don Cherry and saxophonist James Clay) and Dexter Gordon. But it was his association with Ornette Coleman, starting in the mid 1950s, that electrified the jazz world and made him a force to reckon with. His first recordings, with Coleman and Red Mitchell, were released in 1958. In 1959, he performed with both Coleman in New York and Thelonious Monk in San Francisco, and from that point on, he never stopped recording or touring.
Returns on Investments
People are often unaware that they might benefit from industry- or union-sponsored funds or participate in class-action settlements. In early January, we were notified of a fund for session musicians with over $3 million still unclaimed, and of a procedure enabling consumers to collect a small share of the payout from the "MAP" (minimum advertised price) lawsuithttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11461/">lawsuit; that was settled by the music industry last year.
Revel Reveals All to Stereophile Scribes
Three-dimensional modeling, 4-pi anechoic chambers, and laser inteferometry were but a few of the industrial marvels revealed in early March to a group of Stereophile and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater scribes. The group convened Tuesday, March 7, at Revel headquarters in the massive Harman">http://www.harman.com/">Harman International complex in Northridge, California, for an inside view of the company's research, development, and manufacturing operations, organized and led by Madrigalhttp://www.madrigal.com/">Madrigal; president Mark Glazier. Madrigal is Harman's Middletown, Connecticut-based high-end operation, with the Proceed, Mark Levinson, and Revel lines under its jurisdiction.
Revel Reveals All to Stereophile Scribes, Part 2
On day two of Revel's early-March press junket, Stereophile and Guide to Home Theater writers and editors were treated to a discussion and demonstration of some superb audio and video equipment at Kevin Voecks' spacious home in the San Fernando Valley. Voecks spoke at length about the extensive research his company has done on the perceived realism of reproduced sound, under the leadership of Dr. Floyd Toole.
Revenge of the Chips
On Monday, June 6, at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs revealed that Apple would switch from its IBM-sourced PowerPC chip to Intel's Pentium D processor beginning in the latter half of 2006. Industry analysts began dissecting this move several days before the announcement in a series of "will they/won't they" articles every bit as breathless as those announcing the splits between Ben Affleck and J-Lo or Brad and Jennifer.
Rhapsody in Green?
With Apple Computer's iTunes music service not even one month old, the price wars have already begun.
RIAA vs CEA Over DAB
The RIAAhttp://www.riaa.org">RIAA; foresees that digital audio broadcasting (DAB) will represent a fundamental change in the radio industry. "It is not just a means of offering higher quality broadcast sound. DAB could transform radio into a vehicle for the distribution of huge amounts of information in digital form, including recorded music," says the trade organization. As a result, the group is supporting regulatory restraints on digital audio broadcasting (DAB) in reaction to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding DAB content control.
RIAA vs ISPs
The past year has been a busy one for Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She suffered a humiliating">http://tirian.magd.ox.ac.uk/~nick/UnionDebate/">humiliating defeat at England's Oxford">http://www.oxford-union.org">Oxford Union Debates, celebrated new">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11548/">new agreements with Silicon Valley companies, and led her organization in the attack on file-sharing service Kazaa. Rosen and the RIAA have also attacked college kids and put pressure on universities to police their students.
RIAA Adopts New Digital Strategy
When going up against the consumer electronics industry, the Recording">http://208.240.92.66/">Recording Industry Association of America has no problem keeping the upstarts in their place. In fact, with recent battles over DAT and CD-R, they appear able to kill or mortally wound entire formats at will. But fighting within the computer universe is a whole new story, as recently proved by the RIAA's stumble with Diamond Multimedia and their portable MP3 device (see">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10324/">see related stories).
RIAA Back-pedals on PC Hacking
The Recording">http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is trying to distance itself from an attempt earlier this month to insert language into a broad anti-terrorism bill that would have given the organization's members the right to hack into computers operated by Internet music sites—as well as those owned by private individuals—to find and delete pirated recordings. The wording suggested by the RIAA would have excluded copyright holders from criminal charges for causing damage to computers in the effort to control piracy.