Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records
http://www.jazz.org/" rel="nofollow - Jazz at Lincoln Center
has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented
since its founding in 1987, including a studio recording featuring the
pianist Chick Corea, a musical Mass with a gospel choir written for the
200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and
concerts with the saxophonists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash. Now,
that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing
that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings, to the public
through the creation of its own label, Blue Engine Records, to be
announced on Tuesday. “In
jazz, recordings are your identity,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at
Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director. “So the identity of our
institution has not been available — unless we’re live.” Jazz
at Lincoln Center will release the recordings as CDs and digital
downloads and to streaming music services, with a few titles in vinyl
format, through an exclusive agreement with http://www.redmusic.com/" rel="nofollow - RED
Distribution, a division of Sony Music, for distribution in the United
States and overseas. RED’s ’stache media, a marketing company, will
provide publicity, branding and social media support. The financial
arrangements of the deal were not disclosed. “It’s
the legendary and iconic company of Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bob
Morelli, RED’s president. “Sony RED is a fairly eclectic company; I’m
not limited to rock or pop or hip-hop.” In
an age of music services like Spotify and a crowded marketplace,
skeptics might wonder about the prospects for a new record label, let
alone one devoted to a classic form like jazz. The financial upside is
likely to be limited and the field could prove competitive, given that
several jazz clubs also have their own labels. But Sony said the deal
holds potential. “There
is a significant market for jazz,” Mr. Morelli said. “I don’t see this
becoming Madonna, where Wynton’s going to do halftime at the Super Bowl,
but virtually anything is possible.” Blue
Engine Records represents only the latest effort by Jazz at Lincoln
Center to serve existing jazz fans and to expose new audiences to the
music beyond its New York stages in the Time Warner Center, as it has
with webcasts; a new radio show, “Jazz Night in America” (produced with
NPR Music and WBGO); a video web series on its own YouTube channel,
Facebook page and http://jazz.org" rel="nofollow - jazz.org ; and a growing library of over 600 performance videos available free through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s http://academy.jazz.org/" rel="nofollow - education portal . The
recording project is the baby of Mr. Marsalis, who has conceived and
developed each year’s programming over the last 28 years. “I picked
almost every song we played at every concert,” he said. Comprising
mostly performances by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra, the organization’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music
Library has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of
concerts. The
company is also announcing a 12-city “Blue Engine Tour” beginning
Sunday with a first-time performance at the Breckenridge Music Festival.
As
part of the tour, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Mr.
Marsalis will appear in six summer music festivals, including Jazz Aspen
Snowmass’s 25th anniversary season, where the band will be joined by
the vocalist René Marie, and Tanglewood’s 75th-anniversary season. For
its first-time appearance at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, the band will
be joined by the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. The
Blue Engine recordings will be rolled out over 15 years, starting with
about six releases a year. “You start small — you figure out how to
serve the audience and our mission,” Mr. Marsalis said. “We wouldn’t
want to rush things.” That
said, he added that the company had “80 viables” ready to go as soon as
they’re mixed. Blue Engine will start with the most recent recordings
and move backward in time. The releases will not necessarily consist of
an entire concert; they may include the seven or eight best songs, Mr.
Marsalis said. The
recordings will feature outside artists, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln
Center Orchestra. The orchestra has released previous albums but in a
piecemeal fashion. Blue
Engine will be operated as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s brand and
audience development department, which is managed by Gabrielle Armand. RED
specializes in digital and physical sales and marketing, as well as
radio promotion and product development for more than 60 independent
record labels, as well as artists from Sony-owned labels and Sony joint
ventures with Descendant Records, Ultra Records, Red Bow Records and RED
Associated Labels. “Our
mission is to distribute and sell and to brand the label imprint,” Mr.
Morelli said. “But simultaneously it’s to sell stuff, to do as much as
we can. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.” The
first release from Blue Engine, “Live in Cuba,” featuring Mr. Marsalis
and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be released on Aug. 21
(and is available for http://itunes.com/BlueEngineRecords" rel="nofollow - pre-order
online). Recorded over three nights at the Mella Theater in Havana in
October 2010, “Live in Cuba” explores the connections between American
jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero. Jazz
at Lincoln Center said it was now regularly connected to one million
people through Facebook, website visits and email lists and Mr. Marsalis
said he looked forward to reaching many more with Blue Engine. “Anyone
who’s interested in having a relationship with us can have a clear idea
of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Our music is about freedom and
bringing people together through swing.”
from www.nytimes.com
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