The Bazel Group, Inc. blog

The Power Of The Music Of The Night

2010-07-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

As a life long music business professional, there are times when I find myself wrapped up in the world of numbers and logistics, contracts and riders, negotiations and crisis management. In reality, I also let the real reason I am in the performing arts industry – the power of music – slip by the wayside.

Recently I had a not so subtle reminder of why I got into the music business in the first place. I was witness to the undeniable power of music, or in this case, the power of the music of the night.

One would expect the most powerful musical experiences to happen in places like Carnegie Hall in New York, or the stage of The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, or The Fillmore in San Francisco. All are epic stages with a long history of delivering gifted artists and memorable shows.

However, in the backyard of a house in a quiet residential neighborhood in San Jose California, I became witness to an epic performance that was truly on par with the great stages of the world.

Nothing about this beautiful house would indicate it would be a stage for a world-class performance. There were no marquees, no ticket takers, no concession stands. The house itself was on a quiet street and blended well with the others on the block.

What was special about this house is that it was filled with a family full of love. Even better, the owners of the house were holding a wedding for their only daughter in their back yard. The backyard wedding was a gift of love from parents to their daughter, and their way of sending her out into the world and her own adult life.

The backyard was decorated in all it’s finest, the ceremony was lovely and the dinner was excellent. However, all of that was a prelude to what happened next. First there was the toast from the bridesmaid, followed by the best man, and then the father of the groom. Finally, the father of the bride stood up to speak and raised his glass to welcome the newlywed couple into their family. As a special gift from the parents of the bride to the newlyweds, he introduced a surprise in the form of a guest – Franc D’Ambrosio – better known as the Phantom of the Opera to millions from his national tour and long standing performance of The Phantom in San Francisco. The parents of the bride were giving the unique gift of song to the newlyweds to send them off in style.

You could have heard a pin drop as people realized that Franc D’Ambrosio was standing there in the backyard and singing to the wedding couple. His first selection was “Almost Like Being In Love” and by the time it was over, the stunned guests were at full attention. Franc transitioned into "Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From The Godfather)" and the place began to come unglued. No, not in a rowdy way, not in a thunderous ovation way, but something much deeper and powerful than that. The place was melting; it was the power of music. I witnessed crying, no, make that sobbing, from something deep within a person’s soul, that came out when Franc connected the family with his songs. It was wonderful and awe inspiring to witness this. Not just with the bride and her parents, but across the audience too. And when Franc segued into his medley from Phantom of the Opera including “Music Of The Night” – words cannot express the emotions that were conveyed from such a gesture of love from two caring parents to their only daughter. I have to admit, I sat there with tears in my eyes, and so did my wife Blythe too.

Dr. Karl Pullback, pianist and director of music division at The Boston Conservatory once said in his welcoming address to incoming students: “One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.”

That night in San Jose, in the backyard of a house in a quiet residential neighborhood – I was reminded powerfully of what the Greeks knew all along – the power of music is undeniable and wells from a place deep within our souls. It also reminded me of why I chose this profession in the first place, and how the greatest performances in life aren’t necessarily on a stage in a palatial theatre – but are sometimes found where you least expect them!

Here’s to the happy wedding couple – and to the bride’s parents for giving one of the best gifts a parent can ever give – the gift of jaw dropping, awe inspiring, soul stirring music. From the small epic stage in the back yard of a house in San Jose, I have been deeply reminded of why I spend my adult life in the music industry. I have witnessed the power of music, or in this case, the power of the music of the night.

Ed Bazel
CEO - Chief Entertainment Organizer
The Bazel Group, Inc.

PS - Here is a sample of what we heard that night!

Please book this comedian for the sake of his wife's sanity!

2010-06-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

You know it's slow when you receive the following from a very funny comedian friend of ours:

****
Hello Ed. I hope you are well.

This has been the slowest couple of months I’ve seen over the past 30 years that I’ve been in the business. It’s crazy! I spend most of my days sitting around my home-office waiting for the phone to ring. It doesn’t. Twice I’ve had the phone company come to my home to check and see if my phone was broken. It’s not. I had my hearing checked three times to see if maybe I just wasn’t hearing the phone ring. My ears are fine. Worse of all, my wife is getting sick and tired of having me home almost every night of the week. Can you blame her? Would you want to be around me almost every night of the week? I wouldn’t!

You can make a difference!
BOOK ME!
Please.
Don’t do it for me. Do it for my wife.
Thank you.

Jack

****
As always, in addition to our exclusive roster of talent, The Bazel Group, Inc. has the pleasure of producing concerts, comedians and speakers for corporate and high society events around the world.

'Lynda Carter "Phenomenal" at State Theatre Gala...'

2010-05-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

'Lynda Carter "Phenomenal" at State Theatre Gala...'

A Missing Piece in the Economic Stimulus: Hobbling Arts Hobbles Innovation

2010-03-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

Leaving arts out of economic stimulus hobbles technological innovation.

Published on February 11, 2009

As the economy stumbles, the first things to get cut at the national, state, and local levels are the arts. The first thing that goes in our school curricula are the arts. Arts, common wisdom tells us, are luxuries we can do without in times of crisis. Or can we?

Let's see what happens when we start throwing out all the science and technology that the arts have made possible.

You may be shocked to find that you'll have to do without your cell phone or PDA. In the first place, it uses a form of encryption called frequency hopping to ensure your messages can't easily be intercepted. Frequency hopping was invented by American composer George Antheil in collaboration with the actress Hedy Lamarr. Yeah, really.

Next, the electronic screen that displays your messages (and those on your computer and TV) employ a combination of red, green, and blue dots from which all the different colors can be generated. That innovation was the collaboration of a series of painter-scientists (including American physicist Ogden Rood and Nobel laureate Wilhelm Ostwald) and post-impressionist artists like Seurat - you know, the guy who painted his pictures out of dots of color, just like the ones in your electronic devices. The programming inside owes its existence to J. M. Jacquard, a weaver, who invented programmable looms using punch cards. Exactly the same technique was borrowed to program the first computers and is incorporated into modern programming languages.

Then there are all those computer chips running our critical devices. They're made using a combination of three classic artistic inventions: etching, silk screen printing, and photolithography. Add to that the fact that data from NASA and NSA satellites is enhanced using artistic techniques such as chiaroscuro (a Renaissance invention) and false coloring (invented by Fauvist painters) to increase contrast so it's easier to perceive important information. (Parenthetically, artists also figured out how to hide information. Camouflage was invented by the American painter Abbot Thayer and during WWI the Vorticists in England and the Cubists in France were co-opted by their governments to design prints to protect troops, equipment, and planes.) Hey, the arts look pretty useful, huh?

That's only the beginning. In medicine, the stitches that permit a surgeon to correct an aneurysm or carry out a transplant were invented by American Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel, who took his knowledge of lace making into the operating room. Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin while gathering beautifully colored microbes for his (rather unusual) hobby of "painting" with microorganisms. Pacemakers are simple modifications of musical metronomes. If you have a neurological deficit, your neurologist may employ dance notation to analyze your problem. Physicians at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and other major medical centers are trained by actors to interact humanely with you as a patient. These same physicians may learn to observe your symptoms more closely by being taught to draw, paint or photograph, or through art appreciation courses. Many hospitals employ music to relieve stress in operating rooms and post-operatively. Painting, drawing and sculpting are also used to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. Indeed, our own institution, Michigan State University, originated music therapy as a way to treat soldiers suffering from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Oh, and that bridge you may drive over on the way to work? Princeton engineering professor David Billington and Smithsonian historian of technology Brooke Hindle have demonstrated that most innovations in bridge design originated with artistically trained engineers such as John Roebling and Robert Maillart. They're part of a long tradition of American artist-inventors. You may not know that Samuel Morse (to whom we owe the telegraph) and Robert Fulton (to whom we owe the steam ship) were two of the most prominent 19th century American artists before they turned to inventing -- visit the Smithsonian American Art Galleries some time and see for yourself. Alexander Graham Bell was a pianist whose invention of the telephone began with a simple musical game. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes don't just provide us with unusual architectures, they also inform our understanding of cell and virus structure and permit new biomedical insights. Kenneth Snelson's tensegrity sculptures (stroll past his "Needle Tower" outside the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden on the Washington Mall) aren't just fascinating constructions in and of themselves, they've also created a whole new form of engineering. Google it!

The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."

Bottom line: Successful scientists and inventors are artistic people. Hobble the arts and you hobble innovation. It's a lesson our legislators need to learn. So feel free to cut and paste this column into a letter to your senators and congressmen, as well as your school representatives, or simply send them a link to this column. One way or another, if we as a society wish to cultivate creativity, the arts MUST be part of the equation!

Music and Autism

2010-03-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

Making SENSE Of Autism

By Megan Wood The Press Tribune

There’s something about being onstage that transforms Michael Valcour.

Under the bright lights of the Magic Circle Theatre, Valcour speaks with a purpose, dances with ease and sings with complete confidence.

Offstage, he becomes quiet, standoffish and has difficulty with the rhythm and comprehension of everyday conversation.

Onstage, you would never guess that the 37 year-old with a powerful singing voice has autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects one in every 150 American children.

But SENSE Theatre, and its co-founder Blythe Corbett have given Valcour and his 14 fellow cast mates of all ages diagnosed with varying degrees of autism, a chance at showbiz.

“Theater is transforming for anyone, regardless of their abilities,” Corbett said. “But for children with autism, it’s a vehicle for them to express themselves and be social with other typically developing children.”

For the past eight years, Corbett has been studying the social and emotional processes in children with Autism at the MIND institute at UC Davis. A former actress herself, Corbett saw theatre as a form of intervention to improve the functioning of children with autism.

SENSE Theatre is now in its second year bringing Dorothy and the gang to life with “The Wizard of Oz.”

The program has partnered with the Magic Circle Theatre’s master class, which recently held their own production of “The Wizard of Oz,” to pair typically developing children with counterparts with varying degrees of Autism or “buddyies.” The children act alongside each other in full stage productions that improve their social interaction skills.

Ten-year-old Sammie Lee is a veteran actor with Magic Circle, having been in productions since she was four. Her role in “The Wizard of Oz” represents her 28th production, but none has been as impactful, as her role with SENSE.

“(From) the first day we met our buddies to how they are onstage now has been amazing,” Sammie said. “They’re all so good and have improved so much.”

Sammie is partnered with Claire Patton to provide guidance and onstage support in her roles as an Ozian and a Monkey.

“Before she wanted her mom all the time and would whisper everything,” Sammie said. “Now she talks to everyone and gives hugs and actually enjoys being onstage. I’m so proud of her.”

SENSE parent Becky Leung has seen her son, Eric, make major strides in his social skills and coping with conflict.

“He’s very rigid, everything has to stick to a schedule or he gets upset,” Leung said. “But in theatre, not everything is routine. There’s changes and he’s doing better with that.”

A big improvement in her son came on the night costumes were handed out. Eric, a munchkin in the production, was handed his green ensemble and, to his mother’s surprise, didn’t have an outburst about the change in wardrobe.

“He normally will only wear blue and white, his school uniform colors,” Leung said. “Wearing all black and now the bright green without a fit is a big step for him.”

At first, Leung said she was nervous about 12-year-old Eric’s reaction of being on onstage without her supervision. But with the help of his “buddy,” Eric has taken his role, singing, dancing and all, in stride.

“He loves to sing, and being able to do the other things in the play have really built up his confidence,” Leung said. “He has a lot of support and positive reinforcement here. This gives him something to be proud of, something he’ll remember for a very long time.

www.sensetheatre.com

2010-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

The nominating committee of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame has announced the 2010 nominees. They are Gordon Lightfoot, Tommy Roe, Steve Miller Band, Martha & the Vandellas, the Chipmunks, Santana, Bill Withers, The Shirelles, Gerry & the Pacemakers and James Brown.

Fans ...are encouraged to vote for their favorite nominees that have
had two or more top ten hits in the 1950’s, 1960’s and/or 1970’s
at this website.

Please take a moment to vote for The Shirelles - click on the star on the top right of this page! http://www.hitparadehalloffame.org/artistbios/2010_artistpages/TheShirelles.html

A&R Star Makers: The Vanishing Gatekeepers

2010-02-23T19:11:00.000-08:00

The once-powerful executives have become an endangered species

By Paul Rogers Thursday, Feb 11 2010

As 2007 dawned, Jon Sidel had been West Coast head of artist and repertoire (A&R) with superhip V2 Records for seven years. Life was good. Sidel, who'd previously been an A&R executive at Interscope Records, was working with the likes of the White Stripes and the Crystal Method; was a successful restaurateur (a former owner of hot Hollywood hangs Swingers and Small's); and counted actress Rosanna Arquette among his exes. But that January, V2 was suddenly shut down by new owners, and its entire staff was laid off. Except they forgot about their man in L.A. "I felt like the guy in Office Space," Sidel laughs. "In the basement, still working away."

That may be the only way to keep an A&R job these days.

Once the most powerful career in the music business, artist-and-repertoire (A&R) executives are charged with finding new acts for record labels, signing them to contracts, and then supervising their artistic development. They oversee the recording process, including the selection of producers, songs and singles, and liaise between artist and label. Thus, these largely anonymous gatekeepers have quietly influenced the soundtracks of our lives.

For many musicians, the "A&R guy" became an almost mythical figure who could pluck them out of obscurity and place them on the charts. But that was in the 1980s and '90s — the CD boom years, before file-sharing and iTunes — when the major labels were making jaw-dropping profits and signing artists relatively freely and frequently. When, at the turn of the millennium, the record industry fumbled the digital-distribution opportunity presented by the budding Internet, its profits plummeted, as the public lost interest in the suddenly clumsy compact disc (U.S. album sales shrank from 785 million in 2000 to 428 million in 2008, according to Nielsen Soundscan).

Drastic layoffs followed — more than 5,000 industrywide between 2000 and 2007 — as buyouts and mergers reduced the major labels to a "Big 4" and significant brands like Arista, V2 and DreamWorks vanished altogether. A&R ranks withered accordingly: 127 A&R executives were let go or chose to leave their jobs during 2007 alone, according to business-contact source The A&R Registry. Even some with proven, contemporary "golden ears," like Sidel, Island Def Jam's Rob Stevenson, who signed the Killers and Fall Out Boy, and Interscope's Mark Williams (the No. 1–ranked record man on the World Top 100 A&R Chart 2005, an annual list of the year's best A&R people from HitQuarters.com), exited their posts.

Many ex-A&R folks remained a part of the entertainment business, acting as managers, consultants or producers. Others moved into unrelated professions like real estate or teaching. "Few managed to ever get another A&R job," says Ritch Esra, publisher of The Music Business Registry (which includes The A&R Registry) and former director of West Coast A&R for Arista Records. Some embraced semiretirement, like veteran Columbia/MCA Records A&R man Ron Oberman, who signed the Bangles, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Warrant and is now writing a book and playing "a lot of poker."

Even surviving A&R staffers enjoy less deal-making power than they did a decade ago. While artist-and-repertoire execs of old could see a band in a club, run it by the label head, and then offer the act a contract, they now often require the approval of a whole committee of superiors at increasingly cash-strapped and cautious record companies. "I remember when A&M, Interscope and Geffen merged [in 1999]," says Michael Rosenblatt, who discovered Madonna, the B-52s and The The during an A&R career at multiple major labels. "At that time there were 11 people who could say, 'Yes, you're getting signed.' After they merged, it became three. And that has happened everywhere."

"I think these days A&R execs at major labels are scared to put their life on the line and sign new artists for fear that if a new artist's CD doesn't sell a million units, that could be the end of their job," laments Michael Alago, who describes his A&R career with Elektra (where he signed Metallica) and Geffen as "23 years' worth of sex and drugs and rock & roll." He is disheartened by how things have changed. "Unfortunately, there's no artist development anymore. Where back in the day you could sign an artist and sell 100,000 records and be happy ... I don't think companies think that way anymore." Alago is now a photographer and provides occasional A&R advice to artists, including Cyndi Lauper.

The digital-age A&R person tracks audiences (chiefly online) as avidly as he does artists. "In the old days they were searching every nook and cranny, and if they found something that shined in the grass, they picked it up and developed it," Esra says. "[Today] they're not looking for talent, they're looking for an ongoing business ... for the culture and the marketplace to tell them what is good and successful."

Steve Knopper, author of Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, concurs: "There are no longer as many people whose specialty is to go to clubs and find the best acts and dig them out and be the sort of one-person signal-to-noise machine; who go into Minneapolis and pick out the Replacements and Hüsker Düs and Soul Asylums of the world and leave the rest."

Today, there's little need to walk away from your laptop, let alone leave home. Says Rosenblatt, now senior vice president at "Internet music discovery site" LP33, "Whoever the next big band is, they're on MySpace. But try to find 'em! So what we have [at LP33] is a programming team. We go through new and emerging bands; the bands we feature on our home page and our different channels are bands we've curated ... we've weeded from the crap."

LP33 includes Treadstone Music Intelligence, a network of 150 talent scouts created by another former major-label A&R exec, Paula Moore.

Rosenblatt's story illustrates what some observers have dubbed "the new A&R." Artists can reach substantial audiences through social-networking sites, iTunes and digital-music distribution services like TuneCore. If they're great, influential blogs such as Brooklyn Vegan, gorilla vs. bear and Stereogum, along with blog aggregator the Hype Machine and sites like LP33, will swiftly spread the word. Hit acts like New York indie poppers Vampire Weekend originally had blog-built fan bases. "[Artists] know how to use YouTube, and they know how to use ProTools to make a record," Knopper explains. "All this stuff that used to be out of reach for them, that the A&R guy had to do, they can do now. ... The gatekeeper is not just one person; it's this complex thing."

Now able to sell their music online as downloads, acts no longer need a label to get their music into the record stores that remain. Free of cumbersome overhead, bands take home a better percentage of their income — and enjoy total creative control — by peddling their wares directly to fans. "Ten years ago, every band wanted a three-album deal on Interscope. That was the Holy Grail," Rosenblatt says, "and now, because of the Internet, the man behind the curtain has been exposed."

"There is no doubt that the art of A&R has moved into the hands of the fans themselves," explains Ron Handler, who worked in A&R for DreamWorks Records and Interscope/Geffen and signed the likes of Rise Against and Papa Roach. A music site like Pitchfork and some of the major blogs have more influence over a band's discovery than an A&R exec at a major [label]. "There will always be filters for talent, it's just that they've shifted positions. Talent always rises to the top. The only thing that has changed is that the scouts are now from Pitchfork and Stereogum instead of Interscope and EMI."

Handler owns a film-production company.

Sidel, who runs Sidel Services (an A&R company operating "outside the system"), dwells in this reality. "The way I define what A&R is now, it's not really about finding this band I think is the coolest in the world. It's more about understanding the context in which an artist can thrive on the Internet, in that zone where people search for music, and how their music fits into that."

Tellingly, Sidel's home page is Pitchfork.

While the revolutionized relationship between artist and fan has marginalized major-label A&R, the art of discovering and nurturing talent isn't dead. Although nearly all new artists are Internet-savvy, they need help in making their music stand out on an ever-more-cluttered Web. And though this needn't involve a major label (or any label), the do-it-yourself route has a success ceiling. If an act craves pop megastardom à la Lady Gaga or Rihanna, it'll still need to work with the remaining "big-music" record companies (which have access to Walmart, Best Buy and the like) and their A&R apparatus. While Web-wise artists like Colbie Caillat and Lily Allen built impressive followings as independent artists, both are now with major labels. And the most successful major label right now, Atlantic Records, is run by Craig Kallman, a former A&R exec who has described his employer as "a progressive, A&R-driven, artist-centric content company."

"The traditional system is still working," Knopper adds. "It's just a diminished version of itself."

FCC Adopts Order to Clear Wireless Microphones from the 700 MHz Band

2010-02-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

On January 15 2010, the FCC released a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that requires all low auxiliary stations, including wireless microphones, to cease operation in the 700 MHz band (i.e. channels 52 - 69) no later than June 12, 2010. The FCC also has adopted an early clearing mechanism permitting public safety or commercial licensees commencing operations in the 700 MHz Band before June 12 to require wireless microphone users to cease co-channel operations upon 60 days prior notice. The FCC says it has taken this action to "...ensure that public safety and commercial licensees can operate in the 700 MHz Band without interference, while providing entities currently operating wireless microphones in the band with an opportunity to relocate to other bands." The order also authorizes the use of wireless microphones, on an unlicensed basis, by entities not currently eligible to obtain licenses. The Further Notice portion seeks comment on a range of issues concerning the operation of these low power devices in the core TV bands. A link to the FCC decision can be reviewed here.

If a microphone does not operate on frequencies within the 700 MHz band, no action is required.

Action items: First, you must figure out which frequencies you are operating on. If you need assistance with this, please visit http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/FAQs.html. Second, if you find you are operating equipment within the 700 MHz band, please make sure to check our equipment notice and join our conference call.

Equipment notice: Some wireless microphones that operate in the 700 MHz band can be successfully retuned to operate in frequencies other than 700 MHz. If the wireless microphone operates only in the 700 MHz frequency band, it will need to be replaced. For more information, please visit: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/Pubs.html

In addition, a table can be found here, that may be useful in determining whether the wireless microphones your organization or you use operate within the 700 MHz band and will need to be replaced or retuned. We recommend contacting your wireless microphone's manufacturer to answer any technical questions you may have. Links to many manufacturers can be found on this same FCC website as well.

2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists:

2010-02-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

Bonnaroo reveals 2010 festival lineup

Organizers for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival revealed the lineup for this summer's festival on Wednesday. The ninth annual four-day festival will feature one of the most diverse lineups in its history with headliners Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon and Stevie Wonder.

Other notable acts bound for Manchester, Tennessee to perform at Bonaroo include Weezer, Phoenix, John Fogerty, Zac Brown Band, The Avett Brothers, Norah Jones, LCD Soundsystem, Tori Amos, The National, Jeff Beck, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Against Me!, Miranda Lambert, The Dead Weather, Tenacious D, Thievery Corporation, Damian Marley & Nas, Rise Against, Kris Kristofferson and Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers.

The Flaming Lips will perform a special late night set when they will cover Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon with help from with Stardeath and White Dwarfs. The Dropkick Murphys will give Bonnaroo some Boston flavor with their first appearance at the legendary festival. The festival lineup was announced through a series of updates on the festival's Twitter and MySpace pages every six minutes. The full lineup thus far is available below.

More acts and their festival's schedule will be announced over the next few months. The final Bonnaroo 2010 lineup will total over 125 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.

The 2010 Bonnaroo festival will mark Jay-Z's first at the largest and most revered American music festival, while Wonder's set will serve as a rare festival appearance for the legend. Dave Matthews Band will return for another set at Bonaroo as will veterans Kings of Leon, who will also become the first band in the history of the festival to start on a tent stage and work their way up to the coveted headlining slot.

Festival tickets are now on sale through the festival's official website and are currently priced at $234.50 (plus applicable fees). The festival is also offering a special payment plan in which tickets will be available for five payments of $50.00 (plus applicable fees). VIP tickets are also available. Onsite camping and travel services can also be purchased through the festival website.

For those that cannot make it down to Tennessee, Fuse TV will once again serve as the exclusive television partner of the festival. Fuse will be reporting live from Bonnaroo throughout the weekend and will air a special, featuring interviews and performances from this year's festival.

Dave Matthews Band
Kings of Leon
Stevie Wonder
Jay-Z
Tenacious D
Weezer
The Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs perform "Dark Side of the Moon"
The Dead Weather
Damian Marley & Nas
Phoenix
Norah Jones
Michael Franti & Spearhead
John Fogerty
Regina Spektor
Jimmy Cliff
LCD Soundsystem
The Avett Brothers
Thievery Corporation
Rise Against
Tori Amos
The National
Zac Brown Band
Les Claypool
John Prine
The Black Keys
Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers
Jeff Beck
Dropkick Murphys
She & Him
Against Me!
The Disco Biscuits
Daryl Hall & Chromeo
Jamey Johnson
Clutch
Bassnectar
Kid Cudi
Baaba Maal
Kris Kristofferson
Medeski Martin & Wood
The xx
GWAR
Dan Deacon Ensemble
Tinariwen
Wale
Deadmau5
The Melvins
Gaslight Anthem
Miike Snow
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Dr. Dog
They Might Be Giants
Punch Brothers
Isis
Blitzen Trapper
Blues Traveler
Miranda Lambert
Calexico
OK Go
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Martin Sexton
Lotus
Baroness
Dave Rawlings Machine
Mayer Hawthorne and the County
Japandroids
Jay Electronica
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Ingrid Michaelson
The Dodos
Manchester Orchestra
The Temper Trap
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Big Sam's Funky Nation
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Tokyo Police Club
The Entrance Band
Local Natives
Brandi Carlile
Mumford & Sons
Rebelution
Diane Birch
Monte Montgomery
Julia Nunes
The Postelles
Lucero
Here We Go Magic
Hot Rize
Neon Indian
B.O.B

http://www.bonnaroo.com/

Normal, Controversy, Resolve - all in 23 minutes

2010-02-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here's to a man who made life simple for us - all in three phases: normal, controversy and resolve - all in 23 minutes of television programming time, set in Mayberry and wrapped in the name of "The Andy Griffith Show". Thank you for the memories you gave us!

Aaron Ruben, TV Producer, Dies at 95

By WILLIAM GRIMES

Published: February 3, 2010

Aaron Ruben, who was a producer, writer and director for some of the most popular television comedies of the 1960s and ’70s, notably “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” and “Sanford and Son,” died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 95.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son Tom said.

Mr. Ruben, who cut his teeth as a comedy writer on radio for George Burns and Gracie Allen, and Milton Berle and on television for Phil Silvers and Sid Caesar, tapped a rich vein of television gold when, in 1960, he shifted location to the mythical small town of Mayberry, N.C.

As the producer and sometime writer and director of “The Andy Griffith Show” for its first five seasons, he helped create one of the most revered series in television history, a gentle family comedy whose troupe of genial actors included Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors Frances Bavier and Ron Howard.

Spotting the appeal of Mr. Nabors, whose guest appearance as the gas-station attendant Gomer Pyle had become a regular role, Mr. Ruben created the series “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” with Mr. Nabors transposing his lovable but clueless character to the hostile environment of the Marine Corps. The series became an enormous hit, coming in second only to “Bonanza” in the 1965-66 season. It ran until 1969.

Mr. Ruben was later hired by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin to produce “Sanford and Son,” an American version of the British hit “Steptoe and Son,” with the comedian Redd Foxx in the lead role as an ill-tempered junk dealer. That series, a runaway success from the outset, ran from 1972 to 1977.

Aaron J. Ruben — he told an interviewer that he never knew what his middle initial stood for — was born on March 1, 1914, in Chicago. He went to college at Lewis Institute there, but after dropping out to find work he was drafted into the Army in 1941 and stationed in Southern California.

After being discharged from the Army in 1943, Mr. Ruben, who had done some acting and writing in the theater in Chicago, stayed in Los Angeles and began writing comedy sketches for Wally Brown, a comedian on Dinah Shore’s radio show. After nine weeks he was offered the chance to write for Burns and Allen, a breakthrough opportunity that led to jobs writing for Fred Allen, Henry Morgan and Milton Berle in New York.

In the early 1950s he started writing for various television shows, including “Caesar’s Hour” and “The Phil Silvers Show,” where he was also the director for two years.

In 1960 he was offered his choice of three pilot shows to produce. One, created by the prolific producer Sheldon Leonard, was “The Andy Griffith Show,” which Mr. Ruben chose without hesitation. “You’d have to be brain-dead to pick anything except the Griffith show,” he told an interviewer for the Archive of American Television in 1999. Its innocent, conflict-free version of small-town American life, he said, offered viewers “the grown-up’s Oz.”

After “Sanford and Son,” which he left after three years, Mr. Ruben was a producer or executive producer of “The Headmaster,” “C.P.O. Sharkey,” “Teachers Only,” “Too Close for Comfort” and “The Stockard Channing Show.”

With Carl Reiner, a regular on “Caesar’s Hour,” he wrote and produced the 1969 film “The Comic,” with Dick Van Dyke in the starring role.

In his later years, Mr. Ruben was a court-appointed special advocate for abused and abandoned children.

His first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his son Tom, of Van Nuys, Calif., Mr. Ruben is survived by his wife, the actress Maureen Arthur; another son, Andy, of San Francisco; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

The Blanks set to perform on Saturday - After Hours

2010-02-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

The Blanks set to perform on Saturday - After Hours

‘The Blanks’ to perform at Memorial Auditorium Saturday - Pittsburg, KS - Morning Sun

2010-02-05T07:32:00.001-08:00

‘The Blanks’ to perform at Memorial Auditorium Saturday - Pittsburg, KS - Morning Sun

Posted using ShareThis

How To Work The Room At Your Next Event

2010-01-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

Every time you meet another person there is an opportunity to share ideas, leads, contacts and/or get business. The purpose of networking is to give and get information. If you network properly, nobody feels pressured or used. You are not selling, you are telling. You are not asking for favors, you are giving valuable information.

Here are a compilation of some of the best practices from my presentations on "Networking: Working a Room ... Build Rapport, Relationships and Connect!"

Know who's coming to the event, check the RSVP list (and their relationship with your company), and plan ahead of time who you want to meet.
Practice your commercial and put it into play.
Prepare several conversation starters - trivia and humor can work.
Prepare small talk questions about family and work.
Use FORM as a guide to ask open-ended questions.

F = Family
O = Occupation
R = Recreation
M = Message

Keep your guest engaged with questions (have several planned ahead of the event).
Always carry (and give out) your business cards.
Wear your name tag on your right shoulder (make sure you dress appropriately to be able to wear it - especially important for female clothing).
Dress professionally even if it's a holiday party.
Make a point of introducing yourself to five people you do not know.
Set a goal to get at least 10 business cards and write a thank you note to those individuals the next day, i.e., Thanks for coming. It was nice to meet you.
Practice an effective close for your conversations.
Offer a follow-up meeting and set up the next appointment.
When you arrive immediately start talking with guests.
Introduce yourself to as many guests as you can.
Play the host and greet people at the door.
Acknowledge a guest's business associate or spouse
Offer to bet a beverage for your guest and tell them the food that's available.
Repeat your guest's name.
Ask guests' opinions about things.
Get guests to talk about themselves.
Keep engaged in the conversation by nodding.
Talk about how your company is helping similar businesses to their business.
Thank guests for coming.
Find a common interest.
Compliment your guests.
Keep your conversation light and cheerful.
Focus the conversation on the guest, not you.
Know when and how to move from one person to the next - truly work the room.
Look for guests who are alone and approach them with a smile.
Ask guest if he/she is alone at the event.
Introduce guests to each other.
Have small teams - pair up with your peers to meet guests.
Introduce your fellow employees to guests.
Circulate against the flow of the room.
Re-connect with guest you do know.
Do less mingling with co-workers.
If you see too many employees together, suggest they mingle with guests.
Eat with guests not your co-workers.
Invite other guests to your table and stand to introduce other people at your table.
Look for an empty chair where guests are sitting and ask if you may join them.
Give a firm handshake.
Be natural and personable.
Be interested, not just interesting
Smile
Be observant
Soften your voice
Look your guest in their eyes
Be a good listener
Be approachable and open with your body language
Don't stand in the same place too long
Eat later
Don't drink too much
Turn off your Blackberry

"Arnold Sanow is a Speaker, Seminar Leader, Facilitator and Coach. He is the author of "Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere" www.arnoldsanow.com

Check out www.theriderreader.com

2010-01-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

Producing a concert can be an expensive experience - especially when it comes to fulfilling an Artist's rider requirements. Armed with a Sharpie and over 100 years of combined concert experience - we save you time, money and the confusion of fulfilling rider requirements. Our goal? No superfluous green M&M's, no extraneous expenses and no surprises on the day of your show.

Confused about your rider and want to save time and money at your next event? Check out:

www.theriderreader.com

Here's to the Dreamers of the Day!

2009-12-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence says:

“There are dreamers, but not all human beings dream equally. Some are dreamers of the night, who in the dusty recesses of their mind dream and wake in the morning to find it was just vanity. But the Dreamers of the Day are dangerous people because they act their dreams into reality with open eyes.”

Here's to the Dreamer of the Day in all of us!

Featured on Music Business Radio

2009-12-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks go out to David Hooper and the Music Business Radio team - what a great bunch of guys - and what a great service to the music community. Our episode has been released and is now available on iTunes!

Ed Bazel of the Bazel Group, Inc. has 30+ years of music industry experience and is a veteran producer of live events for Fortune 500 companies (and others) around the world. The Los Angeles Times called him "The Marco Polo of Modern Music' for his groundbreaking work in China.

If you want to book acts like Billy Joel, Cheap Trick, Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis and the News, Price, The Spinners, Styx, or Tina Turner, Ed is the man you want to talk to.

This episode talks about what big companies are looking for, how to work within a budget, how to use "social proof" to get more gigs, and more.

For those not on the podcast...

Congratulations to 52nd Annual Grammy Award Nominees pianist Peter Kater and guitarist Dominic Miller

2009-12-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to 52nd Annual Grammy Award Nominees pianist Peter Kater and guitarist Dominic Miller (STING) for their CD "In A Dream" – nominated for Best New Age Album. Kater and Miller dissolve the borders between guitar and piano; classical and jazz; simple and complex. A recording this beautiful comes along only once in a long while. Multi-Platinum Selling pianist-composer Peter Kater has received 6 Grammy nominations in the last 7 years and has scored over 100 television programs and films including 11 Off and On-Broadway plays. You've heard guitarist Dominic Miller play on STING classics like "Fields Of Gold" and "Shape Of My Heart". In fact, you've heard him on all of STING's recordings. As one of the most sought after session guitarists of our time, he is featured on recordings by Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, The Pretenders and Luciano Pavarotti. Limited Spring 2010 dates available.

The Blanks from Scrubs make front page of SI!

2009-12-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

"The Blanks" from Scrubs (acappella comedy) made front page of SI.com Tuesday with the Music Video of the Day!

Click on the link below an scroll down & see "Ted's Band"

http://tinyurl.com/theblankssi

Yuletide Pranks with The Blanks!

2009-12-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

Yuletide Pranks with The Blanks - Kohlenberg Lyceum Series

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 7:30 pm

Baldwin Auditorium

All Ages

Rhonda Vincent & the Rage - score!

2009-11-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

As acting agents for numerous artists - it is always a pleasure to receive good news about their performances. Rhonda Vincent is the reigning queen of bluegrass - and I followed up with a venue concerning her recent performance there. This is what came back to me from the General Manager - gotta love it!

*** Rhonda Vincent ***

In a word…..

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

And our patrons loved it X a million.

She is the queen and we were grateful for this spectacular show!

Please give her and the band our most sincere thanks and well wishes for a safe touring season.

Mary Beth Aungier
General Manager
The Paramount Theater
215 E Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
www.theparamount.net

On sale now! Rhonda Vincent & The Seldom Scene, The Canadian Brass, Complexions, Holiday Movies and Gingerbread House display tours, The Irish Guards and Royal Scots. Plus the stunning MET: Live in HD broadcasts for 2009~2010.

Zig Ziglar "Embrace The Struggle"

2009-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

Our friend the legendary Zig Ziglar is presenting a free webcast on November 17th called "Embrace The Struggle" Please join the Ziglar family for a special evening with Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar and Julie Ziglar Norman, as they discuss how Zig has embraced his struggle from a brain injury and the resulting short-term memory loss.

Your life will be impacted as you see this family rise above these circumstances -- and thrive! Here's a short 2 minute video of the Embrace The Struggle message. Zig Ziglar has made an impact in our lives, and in the lives of thousands of others. Their prayer is that people in the midst of a struggle will see this webcast and book as something that will help them embrace their own struggles.

http://tinyurl.com/ykckbhr

Veteran's Day - Soldier Boy

2009-11-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

On this Veterans Day, in addition to thanking our military past and present, I want to point out some very dear friends of ours – The Shirelles. From the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame they were the first girl-sound super group of the 60s with classic hits that include Soldier Boy, Mamma Said, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and more. One thing they have always carried with them throughout the decades of performing is their appreciation of veterans. At each and every performance they make sure to stop the show to recognize members of our armed forces and bring them up on stage to sing “Soldier Boy.” It's a heartfelt moment to see the smile on the veterans faces as The Shirelles sing and dance with each of them. So here’s to our veterans and here’s to The Shirelles who keep this tradition alive for our veterans for over 50 years.

Here is their video: http://www.thebazelgroup.com/videopages/shirelles.html

Idea Tithing

2009-11-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

Idea tithing: "If you have a penny and I have a penny and we exchange pennies, you still have one cent and I still have one cent. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, you now have two ideas and I now have two ideas." Idea tithing is defined as taking ten percent of your intellectual effort and creating concepts that, when executed, benefit everyone.

It's A Good Day Today!

2009-11-06T15:16:00.001-08:00

It's a good day today - I just received the following email!

*****
Ed,

As a past president of IEBA you have been granted a lifetime membership in the organization. You should not be billed for your annual membership dues in the future, but please know our membership database is fully automated, so if for some reason you receive an invoice please let us know so we can correct, but you will owe nothing.

Thank you for your past service to IEBA. We hope you will remain active in the organization for many more years.

Tiffany Davis

Executive Director

International Entertainment

Buyers Association - IEBA

615.251.9000 | ieba.org

IEBA - The Buying Starts Here.

*****

This is a great organization with some wonderful people and friends: IEBA was founded in 1970 as a non-profit trade organization for talent buyers, concert promoters, agents, managers, artists and other related entertainment professionals. IEBA provides networking, showcasing and educational opportunities to strengthen relationships, foster growth and increase revenue for the live entertainment industry. IEBA is known for showcasing the best and brightest talent in all genres of music and all fields of entertainment—exposing buyers to the freshest acts for the buying season. IEBA is an intimate organization that makes a huge impact. At IEBA ... The Buying Starts Here.

The Blanks Audio Testimony Rocks!

2009-11-05T15:16:00.001-08:00

Very cool - our first audio testimony from a Performing Arts Center presenter from The Blanks show this past weekend! Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/yagmfz2

The Arts Are Alive!

2009-11-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

November 5, Washington, DC - Congress approved a $12.5 million increase for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for FY 2010!

This increase brings NEA appropriations to $167.5 million, representing the NEA's highest funding level since 1994 and a significant restoration of funding for the NEA. This funding will support performing arts organizations across the country through the NEA's core programs -- Access to Artistic Excellence, Challenge America: Reaching Every Community, Federal/State Partnerships, and Learning in the Arts.

Fun Article from U of Wisconsin EC Newspaper on The Blanks

2009-10-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Q&A: Getting to know The Blanks, one question at a time

'Ted's Band' to perform at State Theatre Friday night

Heather Mawhiney

Heather: How did the blanks get started?

Sam Lloyd: The three of us went to school at Syracuse University and one day we drove out to California, and there was Philip hitchhiking by the side of the road. We were all singing in the van, but it didn't sound quite right. Phil got in and everything just came together.

Philip McNiven: That's not the way I remember it: I was working in one of those roadside diners, they walked in, and I threw my apron down, quit and hopped in the van. We've been together ever since.

Heather: When did you get started touring?

Sam: Well, we heard that there were people in Eau Claire who wanted us, so we put together a show and tried it out in other places, like New York and Chicago first.

Phil: It was all about Eau Claire in the end.

Heather: Is this your first time to Wisconsin?

Sam: We've been here before, but it was in a drug and alcohol induced stupor.

Phil: But we're an a cappella group, so we're used to that.

Sam: It's sad to say we're the stereotype of the typical a cappella group. You know - women, drugs and rock and roll. It's a crazy life.

Heather: What do you think of Wisconsinites?

Phil: You know, there's nothing sexier than layers of thermal underwear - just a girl with several pairs of waffle weave and cheese head hat - nothing sexier than that.

Heather: I heard a radio interview you had a few days back and you said that you hadn't toured much before The Blanks appeared as "Ted's Band" on Scrubs, and you attributed it to extreme laziness. So, just how lazy are you?

Sam: I do absolutely nothing.

Phil: I once tranquilized myself and then had myself shipped overseas and then I had them fly me back in a casket and then they switched the caskets and shipped me to a cruise ship, where I woke up on a deck chair - I hadn't moved in a week.

Heather: How do you pick songs and how do you turn them into an a cappella song?

Sam: Very carefully. If you do it wrong, someone could die.

Phil: That's right. When we get a song, there's a label on it that says someone on the other side of the world will die.

Sam: It makes it easier to take the chance with the song, because it's a faceless person we're killing.

Heather: What if it was one of you guys that died?

Phil: It would have to be the drummer. But it did happen to one of our guys once. Actually, it was George's uncle - his mother's friend - Uncle Fred. That was kind of bad, we felt bad about that, but George was happy.

Sam: It was "Speed Racer." When we started working on that song we didn't do it right and we killed George's uncle.

Phil: Hey, a cappella's dangerous. There are levels of difficulty: deep-sea fishing, cage fighting and a cappella, but not necessarily in that order. Actually, Paul Perry (Emmy nominated) has such an amazing ear and can listen to a song and pick out every instrument, giving each of us a part to sing. I always get the piccolo - I call it getting the shaft.

Heather: What is your favorite jingle? What makes for a good jingle?

Sam: Well, it's got to get you tapping your toe and clapping along, like the old Vaseline Intensive Care jingle. That's a good one.

Heather: I know. I have that one on my iPod.

Sam: I bought the Pre-loaded Jingles iPod, too. Mine has my favorite jingle, "By Mennen." You know, we normally get multiple encores after we finish a show and we were thinking of doing that as the encore for Friday's show. We actually have several versions of that on our CD, Riding the Wave, in all different keys. You might be a key of C person, well I'm not, I'm a key of D person, but we can both be happy.

Heather: It's good that you look out for your fan base.

Sam: Yes, absolutely, especially our fan base in Eau Claire.

Phil: I think we had a gig in London planned for this date, but we gave it up for the show in Eau Claire. In fact, we were going to prepare for the queen. Well, she said she understood and said, "We'll work you in any other time. We would do the same."

Heather: Had you ever made your own jingles? What would they be?

Sam: We've done it, but unfortunately nobody likes them.

Heather: Do you think The Blanks might instigate a resurgence of boy bands?

Sam: Definitely. Everywhere we go, every place we play, three or four boy bands spring out of the area.

Phil: I would buy my white pants and shoes now, because after the show, all the stores are going to sell out. After all, we are the original bad boy band.

Phil: We told you how we're just a cappella, how a cappella is - we leave broken hearts by the dozen. And our hotels, we trash them. At least one TV out the window a night and that's if we don't break into someone else's room and throw theirs out the window, too.

Sam: If you ever see a hotel that says "Closed for Renovation," we just come through the town.

Heather: So, what's with the name? Why are you The Blanks and not "live ammunition?"

Phil: Well, it's kind of touchy subject for me - we were called Phil and The Blanks, but Sam got onto a TV show and then it was Sam and The Blanks, but it sounded like Salmon The Blanks, so now we're just The Blanks.

Heather: Do you find that when you become a celebrity you are required to buy a tiny dog and carry it everywhere you go?

Sam: Oh yeah, I bought ten tiny dogs. Three of them are still living. Random fans snatched the others.

Heather: It must be hard being famous.

Sam: You know, we're people, too. We had a big spread in US magazine called "Celebrities are people, too," and there was a picture of us getting coffee.

Phil: It's true, we're just like everyone else - we'll arrive in Eau Claire, get off our private jet, wearing fur, and take our own personal colored Trans Ams to the show with the a cappella blaring.

Sam: We like to stay in touch with the common people.

Heather: Do you think the fact that California is marketing itself as a dairy state may result in a rivalry between it and Wisconsin?

Sam: They're desperate and they've been trying to take over the cheese market. It's pretty pathetic and I think that's wrong.

Phil: I know the people of Wisconsin will like our act because it's very cheesy.

Sam: Yes, it curdles the crowd.

Heather: If you could be made into an action figure, what cool accessories would it need to have?

Sam: I would need a really cool gun, a utility belt with neat things, a grooming set, kung fu grip, a really cool car and a scooter and a dream house with lots of live-in Barbies. I would definitely need to have real hair and a real hair beard and real chest hair.

Phil: I would get the ability to sing underwater.

Sam: And a suit of armor and a horse, with real hair, and a guitar.

Phil: I would like my own railroad that goes from my house to Sam's so we can rehearse.

Sam: I wouldn't want to be seen with you - I'll close down my station! I'd be sitting next to my pool with the Barbies rubbing my beard and grooming it with my handy grooming set.

Heather: What are your future endeavors?

Phil: Build a train to Sam's house and world peace.

Sam: Saving the world one a cappella note at a time - one boy band at a time. That's our plan, we figure if we can get hundred boy bands singing about love, world peace is sure to follow.

Heather: What can people look forward to during Friday's show?

Phil: The show is very family-friendly, so we encourage people to bring the whole family.

Sam: It's kind of like Monty Python meets the Blue Man Group. We don't play percussion instruments and we're not blue, but other than that were exactly the same.

From The Spectator - Student Newspaper of The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
The Spectator is the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. It began as a weekly tabloid in 1923 and has grown to a broadsheet semiweekly Pacemaker Award winner.
www.spectatornews.com

The Piano Staircase

2009-10-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Talk about stepping up in the music business!

Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better” is something we often hear or read in the Sunday papers. Few people actually follow that advice. Can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do? Check out this video from the people at The Fun Theory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Wow - A Very Moving Piece

2009-10-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of music division at The Boston Conservatory, gave this fantastic welcome address to the parents of incoming students at The Boston Conservatory on September 1, 2004:

Karl Paulnack

“One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn’t be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school-she said, “you’re wasting your SAT scores!” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they loved music: they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the “arts and entertainment” section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it’s the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works.

One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.

One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.

He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose, and fortunate to have musician colleagues in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

Given what we have since learned about life in the Nazi camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture-why would anyone bother with music? And yet-even from the concentration camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

In September of 2001 I was a resident of Manhattan. On the morning of September 12, 2001 I reached a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the world. I sat down at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as was my daily routine; I did it by force of habit, without thinking about it. I lifted the cover on the keyboard, and opened my music, and put my hands on the keys and took my hands off the keys. And I sat there and thought, does this even matter? Isn’t this completely irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what happened in this city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless. Why am I here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a piano player right now? I was completely lost.

And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the journey of getting through that week. I did not play the piano that day, and in fact I contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to play the piano again. And then I observed how we got through the day.

At least in my neighborhood, we didn’t shoot hoops or play Scrabble. We didn’t play cards to pass the time, we didn’t watch TV, we didn’t shop, we most certainly did not go to the mall. The first organized activity that I saw in New York, on the very evening of September 11th, was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang “We Shall Overcome”. Lots of people sang America the Beautiful. The first organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in particular, that very night.

From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass time. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds.

Some of you may know Samuel Barber’s heart wrenchingly beautiful piece Adagio for Strings. If you don’t know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie Platoon, a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn’t know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what’s really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.

Very few of you have ever been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but with few exceptions there is some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there’s some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn’t good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can’t talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn’t happen that way. The Greeks. Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.

I’ll give you one more example, the story of the most important concert of my life. I must tell you I have played a little less than a thousand concerts in my life so far. I have played in places that I thought were important. I like playing in Carnegie Hall; I enjoyed playing in Paris; it made me very happy to please the critics in St. Petersburg. I have played for people I thought were important; music critics of major newspapers, foreign heads of state. The most important concert of my entire life took place in a nursing home in a small Midwestern town a few years ago.

I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We began, as we often do, with Aaron Copland’s Sonata, which was written during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland’s, a young pilot who was shot down during the war. Now we often talk to our audiences about the pieces we are going to play rather than providing them with written program notes. But in this case, because we began the concert with this piece, we decided to talk about the piece later in the program and to just come out and play the music without explanation.

Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man, whom I later met, was clearly a soldier-even in his 70’s, it was clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of that particular piece, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard crying in a concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.

When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided to talk about both the first and second pieces, and we described the circumstances in which the Copland was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium. I honestly figured that we would not see him again, but he did come backstage afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.

What he told us was this: “During World War II, I was a pilot, and I was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team’s planes was hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute chords so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I didn’t understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?”

Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects. The concert in the nursing home was the most important work I have ever done. For me to play for this old soldier and help him connect, somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect their memories of their lost friends, to help him remember and mourn his friend, this is my work. This is why music matters.

What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year’s freshman class when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this:

“If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.

You’re not here to become an entertainer, and you don’t have to sell yourself. The truth is you don’t have anything to sell; being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.

Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don’t expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that’s what we do. As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.”

First free hospital visit a success!

2009-10-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

A while ago we contacted talent buyers at casinos, performing arts centers and universities about a great opportunity for their stage and community. If they booked The Blanks (acappella comedy) from the ABC hit series Scrubs - they would receive a free hospital visit for their community too. Here are the results of their first visit!

10/16/09 - McKinney/Dallas, TX

"I hadn't even gotten back from the Veterans Hospital with The Blanks visiting them, when there was an email thanking us for thinking of those who served our country. The Blanks were more than gracious, respectful yet fun in a delicate environment. The show audience was thrilled with knowing they visited a hospital, and their show was infectious and I was inundated with 'when are they coming back?'

"From the time they arrived in McKinney, to the time they left for the airport they were gracious, funny, on cue and in sync with each other and the audience. They made me remember why I do what I do, from the Veterans Hospital visit to the meet and greet and it was a no hassle show from start to finish."

David Taylor, Director
McKinney Performing Arts Center

Multi-Grammy Award Nominees, pianist Peter Kater, and guitarist Dominic Miller (STING)

2009-10-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Peter Kater & Dominic Miller - Spring 2010 Limited Avails
Multi-Grammy Award Nominees, pianist Peter Kater, and guitarist Dominic Miller (STING) dissolve the borders between guitar and piano; classical and jazz; simple and complex. Their new CD "In A Dream" - a recording this beautiful comes along only once in a long while.

Multi-Platinum Selling pianist-composer, Peter Kater, has received 5 Grammy nominations in the last 6 years and has scored over 100 television programs and films including 11 Off and On-Broadway plays. He is also a proud recipient of the prestigious Environmental Leadership Award from the United Nations.

You've heard guitarist Dominic Miller play on STING classics like "Fields Of Gold" and "Shape Of My Heart". In fact, you've heard him on all of STING's recordings. As one of the most sought after session guitarists of our time, he is featured on recordings by Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, The Pretenders and Luciano Pavarotti.

Video: http://thebazelgroup.com/videopages/peterkaterdominicmiller.html

Limited 2010 dates available

Brad Zinn, The Great Invoker of The Great Comedians

2009-09-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

There are not too many men like Brad Zinn around these days. He is of a rare breed of enthusiast, something of a medium, who invokes the spirits of the greatest comedians of all time like no other. Here is a nice article in the San Francisco Examiner about Brad Zinn in "The Great Comedians" a show that is an exemplary tribute to “those felt hat and big cigar funny men” comedy legends like Will Rogers, Jack Benny, George Burns, WC Fields, Jimmy Durante and more.

http://tinyurl.com/ybdcuo5

Brad Zinn in "The Great Comedians" is available to perform on your stage or special event - click here for his booking information. http://www.thebazelgroup.com/brad_zinn_great_comedians.html

Have to love these audience comments - The Blanks..

2009-09-21T14:57:00.001-07:00

Nothing like reading the comments from the audience members at The Blanks show this past weekend:

***
WOW! We just returned home from seeing your show in Coldwater, Michigan (Tibbits Opera House). That could very likely be the most enjoyable evening of entertainment I have ever experienced! YOU GUYS ROCKAPELLA! My wife, two sons & I have been huge fans for years. About 2 or 3 years ago I found your web site and wrote about getting an autographed photo. You quickly replied about how to send the envelope, which I did, and I was thrilled to receive a beautiful 8 x 10 autographed color photo (THANK YOU VERY MUCH!) When I heard you were going on tour and found out you would be in Coldwater, Michigan (I live in Fort Wayne, IN about 75 miles south) I called about tickets right away and the day they went on sale I got front row. What made tonight even better was that you selected my wife to play the role of Marty. She got to go on stage with you and we now have a "souvenir contract" on toilet paper that we plan on framing. Thank you for allowing me to take a photo of the group with my wife and thanks for signing our CD and T-shirt. My son also enjoyed the show. He is a freshman at Indiana University in Bloomington (about 175 miles south of Fort Wayne) and came home for the weekend just to go with us to the show. Our other son would have loved it but now lives and works in Florida. I basically just wanted to express my gratitude for providing such a terrific evening my my family and me. You guys are extremely talented and creative. You seem to be having fun as well. It was truly an honor to meet you in person. Keep up the great work! Thank you for the autographs, smiles, laughter and one of the most memorable performances I will ever witness! Best wishes to all of you! Respectfully, xxxxx

***
The Blanks aka "Ted's Band" from the ABC hit series Scrubs - the Blue Man Group of acappella, except The Blanks don't play percussion instruments, talk and aren't blue. With Scrubs now in syndication in over 90 million households - their comedy/acappella show is perfect for your audiences. They are great for meet & greets and have a legion of fans across the country.

Nestor Torres nominated for a 2009 Latin Grammy!

2009-09-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Nestor Torres who has been nominated for a 2009 Latin Grammy for his album 'Nouveau Latino' in the Latin Jazz category. Whether performing for the Dalai Lama or for your audience, Nestor Torres is one of the most beloved musicians on the jazz scene. If a flute could talk and sing, it would certainly be in the voice of Grammy award winner Nestor Torres, for he speaks through his instrument. Nestor's total command of his instrument allows him a freedom of expression that is at once captivating and liberating, powerful and genuine.

* "Nestor Torres is at his peak as composer and performer"- jazzreview.com

* "What a class performance" - amazon.com

* "Nestor Torres expresses our longings for paradise" - musicianguide.com

The Blanks - hilarious, silly, and fun - new letter!

2009-08-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Edward A. Kenley Centennial Amphitheater Performance

August 8^th, 2009

“The Blanks were exactly what we were hoping for – hilarious, silly, and fun. But on top of that, they are really great musicians. Our audience of over 1100 laughed and cheered and were still laughing and singing as they left the theatre. One of the things that our staff, as presenters, appreciated so much is how easy-going, fun, and laid-back the group was to work with – so undemanding, so kind, and so appreciative of the opportunity to perform (a rarity in the presenting business). It seemed as though they were having the time of their lives and it translated so well to the audience—their stage presence, charisma, and audience interaction was infectious and our audience (a real mix of people) really bought into the show from moment one! I would not hesitate to recommend them to any venue looking for an act that is just a good time!”

Kirt Bateman
Executive Director
DAVIS ARTS COUNCIL

Artist's giving back to the community - The Blanks from Scrubs

2009-08-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

It's nice to see people who have achieved fame, give something back to the community. Our hats are off to our favorite acappella comedy group - The Blanks aka "Ted's Band" from the wildly popular ABC hit series Scrubs.

Once The Blanks are booked into a venue ( they perform in casinos, universities and corporate events across the country) - The Blanks then take the time to make a free visit to the local hospital while in town. What a great gesture to cheer up both the patients and the hospital staff - who are naturally fans of Scrubs too. The hospital tie in is a natural and their intent is sincere - put a few smiles on the faces of those who need it.

The Blanks appear often on Scrubs which is seen on ABC, NBC, TBS, TNT, Comedy Central and TV Land. Here is a compilation of some of their appearances - enjoy!

http://www.theblankswebsite.com/scrubs.php

Salute to a Belgian Mambo Big Band...

2009-08-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

Once in a while we just have to stop and salute a band who dared to be different - El Tattoo Del Tigre - a Belgian Mambo Big Band:

Straight from sultry Havana-on-the-Scheldt, inviting the dance : the 28-piece Lowlands-Cuban Showorchestra El Tatttoo del Tigre. Brown rum ! Tito Puente ! Brylcreme ! Machito ! Havana-cigars ! Yma Sumac! Spanish with loads of errors ! And most of all: MAAAAAAAAAAM-BO!!!!"

Here is video of one of their last performances - what fun - make sure to watch video 1 & 2!

http://www.abconcerts.be/nl/abtv/p/detail/el-tattoo-del-tigre-deel-1

Poetry of the air...

2009-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

"Music is the poetry of the air" - Jean Paul Richter

Jean Paul Richter (March 21, 1763 - November 14, 1825) born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter was a German Romantic writer, best know for his humorous novels and stories

Here's to a man who shaped our musical future...

2009-08-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.

Paul was a guitar and electronics mastermind whose creations -- such as multitrack recording, tape delay and the solid-body guitar that bears his name, the Gibson Les Paul -- helped give rise to modern popular music, including rock 'n' roll. No slouch on the guitar himself, he continued playing at clubs into his 90s despite being hampered by arthritis

Here is one of his classics - the Gibson Les Paul.

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Les-Paul-Traditional.aspx

PIP (instead of RIP) Play in Peace Les Paul and thank you for your contribution to the fabric of our society.

How Much Does That Gig Really Pay??

2009-08-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

If you are a musician, you probably got into this business - not for the hopes of millions of dollars. No, to be truthful, you got into it because it was a calling from deep within that you simply had to answer.

Making a living with your soul, your hands and the right side of your brain - requires that you also exercise the left side of your brain too. The music business is just that - music & business and you have to have skills in both areas to survive.

Here is a nice little tool from our friend David Hooper called the gig calculator. Use this the next time you are pricing out your next job. It's a great help!

http://gigcalculator.com

Do celebrities perform for free? Yes & No

2009-08-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Throughout all the years of being in this industry, there is not a day that goes by (well, ok, perhaps two days) where we are called by a well meaning person - asking for a celebrity Artist to come to their event and perform for free.

We certainly understand how they feel and why they are inquiring about a donated show from an Artist. We have no doubt their cause is extremely important, and having a celebrity appear raises awareness and ticket sales.

We have found that most successful Fundraisers/Charity events have felt the this way. However they have found that most Artists/Speakers do indeed donate a portion of their time to their own personal causes and charities. Anything over and above this amount of donated time, and the Artist will need to meet a payroll for their staff - and it is considered a normal paying engagement. We are not exaggerating when we say that Artists are asked to give their performances for free on a daily basis.

We find that most professional fund raisers go ahead and secure the Artist at their normal appearance rate, and find corporate sponsorship to assist in this endeavor. They also make sure to sell gold circle ticket (higher priced which include front row seats and a Meet & Greet with the Artist) to get the best return on their investment.

We hope this helps you in your fund raising efforts. We stand ready to assist on checking on the Artist/Speaker’s availability when you are ready to move forward.

2009-08-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Layton's Kenley Centennial Amphitheater draws Blanks

Standard-Examiner staff

AUDIO: Listen to The Blanks perform "Superman"

The Blanks, best known as sad-sack lawyer Ted's band from the TV show "Scrubs," weren't dreamed up by the writers on the series. The foursome (Sam Lloyd, Philip McNiven, George Miserlis, Paul F. Perry) were already singing for fun before being serendipitously cast.

http://www.standard.net/live/features/go/180035/

School is back - it's time to hit the bookings!

2009-08-06T11:59:00.001-07:00

With summer coming around the a close and school starting - many performing arts centers will start programming their upcoming season. Here is an example of the email we went them today - a constant reminder of our Artists and their talent!

'Click here to see'

Shared via AddThis

Sobering reality - 1.4%

2009-07-26T13:38:00.001-07:00

Wow, the realities of being a recording star are sobering - take a look at these figures:

According to industry reports, of the 105,575 music releases in 2008, just 1515 sold more than 1,000 copies. Wow, that translates into 1.4% of music releases in 2008 sold over 1,000 copies.

It takes belief in yourself and your music, plus persistent hard work and effort to make it in this business!

Musicians paint their pictures on silence

2009-07-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence." - Leopold Stokowski

Blog on!

2009-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the start of The Bazel Group, Inc's blog on the music and entertainment industry. Stay tuned as we offer thoughts, inside information and scoops on what our artists and what it's like to be in the entertainment industry!

The Bazel Group, Inc. blog

The Power Of The Music Of The Night

Please book this comedian for the sake of his wife's sanity!

'Lynda Carter "Phenomenal" at State Theatre Gala...'

A Missing Piece in the Economic Stimulus: Hobbling Arts Hobbles Innovation

Music and Autism

A&R Star Makers: The Vanishing Gatekeepers

The once-powerful executives have become an endangered species

FCC Adopts Order to Clear Wireless Microphones from the 700 MHz Band

2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists:

Bonnaroo reveals 2010 festival lineup

Normal, Controversy, Resolve - all in 23 minutes

The Blanks set to perform on Saturday - After Hours

‘The Blanks’ to perform at Memorial Auditorium Saturday - Pittsburg, KS - Morning Sun

How To Work The Room At Your Next Event

Check out www.theriderreader.com

Here's to the Dreamers of the Day!

Featured on Music Business Radio

Congratulations to 52nd Annual Grammy Award Nominees pianist Peter Kater and guitarist Dominic Miller

The Blanks from Scrubs make front page of SI!

Yuletide Pranks with The Blanks!

Yuletide Pranks with The Blanks - Kohlenberg Lyceum Series

Sponsored by Truman State University, Kohlenberg Lyceum Series

Rhonda Vincent & the Rage - score!

Zig Ziglar "Embrace The Struggle"

http://tinyurl.com/ykckbhr

Veteran's Day - Soldier Boy

Idea Tithing

It's A Good Day Today!

The Blanks Audio Testimony Rocks!

The Arts Are Alive!

Fun Article from U of Wisconsin EC Newspaper on The Blanks

Q&A: Getting to know The Blanks, one question at a time

'Ted's Band' to perform at State Theatre Friday night

Heather Mawhiney

The Piano Staircase

Wow - A Very Moving Piece

First free hospital visit a success!

Multi-Grammy Award Nominees, pianist Peter Kater, and guitarist Dominic Miller (STING)

Brad Zinn, The Great Invoker of The Great Comedians

Have to love these audience comments - The Blanks..

Nestor Torres nominated for a 2009 Latin Grammy!

The Blanks - hilarious, silly, and fun - new letter!

Artist's giving back to the community - The Blanks from Scrubs

Salute to a Belgian Mambo Big Band...

Poetry of the air...

Here's to a man who shaped our musical future...

How Much Does That Gig Really Pay??

Do celebrities perform for free? Yes & No

Layton's Kenley Centennial Amphitheater draws Blanks

School is back - it's time to hit the bookings!

Sobering reality - 1.4%

Musicians paint their pictures on silence

Blog on!