April 2011

Rod's ASCAP moment in the sun

By: Steve Chagollan
Published: Thu, April 28, 2011, 12:45 PM
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By ILYSE KAPLAN

Guests of Wednesday night’s ASCAP awards certainly took the dress code “creative black tie” seriously, from dapper tuxes to Adam Lambert’s black platform boots, Hollywood’s Renaissance Hotel was a rock n’ roll melting pot.

The ceremony, that honored ASCAP’s top songwriters of the year was a party for some and business power dinner for others, but with waiters continually pouring wine into stemware as if they were water glasses, nobody could say their cup hadn’t runneth over.

Rod Stewart was the honoree of the evening, earning the performing rights organization’s Founders Award. On the heels of a U.S. tour, the rock legend was excited to have his family with him: “All my kids are wonderfully handsome,” he gloated, “they’ll all be here tonight, all but two. Betty will be here with the baby so she’ll be running to the green room every two hours.”

Band of Horses received the night’s other top honor, The Vanguard Award, presented to a band, the literature says, “whose musical genre will help shape the future of music.”

Ben Bridwell and band performed a stunning version of fan-favorite “No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do,” following the performance with a sheepish acceptance speech: “Thank you to whoever the little gnome is who sends us those ASCAP checks!”

Train’s Pat Monahan was also in attendance, performing Song of the Year award winner and mall soundtrack favorite, “Hey Soul Sister.”

Being an un-televised awards ceremony, it was merely the pre-party to the after party and fitting that presenter, Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok,” played continuously through the night.

Wynton Marsalis blows into Harvard

By: Steve Chagollan
Published: Wed, April 27, 2011, 11:15 AM
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Ever since his emergence in the early '80s as a leader of the Young Lions movement in jazz, Wynton Marsalis has been unapologetically doctrinaire about the form, whether as a trumpeter, author or educator. And while his neoclassicist views have won him both admirers and detractors, his voice has carried as much weight with young acolytes as that of Leonard Bernstein in the '50s.

Now the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and Pulitzer Prize winner is reaching beyond his Jazz for Young People curriculum to launch a two-year series of lectures and performances at Harvard beginning Thursday, April 28. Marsalis will visit the campus for two to three days at a time to address a variety of topics with the aid of his quintet, dancers and even the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra."I've never dealt with the issues with this level of difficulty and specificity, with this type of adult-level depth," Marsalis says.

Among other things, Marsalis will expound on, as he says, "the relationship of American ritual to innovation. I'm going to deal with the hybrid: What brings us together? What is the melting pot? I submit the blues as that because it plays across regions and across styles."

Marsalis will also link such forms as march and ragtime, and the roots of folk as illustrated by the myth of John Henry and such traditional songs as "Frankie and Johnny." At one point Marsalis referred to jazz as protest music, which might be news to many listeners.

"In the 1930s and '40s, jazz was the protest music of the nation," he explains. "Benny Goodman, when he hired two Negroes to be in his band, he protested against segregation long before baseball did. Louis Armstrong? Everything he did was a protest. Duke Ellington, with his presentation, was protesting against the minstrel conventions of the day."

He even senses rebellion in the music of younger players he admires, like pianist Aaron Diehl. "You can get to a point of close to absolute sellout where (jazz) is co-opted," Marsalis explains. "So for you to create tension (between the orthodox and innovation), there has to be enough people who are interested in that tension."

Did Marsalis consider jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding's controversial Grammy win in the new artist category a triumph for the tradition? "I think it's a boost to musicianship because she's a great musician," says Marsalis. "And I feel like, why shouldn't a musician win it? Why should only non-musicians win these awards? Why is she not the best new artist?"

As for a renewed interest in jazz, academically or commercially, Marsalis views the glass as half full. "I've been playing gigs for 30 years with people who are interested in jazz of all kinds," he says. "I think the fact that Esperanza Spalding has as much jazz as she has in her music says something about the popularity of jazz for younger people."

Contact Steve Chagollan at steve.chagollan@variety.com

L.A. rockers go Airborne with major label debut

By: Steve Chagollan
Published: Tue, April 26, 2011, 4:13 PM
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Local rock heroes The Airborne Toxic Event began the first of a four-night stint in L.A. on Monday at one of their old haunts, the Satellite, and will continue their blitzkrieg in support of their new album, "All At Once," tonight at the Troubadour, before moving on the El Rey on Thursday and the John Alson Ford Theatre on Friday.

It’s the kind of concentrated push that marks their graduation from a scrappy indie label (Majordomo) to a major imprint (Island/Universal), and judging from the reviews of "Once," their ostensible aim to become a stadium headliner might be paying off.

For these ears, Airborne’s music is way too calculated by half — a hodge podge of emo sincerity, Pogues-ish punk, Arcade Fire-like anthems and CW-friendly alt-rock. It’s no surprise that their work has been featured in such shows as "The Vampire Diaries," designed as it is to squeeze maximum drama out of every lyric and chorus.

But they were enthusiastically received at the Satellite, surrounded by their hometown fans in the Silver Lake/Los Feliz/Echo Park/Atwater Village nexus that takes pride as the breeding ground for L.A. bohemia. The group mixed past songs like "Innocence" and "Wishing Well" with material off the new album, which I haven’t heard. And while the release has earned favorable reviews (the Huffington Post called it "a gorgeous, expansive album"), judging by their set on Monday I might be more inclined to agree with the L.A Times, whose rave was more mixed, suggesting that "playing so hard to the cheap seats is a risk — at times the group veers dangerously close to cliche."

When frontman Mikel Jollett prefaced one of the tunes by announcing that he was the offspring of hippie parents, who might have "made a few mistakes," one couldn’t help but acknowledge that Jollett was dating himself even while assuming the mantle as the voice of a new generation. I’d be inclined to refer to it as Gen Why.