Music Biz Headlines, Oct. 13, 2022
Jessie Reyez (pictured) speaks her emotional truth, Carly Rae and Rufus team up, and BMI is changing its business model. Also in the headlines are Barbra Lica, Ernesto Cervini, Justin Bieber, Primary Wave, COC, The Ostara Project, RATM, COC, Michael Buble, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Meghan Lindsay, Steve Lacy, Alvvays, Loretta Lynn, Anton Fier, TikTok, Met Opera, WMG, Linda Ronstadt, Tina Weymouth, and Bond music.
By Kerry Doole
Jessie Reyez: Godmother of the New Vulnerability
From Donovan Woods to Carly Rae Jepsen, TOBi to Shawn Mendes, Julian Taylor to grandson, JP Saxe to Savannah Ré, speaking authentic emotional truth is the currency on which careers are based, and (not coincidentally) the thing that resonates most deeply with audiences. Jessie Reyez serves as a kind of Godmother (or midwife, or architect, or Patron Saint) of the new vulnerability. – Howard Druckman, Words & Music
Two fixtures of Toronto jazz scene take artistic departures with new albums
Singer Barbra Lica released the pandemic-inspired “Imposter Syndrome” and drummer Ernesto Cervini based his 15-track album “Joy” on the novels of Canadian mystery author Louise Penny. – Nick Krewen, Toronto Star
Justin Bieber postpones rest of world tour shows due to his health
A statement on the tour’s official Instagram account says all remaining dates of the tour, up to and including March 25, 2023, are postponed to next year. The pop superstar had initially sidelined the North American leg of his tour, including two Toronto dates, in June to deal with the fallout of his Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis. – CP
Carly Rae Jepsen Teams Up With Rufus Wainwright for New Song “The Loneliest Time”
Jepsen’s upcoming album, The Loneliest Time, is out October 21. – Pitchfork
Alvvays releases a new album, Blue Rev
Frontwoman Molly Rankin and the band will head to the U.K. and the U.S. for a string of live dates. – Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
From pop idol to sex criminal: The rise and fall of Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard
Inside the timeline of criminal allegations against one of Canada’s biggest pop stars. – Alyshah Hasham, The Spectator
New COC season features eclectic slate, including ‘Macbeth’ and world premiere of Canadian LGBTQ opera
The season opens Friday with a revival of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” originally directed by Christopher Alden. – Joshua Chong, Toronto Star
Why has Sheridan College’s Canadian Music Theatre Project, the birthplace of Come From Away, called it quits?
The Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP), a program for incubating new musicals at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont. – and which actually started with Come From Away in 2011 – came to an end earlier this fall with little fanfare. – JK Nestruck, Globe and Mail
Rage Against the Machine's lost Calgary recording sessions
It’s a sure bet most fans don’t know about the band’s early connection to Calgary. – Brodie Thomas, Vancouver Province
Jodi Proznick, Amanda Tosoff lead new Canadian jazz supergroup The Ostara Project
A new Canadian jazz supergroup co-led by bassist Jodi Proznick and pianist Amanda Tosoff has announced its self-titled debut album. Named after the Germanic goddess of the spring equinox, the all-female The Ostara Project also features vocalist Joanna Majoko, trumpeter Rachel Therrien, alto saxophonist Allison Au, guitarist Jocelyn Gould and drummer Sanah Kadoura. – Adam Feibel, JazzFM
Calgary Opera Company celebrates 50th anniversary with Carmen
Not everybody was watching the hockey Summit Series in 1972. Some people were busy forming an opera company – Calgary Opera, specifically. On Oct. 22, the company will hold a celebratory party entitled Where Were You in ‘72?. It’s a rhetorical question. If one was in Calgary five decades ago, one was in a city without opera. – Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail
You’re wrong about Michael Bublé
With an affable presence, a big smile and a tuxedo with a carefully loosened tie, Bublé took over the world. He sold a preposterous amount of records – more than 75 million – and played sold-out stadiums the world over. And now he's really in the driver's seat. – Elamin Abdelmahmood, Globe and Mail
The List: Symphonic Star Wars brings 45 years of epic anthems to Winspear
We are currently in the second golden age of Star Wars fandom thanks to The Mandalorian and the even better series Andor, both of which brought back the pure, unnerving delight of the 1977 original film without feeling like a cheap knockoff. – Edmonton Journal
Glimpse of the artist as a young writer: Leonard Cohen’s posthumous book ‘A Ballet of Lepers’
Made up of short stories and a novella that carries a flair which, even in a work this early, is recognizably Cohen’s own. – Robert J. Wiersema, Toronto Star
Nostalgia and rain — Hamilton remembers Neil Young’s 1973 concert
It’s been 49 years since the Canadian legend performed at McMaster. – Beatriz Baleeiro, Spectator
Meghan Lindsay is bored with the old-world notion that opera singers only sing
Opera Atelier is back at the Elgin Theatre this fall. The specialist opera company is Canada’s leader in producing stage works from the baroque and classical eras – complete with an orchestra of period instruments, set and costume designs of the time, and a full corps de ballet. Lindsay is one of its current stars. – Jenna Simeonov, The Globe and Mail
COC’s expressionist ‘The Flying Dutchman’ buoyed by a thrilling directorial vision, striking performances
The addition of an intermission to this propulsive production diminishes what is otherwise an electric interpretation of Richard Wagner’s early opera. – Joshua Chong, Toronto Star
Next Week in Music | Oct. 10-16 • New books
Leonard, Linda, Charlie, Sly, and more of the big names headed for the bookshelf. – Darryl Sterdan, Tinnitist
International
BMI moves to for-profit business model, eyeing growth and new initiatives
"Growth requires investment, not just maintenance," says CEO Mike O'Neill. – Ed Christman, Billboard
CAA and Brookfield buy into Primary Wave
Primary Wave last week announced two new investments into the company. Talent agency CAA is to become a strategic partner and minority shareholder in the music rights firm, while investment outfit Brookfield has taken a “significant” minority interest, providing $1.7 billion in new funding. – Andy Malt, CMU
Chris Castle: Will the Copyright Royalty Board approve Big Tech’s attempted cover-up?
Chris Castle gives his insights on the Copyright Royalty Board’s recent frozen mechanicals proceedings with Google. – Hypebot
Watch out Spotify: TikTok Music Twitter accounts suggest a pending global launch
When will Resso, ByteDance‘s subscription music streaming service – currently available in India, Indonesia and Brazil – launch in the US as ‘TikTok Music’? – Murray Stassen, MBW
Met Opera starts streaming of live performances to homes
The Metropolitan Opera is expanding its live telecasts to direct-to-home streaming in areas that don’t have movie theater transmissions, among them Brazil and Italy. The Met launched its high-definition telecasts to movie theaters in December 2006 and plans 10 broadcasts per season. – AP
Warner Music Group expands into Metaverse with new job listings
Warner Music Group unveiled the new job roles for its metaverse expansion shortly after its recent partnership with NFT marketplace OpenSea. Entertainment Warner Music Group is also making a foray into the exploding metaverse market with job postings. – Coinspeaker
Singer Linda Ronstadt reflects on her roots in new book
Singer Linda Ronstadt sold millions of records, performed for over four decades and made history as the first woman to have three consecutive platinum albums. Her new book, “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands,” offers a different window into her life as she reflects on her roots. Jeffrey Brown spoke with Ronstadt for our arts and culture series. – PBS
Anton Fier, drummer who left stamp on a downtown scene, dies at 66
He worked with everyone from the Feelies to Herbie Hancock to Laurie Anderson, as well as leading the indie-rock supergroup the Golden Palominos. But there was a troubled side. – Alex Williams, The New York Times
‘We carried pistols to defend ourselves’: the Four Tops and the Temptations on six decades of soul
As they tour the UK together, Motown icons Duke Fakir and Otis Williams reflect on meeting the Beatles, facing down white supremacists, and the collaborators they’ve lost along the way. – Garth Cartwright, The Guardian
"Without Tina Weymouth Talking Heads would have been just another band"
Released on 8 October 1980, Talking Heads’ Remain in Light is a paranoid funky masterpiece, thanks in no small part to Tina Weymouth’s sinuous basslines. – Scott Rowley, Bass Player
Led by a surprise No. 1 hit, Steve Lacy redefines the rock star for Gen Z
Lacy has been many things over his still frighteningly young career. A Black and Filipino teen guitar prodigy; a member of the Odd Future-aligned R&B collective the Internet; a producer to game-changers like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Mac Miller and Solange; a collaborator with Frank Ocean and Vampire Weekend; and more. – August Brown, LA Times
How to write a Bond theme song, according to 007 songwriters
It could not have been more fitting that, when Jimmy Napes got the call about composing the next Bond song, he was airport-bound in a water taxi, making a quick getaway through the canals of Venice. – GQ
A look at the life of the late country queen Loretta Lynn
Her 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner’s Daughter, with its revelations of her turbulent relationship with her husband, hit the bestseller list, and the film adaptation in 1980 won Sissy Spacek an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn. – No Depression