(CelebrityAccess News Service) – DreamWorks SKG has opted out of the music business. Partners David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg have agreed to sell DreamWorks Records to Vivendi Universal for an estimated $100 million, according to reports. DreamWorks will now solely be a film production company.
The DreamWorks label, formed in 1994, will be absorbed by Universal's Interscope label, which is overseen by Jimmy Iovine. Among DreamWorks' artists are Toby Keith, and Nelly Furtado.
"Building DreamWorks Records has been one of the great professional experiences of my career," said legendary record industry exec, Mo Ostin, who co-founded the label, was its principal exec, and will now report to Iovine. "I'm proud of the phenomenal artists we've been associated with and the entire DreamWorks Records team." –Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner
Legendary Preservation Hall Launches Record Label
(CelebrityAccess News Service) — More than 40 years after establishing itself as the world's most revered venue for traditional jazz, Preservation Hall in New Orleans
launches its own record label on January 27, with three CD
releases that feature past and present giants of Crescent City music.
The first issues from Preservation Hall Recordings are: Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Best of the Early Years, Hot Four and Shake That Thing.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Best of the Early Years offers rare and previously unheard tracks by pianists "Sweet Emma" Barrett and Billie Pierce, drummer Josiah "Cie" Frazier, clarinetist Willie Humphrey, trumpeter Percy Humphrey, bassist Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau, and other musicians associated with early incarnations of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, including tuba player Allan Jaffe, who opened the Hall with his wife Sandra in 1961.
Hot Four gives an unusual insight into the band through a series of quartet performances behind the vocals of saxophonist Harold Dejan. This scaled-down lineup includes one of the youngest members of today's Preservation Hall Jazz Band, bassist Ben Jaffe, son of co-founders Allan and Sandra.
Shake That Thing features the current Preservation Hall Jazz Band at full throttle, with its complement of horns as well as rhythm section, and recorded in the historic hall.
"These recordings usher in a new period in the life of Preservation Hall," states Ben Jaffe, who co-manages the Hall and the label with his mother. "The band has been recorded many times over the years, but we've started the label because we've realized that no one could present this music as well as those of us who have lived it all our
lives. Preservation Hall itself is successful because of our attention to the smallest detail and our love for this music and the people who
play it. Preservation Hall Recordings is based on exactly that same
philosophy."
This commitment is also evident in its state-of-the-art packaging. The label plans to deliver each release in sturdy cardboard containers that bear more resemblance to hardcover books than typical plastic jewelboxes. Each one is made individually by hand through a patented process, based on designs conceived to reflect the music. "We have too much respect for these artists, and for our listeners, to put out anything that's less than beautiful," Jaffe
explains.
Founded by Jaffe and his partners, record industry veterans Steve DeBro and Albert Lee, Preservation Hall Recordings' distribution will be handled by Redeye (Yep Roc, Bonfire, Jazzateria, Planetary Records).–Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner
