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Editorial
It has been a long time, about a year, since our last newsletter and during
that time Buckyball Music has grown. We want to keep the lines of
communication open because the goal that we aim to achieve cannot be met
without the support of the New York new music and jazz musician.
It is with an eye to community building and furthering the interest of the
music we love, that we find it important to explore ways to coordinate our
efforts in
areas where we have shared interests. In defining and targeting those
interests we will realize that they do not compete with, but instead,
complement, our own personal goals.
It seems to me that we live in time ruled by what I call the "lotto
delusion," where the focus is on winning the biggest prize unilaterally, and
on ignoring the overwhelming odds against such an occurence. We also have the
opposite: the nearsighted view of "one gig at a time," which is looking at
the tree and missing the forest.
Buckyball Music is going to be set up as an LLC (limited liability
company). We are reseaching ways in which we can share the wealth in a
creative
way. Our first objective, though, is to get the company rolling. We would
like to offer an alternative path to our fellow musicians, and for that we
need your ideas and comments.
Buckyball Records
One of the most active parts of Buckyball Music has been the release of
CDs. We have four new releases slated for January 99, which, along with last
year's first release of "Paper Cuts," is going to create the base for a much
more extensive catalogue. The four new CDs are:
Marc Wagnon "Shadowlines"
Marc Wagnon "An Afterthought"
Tunnels "with Percy Jones"
Tunnels "Painted Rock"
Two of these are new recordings. The other two have been out of print, but
have had extra tracks added, been reworked and will be Buckyball Music re-
releases. These CDs are still close to home, either Marc or Sarah are
involved with them, as are musicians like Percy Jones, Dave Douglas, Ray
Anderson, Dave Kikoski, Frank Katz, and many others. Having this catalogue
allows us to seriously seek distributors and licensing for overseas markets.
For the next series, we want to include different artists and widen the scope
of the label. We are interested in listening to finished masters for release
in the coming year on Buckyball Records.
Website
One of the most important elements we are using to promote Buckyball Music
is our website. That's where you can find: bios of all our teachers, many
with sound files (please send us a CD or tape if you haven't already); samples
of the CDs we have released, with streaming audio for all modem speeds (though
quality varies according to the speed of the modem), of entire tunes and
excerpts of tunes; news about our performances; links and activities. Soon we
will add a "what's new" page, where we will announce releases by anyone
associated with Buckyball Music. We are actively promoting the website - our
ads have been in the "Jazz Times" web directory - and we are seeking alliances
with other music websites. If you have a personal website, are associated
with one, or if you know of a great website to which we should link, please
let us know.
Buckyball Music Master Classes
BMMC's concept of giving young musicians the opportunity to study
with New York musicians, is still a good idea, but we have been unable to get
the word out enough to generate students. Earlier this year we went to the
IAJE
convention. We talked to a lot of people and made some great connections,
but that failed to translate into student enrollment. There are several
reasons for this. One is that this was a mainstream event sponsored by
big music colleges and schools and most of the potential students were
looking for a four-year commitment, giving diploma-offering
organizations precedence over intensive-study programs like BMMC. We
realize that our main potential source of student is overseas,
in particular, the student who is interested in checking out New York and
the jazz scene for a short period of time. So we are in the process of
contacting 140 music schools in Europe alone and we are looking at the
possibility of getting press coverage in European and Japanese magazines.
This has the potential of assuring a steady stream of students, so we ask you,
the potential teachers, to hang on for a little while longer!
Questionnaire
We at Buckyball Music would like to find out a few things about the state of
musicians in this city. We have a few questions that we would
like you to answer. You can send us replies either through regular mail,
email or
fax. It will take only a few moments of your time and it will enable us to
know more about the community's needs. Here they are:
1. Have you required the services of a lawyer in the past two years;
a. In what capacity?
b. Was your experience satisfactory? (yes or no)
c. If not, please explain briefly why.
4. Do you have health insurance?
5. Is there a club in town where you feel you are getting a good deal?
6. Do you think that, as a musician, you have a special position from which
you can influence people and their ideas?
Please add any comments that you might have in general or about this
questionnaire.
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