Arts & Entertainment: Local Jazz and Punk Promoter Dies
The News Review:
- Arts & Entertainment: Local Jazz and Punk Promoter Dies
- Love and Acceptance on the Half Pipe: Sexy Skateboarding Ads Attack …
- Rock Meets Academia in International Concept Album Art Competition
Arts & Entertainment: Local Jazz and Punk Promoter Dies
berkeleydaily.org – Jan 9, 2007
Wes was born in Port Arthur Texas and came with his mother to Alameda at the beginning of the Depression. He was a star basketball player at Alameda High and went on to play for UCLA under the Wooden era where he was the sole black player on an otherwise all-white basketball team. Wes will be most remembered for his contribution to the Bay Area music scene promoting events and musicians in the jazz punk and metal music genres. He started promoting music after returning from New York where he was involved in a jazz cafe and met many influential jazz musicians. Wes often told stories about being in New York and starting a coffee house there. This was when John Coltrane had broken through but was going through a big transition playing a free style that was very controversial. Pharoah Saunders was playing with ?Trane and Wes suggested that he call himself Pharoah as his real name was Farrell and people pronounced it like that anyway.
Love and Acceptance on the Half Pipe: Sexy Skateboarding Ads Attack …
Gay Wired – Jan 9, 2007
This is very similar to the gay culture which has also found a niche with marketing and publications geared with a gay edge. Skateboarding has also spawned its own music genre with a similarly wild image. Groups with names like Septic Death and Gang Green record their “speed metal” music on small labels devoted to “skate rock. ” ne skate rock disc jockey Skatemaster Tate describes the music vividly: “It’s punk rock and skating rolled up in a ball of confusion and screaming down the alley in a gutter. ” Since skateboarding is often done by groups of teenagers on city streets parking garages empty swimming pools and the like skaters are often subject to hostility from local citizenry and law enforcement officials. Cities have often banned skateboarding or developing special parks devoted to the sport. While bans seem somewhat discriminatory they are widely used to control the sport.
Rock Meets Academia in International Concept Album Art Competition
Kansas City infoZine – Jan 9, 2007
- infoZine – The juried art competition which seeks to establish a new multimedia artform based on rock “Concept Albums” offers $6000 in cash prizes to be awarded to three finalists in two categories: Best Songbook Jacket and Best Album Jacket. The public will select the winners by voting online at the contest website. The “Words Without Voices” series combines Art Music Language and Internet Technology and will be aimed toward the youth market especially college art instructors and students who study Advertising Visual Arts English Graphic Design Multimedia Music and Web Design. Fielding says “Words Without Voices” is not so much an attempt to resurrect the concept album as to preserve and explore its possibilities as a viable artform. “The release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’sLonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 should have signaled the beginning of a new era in album composition” says Fielding “instead it was a rare high point in a field more interested in making money than exploring art. In the 40 years since Sgt… Staples of yesteryear such as concept albums and rock operas like The Who’s Tommy Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar are rare today. ” According to Fielding Green Day’s American Idiot is a good recent example of the “concept album” even though it wasn’t marketed as such. Fielding is seeking artwork to illustrate 25 Songbook and 125 album covers which range from country gospel and progressive rock to death metal. While the contest is open to “anyone who is creative” state contest restrictions apply. Entry fees are $10 for one entry in one category $15 to enter both and $5 apiece for each subsequent submission. All entries will be displayed in the Gallery f The Mind’s Eye at. WordsWithoutVoices.