from left to right: Pancho Tekila (La Pulqueria / Guitar), Roman Rojas (Singer/Songwriter/Producer), Jordi (La Pulqueria / Guitarrist)
While they were promoting their new record “17″ in New York City, I had the chance to sit down and interview Warner Latina’s Grammy nominated Mexican rock band Motel. They were the most Grammy nominated alternative rock band for the Latin Grammys in 2007
I met up with Warner Music Latina’s recoding artist Motel for their first interview with Life In Music V-Cast. They passed through NYC to promote their new album “17″ due to be released on January 29th. Motel were the most nominated alternative act for the Latin Grammy in 2007.
From Left to right: Rubén Puente, Emil Guillermo “Billy” Méndez, RR Media Music Producer Roman Rojas, Rodrigo Dávila, José “Pepe” Damián
Is really mind blowing how artists are promoting upcoming music these days.On this video, Bono himself sings one of the songs from The Joshua Tree sessions that never made it onto the album. He sings it to his own track Wave of Sorrow at somebody’s home, very intimate and informal. What better way to announce your next song? He even tells us what the song is about, explains every lyric of the song while he sings it.This has got to be one of the most exciting periods in the history of music, I have to say that I am very happy to be alive.
On this episode I talked to my friend John Benitez about his life in music. John has played with musicians such as: Chick Korea, Willie Colon, Winston Marsalis, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Ray Barreto, Eddie Palmieri, Mos Def, Tego Calderon, to name a few. Check out this podcast to get to know a little better one of the most incredible musicians in the world today.
I can’t begin to say enough good things about the band Orishas , I checked them out live at NYC’s Nokia Theatre.
Orishas is a group that blends hip hop and rap rhythms with traditional Cuban music.
This was the kind of concert that you go to and you don’t know any of the songs or lyrics, but the melodies are so good that you find yourself singing along the hooks with the rest of the dedicated fan audience. If anybody outthere reads this post and know that Orishas is coming to your neck of the woods, please do yourself a favor. Find out where tickets are being sold and just go.
Thanks to Analia Garcia (singer / producer) and the whole team at Elias Arts and Avenida Acceso for inviting me to the show, I had a blast.
Roman Rojas (Producer RR Media) and Yotuel Romero (Orishas band member) backstage after the show at Nokia Theatre in NYC.
Orishas bringing down the house!
Still rocking it! Amazing show!
I sat down and received an incredible music sermon from music veteran Ann Ruckert. She shared with me what it means to be a musician, and how we are able to change people’s lives and our own through music.
Ann Ruckert has produced, played and / or sung on over 3,000 commercially released recordings. Ann has worked with Michel LeGrand, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Merry Clayton, Sarah Dash, Quincy Jones. T Rex, and Strawbs. Musical coordinator / contractor for major motion pictures and TV soundtracks including Housesitter with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn; Boys on the Side with Whoopie Goldberg; and Lovesickwith Dudley Moore.
Internationally known as a musician’s musician, Ann studied orchestration and composition at Juilliard and London’s Royal Academy of Music, as well as privately with Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, Helen Jordan and David Sorin Collyer. She continued her studies in ethnomusicology at New York University graduate school.
She is continuing her work as an award winning studio musician, projects coordinator, and freelance A&R person.
She is also the Co-founder of theJazz Foundation of America, with pianists Dr. Billy Taylor and Herb Storfer, and Board of Directors.
Ann was also a Governor, Trustee, Vice President of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the New York chapter; Chair of Education Committee; 4-year member of TV committee for the Grammy Awards Show, from 1982-2003.
I’ve heard that some colleges are offering courses on understanding Facebook. My Facebook education comes from login in to my Facebook account everyday. In the process I get to see the site morph and grow. Today I logged in to Facebook and noticed a flyer with a very pretty girl. At the bottom of the flyer it has the option of creating your own flyer that will appear on people’s Facebook pages (for a fee) or looking at other flyers. I started looking at other flyers and found this artists named I am Jen, she had a flyer advertising her music. I clicked on the flyer that took me to her own personal site outside Facebook, on her site I watched her independently produced music video and to my pleasant surprise the music was very, very good.
This is a great way for artists to independently get the word out about their work. This is nothing new to us in the web 2.0 world, but it’s always nice finding music one likes without having any of the big labels shoving it down our throats.
Anyways, here is “Blowing My Mind” video by I am Jen, do you dig it? You’ll be the judge, that’s the beauty of this brave new world of media, we choose what we like, a truly democratic system.
Very cool vid.
This is really incredible news.
I’ve been informed by Miguel Angel Moro of Appleweblog that October is Hispanic heritage month at all Apples stores. To celebrate the month Apple is putting together a series of concerts with Latin icons such as Juan Luis Guerra. Click on this link to find out about the upcoming series of Apple instore concerts.
This shows you the interest and commitment that Apple is showingto become a real player in the new business model of the music industry.
My very first significant musical experience at five years old was being introduced to the legendary Beatles record Abbey Road. So, as a Beatles fan I have to blog about this. Martin Scorsese and Bob Dylan are teaming up to work on a documentary about the life of George Harrison. The film will go into production this year, I can’t wait to see it. Here is the article from Rolling Stone.
I had a chance to talk to the CEO of As Is Entertainment Jamie Propp. Jamie produced SUBPLAY, the very first record of New York City subway musicians. He was also responsible for starting the internet department at Jive records in NYC, there he worked with acts such as Britney Spears, Brackstreet Boys, and N’Sync. Jamie’s latest project is Hatian singer Manze Dayila.
Signs of the end of the old music business. This rapper was able to do it all by himself with a little help from his friends at YouTube and Myspace.You go boy!
Starbucks will be giving away 50 million free digital songs to promote their wireless i-Tunes music service. Want to find out more? Click right here.
Cheaper than i-Tunes, but does that mean better? Judge for yourself, here is an excerpt from the Ars Technica article:
Amazon has launched a public beta of its long-anticipated digital music download store, offering more than 2 million songs as MP3 files. Those who have been paying attention to the digital music business can probably guess what’s included: tracks from EMI and Universal Music Group, music from another 20,000 independent labels, and $0.99 downloads. We’ve been shopping the store all morning to get a sense of how strong the launch really is, and here’s what we found.
Danilo Alvarez is a veteran of the advertising industry. As a creative director he has worked for Agencies such as: Accent Marketing in Miami, Bates World Wide in Miami, Disney, The Bravo Group in NYC among others. Danilo is usually the person in charge of choosing the music that’s going to be used on a TV Commercial, and throughout his career he has worked with some of the top music houses and composers of the commercial music world. On this episode he shares with us some of his experiences producing commercials and the importance of music in the advertising industry.
To listen to this episode 3 click on this link. You can also find the podcasts on i-Tunes by typing my name: Roman Rojas.
