YouTube Underground Music Contest

YouTube is calling all unsigned musicians to enter The YouTube Underground contest presented by Cingular Wireless.

Bands are invited to submit their original videos from October 2 through October 18 and the YouTube community will vote on their favorite YouTube Underground artists. Each video entry must include a full song and all contestants have to be U.S. residents.

From the top finalists selected by YouTube community votes, Alexandra Patsavas of Chop Shop Music Supervision will select the best song, best music video, best live performance and best creative work. Patsavas is well-regarded as an award-winning music supervisor for her work on shows such as The O.C., Grey's Anatomy and Without a Trace and has recently been counted amongst the most influential people in the music business by Wired Magazine, Advertising Age, Variety and the Los Angeles Times.

Prizes will include:

• Roundtrip airfare and lodging in New York City from November 29 - December 1, 2006


• ABC's Good Morning America will unveil the four winning bands in a live broadcast on November 29, 2006 in New York City


• New equipment for each winning band provided by Gibson Guitar and Epiphone


• Use of the Gibson Guitar exclusive Tour bus while in New York City


• Exclusive photo shoot and interview with top music publication


• Winning video featured on YouTube


• Chance to perform live in New York City at location to be determined


• Chance to have their song featured in major film or television show by Chop Shop Music Supervision


• Chance to have original ringtone available for download on Cingular's MEdia Net

27th Montreal International Jazz Festival

Best Buy will serve as the official Consumer Electronics and Entertainment Retailer at Montreal’s 27th International Jazz Festival, which will run from June 29-July 9, 2006 in the heart of downtown Montreal, QC.

A special treat will be B.B. King's 80th Birthday Event, Garrett Mason with very special guest Dutch Mason on June 28.

Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum

International Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville, Tennessee has its grand opening in June 2006.

The 30,000-square-foot complex, features a hall of fame dedicated to musicians, a recording studio, performance hall, small theater and music school. It will not only feature exhibits from well known musicians, but will also spotlight the musical contributions made throughout the years by studio musicians, producers and engineers in all genres.

A few of the current items in the hall's collection include:

• The restored stage from one of the Nashville clubs in famed Printers Alley,
  where Little Richard, Boots Randoph and a young Jimi Hendrix played.


• Eddie Willis' guitars, from countless Motown session such as "Signed,
  Sealed, Delivered" (his story documented in the film "Standing in the
  Shadows").
  
• Pete Drake's steel guitars, heard on Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" and
  George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass, as well as most of George
  Jones & Tammy Wynette country classics.
  
• Marshall Grant's basses, heard on Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" and
  "Ring of Fire", along with the amp from "Folsom Prison Blue" and "A
  Boy Named Sue", plus Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album.
  
• Garry Tallent's Long Horn Bass, as well as many other items used on the
  road and in the studio with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
  
• Scotty Moore's Gibson L-5 along with personal items from his long
  career in Elvis Presley's band.
  
• Chad Smith's (Red Hot Chili Peppers) snare drum, heard on their albums
  Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magic.
  
• Billy Sherrill's cigarette-burned piano, on which he composed country
  classics like "Almost Persuaded", "The Most Beautiful Girl" and even
  "Stand By Your Man".

Cape Breton Drum Fest 2006

Now in its 6th year, the Cape Breton International Drum Festival, Saturday April 29th and Sunday April 30th, 2006, will again be staged at The Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The festival sees the return of some of the most popular past festival crowd favourites, including Denny Seiwell, Paul Wertico, Sergio Bellotti and festival mainstay, Dom Famularo.

Denny Seiwell is probably best known for his work with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney in his band Wings, Paul Wertico was recently named as one of the Chicagoans of the Year and Sergio Bellotti has been at the Festival for the last two years and this year returns with his friend and colleague Berklee Professor Skip Hadden; he is a world-renowned teacher and author who has, over the years, taught some of the world's greatest drummers.

Newcomers to this year's Festival include percussionist Hossam Ramzy from the UK. Hossam has worked with Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (Ex Led Zeppelin); another drummer making his way across the pond is Englishman, Gary Husband, Gary must be one of the greatest and most talented drummers the world has ever seen, he has worked with jazz legend John McLaughlin, Bill Cobham (as a pianist), Allan Holdsworth Group, Garry Moore (Thin Lizzy) and Jack Bruce of Cream fame.

Canadian icon and super-drummer Paul DeLong makes his first appearance and is sure to turn heads and also from Toronto is Dale Anne Brendon. Brendon is also a well known teacher and clinician in the Toronto area.

Percussion master Lenny Castro, who has appeared on hundreds of recordings is sure to bring a very exciting and diverse soundscape to this year's show, as will Styx drummer Todd Sucherman, who organizer Bruce Aitken described as "One of the most talented soloists I've ever seen."

Cape Breton International Drum Festival Legends Awards are to be made to Groove Master Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie (think Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, James Brown) and Bill Cobham, the man that changed the face of drumming history when he fused Jazz with Rock during recording with Miles Davis on the classic LP 'Bitches Brew'.

Plenty to keep Drumheads totally occupied, including masterclasses, workshops and techie lectures, such as a talk by drum-tech, Rick Faucher.

Banjo Exhibition

Lover's of the banjo will be delighted by a fascinating exhibition
The Banjo: From Africa to America and Beyond at the Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, through to April 30, 2006.

Developed centuries ago by enslaved Africans in the North American and Caribbean colonies, the banjo has been in the U.S. since the 1600s, and it has defined and been defined by some of the most significant events and attitudes in American history. It is this origin and early history of the banjo that is the focus of the exhibition, which features the largest collection of pre-bluegrass banjos ever assembled in the South, including some from the nearby Museum of Appalachia. If you cannot get along to the exhibition, the exhibition website contains a notably informative description of the instrument's history complete with pictures.

Occasional Performances in the Museum auditorium accompany the exhibition, including:

Sunday, March 5, 2006, 2:00 East Tennessee Banjoist Showcase, featuring various styles and instruments.

Saturday, April 15, 2006, 2:00 (Six time Grammy nominee) Mike Seeger, playing Music from True Vine - the home music made by American southerners before the media age.

24h Mozart in The Sessions

In The Sessions blog, there is a recent posting about 24h Mozart, a global television event to celebrate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday.

Shostakovich 100

2006 is the centenary of the birth of the great Russian composer, Shostakovich; not many people know that. As always in life, it's all about timing and if your going to be a great composer, best not to time your birth to coincide with Mozart's 150th because just when the world should be celebrating your centenary, they have the distraction of Mozart's 250th!

However, Austin is making sure that the event is celebrated with a year long festival devoted to his works.

Dmitrij Dmitrievich Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906.

Jeanne Claire van Ryzin has written a nice article about Shostakovich and the Shostakovich 100 festival.