WASHINGTON — Like any musician, New Orleans jazz clarinetist Michael White says he would love to collect royalty checks every time an Internet radio station plays one of his recordings.But not, White said, if the royalty payments force the Internet stations off the air.

White was in Washington this week for a concert and to lobby members of Congress to intercede and take steps to ensure that Internet radio continues.

White, 53, who recently released his first post-Katrina CD, “Blue Crescent,” said he accepts that few AM or FM stations, even the small number devoted to jazz, will play his songs. But he said he regularly encounters fans at concerts who tell him, ” ‘I found out about you on Internet radio.’ “

“A lot of blues, folk and jazz musicians make most of their money at touring concerts,” White said. “We’re not advocating destroying royalties, but want a royalty system that is fair with comparable media.”

There are currently hundreds of Internet radio stations, some of which cater to fans of music that will never make it on top-40 formats.

At issue is a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board last year to raise Internet royalty rates, calculated as a flat per-song fee for each listener. An association of Internet stations said that the fees would eat away all or most of their earnings.

Some Internet stations ceased operations in anticipation of the higher rates, but others are continuing, buoyed by a decision by SoundExchange, which represents major performers, not to seek immediate payment of the new rates until it engages in negotiations with Internet station owners. SoundExchange said that revenue for Internet stations is often higher than claimed by station owners, an argument disputed by the coalition of Internet station operators.

But White said Congress should step in to allow the Internet to continue to provide the kind of diverse programming not available on conventional or even satellite radio.

It’s been a difficult three years for White, who, like thousands of other New Orleans residents, lost his home during Hurricane Katrina, along with dozens of rare vintage instruments, thousands of recordings, footage of every filmed performance by Louis Armstrong, and his own recorded interviews with jazz greats. Most of the interviews can’t be re-created because the musicians are dead.

White has won support for his efforts from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Both say they’ll push their legislation to roll back the royalty increases approved by the royalty board unless negotiations between SoundExchange and Internet stations are successful.

Not only do the stations help a diverse group of musical artists, Brownback said, but they also provide important programming opportunities for many churches and religious groups.

. . . . . . .

Bruce Alpert can be reached at bruce.alpert@newhouse.com or 202.383.7861.

The stars came out for this year’s event - and put on a show that proved to be a celebration of the artform, rather than a backslapping showcase July 23, 2008 4:30 PM

As this blog has recorded a few times before, awards ceremonies get a mixed reception from jazzers. At its best, jazz is frequently informal, unpremeditated and uncompetitive - something that seems to run against the spirit of handing out prizes for Best In Show.

This year’s BBC Jazz Awards shindig, held at the Mermaid Theatre at the beginning of this week, would probably have won over all but the most hardcore of dissidents. It made a stronger-than-usual case for the corporation’s public service remit - getting behind a sidelined artform that has nonetheless transformed modern music.

The attempt to confer mainstream respectability on music famous for its ornery tendencies was also present in the high-profile presenters (Jamie Cullum, Jeff Beck, Nigel Kennedy, Beatles guru Sir George Martin, Goldie, Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B, actor/musician Colin Salmon, Mica Paris, Barry Cryer) and the prudent avoidance of sounds with too many overly-disconcerting rough edges. But the performances were otherwise idiomatically varied, heartfelt, and qualified as possibly the best all-round display of jazz’s virtues the BBC Awards have so far seen (in the views of several of the great and good at the after-show bash).

The show went out on Radio 2, and is available to stream via the the iPlayer site until just after midnight on Wednesday July 30. Highlights and discussion about the 2008 Awards will also be presented on Radio 3’s Jazz Line-Up on July 26 from 4.00-5.30pm.

And there certainly were highlights. Perhaps a little more glitz than music-oriented was the most popular and virtuosi version of pianist Chick Corea’s famous fusion band Return To Forever (with bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Al DiMeola and drummer Lenny White), which was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by Beatles producer George Martin. They briskly rattled their way through Romantic Warrior before departing for the night’s main business, a concert at the 02 Arena.

Surely, no coincidence in the synchronicity of dates with the London leg of the band’s 2008 Reunion Tour?

But if Corea’s group was understandably in a hurry, everybody else stuck around to enjoy a rare chance to swap compliments and not a few good musical ideas - not least those two unstoppable 80 year-olds Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth; Gold Award winners who got a standing ovation for the vivacity of their performance with Guy Barker’s powerful specially-assembled big band at the finale.

Singer Ian Shaw delivered a haunting first public performance of Humphrey Lyttleton’s Sad, Sweet Song (Humph, posthumous winner of the BBC Radio 2 Jazz Artist Of The Year prize, apparently sent it to the singer not long before he died), and Jamie Cullum, Jeff Beck and Clint’s bass-playing son Kyle Eastwood jammed on Let The Good Times Roll - a tribute to octogenarian Candid Records boss Alan Bates, who won Services To Jazz In The UK.

Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith played some of the most dramatic and powerful Coltrane-tradition tenor-sax of the night, after winning the BBC Radio 2 Heart Of Jazz award - dedicating it to all the places in the world where uptight regimes still view music-making as dangerous.

Acoustic Ladyland pianist Tom Cawley’s Curios trio took the Radio 3 Jazz Line-Up Best Band Award, and Jazz On 3’s Innovation Award went to that stylistically jump-cutting band Fraud - though its saxophonist James Allsop put his finger on the event’s nervousness about the sharp end by saying he was “embarrassed to win this category in a list that includes Evan Parker, one of the most innovative musicians ever to pick up the saxophone”.

Link to article.

Check here weekly for the WNCU Staff Jazz Pick of the Week. This week’s pick is Wayne Wallace. Tune into WNCU 90.7 FM this week to hear featured selections from his CD, The Nature of the Beat. Learn more about Wayne Wallace at http://www.walacomusic.com/home.html

DURHAM, N.C. - WNCU 90.7 FM and North Carolina Central University’s Alumni Affairs office have developed a new partnership to connect with NCCU graduates. Beginning Saturday, July 12, 2008, at 10:30 a.m., WNCU will air the first installment of NCCU Alumni Today, a new talk show. The show will offer graduates information about what¹s happening on campus and in the lives of their fellow Eagles.Truitt O’Neal hosts the show. He is a 2001 graduate of NCCU with his bachelor’s degree in English and a concentration in electronic media. He is the former general manager of Audionet, NCCU’s student radio station. He also worked as a student staff member for WNCU. Currently, O’Neal is the news and public affairs director for WNNL The Light 103.9 FM and the Raleigh affiliate producer of the Yolanda Adams Morning Show.

“I am enthusiastic about returning to WNCU to produce NCCU Alumni Today,” said O’Neal. “Over the upcoming weeks I look forward to talking with NCCU alumni from all walks of life across the country and around the world.”

Norma Petway, a 1977 graduate of NCCU and director of Alumni Relations, says the mission of NCCU Alumni Today as an extension of the mission of her office. According to Petway, the show “will update graduates on activities at NCCU and give information on how they can participate in university activities and contribute financially. The goal is to encourage every graduate to become an active Eagle.”

Since its debut in August 1995, WNCU, 90.7 FM, licensed to North Carolina Central University, has consistently fulfilled its mission to provide quality, culturally-appropriate programming to public radio listeners in the Triangle area. The format of this listener supported public radio station entertains the jazz aficionado, educates the novice jazz listener and disseminates news and information relative to the community-at-large. WNCU 90.7 FM is a 50,000 watt public radio station and an affiliate of NPR, PRI and Pacifica Radio.

He is the most important jazz musician of all time, and even that’s an understatement. Louis Armstrong defined American popular culture in the 20th century as a musician and an entertainer. As a singer and trumpeter, he taught the world to swing…from NPR

Celebrate the 4th of July with Louis Armstrong and WNCU. It is our annual tribute to the undisputed master of swing. All day during the jazz programming, Louis Armstrong will get heavy rotation. From his early days with the hot 5’s and 7’S all the way to Hello Dolly, WNCU will broadcast the best of Louis.

So get ready to tap your feet, snap your fingers and sing along with your favorites!

Tune in at noon on the 4th for a special Jazz Profiles program, Louis Armstrong, the Trumpeter.