The Weeknd's $7M Show, Morgan Wallen Cancelled, Goodbye Chick
Artist of the day: Chick Corea
What's up, everybody? My name is Sweet Deat, and welcome back for another episode. We've got a lot to cover and not a lot of time to do it, so... It's been a busy week.
Well, everybody, concerts are back in New York.Governor Como just announced 300 popup gigs sanctioned by the state of New York, while many musicians I know in New Yorker in total unrest of not being able to work due to government restrictions, it seems that at least they're starting to listen. And while this isn't really the sort of longterm solution that everybody wants or the immediate solution that even anybody wants, it's a start and that we should at least be thankful for that they have an opportunity to go out and make money. These events are slated to start on February 20th, and we'll reach the number of 300 by Labor Day. As a jazz musician, I follow a lot of the jazz clubs that are in New York, and a lot of them shut down, like the Jazz Standard, for example, that was a staple in the community there. And it was a very high end,
beautiful venue, and now it's gone because of Covid and the lack of being able to do business, so the fact that there is at least some sort of traction or having public gatherings, again, four concerts gives us hope that maybe New York will finally come and see the light. I love you, all my New York friends, and I'm thinking about you.
So as everybody knows, The Weeknd played the Super Bowl halftime show.
Now, I must admit, there was a lot of mixed reviews on this that I saw online, and quite frankly, I had to miss the very beginning of this performance because I got drawn away from my TV, but I did see about three quarters of it, and then I went back and rewatched it. So watching it in real time, what did you think, personally, it felt a little underwhelming being that I am kind of a newfound Weeknd fan, but when I did go back and rewatch it, I did actually really enjoy it, it's just different than, say, All these other songwriters of yesteryear, literally having to trim down their entire catalog into a very brief moment for an audience of millions and millions and millions.
Now, I happen to have an interesting perspective on this because I've done national TV spots before I was on America's Got Talent with an artist years ago, and we played in front of 17 million people, obviously not near as many as the Super Bowl, but 17 million at one time is a lot, and the pressures that go into that is pretty heavy, I thought if you went back and watched the Weeknds have time performance and see how the sets are put together and how intricate that is and how beautiful that is, I think you maybe gain a different perspective if you had a negative one, and I get it.
For the Super Bowl halftime show, we always want this over the top performance that's… You know, like I said, anthemic sing along, all that kind of stuff, and that's not really the Weeknds vibe. All of this said, He spent 7 million dollars to put that on. That worth it to you? In that particular moment, he had the world literally in his hand and everybody knew who he was... Is that worth 7 million dollars? You tell me in the comments below.
Morgan Wallen is still in the news.
Can you believe it?I say that because he basically was cancelled everywhere, if you know about the story, he was a rising songwriter in Nashville, had a bunch of hits on the radio, and then all of a sudden a video came out of nowhere and essentially showed him using a racial slur and everybody cancelled him. Everybody, I'll tell you everybody, Spotify, Apple music, Pandora, Sirius XM, his talent agency, William Morris cancelled them. The Academy of Country Music Awards cancelled him from being able to accept any awards or be nominated for any awards for the end of time, country music television blacklisted, and so many more. Now, to most people, that would be very simple. Your career is over. That's the end. You should just go. Become a construction worker or something. But not so fast, his album dangerous just tripled in sales and is still a top the chart on week four, and even more specifically, within 24 hours of all of this cancellation, his album sales, who ruled, and even though he's been cancelled by basically everyone, all of his fans are begging for his music back on Radio.
One program director of a radio station recently said that they're actually losing listenership because of their stance on Morgan Wallen. This is highly fascinating. I mean, how does a guy get cancelled on that level... I mean, he's not Garth Brooks or anything. He's rising, he has a lot of popularity, and all of a sudden he becomes cancelled for something obviously he should have never said, but then immediately after that, his swarm of fans basically prop him up and begin to advocate for them, pretty crazy. And I'll keep you posted on what happens next, because that's what I do.
And for our last bit of news today, I recently found out within the last 24 hours or so, appending this episode that you... Chick Corea has passed away at the age of 79.
Apparently he had a cancer that he did not know about and was detected very late, and the transition happened really quickly, and while... If you're listening to this, you may not know who Chick Corea is. If you're a jazz musician or any sort of improvisational based musician, you know whoChick Corea is, and you know how big of a lost this is to the music community. Corea was one of the pillars of music, one of the true architects of the music that we know and love today, which is Jazz, Chick was one of those musicians that was just simply rare, and to lose someone so suddenly without any sort of learning, has been very hard on a lot of people that have performed with him, but also of his fans today.
it just makes sense to make the Corea our artist of the day, and to talk about a few records that you should check out, now they're seemingly a million records from this guy, but I'm gonna highlight a few that used to just check out, if you're not familiar with his music to get sort of an understanding about how incredible he was... We'll start with a 1968 release called Now He Sings. Now He Sobs secondly, his 1972 release Light as a Feather, which is his band Return to Forever. You should really check that one out to the recording of Gary Burton and chakra duo called Native Sense is really awesome, you should also check that one out, also you can check out his work with Bobby are and basically every other jazz legend in the world, he even played with Miles Davis.