Mark Weber Music Blog

Mark Weber Music Sampler

markwebermusic — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:48:14 +0000

Here is the Mark Weber music sampler:

Filed under: Mark's Music Tagged: Mark Weber, music sampler

Justin Brittain plays piano at 244 W. 54th St. in Manhattan

markwebermusic — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:20:30 +0000

My friend Justin Brittain visited me in New York City and when I went for an audition at 244 W. 54th St. in Manhattan, he was able to bang out a few notes on the piano– seriously, you will be impressed with his prowess on the piano keys…enjoy!

Filed under: Other People's Music Tagged: Justin Brittain, Manhattan, New York City, piano

Justin Brittain beatboxing (sort of)

markwebermusic — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:52:12 +0000

My friend Justin does some sort of beatbox thang on my street in Brooklyn:

Filed under: Other People's Music Tagged: beatbox, Brooklyn, Justin Brittain

Select Blendz makes sweet harmony doo-wop music!

markwebermusic — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:01:57 +0000

After checking out the amazing art at The Met museum in New York City, I heard some singers on the steps out front, and it was the vocal harmony doo-wop group known as “Select Blendz.” They were singing “Money” and really working the crowd; as a performer myself, I saw how smart they were as performers to really talk to and involve the audience– the “show” could not have been more electric. These guys “worked it out” and gave the hundreds of people watching something great to both see and hear– they’ve really got their act together, and I liked them so much that I gave ‘em $10 and got a live CD from them in return. The 20-song CD is superb– I love their renditions of classics like “Twistin’ The Night Away,” “Barbara Ann,” and “Teddy Bear.”

According to their website, Select Blendz formed a couple years ago. The group is made up of acappella, soul, R&B and gospel singers Raisin Harvey Cain, Rome Jerome Cohen, George Ellington, Billy William Chavis, Tommoraw Mortimer, and bass play Todd Grunder, who among them have performed with The Soul Shakers, Andre Williams, The Commodores, Black Ivory, The Delfonics, The Continental Four, Wynton Marsalis, Norah Jones, Jason Mraz, and more … in addition, performance movie credits include Married to the Mob and Everyday People. I am impressed!

If you’re wanting to contact the group, call Mr. Mortimer at 646-220-3574 or visit www.selectblendz.com.

Filed under: Other People's Music Tagged: Barbara Ann, Doo-wop, harmony singing, Jason Mraz, New York City, Select Blendz, The Met, vocal groups

Rachael Lampa to compete on NBC’s The Sing-Off

markwebermusic — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:38 +0000

220/Universal recording artist Rachael Lampa, seen here with yours truly, Mark Weber, will compete on Season 3 of the hit NBC series The Sing-Off, hosted by Nick Lachey. The Dove Award winning recording artist, whose new album All We Need is due in stores on September 27th, will be part of a cappella group The Collective, a group of Nashville vocalists formed specifically for the series by Jeremy Lister of Season 2 runner-up Street Corner Symphony.

The new season of the popular reality talent competition series will premiere on Monday, September 19th at 8/7c, and features the judging panel of Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles and Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman. The series brings together a cappella groups from around the nation, who compete each week for the votes of the viewers.

Lampa is currently in Los Angeles taping the series, while simultaneously promoting her highly anticipated upcoming album. The first single, “Remedy,” is available at iTunes, and Lampa will hit the road this fall with Group 1 Crew, Shonlock and Rapture Ruckus for the Outta Space Love Tour.

Filed under: Other People's Music Tagged: Ben Folds, itunes, Nick Lachey, Rachael Lampa, Sara Bareilles, Shawn Stockman, Sing-Off

Nerdy Brits rapping with cool accents

markwebermusic — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:30:21 +0000

Hip-hop was never quite like this: British nerds with cool accents covering classics, incl. House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” I enjoyed this!

Filed under: Funny Tagged: British, Hip hop, House of Pain, Jump Around, nerd, rap

Streaming music instead of downloading it: the future of the music biz

markwebermusic — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:29:18 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

My friend Andy Rosenfeld was telling me how pretty soon everyone’s everything will be “in the cloud.” He says instead of storing stuff on your computer hard-drive, you’ll be paying a company to store stuff you like somewhere on the net. So computers won’t be so much about who has the personally biggest capacity to store and run stuff, but instead will become “dummy terminals” linked to the “cloud,” “streaming” stuff off that supercomputer.

How will this affect me, as a music maker? Well, the old-fashioned “go to the store and pay $15 for a CD of 12 tracks” is ending. Lately, as you know, people have been paying iTunes and other services to download songs to their hard-drive. Pretty soon, that’ll be changing, and you’ll be paying some service, perhaps Spotify, or maybe iTunes or some other “winner” in this game, in order to receive a stream of music tuned to your tastes. The service Pandora, which is basically free right now, does that already. You go to their site, type in the name of an artist you like, and then it plays a song from them, followed by like-minded artists with similar sounding songs.

In the future, it won’t be so much about buying music as it will be about finding something you really like and then recommending it to friends. How I can or will make money from that, I don’t know…Who will measure how many listens a song gets, on certain sites, and then pay songwriters like myself some money for using our songs? I don’t know the answer to that. Whoever does is going to be the one controlling the music business in the next decade.

My bet is Apple will end up adjusting their iTunes brand to go from downloading to streaming, and do it in a way that the majority of people will say, “Well, I can afford $10 a month on hearing lots of tunes, so why not?” The music business has changed dramatically over the past twenty years, and it’s going to change again in the months to come. Get ready!

Filed under: Commentary Tagged: Apple, Compact Disc, Hard disk drive, itunes, music, music industry, Pandora, Pandora Media, Sound Files, Spotify

R.I.P. Anthony Marchese, aka “Uncle Anthony,” a synthesizer pioneer

markwebermusic — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:27:49 +0000

I found out today that my mom’s Uncle Anthony died. This made me sad. He was a wonderful man. He was the quintessential Italian-American uncle, the kind who’d give you the brightest smile, a word of encouragement, and a hug like he meant it. He was my grandpa’s brother, and it seemed both men were destined for greatness in their lives. My grandpa was one of the key people at Bell Aircraft, responsible for many aviation firsts. My grandpa even spoke at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in his later years, because he was the only remaining man to have worked on the Bell X-1, the plane that broke the sound barrier. Well, speaking of sound, his brother, Anthony Marchese, aka “Uncle Anthony,” was also a pioneer, and in Anthony’s case, he made a significant contribution to the world of music.

When Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and others found the new groundbreaking Synthesizer made by Robert Moog to be ungainly to operate at times with all the patch cords and dial adjustments, they turned to Moog for help. Anthony Marchese took up the challenge and control of the project. Anthony was the pioneer that worked with Lake and other national keyboardists to develop and refine the systems that are still used today by electronic keyboardists. Anytime anyone sits down at a synthesizer and simply pushes a preset button, they have Anthony Marchese and his engineering wizardry to thank.

R.I.P. Uncle Anthony. You were well loved by me and the family and many, many people. You loved Jesus wholeheartedly, so I’m comforted to know you’re in heaven with Him now.

Filed under: Interesting Tagged: Anthony Marchese, Arts, Bell Aircraft, Bell X-1, Italian American, music, Robert Moog, Smithsonian Institution, Synthesizer

Why are the cops after The Reign of Kindo?

markwebermusic — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:51:20 +0000

: Danny and Jeff from The Reign of Kindo talk at the Taco Truck line in Brooklyn

Here we see Jeff Jarvis and Danny Pizarro, Jr. from the band The Reign of Kindo, with the cops after them…in line, that is…at the Taco El Bronco (Taco Truck) near Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on August 6th, 2011 around dinnertime. How wild is this: Danny, who works as a firefighter in Buffalo, 8 hours away, drove his friend to The Bronx, and then called up Jarvis and said, “hey, I’ll come by and see ya…” Danny was only at Sunset Park for about 20 mins. and then went back to his car for “the long ride home.” Jarvis has moved to Sunset Park and is living in a brownstone with yours truly, Mark Weber.

Filed under: Mark's Music Tagged: Bronx, Buffalo New York, Danny, Jarvis, New York City, Sunset Park, Taco Truck, the reign of kindo

Winners of NBC’s “The Sing-Off” set to release their debut album

markwebermusic — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:37:30 +0000

On the heels of their triumphant win of season two of the hit NBC a cappella competition series The Sing-Off, Committed is getting ready to release their self-titled debut album on August 30th. The sextet’s debut album features a mix of hand-selected cover songs, including their tear-inducing rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Hold My Hand” which helped seal their win on the season finale as well as several originals. Their first single “Break Free” is an uplifting anthem laced with the group’s well-known inspirational lyrics, co-written by the group’s own, Therry Thomas. Formed in Huntsville, Alabama in 2003, the group, comprised of Dennis “DJ” Baptiste, Tommy Gervais, Geston Pierre, Robert Pressley, Maurice Staple and Theron “Therry” Thomas, arrange all of their own music using only their vocals as instruments to emulate a full band sound.

“We are influenced by a lot of different music, so the album is an eclectic mix—jazz, gospel, blues and R&B all wrapped into one sound,” Committed says about the album. “It’s different and edgy, there’s a little bit of something for everybody.”

Committed will hit the road this summer in support of the upcoming release of their debut album. With nearly nine million viewers tuning in to witness the guys of Committed being crowned the champions of The Sing-Off, fans throughout the US will get another chance to experience the group’s unique harmonies with powerful lead vocals and booming bass lines that made them popular amongst their fans. The group won over audiences from the first episode leading to an astounding number of viewer votes and the most downloaded songs throughout the series. Committed kicked off their victory lap by performing on NBC’s Today Show, NAACP Image Awards and the Dove Awards. The group will be featured in an upcoming episode of BET’s Sunday Best as well as season 3 of The Sing-Off.

NBC’s “The Sing-Off” returns this fall with two-hour episodes culminating with a live season finale.

Committed coming to Buffalo June 20th (buffalochristian.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Other People's Music, Soul Tagged: Committed, NBC, Sing-Off