From: ksb@oscar.bellcore.com (Ken Berczik)
Subject: Michael Hedges on MTV's Day in Rock, etc.
Reply-To: ksb@oscar.bellcore.com (Ken Berczik)
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 14:05:42 GMT

A few observations/questions, primarily about Windham Hill.

I was flipping through the channels last night when I caught a story on Micheal Hedges on MTV's "The Day in Rock" show. It was a rather positive story, including a mention that a few of the current rock "Guitar Gods" (Don't ask me were I picked up this phrase; I heard it a few years ago, and it stuck.), such as Steve Vai, were fans. They also mentioned that Hedges' discs could usually be found in the New Age section, primarily because the records stores don't know were else to put them.

Of course, the term "New Age Music" has always been a lable that has been used more by record stores as a catch-all phrase for music that doesn't fit neatly into any other easily defined category. Sometimes, though, I think they really stretch things a little far. I will often find the Turtle Island String Quartet (TISQ) in the New Age section, even though they lable clearly states that they record for Windham Hill Jazz. And while the Modern Mandolin Quartet (MMQ) does record for Windham Hill, they should 





be in the Classical section. The same goes for the recent "The Impressionists" sampler. (Granted, if they were in the Classical section, I'd probably have a harder time finding them.)

William Ackerman, for one, has always made it clear how much he hates the lable New Age. Of course, according the the article in this Sunday's (11/8/92) New York Times, it seems he's no longer associated with Windham Hill (he sold his share of the company to BMG earlier this year) or listens the music. I know he released a new disc earlier this year, but does the sale to BMG mean he no longer has any association with Windham Hill?

Has there been an issue of the Occasional in the past year? The last mailing I got from Windham Hill was over a year ago, shortly after George Winston's "Summer" was released.

Does anyone know of any plans for Windham Hill to release a fourth "A Winter's Solstice" (AWS) collection? Based on the release dates for the three collections, I would think that a new one was just about due. (What I'd really like is disc of seasonal music by the TISQ and/or Paul McCandless, much along the lines of the MMQ's "The Nutcracker Suite" disc last year, which built on the track they did for "AWS III." While I liked the pieces by the other artists on the AWS collections, I felt that the pieces by





 the TISQ, MMQ, and McCandless (I really should include Andy Narell's (spelling?) version of Bach's "Sleeper Awake") stood out, making me wish for a full album of such interpretations of seasonal music. I admit, though, that it would be a little hard for the TISQ and McCandless to release seasonal collections since they both have released new discs in the past few months.


-- 
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