SESAC’s Fourth Annual Jazz
Awards Luncheon
Tavern on the Green, NYC
January 25, 2008
SESAC recognized its affiliated jazz composers with
their Fourth Annual Jazz Awards Luncheon honoring
the Top 10 Jazz albums of 2007.
WHO
The audience, made up of SESAC-affiliated
composers and publishers, industry executives,
and press, enjoyed performances by honorees
Robert Glasper and Lauren Kinhan.
INSIDE SPIN EDITOR’S LETTER
PHO TOGRAPH Y B Y: SHA WN EHLERS
Trevor Gale & Michael Blake
Linda Lorence Critelli, Lauren Kinhan & Rob Marcus
James (with Spin stylist’s assistant Tammy Gerardi) sings Aretha.
Jacket Required
[ 1]
[ 2] Rihanna
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: ELEVATION PHOTOS [ 2, 4]; KRISTINA GRINOVICH [ 1, 3, 5]
“Umbrella” singer Rihanna stopped by
Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue H&M to autograph photos
and talk about her participation in the brand’s
campaign Fashion Against AIDS.
WHO
Fashionistas, fans, and shoppers gathered
to catch a glimpse of the popstar and to buy
Rihanna-designed Fashion Against AIDS t-shirts,
part of the proceeds from which help fund HIV/AIDS
prevention projects around the world.
OKAY, I’LL ADMIT IT. I came a little late to the My Morning Jacket party. Sure, I’d admired them since first hearing 2005’s Z, but it wasn’t until I watched the live DVD of Okonokos that I fully grasped their genius hybrid of indie-guitar heroics and jam-band exploration. Here was a band that looked like a bunch lumberjacks, rocked like beasts (with flying V’s, no less!), and offered moments of sublime delicateness that could induce shudders.
My love was confirmed in March at the South by Southwest festival, where they performed before a packed house at the Austin Music Hall and proved they were a bona fide “You hafta see ’em live” act at a time when so many don’t even bother trying. It’s only natural that My Morning Jacket would headline an issue devoted to the festival experience.
The secret to MMJ’s success, I believe, is their relative lack of ego. While Jim James is the de facto frontman, he displays a modesty that lets the music do the screaming, and the band as a whole seems content to be seen (and heard) as a highly functional— not to mention highly adaptable—machine. Call it a humble wildness. That essence has been captured by writer John McAlley (he recently profiled Kanye West and Puscifer’s Maynard James Keenan for the magazine), who spent a few days with the band at their Louisville, Kentucky home base to get the story behind their soulful and adventurous upcoming album, Evil Urges.
Speaking of soulful, our cameras were rolling when, right after our cover shoot, MMJ took the stage at a Nashville bar to sing karaoke. To watch exclusive snippets of James performing Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” among other things, log on to spin.com/ mmj-video.
Enjoy the issue. And see you on the beer line.
Doug Brod Editor
FROM TOP: MICHELLE EGIZIANO; ERIC NOWELS
References:
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