ARTIST AMBASSADORS FOR MAKE MUSIC DAY 2017 ANNOUNCED

A Two-Time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a Legendary Composer and Pianist, a Jazz Virtuoso, a “Nashville” Star and Musician, Noted Composers/Percussionists, a Hollywood Actress-Turned-Rocker and a Grammy Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter Among Ambassadors

4,000+ Live, Free Outdoor Music-Making Events to be Held in More than 60 U.S. Cities on June 21

June 8, 2017 – Make Music Day, the annual global celebration of music occurring each June 21 and featuring over 4,000 free, outdoor concerts, music lessons and jam sessions in over 60 U.S. cities, today announced its lineup of artist ambassadors. The all-day musical celebration on the summer solstice brings people of all styles, ages and skill levels together to make music.

Make Music Day ambassadors include (in alphabetical order) Carmine and Vinny Appice, Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Peter Cincotti, Charles Esten (Nashville on CMT/Hulu), Philip Glass, Daniel Ho, Mandy Jiroux, Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Lenka, Christian McBride, Ian Mellencamp, Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless), Graham Nash, OK Go, Lee Oskar, Alex Skolnick, Tokyo Police Club, Us the Duo, Suzanne Vega, Vintage Trouble and Bernie Williams (former New York Yankees centerfielder and Latin Grammy nominated artist), along with many others to be found across the global celebration.

“What I love about Make Music Day is that it brings music out to the public with no barriers or boundaries,” said Christian McBride. “On June 21, you never know what you might hear – a jazz trio on a train platform, a funk band in a prison, or a string quartet on a porch. They’re celebrating every kind of music and bringing people together.”

“By uniting music makers from every walk of life, it reminds us that music is bigger than any one culture, viewpoint or experience and that we can revel in being humbled by it,” said Dave Monk of Tokyo Police Club.

“Why do we love Make Music Day?” asked OK Go. “Because for one day of the year music gets to run free in the streets in all of its most insane and mundane permutations.”

Us the Duo added that “Although music is constantly happening all around us, Make Music Day celebrates it in one glorious day of sound-making in the streets of a city or town near you.”

Charles Esten noted: “You think you're someone who ‘can't make music?’ I think you might just be someone who hasn't explored all the ways that you could. Spend a couple hours in a music store. Try instrument after instrument. Don't be self-conscious. Just have fun. You're not playing for anybody else. You're playing for yourself. So keep trying.”

The artist ambassadors will be sharing their love of music, and music making, with their fans and the public in the days leading up to Make Music Day.

Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music Day celebrates and promotes the natural music maker in all of us, regardless of ability. Every kind of musician – from bucket drummers to opera singers – pours onto streets, parks, plazas, porches, rooftops, gardens and other public spaces to share their music with friends, neighbors and strangers.

Make Music Day national highlights include Sousapaloozas that bring together hundreds of brass and wind musicians to play the music of John Philip Sousa, Street Studios that feature DJs and producers bringing gear and engaging passersby in the spontaneous, collaborative production of original music on the street, and more than 175 Mass Appeal events that bring together musicians of all levels and ages to make music in large, single-instrument groups led by experienced facilitators.

Cities hosting major celebrations include New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Fullerton, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), St. Louis, San Jose, Seattle and the entire states of Vermont and Rhode Island, with smaller festivities taking place in other communities nationwide.

Make Music Day, which began in France in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, has since grown to more than 750 cities cross 120 countries, and is presented in the U.S. by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance.

All Make Music Day events are free and open to the public. For the full schedule of events in each city and to register to perform or host musical events, please visit makemusicday.org.

About Make Music Day
Held annually on June 21 to coincide with the summer solstice, Make Music Day is part of the international Fête de la Musique, taking place in more than 750 cities across 120 countries.

The daylong, musical free-for-all celebrates music in all its forms, encouraging people to band together and play in free public concerts. This year, more than 60 U.S. cities and the entire states of Vermont and Rhode Island are organizing Make Music celebrations, encompassing thousands of music making opportunities nationwide. Make Music Day is presented by The NAMM Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance. For more information, please visit www.makemusicday.org.

DETROIT JOINS THE RETURN OF MAKE MUSIC DAY JUNE 21!

DETROIT (June 8, 2017) – Detroit will again join cities in 120 countries to celebrate Make Music Day, the world’s largest global music event, on June 21, 2017. The second annual Make Music Detroit celebration will return with over 150 performances at more than 25 venues around the city. The all-day, summer solstice celebration offers workshops and concerts, free to the public and open to all ages. Make Music Detroit welcomes anyone who wants to perform, learn or teach music.

“Make Music Detroit is not just a festival, it is an ongoing movement to highlight the importance of music education during youth development,” said Larry King, Make Music Detroit president and founder. “Every child in our community deserves music education and we’re thrilled and honored to bring this event to our city again this year.”

Make Music Detroit’s mission is to bring attention to the importance of early music exposure for children and the vital role music plays in promoting better social, academic and spiritual engagement. Different from a typical music festival, Make Music Detroit encourages people of all ages to experience the pleasure of making music, whether amateur or professional, young or old.

Highlights for Make Music Detroit 2017 will include two stages and a workshop/storytelling tent on the Detroit Institute of Arts’ front lawn. Multiple other performance venues are situated in five walkable clusters including Eastern Market, Downtown, the North End, Corktown and near the DIA. The all-day celebration will feature free workshops including an open house at Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME).

The festival will showcase eclectic styles of the city through performances by some of its venerable music icons and rising stars. Aspiring musicians of any age, genre and skill-level are encouraged to participate. Those who register can teach a workshop, host musical events or perform.

Performances include Detroit Youth Volume, Tino G and the Dumpster Machine, Billy Davis, Charles “Buddy” Smith, Straight Gate Mass Church Choir, Audra Kubat, Mahogany Jones, Harmonica Shaw, Roschelle Laughhunn (of The Original Vandellas), Melvin Davis, Sean Blackman’s In Transit featuring Liz Larin, Psychotic Reaction, IS Evolution, Refuge Temple Cathedral Voices and nine-year-old harmonica sensation “Mighty” Michael Mendelson. Attend workshops and performances by Axis Music Academy, a Motown Sing-A-Long and Sousapalooza.

Returning to this year’s lineup RJ Spangler Quintet, Detroit’s Blues Queen Thornetta Davis, Phil Hale, Ali McManus, Emma Guzman, Ted Nagy, Crockett King, Free Jazz Ensemble Cosmic Music Collective.

A full schedule of events will be posted in early June at MakeMusicDetroit.org, as well as on the Make Music Day app, available at the iTunes Store and Google Play. Media sponsors include Fox 2 and WDET.

2016 Highlights
Last year marked the inaugural Make Music Detroit. Attendees enjoyed performances at venues including Detroit Institute of Arts, Assemble Sound, The Carr Center at Harmonie Park, Urban Bean Co., Northern Lights Lounge, Cass Cafe, Third Man Records, Jazz Cafe at Music Hall and sites along the Oakland Avenue Art Corridor, affectionately called O.N.E. Mile, to experience many of the city’s diverse music talents. Performances included Liz Larin, RJ Spangler Quintet featuring Larry Smith, PhilHarmonic Sextet with Thornetta Davis, Judy Adams, Kevin Reynolds, Nick Speed, Jennie Knaggs of Lac La Belle, The Mighty Funhouse, Sean Blackman, Ali McManus, Larry Fratangelo and Sophia Avocado.

About Make Music Day
Held annually on June 21, the first day of summer, Make Music Day is part of the international celebration Fête De La Musique, or World Music Day. Make Music Day takes place in 750 cities across 120 countries, including Morocco, China, Egypt, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam, Canada and, of course, France. This year, 50 U.S. cities and the entire states of Vermont and Rhode Island are organizing Make Music celebrations. Make Music Day is presented by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM Foundation) and coordinated by the nonprofit Make Music Alliance. For more information, please visit www.makemusicday.org.

About Make Music Detroit
Make Music Detroit is more than a music event. Our purpose is to bring attention to the importance of early music exposure for kids and the benefits of music in people’s daily lives. Detroit became a fountain of reverence in culture and humanities, in part, because of how the availability of music and arts education enriched its citizens. Every Detroit child deserves a quality music education, and Make Music Detroit is dedicated to supporting this goal.

Make Music Detroit is a 501(c)(3) and part of the Make Music Alliance. For more information, please visit www.makemusicdetroit.org.

FUZZ FEST 4 STARTS TOMORROW AT BLIND PIG ANN ARBOR

★FREE★ PRE-VIEW OF UNTOLD STORY OF TUPAC SHAKUR BIO-PIC

BE THE FIRST TO GET A GLIMPSE 

AT THE UNTOLD STORY OF TUPAC SHAKUR

DATE: THURSDAY, JUNE 1st

LOCATION: EMAGINE THEATER - 200 N. MAIN STREET - ROYAL OAK, MI 48067

OPEN: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM

ADMISSION: FREE

ABOUT ALL EYEZ ON ME:
All Eyez on Me, in theaters June 16, chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. Against insurmountable odds, Shakur rose to become a cultural icon whose career and persona both continue to grow long after his passing.

All Eyez On Me, helmed by Director Benny Boom, and produced by LT Hutton (Morgan Creek Productions), stars Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira, Kat Graham, Dominic L. Santana and Jamal Woolard. #ALLEYEZTOUR

RSVP:  FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

ll Eyez On Me, helmed by Director Benny Boom, and produced by LT Hutton (Morgan Creek Productions), stars Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira, Kat Graham, Dominic L. Santana and Jamal Woolard. #ALLEYEZTOUR

RADIO BIRDMAN: MY GANG DADDY-O! WRITTEN BY CHRIS KLONDIKE MASUAK

Chris Masuak May 21, 2017

Radio Birdman used to mean something...used to stand for something! The band attached concepts like “brotherhood”, “honour”, “loyalty”, and “integrity” to itself while slowly but surely disappearing into the kind of vanity driven and posturing black hole that we used to disdain.

I had just been instructed that I “was not invited to participate” in the upcoming tour to promote the band’s “definitive boxed set” and I was certainly not interested in facilitating the ongoing personal fantasy that the band’s history had been relegated to.

However, the filmmaker Jonathan Sequeira assured me that no one was calling the shots on this project except him! No one had the power of veto…there was no one (and the emphasis was on a particular “one”) running interference.

Descent Into The Maelstrom might just be the Radio Birdman doco we needed

So, I thought sure…if I’m going to make an asshole of myself at least I’ll be in good company!

Jonathan was circumspect. He never let on what the other guys had to say. He was letting us all reveal ourselves for who we were despite ourselves. He was assiduously objective.

It was crazy timing! Like I said…I had only just “officially” fallen out of favour. It was inevitable and a long time coming and a relief when it finally did. In that culture you’re a bully or you’re a sycophant or you’re simply not in the gang.

I didn’t miss it.

But, it reminded me that it was great being in the gang in the old days. We were comrades, fighting a real and (we truly believed) noble fight. We were different and my new teachers and role models and heroes were patient and tolerant and kind to their young and naïve bandmate.

We were champions of a music that no one else knew about. I learned about all this stuff through the guys and because of my more formal musical training, I had something to give back.

I think that this documentary will capture a sense of that early unity and the genuine excitement that we felt for our music.

I know that the audience felt that, too! I had been in the audience and knew what it was like to be swept along on a tsunami of sound and energy.

In later years I would meet and play with some of the guys who we admired and who we helped introduce into the culture. Ron and Scott from The Stooges, Wayne and Dennis from the MC5. God, I even played in a band that blew Iggy and his band offstage night after night on his first tour of Australia!

I related to them like normal people. It felt like we were friends at the time.

I don’t know if they ever realised how much Radio Birdman did for them. Even before Birdman, Warwick, Ron, and Younger were playing their music in The Rats. I mean…who did that in those days?!

I didn’t really hear any of that stuff until I started hanging out with the guys, even though I’d seen the Raw Power ads and reviews in Time magazine and seen The New York Dolls album covers in record stores back in Canada.

Chris Masuak Website

Back at the Birdman “clubhouse” we were always listening to The Stooges, The MC5, The New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones and surf music. The Blue Oyster Cult helped up the ante just that little bit!

It was a real education. We were filtering all that stuff through our collective hands and making new music in the process. Those were thrilling times!

And, we were a gang. No one else could join. Everyone wanted to.

We were a gang and an alchemical reaction. I think that the documentary will finally make that clear. I think everyone’s getting a bit tired of that tired lone gunman's attempts at re-imagining the band’s history.
Chris Masuak

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TOM GUERRA: TRAMPLING OUT THE VINTAGE

Detroit Music has influenced millions including East coast lead guitarist Tom Guerra (Mambo Sons). Chatted online with Tom last night and he released a new LP a few months back "Trampling Out the Vintage"...Click the links to listen to each track. We loved it! 

Popa Chubby with Tom Guerra

Creem Magazine was the bible that I grew up on, and some of my all time favorite guitarists are Jim McCarty and Steve Hunter (who both did time in Mitch Ryder's bands!). From a songwriting perspective, the great Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland who wrote many of Motown's greatest hits were huge influences. Tom Guerra

ABOUT THE ALBUM: “Trampling Out the Vintage” is the second solo album from Mambo Sons’ guitarist Tom Guerra. The title is from a line in “Battle Hymn of the Republic” aka “Glory Glory Hallelujah”), and refers to the old guitars and amps used in the recording process. Like “All of the Above” (Tom’s first solo disc), “Trampling…” is an old school rock and roll record, but one written for these times. Joining Tom in the studio this time was…

Kenny Aaronson and Tom Guerra

"Most recently, Tom has been busy writing new original music with world class bassist Kenny Aaronson (currently touring with The Yardbirds) for a future recording project. "

• Kenny Aaronson – Bass guitar
• Morgan Fisher and Matt Zeiner – Piano and Hammond
• Mike “Double Dog” Kosacek – Drums and percussion

Here’s a blurb about each track in Tom’s own words…

All Purpose Song – In the old days, we’d have to tune our radios to pull in a song, and then “static evolved into grace.” This is a sort of riff rocker about how music can mean so many different things to people.

Dr. Nick and Elvis – I had a dream that Elvis and his good friend Dr. Nick ran a church to help cure the type of ills detailed in the verses. While writing it, I heard Lemmy had passed, so I included a line in about “The Ace of Spades.”

Purchase Click the Icon Below

Trampling Out the Vintage

Tell the World – The conflict between being feeling guilty to be happy when the world is going to hell in a handbasket, set in a 2 minute 43 second pop song.

BYOB – I’ve read that the NYC rock scene had some great parties in the ‘70s, and this is how I imagined them to be...

Make Your Own Kind of Music – As a kid, I fell in love with Mama Cass’ version after seeing her sing this Mann/Weil pop ditty on the Sammy Davis Jr. show. It is re-imagined here as a rock and roll tune.

Love Will Forget You – The flip side of love, in a funk styled tune. Kenny’s bass sort of propels this song along.

Pay In Blood – My favorite guitarists have all covered Bob Dylan, so here’s my contribution to that list, re-arranged with a more “Stonesy” vibe in open G tuning.

Supermoon – I was thinking of David Bowie and his space themed songs when I wrote this, about a rare celestial happening (also called a blood moon) that according to legend is a sign of the End of Days. Side Note: The ’63 Strat I played on this was formerly owned by Howlin’ Wolf, and is now on loan to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame until 2018.

Grow On Your Own – I wrote this about a friend of mine who was afraid to be alone.

Hard to Love – A simple ballad I wrote on piano about a not-so-nice guy that leaves his bride at the altar and ultimately realizes he’s the problem.

TG with vintage Gibson Firebird

More About Tom:

Since the late 1970s, Guerra has been on the New England club circuit, playing blues, rock and roll and R&B acts. Influenced by Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Joe Walsh, Guerra first gained notoriety after being featured in Guitar Player (March 1991).

Over the years, Guerra has recorded or played with Rick Derringer, The Dirty Bones Blues Band', Max Weinberg, Mark Nomad, Sticky Fingers (for which he wrote and arranged original music for the group's debut CD), The Easton Brothers with Muddy Waters bassist Charles Calmese, Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson from The Allman Brothers Band, Second Son, Guitar Shorty, Adolph Jacobs of The Coasters, Kenny Aaronson, and The Delrays.

Since 1998, he has written for Vintage Guitar, and has endorsed Brian Moore Custom guitars, Colby and DST-Engineering amplifiers and a variety of guitar related effects.

Tom and Scott Lawson

In 1999, he formed Mambo Sons with singer Scott Lawson, based upon a songwriting partnership that dated back to the early 1980s. Their debut album, released in 1999, featured Rick Derringer. This twelve-song effort contained both new music as well as songs the two had originally written a decade before. Read Full Bio on WIKI