Posts Tagged ‘New Media Creative’

By Joe Klein

 

For the last couple of months, I have been posting stories about the new JACKSON 5 album I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS and the role my long-time friend RUSS TERRANA played in the project. Well, now, as tough as it is to admit, I only got PART of the story right!

Since the new album was released last week, I learned that only three of Russ’ mixes were included on the new album, and that he hadn’t mixed the entire album as I had believed and wrote about. What I did write was what I believed to be true and accurate at the time, based on information received direct from the sources involved in the project, including Russ himself.

Our first story about the new J5 album broke online in mid-September, while Russ was still in the midst of his mixing chores. A little over a week after he was done mixing, UME issued their initial  press release about the release of the album, to occur on November 10. The story released by the company had information about the twelve songs that would be included in the new album.

But, in what is a good example of just how crazy things are (and always have been) in the music business, there were changes made and events that occurred up until the last minute that lead to the information posted on this blog and elsewhere that turned out to be not correct once the new Jackson 5 album was released last week.

Russ first told me about the project back in late August. He had been contacted by HARRRY WEINGER, the producer of the album for the company who distributes all the catalog product for Motown Records, UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES. Weinger recruited Russ to mix down several recently-discovered Jackson 5 tracks from the Motown vaults for an anticipated November release. Russ and fellow engineer RICK VIERRA worked for about a month on the project, finishing up around the end of September, and UME made the first official announcement about the new album in early October.

It wasn’t until after the release of the entire album, on November 10 that I, and Russ, first learned of the final track listings and the sound mixing credits. My own blog stories were written assuming that all but one of the tracks on the album would be the new mixes that Russ performed (except for one song, called “Buttercup” which was a collaboration between the J5 and STEVIE WONDER). But the credits listed on the new album only indicated that Russ had mixed three of the tracks contained on the release! So, as surprised as I was, I needed to set the record straight once and for all, and correct the misstatements that were inadvertently made by me online. Last weekend, I set out to research all the facts, in an effort to get the story as correct and complete as possible to post online. Of course I spoke with Russ once again and, for the first time, spoke with Rick Vierra, the owner of the studio where the mixing process took place. I also contacted Harry Weinger for a bit of additional information and comment for this story as well. I even spoke with Russ’ daughter, CHRISTI TERRANA-HUNZIKER about this story. I took all the new information, threw in into my “writer’s crock” and boiled it all down for this post. Here’s how it all shakes out…..

At the end of August, Weinger sent Russ the digitally-encoded multi-track masters for four songs. Then, over the next couple of weeks, Weinger sent the masters for seven more songs to Russ for him to review and start performing mixes on. According to Weinger, “These were songs that were being considered for this, and possibly future J5 projects, that Russ could consider mixing down. I sent Russ some tracks for him to listen; they were not necessarily tracks for something. They could be. They might not.”

The mixing process for a project of this nature is pretty complex in this day and age of digital audio and video. The procedure for each song begins with the digital audio pre-production, processing, and preliminary mixing of the individual tracks. Next, the tracks are converted from digital back to the analog audio realm, where the final adjustments, tweaks and detailed mixes are performed. At the end stage the tracks are converted back to digital audio again. Whew! If you understood all this, you are better reader than I am a writer!

Immediately after receiving the first four (digitally encoded) multi-track masters from Weinger, Russ and Rick dove right in, and began the preliminary steps of the process. Just after all the technical wizardry got underway, the additional seven tracks were received, and  things started heating up fast.

The usual chain of requests for changes and revisions from the producer followed.  Russ and Rick then found themselves in a dizzying frenzy of multi-tasking that lasted for weeks. Rick comments, “We were working our butts off. man! One day we’re doing preliminary production and pre-mixing on one set of tracks and then moving on to the final mixing of others. At the next session, we’re doing revisions to the final mixes of certain tracks while still working on the preliminary steps on other songs. It was just crazy!”

I received a more seasoned assessment from Russ himself, who has been through it all so many times before. “Yeah, it reminded me of the times working for Motown so many years ago. The company was cranking out so much music back then. I’d come into the studio day after day, and do mix after mix. Lots of times it got so busy that I lost track of what projects I was working on! I’d just try to concentrate on the session or mix I was doing at the moment.”

Russ and Rick ended up doing the pre-production and preliminary mixing on all eleven tracks presented to them, and proceeded to work on “final mixes” on a total of nine of the tracks sent to them. “You know how it is, man,” Rick says. “The label wants changes to some mixes and then wants us to move on to new mixes. Certain tracks become priorities over others.” Some of the songs were, in fact, mixed several times, in attempts to get the mixes just right for Weinger. Russ performed eight final mixes on MAN’S TEMPTATION, one of the songs on the new J5 album. “They ended up using the fourth mix,” Rick recalls. “But you’ve got different people at the label with different ideas. So, it’s cool. All the tracks we worked on turned out really great, and I hope we have a chance to mix more.”

Of the nine completed mixes submitted to the label by Russ and Rick, three made the final cut to the new J5 album.The album included three other new mixes of old tracks, performed in by another very talented engineer named KEVIN REEVES, who currently works for Motown in New York City. Weinger remarks, “Kevin is the amazing Universal Mastering Studios engineer who studied the old mixes to get a handle on the three tracks he did (The Medley, and the alternates of Never Can Say Goodbye and Dancing Machine).”

The new Jackson 5 album has detailed credits listed on the insert to the CD package. Six of them were new mixes performed this year. Three of them were mixed by Russ, assisted by Rick. They are MAN’S TEMPTATION, LOVE COMES IN DIFFERENT FLAVORS and the lead single from the album, THAT’S HOW LOVE IS. The other three new mixes were done in Universal’s New York mastering studio by Kevin Reeves. Those tracks are NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, DANCIN’ MACHINE and the album’s opening track, a medley of I WANT YOU BACK/ABC/THE LOVE YOU SAVE. The remaining six tracks on the album are noted as being from the “original two-track masters.” But, what about the engineering credits for those mixes on the original maters? As Russ, himself, mixed most, if not all, of the early Jackson 5 hits, it’s likely that he mixed at least a few of these six original masters. But, as it turns out, detailed notes of recording session personnel were not always made at the old Motown sessions, and engineer notations were missing from all but one of the old masters included in the new J5 release.

“I was hoping to find evidence Russ did the other six originally, but the tapes don’t have the engineer notations.” says Weinger. “He did not do the original mix of LISTEN I’LL TELL YOU HOW back in 1969, as the engineer code on the tape box is not his. None of the other previously mixed tracks indicate a mix engineer.” Harry added, “I do recall that DEKE RICHARDS, the original head of The Corporation writing-producing team, mixed the version of ABC that’s on the album.”

I asked Russ about the other tracks, “Joe, I mixed thousands of songs for Motown! Probably hundreds of those were of the Jackson 5 and Michael. There’s no way I can remember the names of all the songs I mixed all those years ago.” Russ adds, “I usually do recall a song when I hear it and most of the time I’m able to tell if it is one of my mixes! But keep in mind that so much of the work was done thirty or even forty years ago, and memories do fade.”

Having known Russ for thirty-five of those years, I also know his children as well but lost touch with them many years ago. Recently, however, his daughter, Christi, and I reunited over the internet! Until this online reconnection, I never realized how proud Christi was of her father’s accomplishments. Christi and I have communicated quite a bit via email and phone over the last couple of months, and she chimed in on this story as follows: “Dad would be so into the project he was working on and like you said, he would not remember what he mixed the week before, because there was so much material plus A LOT of long hours….and that’s putting it mildly! That’s why I would spend so much time at the studio with him, just so I could learn from him.” She added, “Dad always did go from one project to the next and often felt that ‘daze,’ as you said, because he was always working in the studio! "

For Russ not to be able to remember all the titles of songs he worked on so many years later is certainly understandable. Still, there is a high probability that Russ mixed at least a couple of the other six songs on the new album. But I don’t want to go out on a limb again! Nor do I want to burden Russ with listening to the six tracks without engineer credits and then going on record stating that he did, or did not, mix them decades ago. (Russ had told me in a prior interview that he does remember working on the collaboration of the group with Stevie Wonder, but doesn’t remember the name of the song or songs.)

I previously posted stories about Russ and the new J5 album, including one on this blog on October 7, just after the official press release about the project was issued by UME and the first single from the album, which was mixed by Russ, became available online. That contained an exclusive interview with Russ, in which we talked about the mixing project for the first time.

In another article posted here, on October 22 (just after four additional tracks from the album were “previewed” online), I included my own first reaction to the just released tracks, assuming Russ had mixed all of them.

Then, on November 11, the day after the release of the new J5 album, I posted another article. This one was a story about the new Jackson 5 album, which included another short interview with Russ and more of my own feelings about all of the tracks on the new album. As the album had just been released on the day I wrote the post, I had not yet seen the physical CD package of the album (which includes detailed engineer credits on the insert inside CD case). Neither had Russ, for that matter. Harry Weinger states, “As you can imagine, and Russ will tell you, album track choices change all the time. This experience helped me to understand why the tracks were not on any any original J5 album to begin with. Plans, priorities, etc., change.”

So, as embarrassing as it is that I am now one more blogger who has posted inaccurate or erroneous information, I’ve reflected over the fact that this story now serves an apt example of the way events have transpired in the music business for decades. It’s always been very common for record labels to have artists record and mix more songs than are needed for an album. The extra tracks were then just put the on the shelf and held for a possible future release by the same act or, in some cases, included on a compilation package at some later date.

A few days ago I did ask Russ if Harry Weinger had told him which tracks that he had mixed made the final cut at any time before the new J5 album was released. He responded, “Around the time I was finishing up the whole batch of mixes, Harry sent me an email mentioning that he may be including some old, original J5 mixes on the new album, and wondered if they were mine. I don’t recall the names of the tracks he mentioned in that call.” Russ went on to say, “Once I finished the project a few days later, I moved on without giving it much more thought, just as I used to do at Motown a zillion times before.”

Russ and I laughed a bit (well, I was crying, actually) about me getting it all wrong, after being so careful to get it all RIGHT! “Don’t kick yourself over this one, Joe” Russ said, in an attempt to comfort me. “This kind of stuff happened all the time back in the day. Most times I never had a clue which tracks I recorded or mixed got included on albums or released as singles. It was only when they became big hits that I would realize I worked on them!”

I felt relieved and, at the same time, a bit grateful. Russ had just given me the hook line for the blog article I I had to post, for the sake of my own credibility. In the music business, SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE, EXCEPT THE STORY!

The only remaining mystery is the status of those six other tracks Russ completed mixes on and delivered to Harry Weinger. Then there are the two additional songs still residing in the data files at Rick’s Scots Valley studio that are yet to be completed. Does this hint at the possibility of future Motown releases from the Jackson 5 or Michael Jackson? Russ himself wouldn’t utter a word on that, and, frankly, I don’t blame them! Weinger commented, “If something pops, we’ll let you know—and all the better if Russ is involved.”

So, there it is. All that is left now is to offer my most heartfelt apologies to all for posting stories that were somewhat “less than factual.” I promise never to do it again—if I can help it!

I confess that this really was a tough post to write, and it is a huge relief to now have it behind me! Next, I’ll be posting a comprehensive and in-depth look at Russ Terrana’s storied career as the most accomplished sound recoding engineer in pop music history. It will even include another quote or two from Russ’ adoring daughter! This one’s been in the works for many weeks now and I had originally planned to post it over a week ago. But, let’s just say that another story presented itself in the meantime.

The big story about Russ is coming soon, right here on the NEW MEDIA CREATIVE company blog, and promises to be a great read! Meanwhile, enjoy this cool little video of The Jackson 5 performing a medley of their first two #1 hits mixed by Russ, I WANT YOU BACK and ABC, on The Ed Sullivan Show in !970!

 

By Joe Klein

***UPDATE NOVEMBER 17, 2009—New information we received since last week’s release of the new J5 album necessitates a change to a portion of the information included in this post and will be updated once all of the details are sorted out and confirmed with all the sources involved. The revised facts and corrections to the story will be included in a new post to this blog which will appear within the next couple of days!***

All of us at New Media Creative are very excited for our good friend RUSS TERRANA, the legendary Motown Records sound recording engineer who recorded and mixed no less than 92 NUMBER ONE RECORDS during his illustrious and decades-long career!

Yesterday marked the release of the first “new” JACKSON 5 album in decades! The album, called I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS is a collection of a dozen previously unreleased tracks recorded by The J5 back in their early years at Motown Records (1969-1970) at the same time they were recording their early smash hits at the label. The entire album was mixed down by Russ in this past September!

Russ mixed all of the early Jackson 5 hits while still working for Motown in their Detroit studios. The first Motown Jackson 5 tracks were recorded in Detroit in the summer of 1969, with producer BOBBY TAYLOR. At that time, BERRY GORDY began to migrate Motown to Hollywood (where they ultimately totally relocated by 1972.) He moved his hot new “boy band” out to L.A. and finished recording the first Jackson 5 album in a small studio in the West Hollywood area of L.A. Taylor produced a few more songs, and a new production team, dubbed THE CORPORATION by Berry Gordy, which was comprised of Gordy, FREDDIE PERREN, DEKE RICHARDS and ALPHONZO MIZELL, produced the final two songs for the album, one of which was the #1 smash I WANT YOU BACK, which propelled the group to instant stardom after its release.

Gordy was not happy with the original mixes of the album made in L.A. and sent the tapes back to Detroit to have his resident “mix-master” Russ remix the the album

Berry loved Russ’ new mixes and released them as the debut Jackson 5 album, DIANA ROSS PRESENTS THE JACKSON 5 in December of 1969. The album quickly rocketed up the charts, hitting  #1 on the R&B charts and #5 on the pop charts in the months to follow. The only single from that first album, I WANT YOU BACK, was itself a #1 smash that set the tone for a string of #1 hit singles and albums to follow (all of which were also mixed by Russ) and, the rest is, as they say “music history!”

Early this year, just as the celebration of Motown’s Fiftieth Anniversary had begun” and preparations for the fortieth anniversary of the first Jackson 5 releases were getting underway, Universal Music Enterprises started searching the Motown vaults and unearthed a stash of old Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 master tapes with the hopes of unearthing a few hidden gems to release this year.

The company hit pay dirt in the spring and started reviewing the newly-found masters to determine which were good candidates for a release late this year. Then came the sudden, tragic death of Michael in late June which, naturally gave the “lost tracks” new historical significance.

HARRY WEINGER, vice president of A&R for UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES, the company responsible for the creation and packaging of the Motown Records catalog of hits, passed along this information to me last month. “I started looking through J5 and MJ Motown masters earlier this year in anticipation of the J5’s 40th anniversary. Obviously, when we heard the news of Michael’s death, what was there got a bigger spotlight.”

In August, Weinger contacted Russ and asked him if he would be interested in mixing eleven newly discovered J5 tracks from 1970. It took Russ all of a few seconds to reply and, within a couple of weeks, the digital files of eleven old Jackson 5 multi-track masters were delivered to Russ. Russ then proceeded to meticulously mix down the old recordings in a state-of-the art digital recording facility located in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, owned by his good friend, RICK VIERRA.

It took Russ and Rick about a month to complete the eleven mixes, finishing the project at the end of September. Working with my partner Brett Bumeter, I first released the story online online about this exciting new release in mid-September, and UME made the “official “ announcement about the release of the new album three weeks later.

In a blog story we posted last month, Russ described the project as one of the most rewarding experiences of his professional life, and was moved by the process of mixing the tracks. “It really was a labor of love,” he remarked in the article.

The tracks sound great! Russ managed to capture and perfectly emulate the sounds he first molded and blended decades ago that sold tens of millions of singles and albums for the label. Listening to the just-released J5 tracks is, as Russ himself described the mixing process, “like stepping back in a time machine.”

The new J5 album, like all the projects Russ touched during his amazing career, is nothing short of a masterpiece, particularly from the standpoint of its impeccable vintage substance—and sound. It’s definitely worth a listen, and a purchase to complete any collection of early Jackson family classics!

I managed to reach Russ on the phone just as the album was becoming available yesterday and asked him about how he felt on this day of the release of the new Jackson 5 album

“It’s about time!” he quipped. “Seriously Joe, this really is exciting. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about the release of an album I have mixed!”

I asked Russ if there were any other thoughts or feeling he’d like to share about the project.

“It really was a thrill to work on this album. Mixing those tracks stirred up so many memories and emotions about all the time I spent working with Michael and his brothers. It really was a rewarding experience I’ll never forget.”

Last night, Russ sent me an awesome and memorable photo he took at a Motown Records company picnic in the early seventies. It’s a photo of a beaming young MICHAEL JACKSON holding his baby niece, STACEE BROWN, the daughter of his oldest sister, MAUREEN REILETTE “REBBIE” JACKSON. This particular photo has never been published, and captures a rare moment with Michael and demonstrates just how much he always loved children, even as a young teenager himself!

Kudos to my long-time friend Russ Terrana for another job well done, and his own vital role in yet one more piece of pop music history……It’s great to see that those good old “ears” are still working great!

Next week, we’ll be posting an article that is an extensive and comprehensive look at the career, accomplishments and techniques of the humble genius with more number one records to his credit than any other sound engineer in music history. It’s a story you won’t want to miss!

Russ added one last comment at the end of our phone call yesterday, a heartfelt message from one of the people so responsible for the creation of the early Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo hits. “This one’s from me to Michael, and, now, for the world.”

Well said,old friend!

By Joe Klein

The 2009 Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas has come and gone over a week ago. But since then, the articles, blogs, comments and videos streamed out in droves during a week that saw a great deal of other new media developments that emanated out of another event, the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, that, unfortunately, we weren’t able to attend.

As we have done with our blog posts of previous new media related events, we’ll do our best to provide our own recap, which is, for the most part, a mash-up of our own experiences and those of others that have been posted online since Blogworld ended.

New Media Creative associates BRETT BUMETER and I both arrived early for the conference, on Wednesday afternoon. After settling into our digs at the Las Vegas Hilton, we decided to skip dinner and opted instead to proceed directly to the pre opening night LAS VEGAS TWEETUP at the Hilton’s Tempo Lounge, which started at 6:00 PM. We also wanted to meetup with our old friend ANDY EVANS, who is the CEO and founder of London-based NET COMMUNITIES and PODCAST VOICES. By the time we arrived at about 7:00, our friend Andy had also arrived and it was great to see our old mate for the first time since 2007. The meetup was in full gear with at least a couple hundred early-arrivers already drinking and networking to the max. A few tweets reported that over 300 tweeps attended this lively gathering, which was hosted by the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. There were drawings for free rooms and dining certificates at the hotel.

We hung out at the LV Tweetup for a couple of hours, played a little blackjack with Andy and then moved on to an impromptu soiree at the Wynn Hotel that was tweeted out by Brian Solis and a few dozen of his closest friends. This get-together was supposed to be in one of the hotel’s dining rooms, but too many wild and crazy bloggers and tweeters showed up, so everyone was re-routed to a large outdoor balcony patio overlooking the hotel’s famed LAKE OF DREAMS which features a pretty incredible three dimensional multi-media show on a small man-made lake with a large cascading waterfall. After this event, it was definitely time to head back to the room, relax for a bit and then catch some ZZZZ’s before the Expo got officially underway.

Here are some pictures from Wednesday night’s Tweetup and party at the Wynn…..

TIM STREET, ANDY AND JOE	JOE, TED MURPHY AND BRETT

JOE, JULIE VASQUEZ AND BRETT	JOE AND NICOLE SIMON

ANDY, EWAN SPENCE AND JOE	TODD COCHRANE, BRIAN YUHNKEE AND JOE

WARREN WHITLOCK AND JOE	VICTOR CAJAIO AND JOE

ROBERT GAINES AND JOE	TED MURPHY AND ANDY

ANDY AND FRIENDS AT THE WYNN	CC CHAPMAN AND JOE AT THE WYNN

LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN	LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN

LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN	LAKE OF DREAMS AT THE WYNN

Here is a YouTube video shot a couple of years ago of ”Winnie,” a giant animated frog who sings during the Lake Of Dreams Show. We missed this portion of the show while we were at the party, so it was cool to find it online. The video appears to have been shot from the same patio balcony that Brian’s party gathered on. This attraction really is a “must see” at The Wynn Las Vegas!

Thursday, it was off to the races, with the first full day of Blogworld conferences. (The exhibit floor didn’t open until Friday.) We dropped in on several, while, at the same time, met up with old friends and networked with new ones. There was a pretty nice luncheon for the full access show attendees that day, which also featured a “mini-panel” discussion with the head of social media at the Ford Motor company, SCOTT MONTY and columnist and tech market blogger KARA SWISHER . Not too sure whether having this little panel while people were still eating was such a good idea, because people were pretty much into having lunch and chatting it up with others at their table and not all that into listening to a new media and blogging business discussion as they ate. Not to mention, it was pretty hard to hear. Still, Scott and Kara had some good points to make and case studies to pass on. Oh, and the baby greens salad, steak and asparagus lunch wasn’t bad! Kara posted an article and video interview with Scott Monty which you can view here and a separate story and video interview with Blogworld co-founders RICK CALVERT and DAVE CYNKIN which can be accessed here.

Our long time podcasting and blogging pal, MICHAEL BUTLER, also known as THE ROCK AND ROLL GEEK and director/host of the MEVIO MUSIC NETWORK, arrived from San Francisco just after lunch. We picked him up and returned to the LVCC just in time for the mid-afternoon keynote panel with web strategist JEREMIAH OWYANG, founder of IZEA TED MURPHY and “e-mom” WENDY PIERSALL. The panelists offered up a lot of dialogue and blogging, social media and the Federal Trade Commission’s new guidelines regarding endorsement disclosures. (The FTC story is one created quite a stir in the blogging community earlier this month, and was the subject of major news coverage the week before Blogworld.)

THE RNR GEEK

THE AFTERNOON KEYNOTE PANEL

Michael, Brett and I left the panel discussion a little more than half way through to wander the halls and drop in on a few other sessions going on at the Expo. Of course we bumped in to a variety of old friends and colleagues at every step of the way and I got Michael to shoot a few more photos.

JOE WITH THE BOURQUINS	LEWIS HOMES AND JOE	JOE AND CHRIS BROGAN

CHRIS HEUER AND JOE	MIKE MCALLEN AND BRETT	ROB WALCH AND JOE

We needed to end up at final event of Blogworld’s first day, the day’s closing keynote presented by new and social media guru CHRIS BROGAN. This was my first “announcer gig” of the conference for me, and my first public appearance as “New Media Joe.”  After a few opening remarks by Blogworld’s CEO and co-founder, Rick Calvert. I was introduced to the full room and “did my thing” with the Chris Brogan intro. Fortunately, I managed to get the crowd pretty worked up for what turned out to be a pretty insightful session by Chris. As tweets from the those in attendance (and others following the Blogworld stream online) flashed on screens behind him, Chris inspired those gathered for the keynote with his thoughts, observations and numerous tips for achieving blogging and social media success. The video of Chris Brogan’s entire closing keynote can be viewed by clicking here. Here are a few photos of the keynote, including one of good old New Media Joe introducing Chris to the adoring crowd!

“NEW MEDIA JOE’S” FIRST GIG!	CHRIS BROGAN INSPIRES THE CROWD

CHRIS BROGAN	MICHAEL AND CC AT THE KEYNOTE

After the closing keynote, we returned to the hotel for a recharge and to “freshen up” for the night that was just ahead, which was upon us in a flash. We picked up our pal Andy and headed over to the BELLAGIO Hotel, where we decided we would rather partake in their very elaborate buffet (which includes lots of sushi and seafood delights which we favor) so we didn’t have to worry about picking through “party food” later on. Besides, we were totally famished. After a pretty scrumptious feast, we proceeded on the THE BANK nightclub in the hotel, where the very hot TECHSET party, hosted once again this year by BRIAN SOLIS and STEPHANIE AGRESTA, was already raging on at full steam. Although the music was quite loud, and the crowd was pretty rowdy, everyone there seemed to be having a great time, including us! Here are some pix of the gang at Thursday night’s party at The Bank nightclub…..
 
 
 
 
 

We hung out at this fling for for a couple of hours before heading out and back to the Hilton. Our big mistake (or, more accurately, mine, as I was driving) was heading east on Flamingo Road from the strip to Paradise Road. Ongoing construction (which I thought had ended many weeks ago) still had the popular thoroughfare down to one lane in each direction and it took us well over half an hour to travel the three or so miles from the Bellagio Hotel back to the Hilton. Butler and I were exhausted by this time, but our mates, Brett and Andy still had lots of energy left and wanted to party some more! So, upon arriving at the Hilton, I opted to loan my car (and some spending cash) to the two “kids” so they could continue to revel through the night! God only knows (or maybe even he doesn’t know) what kind of escapades they chose to partake in until all hours!

Michael Butler and I proceeded to the Hilton’s Tempo Lounge (where the Wednesday night Tweetup took place) for a nightcap, and as fate would have it, ran into our good friend TODD COCHRANE and his own cohorts from RAWVOICE, who were in Vegas themselves to man their company booth and host their own Blogworld party on Friday night. We hung out with the Raw Voice crew for about an hour, and it was time to pack it in for the night. But, where were Andy and Brett, pray tell?

With the two main days of the Blogworld Expo still ahead of us, we knew that were was much more to come…..

In Part Two of our Blogworld Expo recap, we’ll share our experiences from the event’s two big days, Friday and Saturday. This “really big post” will also include loads of additional photos and links to numerous other reports that have been posted online over the last week Look for the next installment to be up and running right here, same company, same blog, in the next few days, if all goes as planned!

Until we post again, we’ll end this one with two pretty cool videos. First, the promo video for the 2009 Blogworld and New Media Expo posted online by the events organizers, Rick Calvert and Dave Cynkin…..

Next, my own personal favorite Blogworld promo video that I came across while poking around on YouTube! Great job and a great example of getting out the word using viral video!

 

 

 

By Joe Klein

Today, in an email sent out to fans that signed up a few weeks ago to hear the first new Jackson 5 track from the upcoming release “I Want You Back! Unreleased Maters,” Motown Records announced that four more tracks were available for “preview” online.

This brings a total of five tracks now unveiled to the public, of a total of twelve that are on the new album, which will be released on November 10. The project is being produced and marketed by UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES, the division of the Universal Music Group that is responsible for repackaging and marketing of most of UMG’s back catalog product, including the Motown label.

In an exclusive story we broke online back in mid-September (weeks before the “official” press release about the new album), and in a subsequent article we posted online, we wrote about our friend Russ Terrana, the engineer who mixed these newly-discovered “lost tracks” of the Jackson 5 over a month-long period from the end of August until the end of September.

(***UPDATED 10/23/09*** A press release about the new J5 songs was issued by UME and hit the wires early today and appeared on the Reuters news service a short time later.)

We also published three blog posts about the project here on our own company blog over the last month. In those articles, we mentioned how Russ worked tirelessly and diligently in a state-of the-art digital recording facility in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, owned by his good friend, RICK VIERRA. Russ and Rick employed a battery of digital tools and tricks to bring the 40 year-old analog audio master tapes back to life and recreate the very same sounds Russ achieved when mixing the original Jackson 5 hits forty years ago! The result is a collection of tracks that sound like clean, digitally re-mastered versions of J5 songs recorded and mixed back in 1970. But these tracks were, in fact, mixed down just last month!

Recreating the classic Motown “sound of the sixties” with such precision and accuracy is most definitely a feat to be marveled at, deserving of praise from the most experienced recording engineers, pop music historians and fans alike. That it was accomplished on the earliest recordings of the legendary Jackson brothers makes these new recordings that much more notable.

Of the tracks just made public, the song I’LL TRY YOU’LL TRY (MAYBE WE’LL ALL GET BY) is particularly worth a listen, as it features a truly “classic” Motown style and sound, eerily reminiscent of hits like I CAN’T GET NEXT TO YOU by The Temptations and the version of I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE recorded by Gladys Knight and The Pips. Russ mixed both of these classics as well back in the old Detroit Motown studios (before Motown moved their entire label operations and studios out to Hollywood in the early seventies).

Check out the sound of these two late sixties chart-toppers in the videos below, then listen to the new Jackson 5 track “I’ll Try You’ll Try” and you’ll hear the similarities! Of course the new J5 mixes perfectly emulate the sound of the early Jackson 5 hits. But by listening to these two other tracks, it becomes clear how Russ really did achieve a signature “Motown Sound” that carried over between artists and evolved through the years. The audio style and textures Russ molded in the sixties, seventies and eighties really did influence recorded pop music in many ways that few appreciate to this day!

You can hear the four new J5 tracks mixed by Russ online now, by clicking on the photo of the group at the top of this post, or click here to be taken directly to the page where you can preview the four new tracks and order the new album online.

As Motown’s chief recording engineer for over twenty years (up until the very end of Berry Gordy’s ownership of the label), Russ is credited for having mixed and recorded no less than an incredible 89 number one hit singles, hundreds of additional charted singles and many hundreds (if not thousands) more tracks from hundreds more Motown albums. This is a feat unequaled by any other pop music recording engineer in history, making Russ a true “living legend” in the history of pop music!

All of us at New Media Creative take our collective hats off to Russ Terrana! We plan to release an extensive follow-up article (or two) about about our gifted, old friend to coincide with the release of the new Jackson 5 album on November 10. So do stand by for that.

RUSS TERRANA AND RICK VIERRA IN ROCKER STUDIOS

Meanwhile, coming up next on the company blog, extensive coverage and commentary about last week’s Blogworld and New Media Expo and all the big new media and social networking news to emerge from that conference and the just-ended Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco. There’s so much to report that it’s taken us a couple of days just to gather all the information! Now that we’ve taken it all in, we’ll try to boil it all and make sense of it all here on the company blog over the next several days. As always, STAY TUNED!