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THE RECORDING ACADEMY® PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS
WING® CELEBRATED 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH CAPACITY CROWD AT "SHAKEN
RATTLED & ROLLED" GRAMMY® WEEK EVENT HONORING T BONE BURNETT
Audio Industry Leaders
Gather for the Fourth Annual GRAMMY® Week Gala at The Village Recording
Studios in Los Angeles
The P&E Wing's
Annual Gathering Recognizes Achievements and Contributions of the Music
Industry's Production Community
SANTA
MONICA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2011) — On Wednesday, Feb. 9,
2011, The Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing®
kicked off GRAMMY® Week with its 10th anniversary
celebration event titled "Shaken Rattled &
Rolled" honoring legendary producer T Bone Burnett
for his commitment to excellence and ongoing support for the art and
craft of recorded music. GRAMMY-winning artists Elton John
and Leon Russell served as honorary event co-chairs
for the event, held at The Village Recording Studios
in Los Angeles. GRAMMY Week culminated with the 53rd Annual
GRAMMY Awards® on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011,
airing live on the CBS Television Network, at 8
p.m. ET/PT.
The
event was held with the support of leading companies within the musical
instrument and professional audio markets. Presenting sponsors included
The Village Studios, West L.A. Music and Westlake Professional Sales.
Co-sponsors included: Harman International brands AKG Acoustics, JBL,
and Lexicon; Honda Acura; ELS; Avid®; Music Marketing; Shure Incorporated;
Iron Mountain; Korg USA; PMC; Prism Sound; Mix Magazine; and Pro Sound
News. Participating sponsors included: Beat Kangz; Focusrite Novation
Inc.; Full Sail; Kurzweil; Nord; Sennheiser; and Ultimate Ears.
At
8 p.m., the doors to The Village were opened to a standing-room-only
crowd of top producers and engineers, artists, managers, manufacturers,
label personnel and other recording industry professionals. The evening's
presentations began with a welcome from The Village Studios CEO Jeff
Greenberg and P&E Wing Senior Executive Director Maureen Droney,
who thanked those in attendance and all members of the P&E Wing
for their dedication to the art and craft of recording. Droney acknowledged
co-chair Eric Schilling who, as co-music mixer for the GRAMMY Awards
Telecast was delayed by rehearsals and unable to make the presentation,
then introduced P&E Wing co-chair James McKinney who enumerated
P&E Wing initiatives and accomplishments over the previous decade.
After
congratulatory videos from honorary event co-chairs Elton John and Leon
Russell, Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow presented
the President's Merit Award to T Bone Burnett. Burnett, a longtime proponent
of the importance of sonic quality, spoke eloquently to the importance
of both sonic and artistic integrity in music. [Extended excerpts from
remarks included below.]
Droney
stated, "The point of this evening is to honor the people who work
behind the scenes, people who devote their lives to making not only
great recordings, but also great sounding recordings. It's the fourth
year for this amazing event, and it's particularly momentous this year
because we're celebrating a milestone anniversary with many of our founding
members in attendance. These days it takes a great deal of blood, sweat
and tears to keep a recording studio open, and we acknowledge everyone
who does that work, and makes all of our lives better by doing it. We
also have to commend, and express our gratitude to, our sponsors, who
make this event possible, and to Jeff Greenberg and The Village Studios
for hosting such a wonderful night."
Recording
Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow: "There is a well-known
saying, 'It takes a village.' All of us tonight know how true that statement
is. We know that it takes a recording studio like The Village, and the
skilled creators, producers and engineers like you, to make the kind
of recordings the world most loves and respects. We at The Recording
Academy know this well, which is why we are so proud of our P&E
Wing. They're an important resource for us, and we rely on their experience
and expertise all year round. Members of the Wing provide a nationwide
network, and they all work together to move many important initiatives
forward. P&E Wing members care about technology, quality, and most
of all, music. So tonight, we are elated to celebrate the 10th anniversary
of the P&E Wing, and all of the many important contributions, not
only to The Recording Academy, but indeed to our whole industry. We
are indebted to you, so thank you."
T Bone
Burnett: "We are people who care about music and care about sound,
and that fact makes this night all the more real to me. This evening
has great significance to me, because those of us who care about music
and care about sound are experiencing a shift. 'The market has spoken
– people want convenience, and don’t care about sound.'
Yes, the market has spoken, yet it will speak again. If someone doesn’t
care about sound, he doesn't care about music, and I don’t want
to make music for someone who doesn’t care about music. The record
business made a critical mistake when it began to make music for people
who don't like music. And it also made a strategic mistake when it rushed
to embrace digital technology. To me, digital doesn’t sound as
good as analog, and it never will. It’s an insane fact that, for
the last 15 years, movies, television and games have been releasing
their products with a higher level of audio than music releases. We
have to stop that. We as artists should not allow our work to be distributed
at such an incredibly low quality that it diminishes what we are doing
and reduces the value to zero."
Burnett
continued: "When we abandoned analog, we lost the chance to maintain
sovereignty over our own work, and we have to get that sovereignty back.
Fortunately, technology changes frequently, and it's changing at an
ever-increasing pace. We’re approaching the end of the era of
the MP3. Bandwidth has the will to make MP3s obsolete. And good riddance.
It's also an important tradition in the U.S. that we record a set of
songs from an artist, an album. It's one of our contributions to the
world. We have to continue this. It’s not something that we can
give away, and give over control of, so easily, to people who only care
about monetizing it. Marshall McLuhan said that a medium surrounds another
medium and turns the previous medium into an art form, as television
did with movies, and as the Internet has now done with television and
music. We now have to treat what we do as an art form. I look forward
to working with The Recording Academy and with all of you to arrive
at a new audio standard for the 21st century, and to explore the recording
arts in their highest potential. Recording has gone down the digital
road for some time, but that doesn't mean that the analog road does
not have amazing advances ahead for itself. We can't abandon the world
of analog sound. Guitars, drums and voices are analog. We are analog.
We live in an analog world. The digital world is an alien language,
great for word processing, but it can't carry waves beautifully and
eloquently. We know that. It's incumbent upon us to let the world know."
About
T Bone Burnett
A 10-time GRAMMY® winner and current three-time nominee, Burnett
has a body of work that spans 40 years. It includes producer credits
for artists such as Elvis Costello, Jakob Dylan, Elton John & Leon
Russell, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, k.d. lang, John Mellencamp,
Willie Nelson, Ralph Stanley, Cassandra Wilson, and countless other
great artists. Burnett has also produced the soundtracks for many film
projects including: Across The Universe; Cold Mountain; Crazy Heart;
O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Big Lebowski; and Walk The
Line. For more information about Burnett, visit www.tboneburnett.com.
Photo
File 1: PE_Shaken_Photo1.JPG
Photo Caption 1: Honoree T Bone Burnett on stage at The Recording Academy®
Producers & Engineers Wing® Event "Shaken Rattled &
Rolled."
Photo File 2: PE_Shaken_Photo2.JPG
Photo Caption 2: Pictured L-R: Recording Academy President/CEO Neil
Portnow, honoree and legendary producer T Bone Burnett, and Producers
& Engineers Wing® Sr. Executive Director Maureen Droney.
Photo File 3: PE_Shaken_Photo3.JPG
Photo Caption 3: Pictured L-R: Musician Ray LaMontagne, music producer
T Bone Burnett, singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, President/CEO
of The Recording Academy® Neil Portnow, and Lydia Rogers and Laura
Rogers from The Secret Sisters attend the Producers & Engineers
Wing® event "Shaken Rattled & Rolled" honoring T Bone
Burnett, held at The Village Studios on February 9, 2011, in Los Angeles,
California.
All Photos Courtesy of The Recording Academy®/Wireimage.com ©
2011
Established
in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers,
engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving
the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers.
Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized
award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music —
The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional
development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services
programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing
musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and
ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information
about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com.
For breaking news and exclusive content, join the organization's social
networks as a Facebook fan at www.facebook.com/thegrammys,
a Twitter follower at www.twitter.com/thegrammys,
and a YouTube channel subscriber at www.youtube.com/thegrammys.
Currently
more than 6,000 professionals comprise The Recording Academy Producers
& Engineers Wing, which was established for producers, engineers,
remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related creative and
technical professionals in the recording field. This organized voice
for the recording community addresses issues that affect the craft of
recorded music, including the development and implementation of new
technologies, technical guidelines and recommendations, and archiving
and preservation initiatives. For more information, please visit www.producersandengineers.com.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Robert Clyne/Clyne Media, Inc./615.662.1616/robert@clynemedia.com
Lisa Roy/Rock & Roy/310.463.1563/lisaroyaudio@mac.com
Jennifer Keppel/The Recording Academy/310.392.3777/jenniferk@grammy.com