BlueNews
Mika Pohjola nominated for the JPL Award
Published: July 3, 2009 – Category: Jazz
Pianist and composer Mika Pohjola has been nominated for the JPL 2009 Award. It is Pohjola's recent innovative work which has caught the attention of the JPL Awards jury. Pohjola's career as a jazz musician goes back to the early 1990's when he settled in New York. He is a respected composer with a long and vast career as a jazz pianist, including twenty-five albums as a bandleader, world tours and several commissioned works. The Finnish-born Mika Pohjola is a Steinway Distinguished Artist and the artistic director of BlueMusicGroup.com. His next album, Northern Sunrise, will be released on September 10.
Visit: mikapohjola.bluemusicgroup.com
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Marta Gómez ranked in Europe
Published: June 30, 2009 – Category: World
Colombian singer-songwriter Marta Gómez is ranked number seven on the European World Music Charts. The monthly contestants are selected from all over the world. The full ranking list is available at WMCE.de.
Visit: martagomez.bluemusicgroup.com
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One sheets and hiRes cover art is back
Published: June 8, 2009 – Category: Info
We have received many requests about the removed features. After last Friday's overall check, maintenance and minor upgrade, we were able to get hiRes (.tif) cover art back online. A download feature for artist pictures and album cover art (lo and hi res) was added as well. The earlier requested printer-friendly artist pages are up now. The printer-friendly album pages replace the PDF version. JDP
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Changes on the website
Published: May 29, 2009 – Category: Info
The following changes have taken place on BlueMusicGroup.com after the complete makeover of the BlueWebsite: Some free mp3s have been removed due to temporary bandwidth restrictions on our mirror server. The free mp3 songs have been more in-demand since February than we anticipated, and hence slowed down response time; The pdf bios are no longer offered; pdf one-sheets are available to press per request only; the free lyrics are temporarily removed, as we are preparing to sell a full range of products from CDs to sheet music. The lyrics will, however, be offered for free in connection with a sale in the future. If you have recently purchased a BlueAlbum and have not received the lyrics, contact us bluemusicgroup(&)bluemusicgroup.com as we are always flexible to meet customer requests.
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New website opens
Published: May 27, 2009 – Category: Info
BlueMusicGroup.com has launched a new website in cooperation with MacroElements Ltd. Many thanks to Alan Farrington for the terrific database functionality and to J.D. Page for his ongoing work with the layout and presentation. The new website will soon include features for listeners, in order to make online purchases directly from the site and customize listening habits according to personal preferences. Cooperation with many of the current distribution partners will continue in a normal fashion. Listeners with accounts on Amazon.com or Apple iTunes will continue to find their BlueFavorites there as well.
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An exotic troll museum
Published: May 5, 2009 – Category: Fairy & Holiday
An exotic troll, Moomin, created by late novelist and painter Tove Jansson (1914-2001) has its own exotic museum. It is located in a tiny town in Finland called Tampere. The moomintrolls are kind but witty in their character, and they serve as the role model for several generations there. Families in this sparsely populated country travel from far to meet Moomin. This museum has a wide appeal among international Moomin fans as well. The characters have received a particularly wide recognition among people in Japan, from where tourists make a stop at the museum on their excursion of the northern countries. BlueArtist Eeppi Ursin recently appeared at this museum, performing songs from her Moomin album in Finnish. The kids sang along on these intricate melodies. The songs are admittedly more advanced than the ones our kids are used to at home.
Visit: moominfin.bluemusicgroup.com
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Miguel Zenón will start teaching in Boston
Published: April 28, 2009 – Category: Jazz
Saxophonist Miguel Zenón will enter the academic environment as a teacher in the Fall 2009. He looks forward to being a part of the faculty at New England Conservatory in Boston. Miguel lived in Boston in the late 90's when he was a student at Berklee College of Music.
Visit: miguelzenon.bluemusicgroup.com
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Latin Jazz sells coffee
Published: April 10, 2009 – Category: Jazz
Latin jazz is the new signature for coffee, at least according to Nate Smith at coffeenate.com, who has branded his videos with BlueMusic by Fernando Huergo. The signature song on the videos is Fernando Huergo's The Reason We Don't Get Along from his recent release "Living These Times." The album features vocalists Luciana Souza and Grazyna Auguscik and saxophonists Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Ole Mathisen among others.
Visit: times.bluemusicgroup.com
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Blue in Green CDs
Published: April 7, 2009 – Category: Info
Environmental considerations have made a formidable impact on our future strategy. Global warming is a serious threat to our existence on earth, and we will contribute to fighting it by gradually moving to green CDs. BlueMusicGroup.com has occasionally been called a "download label." This is not entirely true. We do sell Compact Discs and will continue to do so. We will, however, slowly eliminate the need to ship the polycarbonate plastic CDs via postal mail, and instead do so via the internet. That means you will download full quality CDs and then burn or convert them for your portable music player. We are planning to start offering these and other features in September this year. You will download the entire BlueAlbum to your computer or iPhone, and then do anything with it, so long it meets the intellectual property regulations and the clauses of fair use. This also means you will no longer need to compromise on quality when buying from us. We will also offer mp3 downloads at a reduced price. BlueDownloads (CD and mp3) help the environment by saving energy and disposable batteries, air and water pollution. They reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since every physical CD needs to be shipped multiple times before reaching the end listener. We are committed to serve our increasing crowd of listeners with direct download formats, in uncompressed CD and various mp3 formats.
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Daughters of the Wolf nominated for the Nordic Council Prize
Published: April 2, 2009 – Category: World
Three sisters from the Aland Islands, The Daughters of the Wolf, have debuted as BlueArtists with their Saga. The trio is nominated to receive the prestigious Nordic Council Prize Of The Year. The sisters have sung Scandinavian ethnic music since childhood.
Visit: saga.bluemusicgroup.com
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All About Jazz features BlueAlbums
Published: March 31, 2009 – Category: Jazz
In March many BlueAlbums were featured on allaboutjazz.com, a large online jazz resource. Music by Fernando Huergo, Luciana Souza, Ben Monder, Bill McHenry, Mika Pohjola, Miguel Zenon, Alvaro Is Rojas, Julio Santillan and Marta Gomez were featured. Visitors to the site can receive a free mp3 "download of the day." BlueMusicGroup.com took part in this service as a part of its campaign to launch several new albums.
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iRealBook for the iPhone and the iMusician
Published: March 15, 2009 – Category: Jazz
We are excited to echo that bassist and composer Massimo Biolcati, who is also a BlueSideman, reports on his website that he has created an application called iRealBook for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This application contains chord symbols for hundreds of songs of jazz standards. You can additionally create and share your own original songs. Visit iRealBook.net or go directly to the iTunes App Store to get this application. While it's not a BlueProduct, we strongly support its paperless characteristics and therefore gladly inform about it.
Visit: massimobiolcati.bluemusicgroup.com
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Father and son organists open classical section
Published: February 18, 2009 – Category: Classical
We are proud to represent the legacy of notable Swedish organist Torvald Torén. All issues related to licensing and copyrights have now been solved with the heirs of Torén. Torén, who served a Stockholm church for decades, has left a considerable catalog of LPs and unreleased recordings, the reels were recently discovered by his son in a Stockholm basement. BlueMusicGroup.com has ordered a digital transfer of these valuable recordings, some of them made in live concerts. Torén was known to be a consummate executor at the keyboard, the musical quality on these recordings is of extraordinary artistic value. Unfortunately not all recordings have survived. Recordings of J.S.Bach and Swedish organist Otto Olsson made 1974-75 will open BlueClassics in March. A third album by Torén's son, Marcus Torén, will also be released this spring.
Visit: bachorgan.bluemusicgroup.com
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Broadway BlueMusic warms the arctic
Published: February 5, 2009 – Category: Jazz
Nashville-based singer Jill Walsh toured Sweden and Finland with her Broadway songs in the coldest winter season. Her interpretations were much appreciated by hundreds in the arctic Northern Europe. The repertoire of the tour consisted of the BlueSongs she released on her recent albums Two for the Road and the memorable New York concert Live Jazz on Broadway.
Visit: broadway.bluemusicgroup.com
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Leader for BlueArtists selected
Published: November 24, 2008 – Category: Info
Pianist and composer Mika Pohjola will be acting as the Artistic Director of BlueMusicGroup.com starting January 1, 2009. Pohjola will be leading licensing, repertoire, and musical direction of the entire label. Mika Pohjola was born in Finland, graduated Berklee College of Music and has lived in the New York since 1995. He has toured the United States, South America, Europe and Japan, and recorded many CDs since 1994. His experience as an artist with many skills related to record production is an important part of our future strategy.
Visit: mikapohjola.com
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