Jenny Scheinman – Newport Jazz Festival, August 2012
No more Bill Frisell in the LiveJazzLounge
On August 20, 2013, the LiveJazzLounge received word from Bill Frisell’s representatives that Bill Frisell does not wish to have his work being promoted in this blog. The LiveJazzLounge respects this and wishes to go on record to this effect.
Within the next few days, content featuring Bill Frisell as a leader will no longer be freely accessible. The LiveJazzLounge regrets this and apologizes to its visitors.
For the sake of transparency, the transcript of the email exchanges that the LiveJazzLounge has had with Bill Frisell’s representatives is reproduced below in order to leave a record of Bill Frisell’s stance on this matter. Please read on and comment.
Peace, love and jazz
The LiveJazzLounge
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Al Evers
alevers@a-train.com
208.64.186.94
Submitted on 2013/08/20 at 00:22
This office represents Bill Frisell. Bill does not wish the recordings that you have of him as a leader to be distributed and asks that you immediately cease and desist any further distribution of them.
We thank you for your immediate cooperation.
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From: LiveJazzLounge
Subject: Bill Frisell
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 22:29:23 +0800
To: alevers@a-train.com
Dear Mr. Al Evers,
Thanks for your message.
The LiveJazzLounge blog is produced by a private individual that loves this music. It is a totally non-profit, commercial-free enterprise. In fact, it costs money. But it makes zero money. (And that’s how it should be.) LiveJazzLounge only posts about music that is not available commercially anywhere. For the most part, all posts are derived from material that is (or has been) publicly and freely available elsewhere. It is the policy of the LiveJazzLounge blog for any content to be immediately removed from the site as soon it becomes commercially available. (This has not yet happened though.) All posts contain an image of the latest or most related album released by the featured artist that is directly linked to a site (e.g. record label, Amazon, artist webpage) from which the album can be directly purchased. The LiveJazzLounge encourages in its webpage the purchase and support of the artists featured in the blog. See HERE.
The LiveJazzLounge is therefore a site that promotes the music and the artists, freely and without making any profit (unlike your own enterprise). It encourages people interested in the music to purchase the relevant recordings that are commercially available. This results in enhanced visibility and increased sales for the featured artists. Importantly, the links for purchase are solely provided for promotion of the artists work. The LiveJazzLounge makes no profit whatsoever from any purchase. We do know that the purchase links are widely used by the visitors of the website. (Although there is no record as to whether folks that click those links end up purchasing any recordings, of course.) The LiveJazzLounge blog has received the praise and gratitude of several of the featured artists.
You write that your office represents Bill Frisell. However, it is noted that your site at a-train.com does not feature Bill Frisell among the represented artists. It is also noted that Bill Frisell does not acknowledge you or your services among his representatives or managers in his own contact page.
The LiveJazzLounge blog does not wish to post information about Bill Frisell if Bill Frisell himself does not wish to have his work promoted in this blog. This is not clear at the present time. All posts featuring Bill Frisell as a leader will be removed as soon as bonafide and verifiable confirmation of Bill Frisell’s disapproval to this effect is received. When this happens, the posts will be replaced by a copy of our correspondence for the future record of Bill Frisell’s wishes on this matter.
Many thanks for contacting the blog.
Peace, love and jazz,
LiveJazzLounge
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From: Al Evers alevers@a-train.com
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 07:46:01 -0700
To: Lee Townsend ltown@songtone.com
Subject: Fwd: Bill Frisell
Lee,
Please take my email, send it to the LiveJazzLounge folks identify yourself and how you’ve authorized me to pursue this on your behalf and ask them to comply with my request.
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Subject: FW: Bill Frisell
From: Lee Townsend <ltown@songtone.com>
To: LiveJazzLounge
CC: Al Evers <alevers@a-train.com>
Thread-Topic: Bill Frisell
Dear Live Jazz folks,
Al Evers is authorized to act on Bill Frisell’s behalf in the capacity of his business affairs representative. Please cooperate with his requests. We appreciate your interest in Bill’s work, but as Al mentioned, Bill does not allow free distribution of his music.
With best wishes,
Lee Townsend
Songline/Tone Field Productions
510.528.1191 voice
510.528.1193 fax
ltown@songtone.com
http://www.songtone.com
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From: Al Evers alevers@a-train.com
Subject: Bill Frisell
Date: August 21, 2013 03:17:48 GMT+08:00
To: LiveJazzLounge
Dear Live Jazz Lounge-
As you can now determine, this office duly represents Bill Frisell- please comply with our request to remove all performances of Bill as a leader.
If you feel that you must replace those performances with Bill’s please say that although Bill appreciates the interest in his work, he does not allow free downloads or streams.
Thank you.
Al Evers
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