Reuters, BUDAPEST: He was the world's first musical superstar, a bigger-than-life personality with a wild mane of hair who seated adoring women around his piano onstage and had his own "mania" cult long before the Beatles.
This year marks the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, that demon of the keyboard who made women swoon, men gape and rivals jealous. But his music is often deemed second rate, and while his piano works and concertos are played, many casual listeners may know him best from Tom & Jerry television cartoons ("Cat Concerto").
"I think he's criticized too many times considering that he was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century," said pianist and conductor Zoltan Kocsis, music director of Hungary's National Philharmonic Orchestra and the country's Liszt year "ambassador."
Liszt, the grand man of Hungarian music, who in Hungary goes by the first name Ferenc, was born in the then-Hungarian, now Austrian, village of Doborjan, on Oct 22, 1811.
Kocsis, who has performed Liszt's music for decades and orchestrated some of his piano works, is perfectly aware of Liszt's reputation as a grandmaster flash of the 19th century.
Contemporary caricatures of him, legs akimbo, fingers flashing, have an echo today in the style of the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. The caricatures say "showman," not deep thinker.
"They say he didn't really write masterpieces, he didn't reach the height of Wagner or other composers, but I think a composer's value should be established from the peaks, not the valleys," Kocsis said.
This year, anyone with the remotest interest in Liszt will have every opportunity to test out Kocsis's, and other musicians', opinion that Liszt not only invented the modern piano recital, he also paved the way for Debussy, Bartok and even Wagner -- who, among other things, was Liszt's son in law.
"Liszt was ahead of his era at least by 30 years, so of course his contemporaries didn't really understand him," said pianist Jeno Jando, playing an excerpt from a Liszt rhapsody for Reuters Television on one of Liszt's own pianos in Budapest's Liszt Museum.
The museum is a treasure trove for anyone trying to understand the "Lisztomania" that gripped Europe, including a solid-silver piano music stand dripping with silvery violins and horns that is so over the top it could only have been Liszt's.
"He was an extraordinary personality, pointing forward, not only by developing piano technique to where Rachmaninov continued it but he used the piano as if it was a symphonic orchestra," Jando said.
WORLD LISZT DAY
From Seoul to Beijing to the concert halls of Europe and the U.S., this is the year to hear not only Liszt's famous Faust Symphony, Mephisto Waltz and Hungarian Rhapsodies, but also little-known church works and more rarely heard showpieces like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony he transcribed for the piano.
Hungary will re-enact a famous "piano duel" between Liszt and a rival (the rival was deemed the better pianist but the main woman judge concluded "there is only one Liszt").
There will be a dramatization of the life of this globe trotter, ladies' man (he fathered three children out of wedlock, with another man's wife), and religious mystic who in later life wore priestly robes and had a private audience with the Pope.
It all comes to a head on Oct 22, which the Hungarians have declared "World Liszt Day," an occasion for orchestras and choirs across the globe to perform his infrequently heard Christus Oratorio. Seoul and Beijing have signed up, as have a half dozen Hungarian cities, but anyone else is welcome.
"It's not closed," said Orsolya Erdody, a violinist and the office director of Hungarofest, the organizing body, who wants as many choruses and orchestras as possible to participate.
Erdody, a Liszt booster if ever there was one, says she originated a plan that could, if not entirely close off debate over Liszt's ambiguous heritage, at least make everyone flying to Hungary think he's Hungarian: name the airport after him.
"It's important to have something from the Liszt year which will be there, will remain for a long time, for our children and that's why I think it would be an important act to give the Budapest airport another name, which is even an international name, so everybody in the world knows Liszt Ferenc," she said.
There's more to this than simple national pride.
Liszt's father, though a German speaker, was Hungarian. But his mother was Austrian, his mother tongue was German, his best language was French, he never really learned Hungarian and his hometown became part of Austria after World War One and was renamed Raiding. To top it off, he is buried in Bayreuth, that musical temple to his son-in-law, the ultra-German Wagner.
"FOR US HE IS AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN"
"For us he was an Austro-Hungarian," said Sigrid Weiss, who handles media relations for the Liszt events in Raiding.
It's not a debate that the naming of one airport is going to resolve. Nor does it end with the famous quote from Liszt: "Je suis Hongrois" -- his way of saying "I am a Hungarian" in French, possibly because he didn't know the Hungarian.
What may prove the point, though, is Liszt's music.
"Liszt did not live in Hungary but he felt homesick all the time," said Petra Kiss, a piano student at Budapest's Liszt Academy. "As a Hungarian I feel he is close to me and I can understand his personality."
"He had a very diverse character, his late religious works that he wrote after his daughter died and his love left him are very different...so he must have been a very extreme person."
Alice Goodman on putting poetry into 'Nixon'
AP, NEW YORK: Alice Goodman well recalls the first time she heard the fateful words "Nixon in China."
After graduating from Harvard University in 1980, she had gone to Cambridge University in England to study literature and soon ran out of money. Then a call came from an ex-classmate, theatrical whiz kid Peter Sellars.
"He said he had come up with a title for an opera and would I be interested in writing the libretto," Goodman recounted in an interview at the Metropolitan Opera House, one day after the company performed the work for the first time. The production runs through Feb. 19, with the matinee on Saturday, Feb. 12, to be transmitted in HD to movie theaters around the world.
"I remember saying to Peter on the phone, 'Will this pay as much as a junior research fellowship?' And he said, 'If you want it to, Alice,' which of course meant, 'You should have asked for more, you silly woman.'"
Nearly 30 years later, details of that collaboration remain fresh in her memory. Also fresh are her lively sense of humor, her intellectual curiosity and her passionate feelings about theater and poetry.
"It really was the title that persuaded me to do it," she said. "'Nixon in China' struck my ear as a perfect title. It sounded right, it sounded clean, it sounded new, and it sounded like it belonged in the canon."
She describes her first meeting with John Adams, the composer Sellars had chosen to write the score, as "like a blind date." They met at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where Sellars was running a theater company.
Sellars said his decision to reach out to Goodman for the project stemmed as much from his instinct about her potential as from their experience working on a few theatrical projects at Harvard.
"When I first met her, I had a hunch that this woman was capable of great things," he said. "That's all it was — a hunch. Obviously a very good hunch."
Goodman and Adams agreed from the beginning that the opera would be heroic in nature and not portray Nixon as a caricature. In the 1980s, barely a decade after he had resigned the presidency in disgrace, that was not an obvious choice.
"People got very angry at the idea we would write an opera about Nixon at all," she said. "And then the fact that it wasn't going to be a satire was unthinkable."
The opera takes place during Nixon's 1972 visit to China, a momentous event that re-established ties broken off after the Communist revolution of 1949. But the opera, far from being merely a historical travelogue, resonates with the inner thoughts and feelings of the principal characters: Nixon and his wife Pat; Chairman Mao Tse-tung and his wife; and Premier Chou En-lai.
Once the structure had been worked out, Goodman returned to England and began turning out scenes on a portable typewriter, mailing the pages to Adams in California.
"He would write back with comments," she said. "One in particular I remember said, 'I can't take my four-wheel drive musical vehicle up the rocky road of your libretto.'" At another point he told her to cut 40 lines from a scene.
Adams recalls making the "four-wheel drive" joke , though not the particular scene that inspired it. "Both Alice and I had done something we cared very much about," he said, "and the idea of having to change something ... was always painful. I'm grateful Alice hung in there."
Goodman, who read voraciously growing up and started writing poetry at 17, is in her element when the subject turns to the wide-ranging and sometimes esoteric literary influences that show up in the libretto of "Nixon."
First of all, there was the decision to use rhymed octosyllabic couplets — stanzas in which each of the two lines contains eight syllables, as in the very opening words of the opera: "Soldiers of heaven hold the sky, The morning breaks and shadows fly."
"I knew John wanted couplets, and I chose octosyllabic, because it's the most flexible," she said. "Pushkin used them in 'Eugene Onegin.' Marvell wrote in them. Byron played with them. You can make them do so many things."
She drew from her reading for inspiration — and occasionally for direct quotation. When the Chorus intones the lines "Behemoth pulls the peasant's plow," it's an allusion to the Book of Job; when Mao warns that "Founders come first, then profiteers," it's a direct translation from a prose work by the French Socialist poet Charles Peguy; when Madame Mao defiantly proclaims, "Let me be a grain of sand in heaven's eye," it's what Goodman calls "a riff" on a poem by William Blake.
The opera, with Sellars directing, had its world premiere in Houston in 1972 and quickly traveled to several other opera houses. Initial reviews ranged from ecstatic to skeptical, but in recent years it has taken on the reputation of a modern classic.
Following "Nixon," the three collaborated on a second opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer," about the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking by Palestinians in which an elderly American Jew was killed. It premiered in 1991 but was promptly assailed by charges that it was anti-Semitic and glorified Palestinian terrorists. Several planned productions were canceled and the work has rarely been performed since, although the Opera Theater of St. Louis is presenting it next June.
"After 'Klinghoffer,' everything dried up," Goodman said.
But the period of composition was a momentous one for Goodman personally. Raised a Reform Jew in St. Paul, Minn., she had married English poet Geoffrey Hill, and while writing "Klinghoffer" she converted to Christianity. She was later ordained as an Anglican priest and is currently winding up a stint as chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Goodman, Adams and Sellars did eventually reunite years later to work on an opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. But Goodman dropped out of the project, and Sellars ended up writing the libretto. "Doctor Atomic" premiered in San Francisco in 2005 and has been performed at the Met and several other companies.
Now that "Nixon" has made it to the Met, is it possible the three will work together again? Goodman's reply is coy but encouraging: "Peter, John and I are just beginning to make eyes at one another across the table," she said.
After graduating from Harvard University in 1980, she had gone to Cambridge University in England to study literature and soon ran out of money. Then a call came from an ex-classmate, theatrical whiz kid Peter Sellars.
"He said he had come up with a title for an opera and would I be interested in writing the libretto," Goodman recounted in an interview at the Metropolitan Opera House, one day after the company performed the work for the first time. The production runs through Feb. 19, with the matinee on Saturday, Feb. 12, to be transmitted in HD to movie theaters around the world.
"I remember saying to Peter on the phone, 'Will this pay as much as a junior research fellowship?' And he said, 'If you want it to, Alice,' which of course meant, 'You should have asked for more, you silly woman.'"
Nearly 30 years later, details of that collaboration remain fresh in her memory. Also fresh are her lively sense of humor, her intellectual curiosity and her passionate feelings about theater and poetry.
"It really was the title that persuaded me to do it," she said. "'Nixon in China' struck my ear as a perfect title. It sounded right, it sounded clean, it sounded new, and it sounded like it belonged in the canon."
She describes her first meeting with John Adams, the composer Sellars had chosen to write the score, as "like a blind date." They met at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where Sellars was running a theater company.
Sellars said his decision to reach out to Goodman for the project stemmed as much from his instinct about her potential as from their experience working on a few theatrical projects at Harvard.
"When I first met her, I had a hunch that this woman was capable of great things," he said. "That's all it was — a hunch. Obviously a very good hunch."
Goodman and Adams agreed from the beginning that the opera would be heroic in nature and not portray Nixon as a caricature. In the 1980s, barely a decade after he had resigned the presidency in disgrace, that was not an obvious choice.
"People got very angry at the idea we would write an opera about Nixon at all," she said. "And then the fact that it wasn't going to be a satire was unthinkable."
The opera takes place during Nixon's 1972 visit to China, a momentous event that re-established ties broken off after the Communist revolution of 1949. But the opera, far from being merely a historical travelogue, resonates with the inner thoughts and feelings of the principal characters: Nixon and his wife Pat; Chairman Mao Tse-tung and his wife; and Premier Chou En-lai.
Once the structure had been worked out, Goodman returned to England and began turning out scenes on a portable typewriter, mailing the pages to Adams in California.
"He would write back with comments," she said. "One in particular I remember said, 'I can't take my four-wheel drive musical vehicle up the rocky road of your libretto.'" At another point he told her to cut 40 lines from a scene.
Adams recalls making the "four-wheel drive" joke , though not the particular scene that inspired it. "Both Alice and I had done something we cared very much about," he said, "and the idea of having to change something ... was always painful. I'm grateful Alice hung in there."
Goodman, who read voraciously growing up and started writing poetry at 17, is in her element when the subject turns to the wide-ranging and sometimes esoteric literary influences that show up in the libretto of "Nixon."
First of all, there was the decision to use rhymed octosyllabic couplets — stanzas in which each of the two lines contains eight syllables, as in the very opening words of the opera: "Soldiers of heaven hold the sky, The morning breaks and shadows fly."
"I knew John wanted couplets, and I chose octosyllabic, because it's the most flexible," she said. "Pushkin used them in 'Eugene Onegin.' Marvell wrote in them. Byron played with them. You can make them do so many things."
She drew from her reading for inspiration — and occasionally for direct quotation. When the Chorus intones the lines "Behemoth pulls the peasant's plow," it's an allusion to the Book of Job; when Mao warns that "Founders come first, then profiteers," it's a direct translation from a prose work by the French Socialist poet Charles Peguy; when Madame Mao defiantly proclaims, "Let me be a grain of sand in heaven's eye," it's what Goodman calls "a riff" on a poem by William Blake.
The opera, with Sellars directing, had its world premiere in Houston in 1972 and quickly traveled to several other opera houses. Initial reviews ranged from ecstatic to skeptical, but in recent years it has taken on the reputation of a modern classic.
Following "Nixon," the three collaborated on a second opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer," about the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking by Palestinians in which an elderly American Jew was killed. It premiered in 1991 but was promptly assailed by charges that it was anti-Semitic and glorified Palestinian terrorists. Several planned productions were canceled and the work has rarely been performed since, although the Opera Theater of St. Louis is presenting it next June.
"After 'Klinghoffer,' everything dried up," Goodman said.
But the period of composition was a momentous one for Goodman personally. Raised a Reform Jew in St. Paul, Minn., she had married English poet Geoffrey Hill, and while writing "Klinghoffer" she converted to Christianity. She was later ordained as an Anglican priest and is currently winding up a stint as chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Goodman, Adams and Sellars did eventually reunite years later to work on an opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. But Goodman dropped out of the project, and Sellars ended up writing the libretto. "Doctor Atomic" premiered in San Francisco in 2005 and has been performed at the Met and several other companies.
Now that "Nixon" has made it to the Met, is it possible the three will work together again? Goodman's reply is coy but encouraging: "Peter, John and I are just beginning to make eyes at one another across the table," she said.
'Candy Licker' singer Marvin Sease dead at 64
AP, VICKSBURG, Miss: Marvin Sease, a blues and soul singer known for his 1980s hit "Candy Licker," has died after a lengthy illness. He was 64.
James Jefferson, owner of Jefferson Funeral Home in Vicksburg, Miss., says Sease died Tuesday at River Region Medical Center.
Sease was born in Blacksville, S.C.
Brett Bonner, editor of Living Blues Magazine, says Sease started in gospel music in South Carolina before moving to New York and eventually playing rhythm and blues. Bonner says after "Candy Licker" was released in the late 1980s, Sease became popular for his live performances in the South. Bonner says many of Sease's song were too dirty for airplay.
Sease had been living in Vicksburg.
James Jefferson, owner of Jefferson Funeral Home in Vicksburg, Miss., says Sease died Tuesday at River Region Medical Center.
Sease was born in Blacksville, S.C.
Brett Bonner, editor of Living Blues Magazine, says Sease started in gospel music in South Carolina before moving to New York and eventually playing rhythm and blues. Bonner says after "Candy Licker" was released in the late 1980s, Sease became popular for his live performances in the South. Bonner says many of Sease's song were too dirty for airplay.
Sease had been living in Vicksburg.
Ja Rule's NY sentencing date to be set next month
AP, NEW YORK: Ja Rule is going to wait a bit longer before learning when he'll start his prison term in a New York gun case.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that changes are needed in a presentencing report for the platinum-selling rapper and actor.
He's now due back March 9 to cement a sentencing date.
Ja Rule pleaded guilty in December to attempted weapon possession. The 34-year-old performer's plea deal calls for a two-year prison term.
Police said they found a loaded gun in a rear door of his luxury sportscar when it was stopped for speeding after a July 2007 concert.
Ja Rule was nominated for a 2002 best rap album Grammy Award for "Pain is Love." His movie credits include 2001's "The Fast and the Furious" and 2003's "Scary Movie 3."
Prosecutors said Wednesday that changes are needed in a presentencing report for the platinum-selling rapper and actor.
He's now due back March 9 to cement a sentencing date.
Ja Rule pleaded guilty in December to attempted weapon possession. The 34-year-old performer's plea deal calls for a two-year prison term.
Police said they found a loaded gun in a rear door of his luxury sportscar when it was stopped for speeding after a July 2007 concert.
Ja Rule was nominated for a 2002 best rap album Grammy Award for "Pain is Love." His movie credits include 2001's "The Fast and the Furious" and 2003's "Scary Movie 3."
Chances narrow for U2 guitarist's Malibu proposal
AP, LOS ANGELES: A coastal development agency has recommended officials reject U2 guitarist The Edge's vision for a cluster of mansions that would look like nothing more than scattered leaves on a ridgeline overlooking Malibu.
The proposal by The Edge includes five homes ranging from 7,220 to 12,785 square feet to be built on a ridgeline in the Santa Monica Mountains. In a statement, the guitarist has said the mansions will be some of the most environmentally sensitive ever designed in the world.
But the pitch has not gotten far with neighboring residents, environmental groups and even the National Park Service, which raised concerns about biological and visual impacts in such sensitive habitat.
Staff for the California Coastal Commission, the coastal development agency whose permission is critical for the project to move forward, issued a final recommendation saying the board should reject the project at its meeting this week.
The proposal by The Edge includes five homes ranging from 7,220 to 12,785 square feet to be built on a ridgeline in the Santa Monica Mountains. In a statement, the guitarist has said the mansions will be some of the most environmentally sensitive ever designed in the world.
But the pitch has not gotten far with neighboring residents, environmental groups and even the National Park Service, which raised concerns about biological and visual impacts in such sensitive habitat.
Staff for the California Coastal Commission, the coastal development agency whose permission is critical for the project to move forward, issued a final recommendation saying the board should reject the project at its meeting this week.
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz divorcing in LA
AP, LOS ANGELES: Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are falling out of marriage.
Simpson filed for divorce from the Fall Out Boy bassist on Wednesday in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences, court records show. The singer and actress is seeking physical custody of their 2-year-old son.
"After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to file for divorce," the former couple said in a joint statement. "We remain friends and deeply committed and loving parents to our son Bronx, whose happiness and well-being remains our No. 1 priority."
Simpson married Wentz in May 2008 and her court filing does not indicate when the couple broke up.
She is the sister of performer Jessica Simpson and has released three albums and appeared in the reboot of the television series "Melrose Place."
Wentz's band, Fall Out Boy, said in early 2010 that is was taking a break, although the 31-year-old said at the time that the group's breakup had been blown out of proportion.
Simpson filed for divorce from the Fall Out Boy bassist on Wednesday in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences, court records show. The singer and actress is seeking physical custody of their 2-year-old son.
"After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to file for divorce," the former couple said in a joint statement. "We remain friends and deeply committed and loving parents to our son Bronx, whose happiness and well-being remains our No. 1 priority."
Simpson married Wentz in May 2008 and her court filing does not indicate when the couple broke up.
She is the sister of performer Jessica Simpson and has released three albums and appeared in the reboot of the television series "Melrose Place."
Wentz's band, Fall Out Boy, said in early 2010 that is was taking a break, although the 31-year-old said at the time that the group's breakup had been blown out of proportion.
Garth Brooks concerts raise $5M for flood relief
AP, NASHVILLE, Tenn: Garth Brooks' December concert series at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is expected to bring in $5 million for flood relief in Tennessee.
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee on Wednesday announced the expected total take from the nine sold-out concerts. The nonprofit already has received $4.35 million and the money is still coming in.
The proceeds will go to The River Fund, a charitable fund within the Community Foundation. The fund already has given out $1.4 million to Hands on Nashville, the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Community Resource Center.
Flood victims seeking help should call 211 to be directed to a case manager.
In a statement, Brooks said he was honored to have been able to help.
He said, "Playing music has never felt better or ever felt more right."
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee on Wednesday announced the expected total take from the nine sold-out concerts. The nonprofit already has received $4.35 million and the money is still coming in.
The proceeds will go to The River Fund, a charitable fund within the Community Foundation. The fund already has given out $1.4 million to Hands on Nashville, the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Community Resource Center.
Flood victims seeking help should call 211 to be directed to a case manager.
In a statement, Brooks said he was honored to have been able to help.
He said, "Playing music has never felt better or ever felt more right."
Lawsuits in Fla., England related to Elvis music
AP, MEMPHIS, Tenn: Elvis Presley Enterprises said it's suing men in Florida and England on claims of copyright infringement and illegal sale of a DVD and CD box set of recordings and footage of the singer's performances.
Meanwhile a third person, Europe-based DJ Spankox, is disputing a British court ruling against him in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the company.
The Memphis-based company said Wednesday it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Chancery Division of the High Court in England and Wales against Joseph Pirzada, alleging he is the source of the box set.
The set includes footage from a 1977 television special called "Elvis in Concert" and raw footage of Elvis in Omaha, Neb., and Rapid City, S.D., according to the company, which owns copyrights on those materials.
Company lawyers and computer experts, with authorization by the court, searched Pirzada's home Jan. 25 for evidence of the sale and distribution of the set.
An e-mail sent Wednesday to a recording company that lists Pirzada as its owner was not immediately returned.
On Feb. 2, Elvis Presley Enterprises sued Bud Glass, who has previously published an Elvis book and DVD series, on claims he illegally sold and distributed the Pirzada box set in the United States.
An e-mail sent to Bud Glass Productions on Tuesday afternoon was not immediately returned. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida.
Elvis Presley Enterprises has been known to go after entities it claims have violated its copyright and licenses. The company manages the dead singer's music publishing assets and a worldwide licensing program.
The company said it's considering filing additional lawsuits against others involved the manufacture, sale, and release of the box set and other bootlegs.
"Elvis Presley Enterprises will not tolerate infringement of our intellectual property rights," said Jack Soden, CEO of the corporation.
In more court action, Elvis Presley Enterprises said it won a judgment in the England and Wales chancery court against Agostino Carollo, known as DJ Spankox.
The company had sued Carollo, alleging breach of contract and trademark infringement related to a Christmas remix album that included the company's trademarks, logos and photos.
The DJ and the company had entered into an agreement in 2008 on Carollo's first album of Elvis remixes and a follow-up album, but the company told Carollo in 2009 that it would not support nor endorse the Christmas remix album.
The British court on Feb. 1 barred Carollo from infringing on the company's trademarks and ordered him to pay damages and attorney's fees.
Carollo denies wrongdoing and says he is working to get the ruling discharged.
"They filed the Claim out of nowhere, without even trying to contact me with one single letter, accusing me of infringing EPE's copyright when they instead knew that I didn't infringe anything," he told The Associated Press in an e-mail to the AP's London bureau.
Carollo criticized Elvis Presley Enterprises for filing the lawsuit in England, when he lives in Italy.
He also said the recently released "Viva Elvis-The Album," which features reworked versions of Elvis songs, was inspired by one of his own remix albums.
"It felt like a friend had stabbed me in the back," Carollo said.
Meanwhile a third person, Europe-based DJ Spankox, is disputing a British court ruling against him in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the company.
The Memphis-based company said Wednesday it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Chancery Division of the High Court in England and Wales against Joseph Pirzada, alleging he is the source of the box set.
The set includes footage from a 1977 television special called "Elvis in Concert" and raw footage of Elvis in Omaha, Neb., and Rapid City, S.D., according to the company, which owns copyrights on those materials.
Company lawyers and computer experts, with authorization by the court, searched Pirzada's home Jan. 25 for evidence of the sale and distribution of the set.
An e-mail sent Wednesday to a recording company that lists Pirzada as its owner was not immediately returned.
On Feb. 2, Elvis Presley Enterprises sued Bud Glass, who has previously published an Elvis book and DVD series, on claims he illegally sold and distributed the Pirzada box set in the United States.
An e-mail sent to Bud Glass Productions on Tuesday afternoon was not immediately returned. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida.
Elvis Presley Enterprises has been known to go after entities it claims have violated its copyright and licenses. The company manages the dead singer's music publishing assets and a worldwide licensing program.
The company said it's considering filing additional lawsuits against others involved the manufacture, sale, and release of the box set and other bootlegs.
"Elvis Presley Enterprises will not tolerate infringement of our intellectual property rights," said Jack Soden, CEO of the corporation.
In more court action, Elvis Presley Enterprises said it won a judgment in the England and Wales chancery court against Agostino Carollo, known as DJ Spankox.
The company had sued Carollo, alleging breach of contract and trademark infringement related to a Christmas remix album that included the company's trademarks, logos and photos.
The DJ and the company had entered into an agreement in 2008 on Carollo's first album of Elvis remixes and a follow-up album, but the company told Carollo in 2009 that it would not support nor endorse the Christmas remix album.
The British court on Feb. 1 barred Carollo from infringing on the company's trademarks and ordered him to pay damages and attorney's fees.
Carollo denies wrongdoing and says he is working to get the ruling discharged.
"They filed the Claim out of nowhere, without even trying to contact me with one single letter, accusing me of infringing EPE's copyright when they instead knew that I didn't infringe anything," he told The Associated Press in an e-mail to the AP's London bureau.
Carollo criticized Elvis Presley Enterprises for filing the lawsuit in England, when he lives in Italy.
He also said the recently released "Viva Elvis-The Album," which features reworked versions of Elvis songs, was inspired by one of his own remix albums.
"It felt like a friend had stabbed me in the back," Carollo said.
Striking Detroit musicians reject symphony offer
AP, DETROIT: Striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians rejected the latest contract proposal from orchestra management, but the disagreement has narrowed, a spokesman for the musicians said Wednesday.
Musicians spokesman Haden McKay said there could be an agreement if management could find a way to direct $2 million in donor-restricted funds to the musicians. He said the money is intended for community outreach programs.
"We're not that far apart," he said.
Management officials submitted the proposal last Friday, and it included a stipulation that the musicians must respond by Friday.
Management spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said a statement was expected to be released later Wednesday.
Teams representing management and musicians met in late January for the first time since November, but those talks collapsed as they accused each other of not adhering to a three-year, $36 million proposal made in December by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.
The walkout began Oct. 4.
A statement on the musicians' website posted Wednesday said talks had been moving "in a positive direction" but the last major hurdle is related to a $2 million piece of the proposal designated for community outreach projects. Musicians say the terms of that part of the deal are too restrictive, and talks broke down Monday after about eight hours of bargaining.
Symphony management declared an impasse Sept. 1 and began implementing a 33 percent base pay cut for orchestra veterans, from $104,650 to $70,200 in the first year. Musicians had offered a 22 percent reduction in the first year to $82,000, which would increase in subsequent years.
Orchestra President and Chief Executive Anne Parsons said last week that the strike, which threatens to end the season if a settlement isn't soon reached, isn't the only financial strain on the organization. Symphony leaders are trying to renegotiate a $54 million loan for the Max M. Fisher Music Center. That debt was part of a bond due in 2030 but a bank group paid bondholders and the debt must now be paid by the orchestra.
Musicians spokesman Haden McKay said there could be an agreement if management could find a way to direct $2 million in donor-restricted funds to the musicians. He said the money is intended for community outreach programs.
"We're not that far apart," he said.
Management officials submitted the proposal last Friday, and it included a stipulation that the musicians must respond by Friday.
Management spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said a statement was expected to be released later Wednesday.
Teams representing management and musicians met in late January for the first time since November, but those talks collapsed as they accused each other of not adhering to a three-year, $36 million proposal made in December by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.
The walkout began Oct. 4.
A statement on the musicians' website posted Wednesday said talks had been moving "in a positive direction" but the last major hurdle is related to a $2 million piece of the proposal designated for community outreach projects. Musicians say the terms of that part of the deal are too restrictive, and talks broke down Monday after about eight hours of bargaining.
Symphony management declared an impasse Sept. 1 and began implementing a 33 percent base pay cut for orchestra veterans, from $104,650 to $70,200 in the first year. Musicians had offered a 22 percent reduction in the first year to $82,000, which would increase in subsequent years.
Orchestra President and Chief Executive Anne Parsons said last week that the strike, which threatens to end the season if a settlement isn't soon reached, isn't the only financial strain on the organization. Symphony leaders are trying to renegotiate a $54 million loan for the Max M. Fisher Music Center. That debt was part of a bond due in 2030 but a bank group paid bondholders and the debt must now be paid by the orchestra.
Magic Johnson, Yucaipa invest $10M-plus in Vibe
AP, LOS ANGELES: Magic Johnson is playing point again, this time as chairman of Vibe Holdings, the owner of the magazines Vibe and Uptown and the "Soul Train" TV show.
The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar said Wednesday that he and partner Ron Burkle have invested more than $10 million in the company, and are planning to make it the starter in a fledgling urban-media empire.
"This is just the beginning of what we're going to start buying," said 51-year-old Johnson, a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, in an interview. "We're looking to roll up other urban-based brands up under these three. We're out there looking for deals as we speak."
Johnson said that the Vibe business was running at about break even following a reorganization that began in 2009.
In June 2009, the hip-hop and urban culture magazine founded in 1993 by producer Quincy Jones shut down amid a sharp decline in advertising revenue. It was bought by private equity fund InterMedia Partners, which is still an investor, and saw its assets merged with Uptown, a lifestyle magazine for affluent African-Americans, and interactive sales firm Blackrock Digital.
Vibe Holdings now represents TV shows, publications and 25 websites such as BallerStatus.com, Vibe.com and AllHipHop.com that reach 19 million people a month.
Johnson said an equity fund he is invested in with Burkle's The Yucaipa Cos. has $550 million to put into film and TV properties and other brands.
He said he plans to find a Saturday morning time slot to bring "Soul Train," a syndicated variety show that ran from 1971 to 2006, back to TV. It is already making money from DVD box sets and on-demand orders of its 1,100 one-hour episodes.
LOS ANGELES – Magic Johnson is playing point again, this time as chairman of Vibe Holdings, the owner of the magazines Vibe and Uptown and the "Soul Train" TV show.
The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar said Wednesday that he and partner Ron Burkle have invested more than $10 million in the company, and are planning to make it the starter in a fledgling urban-media empire.
"This is just the beginning of what we're going to start buying," said 51-year-old Johnson, a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, in an interview. "We're looking to roll up other urban-based brands up under these three. We're out there looking for deals as we speak."
Johnson said that the Vibe business was running at about break even following a reorganization that began in 2009.
In June 2009, the hip-hop and urban culture magazine founded in 1993 by producer Quincy Jones shut down amid a sharp decline in advertising revenue. It was bought by private equity fund InterMedia Partners, which is still an investor, and saw its assets merged with Uptown, a lifestyle magazine for affluent African-Americans, and interactive sales firm Blackrock Digital.
Vibe Holdings now represents TV shows, publications and 25 websites such as BallerStatus.com, Vibe.com and AllHipHop.com that reach 19 million people a month.
Johnson said an equity fund he is invested in with Burkle's The Yucaipa Cos. has $550 million to put into film and TV properties and other brands.
He said he plans to find a Saturday morning time slot to bring "Soul Train," a syndicated variety show that ran from 1971 to 2006, back to TV. It is already making money from DVD box sets and on-demand orders of its 1,100 one-hour episodes.
The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar said Wednesday that he and partner Ron Burkle have invested more than $10 million in the company, and are planning to make it the starter in a fledgling urban-media empire.
"This is just the beginning of what we're going to start buying," said 51-year-old Johnson, a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, in an interview. "We're looking to roll up other urban-based brands up under these three. We're out there looking for deals as we speak."
Johnson said that the Vibe business was running at about break even following a reorganization that began in 2009.
In June 2009, the hip-hop and urban culture magazine founded in 1993 by producer Quincy Jones shut down amid a sharp decline in advertising revenue. It was bought by private equity fund InterMedia Partners, which is still an investor, and saw its assets merged with Uptown, a lifestyle magazine for affluent African-Americans, and interactive sales firm Blackrock Digital.
Vibe Holdings now represents TV shows, publications and 25 websites such as BallerStatus.com, Vibe.com and AllHipHop.com that reach 19 million people a month.
Johnson said an equity fund he is invested in with Burkle's The Yucaipa Cos. has $550 million to put into film and TV properties and other brands.
He said he plans to find a Saturday morning time slot to bring "Soul Train," a syndicated variety show that ran from 1971 to 2006, back to TV. It is already making money from DVD box sets and on-demand orders of its 1,100 one-hour episodes.
LOS ANGELES – Magic Johnson is playing point again, this time as chairman of Vibe Holdings, the owner of the magazines Vibe and Uptown and the "Soul Train" TV show.
The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar said Wednesday that he and partner Ron Burkle have invested more than $10 million in the company, and are planning to make it the starter in a fledgling urban-media empire.
"This is just the beginning of what we're going to start buying," said 51-year-old Johnson, a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player, in an interview. "We're looking to roll up other urban-based brands up under these three. We're out there looking for deals as we speak."
Johnson said that the Vibe business was running at about break even following a reorganization that began in 2009.
In June 2009, the hip-hop and urban culture magazine founded in 1993 by producer Quincy Jones shut down amid a sharp decline in advertising revenue. It was bought by private equity fund InterMedia Partners, which is still an investor, and saw its assets merged with Uptown, a lifestyle magazine for affluent African-Americans, and interactive sales firm Blackrock Digital.
Vibe Holdings now represents TV shows, publications and 25 websites such as BallerStatus.com, Vibe.com and AllHipHop.com that reach 19 million people a month.
Johnson said an equity fund he is invested in with Burkle's The Yucaipa Cos. has $550 million to put into film and TV properties and other brands.
He said he plans to find a Saturday morning time slot to bring "Soul Train," a syndicated variety show that ran from 1971 to 2006, back to TV. It is already making money from DVD box sets and on-demand orders of its 1,100 one-hour episodes.
Nicki Minaj finally hits No. 1 on U.S. album chart
Reuters, LOS ANGELES: Nicki Minaj claimed the top spot on the U.S. pop album chart for the first time on Wednesday as her debut release jumped two places in its 11th week, and coincidentally passed the one million mark at the same time.
The flamboyant R&B singer sold 45,000 copies of "Pink Friday" during the week ended February 6, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.
The album debuted at No. 2 following its November 22 release, and has spent its entire chart life in the top 10; its tally rose to 1.035 million copies.
Minaj's patient wait for her turn at No. 1 is a rare sight. For the most part, an album is No. 1 only because it debuted there. It's unusual for a set to climb to the top. Case in point: in 2010, there were 30 albums that hit No. 1, but just one -- Lil Wayne's "I Am Not A Human Being" -- actually rose to the top. Wayne debuted at No. 2 purely on download sales, tumbled to No. 16 the following week, and rose to No. 1 t he next once the CD version went on sale.
Before "Friday's" ascent to the top, the last album to take longer to rise to No. 1 was in April 2005, 2005, when Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" finally hit the top in its 25th week bolstered by its Grammys success.
Minaj's gain could be attributed to sustained impact from her "Saturday Night Live" guest turn on January 30, in addition to some surprising viral love from Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. The latter ladies can be found -- separately -- on YouTube rapping to the "Pink Friday" cut "Super Bass." The two most popular clips have racked up more than 2 million views in the five days they've been online.
Last week's No. 1, Amos Lee's "Mission Bell," slid to No. 26 with 15,000.
Christian rock band Red debuted at No. 2 with its "Until We Have Faces," which sold 43,000 copies -- a bigger start than the 39,000 that greeted its second album, 2009's "Innocence & Instinct," upon its No. 15 entry.
Ricky Martin returned to the Billboard 200 for the first time in about six years with the mostly-Spanish studio set "Musica + Alma + Sexo," which started at No. 3 with 32,000. His last effort, 2005's "Life," began at No. 6 with 73,000. "Musica" is the highest charting primarily-Spanish language set since Selena's No. 1 album "Dreaming Of You" spent its first three chart weeks lodged in the top three in 1995.
At No. 4, Bruno Mars' "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" rose one slot (32,000), while Rihanna's "Loud" jumped eight to No. 5 (29,000; up 15%). "Kidz Bop 19" was up three to No. 6 (28,000), Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" jumped five to No. 7 (27,000), and Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" slipped one to No. 8 (27,000 also).
Closing out the top 10 were Pink's "Greatest Hits ... So Far!!!" up two to No. 9 (25,000), and Eminem's "Recovery" up four to No. 10 (just under 25,000). It's a tight top 10 -- Nos. 3-10 are separated by just 6,696 units.
Overall album sales totaled 5.5 million units, up 4% compared to previous week, but down 18% compared to the comparable sales week of 2010. Year to date sales stand at 26.3 million, down 14% compared to the same total at this point last year.
The flamboyant R&B singer sold 45,000 copies of "Pink Friday" during the week ended February 6, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.
The album debuted at No. 2 following its November 22 release, and has spent its entire chart life in the top 10; its tally rose to 1.035 million copies.
Minaj's patient wait for her turn at No. 1 is a rare sight. For the most part, an album is No. 1 only because it debuted there. It's unusual for a set to climb to the top. Case in point: in 2010, there were 30 albums that hit No. 1, but just one -- Lil Wayne's "I Am Not A Human Being" -- actually rose to the top. Wayne debuted at No. 2 purely on download sales, tumbled to No. 16 the following week, and rose to No. 1 t he next once the CD version went on sale.
Before "Friday's" ascent to the top, the last album to take longer to rise to No. 1 was in April 2005, 2005, when Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" finally hit the top in its 25th week bolstered by its Grammys success.
Minaj's gain could be attributed to sustained impact from her "Saturday Night Live" guest turn on January 30, in addition to some surprising viral love from Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. The latter ladies can be found -- separately -- on YouTube rapping to the "Pink Friday" cut "Super Bass." The two most popular clips have racked up more than 2 million views in the five days they've been online.
Last week's No. 1, Amos Lee's "Mission Bell," slid to No. 26 with 15,000.
Christian rock band Red debuted at No. 2 with its "Until We Have Faces," which sold 43,000 copies -- a bigger start than the 39,000 that greeted its second album, 2009's "Innocence & Instinct," upon its No. 15 entry.
Ricky Martin returned to the Billboard 200 for the first time in about six years with the mostly-Spanish studio set "Musica + Alma + Sexo," which started at No. 3 with 32,000. His last effort, 2005's "Life," began at No. 6 with 73,000. "Musica" is the highest charting primarily-Spanish language set since Selena's No. 1 album "Dreaming Of You" spent its first three chart weeks lodged in the top three in 1995.
At No. 4, Bruno Mars' "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" rose one slot (32,000), while Rihanna's "Loud" jumped eight to No. 5 (29,000; up 15%). "Kidz Bop 19" was up three to No. 6 (28,000), Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" jumped five to No. 7 (27,000), and Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" slipped one to No. 8 (27,000 also).
Closing out the top 10 were Pink's "Greatest Hits ... So Far!!!" up two to No. 9 (25,000), and Eminem's "Recovery" up four to No. 10 (just under 25,000). It's a tight top 10 -- Nos. 3-10 are separated by just 6,696 units.
Overall album sales totaled 5.5 million units, up 4% compared to previous week, but down 18% compared to the comparable sales week of 2010. Year to date sales stand at 26.3 million, down 14% compared to the same total at this point last year.
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