Billboard, February 7, 1998: Difference between revisions

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Starting off in a low-key way, Costello makes his Mercury bow with the sly new rocker "My Mood Swings," the first single from the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film ''The Big Lebowski'', due Feb. 24. But the first full-fledged Costello album will feature his much-touted collaboration with tunesmith Burt Bacharach and is due later this year on Mercury. Along with that release there may be a pendant project on PolyGram's Verve label that features jazz interpretations of those Costello/Bacharach compositions.  
Starting off in a low-key way, Costello makes his Mercury bow with the sly new rocker "My Mood Swings," the first single from the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film ''The Big Lebowski'', due Feb. 24. But the first full-fledged Costello album will feature his much-touted collaboration with tunesmith Burt Bacharach and is due later this year on Mercury. Along with that release there may be a pendant project on PolyGram's Verve label that features jazz interpretations of those Costello/Bacharach compositions.  


Next year may bring an encore of  
Next year may bring an encore of Costello's surprise '93 hit ''The Juliet Letters'' with the Brodsky Quartet, perhaps via Decca/London or a Philips Music Group imprint. Or, first perhaps, the song cycle he has been writing for mezzo-soprano Anne Sofle von Otter will see light on her label, Deutsche Grammophon.
 
In a way, it was von Otter who was the catalyst for Costello's PolyGram deal. He was in London to present ''Gramophone'' magazine's 1996 artist of the year award to the renowned Swedish singer — a longtime favorite of his — when he began a discussion with PolyGram Classics & Jan worldwide chief Chris Roberts. It was those initial, informal talks with Roberts — as well as a pleasant experience working with classical saxophonist John Harle on his Argo/Decca album ''Terror & Magnificence'' last year (''Billboard'', April 26, 1997) — that eventually yielded Costello's unique new arrangement.
 
"I'm not going to be flitting from label to label within PolyGram, flooding the market with all these different records," Costello says. "But this multifaceted deal does afford us an opportunity: to have the people who are the smartest about whatever kind of music that I may happen to make be the ones to help get the records across to the public that most wants to hear it."
 
One of the frustrating elements of Costello's Warner Bros. tenure, he says, was a dearth of cross-audience promotion. "Although the Brodskys and I reached a lot of people with ''The Juliet Letters'', we didn't dolt using the resources of Teldec, Warner's classical arm, at all," he says. 'That seems bizarre to me, because although it wasn't a classical record, strictly speaking, it obviously holds an appeal for those people who enjoy chamber music.
 
"Perhaps PolyGram is special in that there could be some real cooperation between arms of the company," Costello adds. "And there's diversity there, certainly. A company that has outlets to accommodate everything from Hanson to Cake, from Bryn Terfel to an Allen Ginsberg record, sounds like a place for me."
 
PolyGram has a relationship with composer John Barry for both soundtracks on Decca and jazz on Verve, and the company has done some joint Mercury/Verve marketing with Van Morrison. But Costello's deal with PolyGram is unprecedented in its scope and planning. To Roberts, the key to such a partnership is for the company to take its cues from the artist.
 
"A musician of the caliber of Elvis Costello isn't off base too often," Roberts says. "So our job is to follow his lead and give him the mechanism to best express himself, to make our corporate structure work for him, not against him."
 
 


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''Remainder of text to some.
 
''Remainder of text to come later.





Revision as of 15:45, 24 January 2014

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Billboard

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Costello signs unorthodox multi-label
PolyGram pact


Bradley Bambarger

In recent years, Elvis Costello has thought nothing of sliding from nouveau new wave on one album to neoclassical song cycle on another - and touching upon film scores, gospel, avant-cabaret, and Celtic balladry in between. What's boon to some can seem bane to others, though, and during his near-decade with Warner Bros., this polyglot ambition made Costello seem increasingly like a square peg in a round hole.

But now it seems as if Costello has found a home where he can make the most of his manifold aspirations. Last week he signed a bold new deal with PolyGram in the form of multi-album contracts with PolyGram Classics & Jazz and its pop sister, Mercury Records. The arrangement is designed to channel Costello's versatile output through whichever label seems best suited to market the music, under a single corporate umbrella.

Starting off in a low-key way, Costello makes his Mercury bow with the sly new rocker "My Mood Swings," the first single from the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, due Feb. 24. But the first full-fledged Costello album will feature his much-touted collaboration with tunesmith Burt Bacharach and is due later this year on Mercury. Along with that release there may be a pendant project on PolyGram's Verve label that features jazz interpretations of those Costello/Bacharach compositions.

Next year may bring an encore of Costello's surprise '93 hit The Juliet Letters with the Brodsky Quartet, perhaps via Decca/London or a Philips Music Group imprint. Or, first perhaps, the song cycle he has been writing for mezzo-soprano Anne Sofle von Otter will see light on her label, Deutsche Grammophon.

In a way, it was von Otter who was the catalyst for Costello's PolyGram deal. He was in London to present Gramophone magazine's 1996 artist of the year award to the renowned Swedish singer — a longtime favorite of his — when he began a discussion with PolyGram Classics & Jan worldwide chief Chris Roberts. It was those initial, informal talks with Roberts — as well as a pleasant experience working with classical saxophonist John Harle on his Argo/Decca album Terror & Magnificence last year (Billboard, April 26, 1997) — that eventually yielded Costello's unique new arrangement.

"I'm not going to be flitting from label to label within PolyGram, flooding the market with all these different records," Costello says. "But this multifaceted deal does afford us an opportunity: to have the people who are the smartest about whatever kind of music that I may happen to make be the ones to help get the records across to the public that most wants to hear it."

One of the frustrating elements of Costello's Warner Bros. tenure, he says, was a dearth of cross-audience promotion. "Although the Brodskys and I reached a lot of people with The Juliet Letters, we didn't dolt using the resources of Teldec, Warner's classical arm, at all," he says. 'That seems bizarre to me, because although it wasn't a classical record, strictly speaking, it obviously holds an appeal for those people who enjoy chamber music.

"Perhaps PolyGram is special in that there could be some real cooperation between arms of the company," Costello adds. "And there's diversity there, certainly. A company that has outlets to accommodate everything from Hanson to Cake, from Bryn Terfel to an Allen Ginsberg record, sounds like a place for me."

PolyGram has a relationship with composer John Barry for both soundtracks on Decca and jazz on Verve, and the company has done some joint Mercury/Verve marketing with Van Morrison. But Costello's deal with PolyGram is unprecedented in its scope and planning. To Roberts, the key to such a partnership is for the company to take its cues from the artist.

"A musician of the caliber of Elvis Costello isn't off base too often," Roberts says. "So our job is to follow his lead and give him the mechanism to best express himself, to make our corporate structure work for him, not against him."



Remainder of text to come later.


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Billboard, February 7, 1998


Bradley Bambarger reports on EC signing with PolyGram.


Paul Verna previews Long Journey Home.

Images

1998-02-07 Billboard cover.jpg
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1998-02-07 Billboard page 89 clipping.jpg
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1998-02-07 Billboard page 75 clipping.jpg
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