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Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was purchased by BMG through a series of buyouts from 1992 through 1996. It is now a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, following Sony's acquisition of BMG Music in 2007. Private Music, also a subsidiary of BMG, has issued some back-catalog releases under the Windham Hill Records imprint. Since the Sony merger in 2007, Windham Hill has released no new material but reissues albums and compilations as part of Sony's Legacy Recordings brand. Origin In 1975, William Ackerman was a college dropout who played acoustic guitar on the Stanford University campus. Friends asked him to record his instrumental music for them on cassette. They chipped in so that he could make an album titled ''The Search for the Turtle's Navel'' (later renamed ''In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing. Founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation, it was acquired by the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938 and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony bought the company in 1988 and renamed it SME in 1991. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50–50 joint venture known as Sony BMG to handle the operations of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), but Sony bought out Bertelsmann's stake four years later and reverted to using the 1991 company name. This buyout led to labels formerly under BMG ownership, including Arista, Jive, LaFace and J Records into former BMG and currently Sony's co-flagship record label ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. He was known as a virtuoso who used unorthodox playing techniques, and much of his output was classified as new age music. Hedges died in an auto accident, and won a posthumous Grammy Award for his album ''Oracle''. Early years The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His life in music began in Enid, Oklahoma, playing flute and guitar. He enrolled at Phillips University in Enid to study classical guitar and composition under E. J. Ulrich, who Hedges credited as his biggest influence from his academic training. Hedges studied as a composition major at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where he applied his classical background to steel-string acoustic guitar, also studying electronic music. Hedges made a living by playing and singing in bars and restaurants in Baltimore while a studen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Music
Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas carol, carols, may employ lyrics about Nativity of Jesus, the nativity of Jesus Christ, traditions such as gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, or other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons. Traditional List of Christmas carols, Christmas carols include pieces such as "Silent Night", "Gabriel's Message", "O Holy Night", "Down in Yon Forest" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". While most Christmas songs before the 20th century were of a gospel music, traditional religious character and reflected the Nativity of Jesus, Nativity story of Christmas, the Great Depression brought a stream of U.S. songs that did not explicitly mention the Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that he only ordered a compilation of melodies throughout the whole Christian world, after having instructed his emissaries in the Schola cantorum, where the Neume, neumatical notation was perfected, with the result of most of those melodies being a later Carolingian synthesis of the Old Roman chant and Gallican chant. Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally 12 mode (music), modes. Typical melodic features include a characteristic Ambitus (music), ambitus, and also characteristic intervallic patterns relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments defines the Bay Area as including the nine counties that border the estuary, estuaries of San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, and Suisun Bay: Alameda County, California, Alameda, Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa, Marin County, California, Marin, Napa County, California, Napa, San Mateo County, California, San Mateo, Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara, Solano County, California, Solano, Sonoma County, California, Sonoma, and San Francisco County, California, San Francisco. Other definitions may be either smaller or larger, and may include neighboring counties which are not officially part of the San Francisco Bay Area, such as the Central Coast (California), Central Coast c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compact Disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of holding of uncompressed stereo audio. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc format to reach the market, following the larger LaserDisc (LD). In later years, the technology was adapted for computer data storage as CD-ROM and subsequently expanded into various writable and multimedia formats. , over 200 billion CDs (including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs) had been sold worldwide. Standard CDs have a diameter of and typically hold up to 74 minutes of audio or approximately of data. This was later regularly extended to 80 minutes or by reducing the spacing between data tracks, with some discs unofficially reaching up to 99 minutes or which falls outside established specifications. Smaller variants, such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independently. It rapidly gained recognition in the music industry, becoming a major-independent label until its acquisition by PolyGram in 1989. After this acquisition, A&M continued to operate as a self-managed frontline label within the PolyGram framework. In 1998, PolyGram was acquired by Seagram and subsequently integrated into its Universal Music Group. In January 1999, A&M's operations were merged with Interscope Records and Geffen Records, leading to the creation of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, which is now part of the Interscope Capitol Labels Group as of 2024. Subsequently, A&M became a brand under the larger label group, no longer operating autonomously. In 2007, the A&M brand and trademark were combined with Octone Records to create A&M Octone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Moss
Jerome Sheldon Moss (May 8, 1935 – August 16, 2023) was an American recording executive, best known for being the co-founder of A&M Records, along with trumpet player and bandleader Herb Alpert. Music career Early stages (1958–60) After graduating from Brooklyn College with a degree in English and serving in the United States Army, Moss began his music career by promoting " 16 Candles", a 1958 hit for the Crests on Coed Records. A&M Records (1960–99) In 1960, he moved to California, where he teamed up with Herb Alpert, forming Carnival Records in 1962 and running the company from an office in Alpert's garage. Discovering that the name was already taken, they dubbed their newly founded company A&M Records. Moss and Alpert agreed in 1989 to sell A&M to PolyGram for a reported $500 million. Both continued to manage the label until 1993, when they left because of frustrations with PolyGram's constant pressure to force the label to fit into its corporate culture. In 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
December (George Winston Album)
''December'' is the fourth solo piano album from George Winston. It was recorded during the fall of 1982 and was released at the end of the year. It is a Christmas album, and more generally a tribute to the winter season. The album is a follow-up to '' Winter into Spring'' from earlier in 1982. ''December'' is Winston's highest-selling album, having been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA, signifying 3 million copies in shipment. The success of the album, along with several of Winston's other albums from the early 1980s, enabled the record label, Windham Hill, to get international distribution and a higher profile. The album also spent 178 weeks on the Billboard 200, reaching a peak of No. 54 in January 1984, over a year after its original release. In 1987, five years after its release, it reached No. 2 on Billboard's Top Holiday Albums chart. A 20th Anniversary Edition of the album, with two bonus tracks, was released in 2001. The album was again reissued in 2013 by Valley E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autumn (George Winston Album)
Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphere). Autumn is the season when the duration of daylight becomes noticeably shorter and the temperature cools considerably. Day length decreases and night length increases as the season progresses until the winter solstice in December (Northern Hemisphere) and June (Southern Hemisphere). One of its main features in temperate climates is the striking change in colour of the leaves of deciduous trees as they prepare to shed. Date definitions Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as "mid-autumn", while others with a longer temperature lag treat the equinox as the start of autumn. In the English-speaking world of high latitude countries, autumn traditionally began with Lammas Day and ended around Hallowe'en, the approximate mid-points ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recording Industry Association Of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. RIAA was formed in 1952. Its original mission was to administer recording copyright fees and problems, work with trade unions, and do research relating to the record industry and government regulations. Early RIAA standards included the RIAA equalization curve, the format of the stereophonic record groove and the dimensions of 33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm records. RIAA says its current mission includes: #to protect intellectual property rights and the First Amendment rights of artists #to perform research about the music industry #to monitor and review relevant laws, regulations, and policies Between 2001 and 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Winston
George Otis Winston III (February 11, 1949 – June 4, 2023) was an American pianist performing contemporary instrumental music. Best known for his solo piano recordings, Winston released his first album in 1972, and came to prominence with his 1980 album ''Autumn'', which was followed in 1982 by '' Winter into Spring'' and ''December. A''ll three became platinum-selling albums, with ''December'' becoming a triple-platinum album. A total of 16 solo albums were released, accumulating over 15 million records sold, with the 1994 album ''Forest'' earning Winston a Grammy award for Best New Age Album. Winston received four other Grammy nominations, including one for Best Children's Music Album, performed with actress Meryl Streep, and another for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his interpretation of works by the rock band the Doors. Winston played in three styles: the melodic approach that he developed and called "rural folk piano"; stride piano, primarily inspired by Fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
