Using New Technology To Succeed In the Music Biz: Part II

SG: How did it feel to win a Grammy?

DS: It was completely out of the blue. It was a great honor.

It kind of brought me into part of the music world that I knew nothing about.

We continued after that, the next two CDs were nominated for the two subsequent CDs after Gathering, Birds of a Feather and Here and Now, which was also great.

It was a real boost for the group and for our recognition and establishing a standard of what we did.

SG: What’s the latest album?

DS: The latest CD is a CD entitled Mosaic, which is kind of like two CDs in one.

Part of it is a quintet which features piano and B3 organ, vibes, bass, and percussion.

Then, on part of the CD there are three tunes with the original Caribbean Jazz Project, with Paquito and Andy. This is the first time that we actually recorded together since I think about ‘96 was the last time we all played together.

SG: Where can people go to hear the music?

DS: They can go to my Website dsamuels.com or caribbeanjazzproject.com. There are some videos floating around on YouTube.

SG: Of course.

DS: Which is a great, really amazing. I find myself losing track of time, just kind of floating around in the Ethernet looking for videos of this person, that
person, it’s really great.

SG: YouTube is still very controversial; there’s another new lawsuit against them. Some people just don’t like their stuff being up there. Do you upload your own videos to YouTube or do you find they just float up from other people?

DS: I usually upload my own things. I find it a bit of an invasion. When an artist is involved in getting his or her performance video’d and then deciding what they want to put up there, that’s one issue.

When somebody is sitting there with a camera phone feels like they have the right to film it and put it up, is a completely different issue.

SG: Have you ever complained about it?

DS: I’ve not been the subject of that, and I’m not quite sure who or where one complains.

SG: Well, they claim that if you write them an email they’ll take it down.

DS: Oh! Well, if that’s in fact true, that’s great, but I have not personally been the subject of that.

SG: But, you use it yourself to promote your music.

DS: Well, yeah. It’s a way. Somebody sent me a copy of a 1987 performance of Spyro on the Arsenio Hall Show. Just completely out of the blue. Wow! That was interesting to hear.

The group sounded good and I thought the sound was really good. I’ve heard other stuff from the North Sea Jazz Festival where my instrument sounded bad.

Had I known at the time that that was the kind of sound they were getting, I would have been outraged; I couldn’t be heard!

So, there are certainly benefits to it, and there are as well a certain amount of invasion of privacy issues if somebody just holds up a phone camera and starts to video you.

SG: Well, yeah. I had a speech recently in New York, and the guys who organized the conference asked me if they could upload it to YouTube. It’s great if you have some control over what you’re approving.

DS: Right.