More than a musical experience, Taxi Amarillo is also the vehicle that has brought together two incredible talents from opposite sides of the spectrum for the same ride. Born in the Dominican Republic, 23-year-old Pedro Cruz Montesino, better known as Cruzmonty, has gained fame as one of the country’s fastest rising pop stars. In 2002, after years of forming part of various musical acts such as On Stage, 5ynko and Código Postal, Cruzmonty decided to take the reigns of his career and step out as a soloist. By 2005, not only had the ambitious singer/songwriter released Yo Sabré Perder, his first solo venture, but he had also packed his bags and made his way to New York City, determined to make his mark on the scene, yet unaware of the new path his career was about to take.

While Cruzmonty captivated audiences with his soothing voice and expressive lyrics, it was 21-year-old Christopher Hierro’s writing and producing skills behind the scenes that made a powerful impression. As the son of famed merengue artist Henry Hierro (lead member of the legendary group La Gran Manzana) and singer Lucia Guzman, Chris is music royalty. The skills Chris developed while growing up and the musical circle he belonged to allowed him to write and produce for noted artists such as Los Toros Band and Andy Andy, and also sing back-up for Obie Bermudez and Jerry Rivera, but this talented artist wanted more. Determined to make an impact in his own right, Chris began doing his own showcases with his own music throughout many New York City venues.

It is at this point that fate had its hand in bringing Cruzmonty and Chris Hierro together. One night as Chris performed at Mirage, a popular nightclub in the Bronx, Cruzmonty sat with his manager in the audience completely taken away with what he heard and amazed at how much he could relate to Chris’ musical style. Within minutes, Cruzmonty’s manager arranged to get his artist onstage for a duo with Chris and what happened next was perfect musical chemistry. Once offstage, the two soon became inseparable, endlessly collaborating back and forth on lyrics and melodies over the next few months. 

What bonds these two artists together are not only shared musical influences such as Sin Bandera, Boyz II Men and Stevie Wonder, but more importantly, the same passion for bringing forth true sentiment in music instead of following the manufactured formulas of today. “As a musician,” Chris notes, “I have concerns about music. Cruzmonty and I make music naturally, it’s our truth.”

And that truth is that two distinct artists can come together, bringing with them their individual prospective and style of music to form something much bigger. Together as Taxi Amarillo, Cruzmonty and Chris Hierro accomplish their goal of creating a journey of sound and sentiment by blending together into pop ballads their penchant for r&b, rock and Latin rhythms. “We are Taxi Amarillo,” says Chris, “two halves that have come together to take a ride to the same destination.”

“We’re about expressing ourselves and evoking emotion” adds Cruzmonty.

That sense of expression and ability to stir the soul is being honed into their self-titled debut album. Taxi Amarillo’s collaborative writing and production endeavor has borne fruit in the form of a 12-track journey that delivers truth and emotion.

With lyrics that will move you, voices that will elevate you and a style that will blow you away, one thing is for sure, you will never be the same once you go on a ride with Taxi Amarillo.

Shown at the announcement are Claude Gaillard, SACEM Director and the FastTrack Admninistrator, FastTrack Managing Director Chris van Houten, SACEM Chief Execuctive Bernard Miyet, who also serves at the Vice Chair of FastTrack and a member of the CISAC Executive Bureau, and CISAC Secretary General Eric Baptiste. Photo: Robbin Ahrold for FastTrack

Under CISAC's Common Information System (CIS), authors' societies will soon be able to search musical information coming from all corners of the globe, with each authors' society making its domestic repertoire available to its sister societies via the CIS network.

Senior executives from the FastTrack member societies gather after the press conference announcing CISAC's adoption of FastTrack technology

The Executive Bureau of CISAC and the Supervisory Board of FastTrack have agreed on the adoption of the FastTrack software, systems, and data protocols to implement the CIS Net. The agreement calls for FastTrack to supply a turn-key infrastructure to some of the CISAC societies. An agreement in principle was initialed by CISAC and FastTrack executives at MIDEM.

Once FastTrack's GDDN technology is in place, CISAC members will be able to perform real-time searches through CIS Net, allowing them to find musical information concerning any musical work, anywhere in the world, at any time of day. As a result, CIS Net will allow for faster and more accurate and efficient processing, allowing CISAC members to respond to the increasingly global diffusion of musical works.

"This agreement is the fruit of two clear visions - a pioneering vision from FastTrack in developing efficient technology for the collective management of authors' societies, and the intelligent and opportune vision of CISAC for adopting the technology as a world-wide standard for authors' societies, which operate in an increasingly globalized market," said Eduardo Bautista, President of CISAC's Executive Bureau.

"This agreement establishes FastTrack's approach to international data management for musical works as the de facto world standard. It enables all authors' societies, regardless of size, to enjoy the benefits of a single worldwide architecture for data management in the 21st century. The FastTrack member societies are pleased, through this agreement, to share the benefits of FastTrack technology and business systems with the global community of authors' societies," said Bernard Miyet, Vice-Chair of FastTrack and Chief Executive of FastTrack and CISAC member society SACEM.

"This marks a major step in the CIS plan, as the interconnection of authors' societies will promote the status of creators and their works throughout the globe. The FastTrack technology will help authors' societies meet the new challenges of the digital age, where real-time data will be necessary to ensure a quick and efficient exchange of information about works. In addition, this landmark achievement with the musical repertoires will allow CISAC to target the connection of its other represented repertoires, such as literary and audio-visual works," said Eric Baptiste, Secretary General of CISAC.

"This link between the CIS Net and our network will be the first step in the construction of a complete international data network for musical creators that has become an urgent priority in our digital global environment. It will allow more transparency and more efficiency in the day-to-day business of collecting societies, and it offers the additional promise of accelerating the distribution of royalties to authors throughout the world," said FastTrack Managing Director Chris van Houten.

CISAC
CISAC works towards increased recognition and protection of creators' rights and manages the international standards and tools used by its members in the digital age. Through its 209 member societies in 109 countries, CISAC represents over 2 million authors and composers of musical, dramatic, literary, audio-visual, graphic and visual art works world-wide. CISAC has its headquarters in Paris and three regional offices, in Singapore, Budapest, and Buenos Aires.

FastTrack
FastTrack is the alliance of eleven leading copyright societies: AKM/Austro-Mechana (Austria), BMI (United States), BUMA-STEMRA (Netherlands), GEMA (Germany), MCPS-PRS Alliance (United Kingdom), SABAM (Belgium), SACEM (France), SGAE (Spain), SIAE (Italy), SOCAN (Canada) and SUISA (Switzerland). Launched in 2000, its principal purpose is to develop and harmonize digital tools for 21st century management for author's rights throughout the globe. FastTrack has already made important advances in the digital realm in the processes of registration, documentation and licensing of works. Its projects are based on a global model of information networks that utilize the Internet to connect resources.

International Data Networks
Several authors' societies have already made their repertoires available to regional nodes in Asia and the Americas or to CISAC's world-wide musical works database known as the WID. While the nodes have done much to facilitate and hasten the transmission of musical information between regional societies, CISAC aims to see all of its societies - regardless of size and technological resources - have access to a worldwide database of works. In the first stage of the CIS Net plan, these regional nodes will become interconnected through the use of the FastTrack GDDN (Global Documentation and Distribution Network). Member societies who have yet to make their domestic repertoires available may choose to link to an existing node, implement the FastTrack tool, or make their works directly available to CIS Net by developing their own tools according to the GDDN protocol. In addition, FastTrack will provide further development and maintenance of the software and business tools necessary to maintain CIS Net.]]> 2004-01-28T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233798 Artists, Fruit, Lonestar, Musical Styles, Country When Aaron Barker got home after a day of peddling oranges on a roadside near San Antonio in 1988, he found an envelope from BMI in the mailbox. "The envelope had a big check in it," Barker said. "I yelled, 'Oh, my God! Somebody at BMI really screwed up!' That check was more money than I had earned in the last ten years! "  

Although he expected to send the check back, Barker rushed to his parent's house so his mother could see his name beside the big number. "Mom handed it to Dad, and he said, 'I get this stuff in the mail all the time. Nobody ever wins anything with these'."

The family soon learned the check was neither a sweepstakes promotion nor a mistake. It was the first BMI performance royalty payment for Barker's first hit song, "Baby Blue," recorded by George Strait several months earlier.

In the 15 years since that first check, many of Barker's songs have been recorded by country stars including Clay Walker, Doug Supernaw, Neal McCoy and Lonestar. "Love Without End, Amen," "Easy Come, Easy Go," and "I'd Like To Have That One Back" are among Barker songs that topped the charts for George Strait.

There are many thousands of aspiring songwriters and composers working in America's fruit stands, restaurants, and taxi cabs, but only a few have sufficient talent and luck to earn a living wage in the profession. "Strait used to listen to 4,000 songs a year to pick ten songs to record," said Barker. "What are the odds he would pick mine?"

Barker sees irony in the difference between the income of singers and songwriters. "Many entertainers who sing earn far more than songwriters for a hit song, yet the singers have no career until they get good songs," Barker said. "You take a singer who's borrowing money to pay the rent. He records a hit song and his earnings go from a few thousand dollars per year to thousands every night. He can work for that kind of money until he turns blue. He uses the song to sell tickets and concessions. For the songwriter, his earnings end when the record ends.

Barker said that "probably 80 or 85 per cent" of his income is earned when his music is played publicly, rather than from the sale of CDs. Businesses such as radio and TV stations, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and retail stores pay fees to BMI for the copyrights they use. BMI, a non-profit organization, distributes about 84% of those fees to copyright owners. BMI currently represents more than half the music performed in the United States. Approximately 300,000 songwriters and music publishers are affiliated with BMI. Barker, who signed with BMI in 1971, said "there wouldn't be a songwriting profession" without the performing rights organization. "There would be guys writing songs, but some of the best songwriters in the world can't sing a lick," he said. "BMI makes it possible for these great poets who don't sing to be heard and earn a living."

Songs don't come easily to Barker. He said he needs inspiration to write, and it comes infrequently. His output is about 12 songs per year. "There are some people who can make money writing like an assembly line, but not me. I do better with inspiration.

"The hardest part about songwriting is it's all been done before," he said. "We have to find a better way to do it. It's so competitive, so subjective. As we get older, it's harder to stay contemporary. The language and phrases change. To hit a nerve with a song today, you've got to use a shotgun."]]> 2003-08-01T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/events/entry/500107 Artists, Cuomo, Johnny, Fruit, Hartong, Willem, Mannon, Jayy, Warshauer, Laura, Wilson, Dave, Awards, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Regions, New York, Showcase, Showcase Templated  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fans looking to check out the current state of his artistic imagination need look no further than G," Levert's new release on the eastwest/Elektra label. Classic R&B feels and masterful storytelling permeate this 14-track recording. Focusing on detail is a critical part of Levert's songwriting process. "There's only so many stories; you have to really focus and try to give something a new twist, or that personal touch," says the artist, who co-wrote all of the material. The skills of writing and production partners Darrell "Delite" Allamby and Edwin "Tony" Nicholas are also prominently featured on G.

Though he's only 33, Gerald Levert's position in the soul pantheon has already been firmly established. Private Line, his debut solo album, was released in 1991. A pair of number one R&B hits off this recording, and the platinum follow-up album, Groove On - which included the David Foster produced hit single "I'd Give Anything" - led to a number of projects, including the deeply felt Father & Son album, recorded with his dad. This recording cemented a family tie that turned musical very early in Gerald's life. His earliest memories include mental snapshots of his father wowing audiences with steps and singing.

Wringing passion from his soulful baritone came naturally, but Gerald found that putting over a song took a bit of study. "I used to sing these passionate songs and get down on the floor and all that, to let the audience know I was working it," he recalls. "And then I'd watch my dad go out and just sing the song, feeling, it, and get three times the reaction I did. He had the wisdom. I'm at the time in my life where I understand."

G is ripe fruit for his loyal fan base, but the ever-moving Gerald Levert has created the work and turned his mind to the future. Plans for the next decade or so? "Peace of mind," he says. "I always wish that for everybody."