Embouchure
Embouchure or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument; the word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche,'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles. While performing on a brass instrument, the sound is produced by the player buzzing his or her lips into a mouthpiece. Pitches are changed in part through altering the amount of muscular contraction in the lip formation; the performer's use of the air, tightening of cheek and jaw muscles, as well as tongue manipulation can affect how the embouchure works. Today, many brass pedagogues take a rigid approach to teaching how a brass player's embouchure should function. Many of these authors disagree with each other regarding which technique is correct. Research suggests efficient brass embouchures depend on the player using the method that suits that player's particular anatomy.
Individual differences in dental structure, lip shape and size, jaw shape and the degree of jaw malocclusion, other anatomical factors will affect whether a particular embouchure technique will be effective or not. In 1962, Philip Farkas hypothesized that the air stream traveling through the lip aperture should be directed straight down the shank of the mouthpiece, he believed that it would be illogical to "violently deflect" the air stream downward at the point of where the air moves past the lips. In this text, Farkas recommends that the lower jaw be protruded so that the upper and lower teeth are aligned. In 1970, Farkas published a second text. Out of 40 subjects, Farkas showed that 39 subjects directed the air downward to varying degrees and one subject directed the air in an upward direction at various degrees; the lower jaw position seen in these photographs show more variation from his earlier text as well. This supports what was written by trombonist and brass pedagogue Donald S. Reinhardt in 1942.
In 1972, Reinhardt described and labeled different embouchure patterns according to such characteristics as mouthpiece placement and the general direction of the air stream as it travels past the lips. According to this text, players who place the mouthpiece higher on the lips, so that more upper lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air downwards to varying degrees while playing. Performers who place the mouthpiece lower, so that more lower lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air to varying degrees in an upward manner. In order for the performer to be successful, the air stream direction and mouthpiece placement need to be personalized based on individual anatomical differences. Lloyd Leno confirmed the existence of both downstream embouchures. More controversial was Reinhardt's description and recommendations regarding a phenomenon he termed a "pivot". According to Reinhardt, a successful brass embouchure depends on a motion wherein the performer moves both the mouthpiece and lips as a single unit along the teeth in an upward and downward direction.
As the performer ascends in pitch, he or she will either move the lips and mouthpiece together up towards the nose or pull them down together towards the chin, use the opposite motion to descend in pitch. Whether the player uses one general pivot direction or the other, the degree to which the motion is performed, depends on the performer's anatomical features and stage of development; the placement of the mouthpiece upon the lips doesn't change, but rather the relationship of the rim and lips to the teeth. While the angle of the instrument may change as this motion follows the shape of the teeth and placement of the jaw, contrary to what many brass performers and teachers believe, the angle of the instrument does not constitute the motion Reinhardt advised as a pivot. Research supports Reinhardt's claim that this motion exists and might be advisable for brass performers to adopt. John Froelich describes how mouthpiece pressure towards the lips and shear pressure functioned in three test groups, student trombonists, professional trombonists, professional symphonic trombonists.
Froelich noted that the symphonic trombonists used the least amount of both direct and shear forces and recommends this model be followed. Other research notes that all brass performers rely upon the upward and downward embouchure motion. Other authors and pedagogues remain skeptical about the necessity of this motion, but scientific evidence supporting this view has not been sufficiently developed at this time; some noted brass pedagogues prefer to instruct the use of the embouchure from a less analytical point of view. Arnold Jacobs, a tubist and well-regarded brass teacher, believed that it was best for the student to focus on his or her use of the air and musical expression to allow the embouchure to develop on its own. Other instructors, such as Carmine Caruso, believed that the brass player's embouchure could best be developed through coordination exercises and drills that bring all the muscles into balance that focus the student's attention on his or her time perception. Still other authors who have differing approaches to embouchure development include Louis Maggio, Jeff Smiley, Jerome Callet. and Clint McLaughlin.
Most professional performers, as well as instructors, use. Farkas told people to blow. Raphael Mendez advised saying the letter "M"; the skin under the lower lip will be taut with no air pocket. The lips do they roll in or out; the cor
Kill Bill: Volume 1
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins and their leader Bill after they try to kill her and her unborn child, her journey takes her to Japan. Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as an homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, spaghetti westerns, it features an anime sequence animated by Production I. G, it is the first of two Kill Bill films made in a single production. Volume 1 became Tarantino's highest-grossing film up to that point, earning over $180 million at the box office. Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released on April 16, 2004. A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she tells their leader, that she is pregnant with his baby before he shoots her in the head. Four years having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her.
Both women were members of the assassination squad. They are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, Nikki; the Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, but when Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride dodges the shot and throws a knife into Vernita's chest, killing her. Four years earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel; the sheriff discovers the Bride is comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself; the Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find she is no longer pregnant. She kills a hospital worker and a man, selling her body while she was comatose, takes his truck, teaches herself to walk again. Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza.
O-Ren's parents were murdered by the yakuza. The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he relents and crafts his finest sword for her; the Bride tracks down O-Ren at a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves and killing her entire yakuza army, including the elite Crazy 88 and O-Ren's bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She duels with O-Ren in the restaurant's Japanese garden before gaining the upper hand and slicing the top of her head off with a sword stroke, she tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's assistant, for information about Bill, leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows her daughter is alive. Uma Thurman as the Bride, a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, described as "the deadliest woman in the world", she seeks revenge on the Deadly Vipers after they try to kill her and her unborn child in a wedding chapel.
Her real name is not revealed until Kill Bill: Volume 2. Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, a former Deadly Viper who has become the leader of the Japanese yakuza, she and the Bride once had a close friendship. She is the Bride's first target. David Carradine as Bill, the former leader of the Deadly Vipers, the Bride's former lover, the father of her daughter, he is the final target of the Bride's revenge. He is an unseen character. Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green, a former Deadly Viper and now a mother and homemaker, living under the name Jeannie Bell, she is the Bride's second target. Michael Madsen as Budd, a former Deadly Viper, now working as a bouncer and living in a trailer, he is the Bride's third target. Daryl Hannah as a former Deadly Viper and the Bride's fourth target. Julie Dreyfus as Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's lawyer and second lieutenant, she is a former protégée of Bill's, was present at the wedding chapel massacre. Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, master swordsmith who, although long retired, agrees to craft a sword for the Bride.
Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's sadistic Japanese schoolgirl bodyguard. Gordon Liu as Johnny Mo, head of O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88. Liu would appear in Volume 2 as Martial Arts Master Pai Mei. Michael Parks as Earl McGraw, a Texas Ranger who investigates the wedding chapel massacre. Parks originated McGraw in the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk Till Dawn, in which Tarantino started, he would go on to reprise the role in both segments of the Rodriguez/Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Parks appeared in Volume 2 as a separate character, Esteban Vihaio. Michael Bowen as Buck, an orderly at the hospital, raping the Bride while she lay comatose. Jun Kunimura as Boss Tanaka, a yakuza whom O-Ren executes after he ridicules her ethnicity and gender. Kenji Ohba as Shiro, Hattori Hanzo's employee. James Parks as Edgar McGraw, a Texas Ranger and son of Earl McGraw. Jonathan Loughran as Buck's trucker client, killed by the Bride. Yuki Kazamatsuri as the Proprietress of the House of Blue Leaves
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the reuse of a portion or sample of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise rhythm, speech, or other sounds, they are integrated using hardware or software such as digital audio workstations. A process similar to sampling originated in the 1940s with musique concrète, experimental music created by splicing and looping tape; the term sampling was coined by in the late 1970s by the creators of the Fairlight CMI, an influential early sampler that became a staple of 1980s pop music. The 1988 release of the first Akai MPC, an affordable sampler with an intuitive interface, made sampling accessible to a wider audience. Sampling is a foundation of hip hop music, with producers sampling funk and soul records drum breaks, which could be rapped over. Musicians have created albums assembled from samples, such as DJ Shadow's 1996 album Endtroducing; the practice has influenced all genres of music and is important to electronic music, hip hop and pop. Sampling without permission can infringe copyright.
The process of acquiring permission for a sample is known as clearance, which can be a complex and costly process. Landmark legal cases, such as Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc in 1991, changed how samples are used; as the court ruled that unlicensed sampling constitutes copyright infringement, samples from well known sources are now prohibitively expensive. In the 1940s, Pierre Schaeffer developed musique concrète, an experimental form of music created by recording sounds to tape, splicing them, manipulating them to create sound collages, he created pieces using recordings of sounds including the human body and kitchen utensils. The method involved the creation of tape loops, splicing lengths of tape end to end, by which a sound could be played indefinitely. Schaeffer developed a tape recorder, the Phonogene, which played loops at twelve different pitches triggered by a keyboard. Composers including John Cage, Edgar Varèse, Karheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis experimented with musique concrète, Bebe and Louis Barron used it to create the first electronic film soundtrack, for the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet.
It was brought to a mainstream audience by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which used these early sampling techniques to produce soundtracks for shows including Doctor Who. In the 1960s, Jamaican dub reggae producers such as King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry began using pre-recorded samples of reggae rhythms to produce riddim tracks, which were deejayed over. Jamaican immigrants introduced dub sampling techniques to American hip hop music in the 1970s; the term sampling was coined by in the late 1970s by Kim Ryrie and Peter Vogel to describe a feature of their Fairlight CMI synthesizer. Designers of early samplers used the term to describe the technical process of the instruments, rather than to describe how users would use the feature. While developing the Fairlight, Vogel sampled around a second of a piano piece from a radio broadcast, discovered that he could imitate a real piano by playing the sample back at different pitches, he recalled in 2005: It sounded remarkably like a piano, a real piano.
This had never been done before... By today's standards it was a pretty awful piano sound, but at the time it was a million times more like a piano than anything any synthesiser had churned out. So I realised that we didn't have to bother with all the synthesis stuff. Just take the sounds, whack them in the memory and away you go. Compared to samplers, the Fairlight offered limited control over samples, it allowed control over pitch and envelope, could only record a few seconds of sound. However, its ability to sample and play back acoustic sounds became its most popular feature. Though the concept of reusing recordings in larger recordings was not new, the Fairlight's built-in sequencer and design made the process simple. According to the Guardian, the Fairlight was the "first world-changing sampler". Though it was it was unaffordable for most hobbyists, early users included Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Thomas Dolby, Duran Duran, Herbie Hancock, Todd Rundgren and Ebn Ozn. An early pulse-code modulation digital sampler was Toshiba's LMD-649, created in 1981 by engineer Kenji Murata for Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, who used it for extensive sampling and looping in their 1981 album Technodelic.
The LMD-649 played and recorded PCM samples at 12-bit audio depth and 50 kHz sampling rate, stored in 128 KB of dynamic RAM. The success of the Fairlight inspired competitors, improving the technology and driving down prices dramatically. Early competitors included the E-mu Emulator and the Akai S950. Drum machines such as the Oberheim DMX and Linn LM-1 began incorporating samples of drum kits rather than generating sounds from circuits; the designers of early samplers anticipated that users would sample short sounds, such as drum hits or individual notes, to use as "building blocks" for compositions. However and producers began sampling longer passages of music. In the words of Greg Milner, author of Perfecting Sound Forever, "They didn't just want the sound of John Bonham's kick drum, they wanted to loop and repeat the whole of'When the Levee Breaks'." Roger Linn, designer of the LM-1 and MPC, said: "It was a pleasant surprise. After sixty years of recording, there are so many. Why reinvent the wheel?"In response to demand, samplers such as E-mu's SP-1200 were developed to allow users to store longer samples.
In 1988, Akai released the first MPC sampler, which allowed artists to assign samples to separate pads and trigger them independently to playing a keyboard or drum kit. It h
Only Yesterday (1991 film)
Only Yesterday is a 1991 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the 1982 manga of the same title by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. It was animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Hakuhodo, distributed by Toho, it was released on July 20, 1991. The ending theme song "Ai wa Hana, Kimi wa sono Tane" is a Japanese translation of Amanda McBroom's composition "The Rose". Only Yesterday explores a genre traditionally thought to be outside the realm of animated subjects: a realistic drama written for adults women; the film was a surprise box office success, attracting a large adult audience of all genders and becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of the year in the country. It was well received by critics, with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, GKIDS & Universal Pictures released the film for the first time in an English-language format on 26 February 2016, featuring voices of Daisy Ridley, Dev Patel, Alison Fernandez and Ashley Eckstein.
In 1982, Taeko Okajima is 27 years old, has lived her whole life in Tokyo and now works at a company there. She decides to take another trip to visit the family of the elder brother of her brother-in-law in the rural countryside to help with the safflower harvest and get away from city life. While traveling at night on a sleeper train to Yamagata, she begins to recall memories of herself as a schoolgirl in 1966, her intense desire to go on holiday like her classmates, all of whom have family outside of the big city. At the arrival train station, she is surprised to find out that her brother in law's second cousin Toshio, whom she knows, is the one who came to pick her up. During her stay in Yamagata, she finds herself nostalgic and wistful for her childhood self, while wrestling with adult issues of career and love; the trip dredges up forgotten memories — the first stirrings of childish romance and growing up, the frustrations of math and boys. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.
In doing so, she begins to realize. Taeko faces her own true self, how she views the world and the people around her. Taeko chooses to stay in the countryside instead of returning to Tokyo, it is implied. The story takes place within the Takase district of Yamagata Prefecture; the Takase Station of the JNR Senzan Line is featured prominently. During the course of the film, characters visit prominent locales, including the resort destination of Mount Zaō. Unlike the typical Japanese character animation style, the characters have more realistic facial muscles and expressions due to the dialogue being recorded first and the animators fit the animation to the spoken dialogue. However, the scenes of Taeko's childhood past were animated before the voices were recorded, giving a subtle contrast between the anime style of her childhood and the adult "reality" of the framing story; those scenes set in 1966 with the 10-year-old Taeko are taken from the source material. Takahata had difficulty adapting the episodic manga into a feature film, he, invented the framing narrative wherein the adult Taeko journeys to the countryside and falls in love with Toshio.
There is a repetitive Eastern European theme in the film in the soundtrack reflecting the peasant lifestyle still present in the area and the parallels this draws with Japanese rural life. Folk songs from the area occur in the film. For example, "Frunzuliță Lemn Adus Cântec De Nuntă" is a Romanian folk song written by Gheorghe Zamfir and occurs in the film during the landscape shots, for example arriving at the farm. Instruments used include the prominent nai played by Zamfir himself and violins. There is Hungarian music in the film, using pieces of music such as Brahms "Hungarian Dance No. 5" in a scene where Taeko is eating lunch, making references to Hungarian musicians when she is in the car with Toshio. The music of Márta Sebestyén with Muzsikás is used in several scenes as well. Bulgarian folklore music is used in the soundtrack; when Taeko is on the field, one can first hear Dilmano, followed by Malka Moma Dvori Mete. These are typical Bulgarian folklore songs and the lyrics of both are connected to topics mentioned in the film – the life of farmers and marriage.
The TV character Machine Gun Dandy looks like Daisuke Jigen of Lupin III fame. The character is seen when Taeko recalls her childhood favorite puppet show Hyokkori Hyotan Jima that aired every weekday on NHK from 1964 to 1969. Germany – Released on June 6, 2006, under title of Tränen der Erinnerung – Only Yesterday. Australia – Released on October 11, 2006. United Kingdom – Released on September 4, 2006. North America – Released on Jan 1, 2016, in New York City and nationwide in the United States on February 26, 2016. Before these dates, the film was the only theatrical Studio Ghibli feature not yet released on home video in the United States or Canada, although a subt
Romanians
The Romanians are a Romance ethnic group and nation native to Romania, that share a common Romanian culture and speak the Romanian language, the most widespread spoken Eastern Romance language, descended from the Latin language. According to the 2011 Romanian census, just under 89% of Romania's citizens identified themselves as ethnic Romanians. In one interpretation of the census results in Moldova, the Moldovans are counted as Romanians, which would mean that the latter form part of the majority in that country as well. Romanians are an ethnic minority in several nearby countries situated in Central Eastern Europe in Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Today, estimates of the number of Romanian people worldwide vary from 26 to 30 million according to various sources, evidently depending on the definition of the term'Romanian', Romanians native to Romania and Republic of Moldova and their afferent diasporas, native speakers of Romanian, as well as other Eastern Romance-speaking groups considered by most scholars and the Romanian Academy as a constituent part of the broader Romanian people Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians, Vlachs in Serbia, in Croatia, in Bulgaria, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Inhabited by the ancient Dacians, part of today's territory of Romania was conquered by the Roman Empire in 106, when Trajan's army defeated the army of Dacia's ruler Decebalus. The Roman administration withdrew two centuries under the pressure of the Goths and Carpi. Two theories account for the origin of the Romanian people. One, known as the Daco-Roman continuity theory, posits that they are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous peoples living in the Roman Province of Dacia, while the other posits that the Romanians are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous populations of the former Roman provinces of Illyria, Moesia and Macedon, the ancestors of Romanians migrated from these Roman provinces south of the Danube into the area which they inhabit today. According to the first theory, the Romanians are descended from indigenous populations that inhabited what is now Romania and its immediate environs: Thracians and Roman legionnaires and colonists. In the course of the two wars with the Roman legions, between AD 101–102 and AD 105–106 the emperor Trajan succeeded in defeating the Dacians and the greatest part of Dacia became a Roman province.
The colonisation with Roman or Romanized elements, the use of the Latin language and the assimilation of Roman civilisation as well as the intense development of urban centres led to the Romanization of part of the autochthonous population in Dacia. This process was concluded by the 10th century when the assimilation of the Slavs by the Daco-Romanians was completed. According to the south-of-the-Danube origin theory, the Romanians' ancestors, a combination of Romans and Romanized peoples of Illyria and Thrace, moved northward across the Danube river into modern-day Romania. Small population groups speaking several versions of Romanian still exist south of the Danube in Greece, Macedonia and Serbia, but it is not known whether they themselves migrated from more northern parts of the Balkans, including Dacia; the south-of-the Danube theory favours northern Albania and/or Moesia as the more specific places of Romanian ethnogenesis. Small genetic differences were found among Southeastern European populations and those of the Dniester–Carpathian region.
Despite this low level of differentiation between them, tree reconstruction and principal component analyses allowed a distinction between Balkan–Carpathian and Balkan Mediterranean population groups. The genetic affinities among Dniester–Carpathian and southeastern European populations do not reflect their linguistic relationships. According to the report, the results indicate that the ethnic and genetic differentiations occurred in these regions to a considerable extent independently of each other. During the Middle Ages Romanians were known as Vlachs, a blanket term of Germanic origin, from the word Walha, used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer to Romance-speaking and Celtic neighbours. Besides the separation of some groups during the Age of Migration, many Vlachs could be found all over the Balkans, in Transylvania, across Carpathian Mountains as far north as Poland and as far west as the regions of Moravia, some went as far east as Volhynia of western Ukraine, the present-day Croatia where the Morlachs disappeared, while the Catholic and Orthodox Vlachs took Croat and Serb national identity.
Because of the migrations that followed – such as those of Slavs, Bulgars and Tatars – the Romanians were organised in agricultural communes, developing large centralised states only in the 14th century, when the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia emerged to fight the Ottoman Empire. During the late Middle Ages, prominent medieval Romanian monarchs such as Bogdan of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, Mircea the Elder, Michael the Brave, or Vlad the Impaler took part in the history of Central Europe by waging tumultuous wars and leading noteworthy crusades against the continuously expanding Ottoman Empire, at ti
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953, but expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of genres, including pop, R&B, hip hop. Epic Records has released music by artists including Glenn Miller, Tammy Wynette, George Michael, The Yardbirds, Shakin Stevens, Cheap Trick, Meat Loaf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ted Nugent, Sly & the Family Stone, The Hollies, Celine Dion, ABBA, Culture Club, Dave Clark Five, Gloria Estefan, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Michael Jackson. Along with Arista, Columbia and RCA Records, Epic is one of Sony Music Entertainment's four flagship record labels. Artists who have signed to Epic Records include French Montana, Fiona Apple, Sara Bareilles, Jennifer Lopez, Keyshia Cole, Hardwell, Fifth Harmony, Jennifer Hudson, Zara Larsson, Mariah Carey, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, 21 Savage, Travis Scott, DJ Khaled, Meghan Trainor, Camila Cabello, Swizz Beatz and Louis Tomlinson.
Epic Records was launched in 1953 by the Columbia Records unit of CBS for the purpose of marketing jazz and classical music that did not fit the theme of its more mainstream Columbia Records label. Initial classical music releases were from Philips Records which distributed Columbia product in Europe. Pop talent on co-owned Okeh Records were transferred to Epic which made Okeh a rhythm and blues label. Epic's bright-yellow and blue logo became a familiar trademark for many jazz and classical releases; this has included such notables as the Berlin Philharmonic, Charles Rosen, the Juilliard String Quartet, Antal Doráti conducting the Hague Philharmonic and George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. By 1960, Epic became better known for its signing of newer, fledgling acts. By the end of the 1960s, Epic earned its first gold records and had evolved into a formidable hit-making force in rock and roll, R&B and country music. Among its many acts, it included Roy Hamilton, Bobby Vinton, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, Tammy Wynette, The Yardbirds, July, Helen Shapiro and Jeff Beck.
Several of the British artists on the Epic roster during the 1960s were the result of CBS's Epic/Okeh units' international distribution deal with EMI. Epic was involved in a notable "trade" of artists. Graham Nash was signed to Epic because of his membership in The Hollies; when the newly formed Crosby, Stills & Nash wanted to sign with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegün worked out a deal with Clive Davis whereby Richie Furay's new band Poco would sign with Epic. Epic's commercial success continued to grow in the 1970s with releases from ABBA in the UK, Cheap Trick, The Clash, Charlie Daniels, Heart, The Isley Brothers, The Jacksons, George Jones, Meat Loaf, Johnny Nash, Ted Nugent, REO Speedwagon, Minnie Riperton, Charlie Rich, Sly & the Family Stone, Steve Vai, Edgar Winter. Contributing to the label's success was its distribution of Philadelphia International Records, which produced additional hit records by acts such as The Three Degrees and McFadden and Whitehead. During the 1960s, Epic oversaw the smaller subsidiary CBS labels including Okeh Records and Date Records.
In 1968, Epic recordings began being distributed in the UK by CBS after the distribution deal with EMI expired that year. Sony Corporation bought CBS Records in 1987, the company was renamed Sony Music in 1991, it began splitting European operations into two separate labels and Columbia, in 1992, in 1997, Sony Music Australia and New Zealand followed suit. In 2004, Sony merged with music distributor BMG, bringing Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Records, Zomba Group of Companies to one parent company known as Sony BMG Music Entertainment. In 2008, Sony bought out BMG for $1.2 billion, bringing all affiliated labels together as Sony Music Entertainment International, SMEI. The merger was approved by the European Union in 2009. Epic's 1980s and 1990s mainstream success were fueled by its signing and releasing of albums by notable acts such as Michael Jackson, Culture Club, the Miami Sound Machine and Gloria Estefan and George Michael, Adam Ant, Living Colour, Dead or Alive, Cyndi Lauper, Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, Luther Vandross, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rage Against the Machine, Céline Dion, Oasis among others.
One of the label's greatest financial payoffs came via the release of Thriller, the 1982 album by Michael Jackson, which went on to achieve 51–65 million in worldwide sales, becoming the biggest selling album in history. Epic Soundtrax was founded in 1992, it was central to Epic's 1990s success, with 11 releases cumulatively selling more than 40 million records over a three-year period. Notable releases included soundtrack albums for Honeymoon in Vegas, Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump and Judgement Night. In July 2011, L. A. Reid became the CEO of Epic Records, signing artists such as TLC, Toni Braxton, Cher Lloyd, Avril Lavigne, Future, Yo Gotti, Meghan Trainor, DJ Khaled and Travis Scott. Epic signed the winners of The X Factor during the seasons that Reid appeared on the show. In 2013, Sylvia Rhone, former president of Universal Motown, launched the imprint Vested In Culture through Epic Records. A year she was named president of the label. In November 2014, Mosley Music Group created
listen); born April 6, 1941) is a Romanian nai (pan flute) musician.
