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      Testing, One, Two. Fans Flock to an Experimental Indoor Rock Concert.

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      An organizer said this Barcelona event, one of several planned in Europe, was “a small but important step toward normality.” The listeners there basked in being part of an audience again.BARCELONA, Spain — Mireia Serret, a 21-year old student at the University of Barcelona, said that she was not a big fan of the band that played here on Saturday, nor does she normally like large crowds.Nevertheless, Serret had snapped up one of the 5,000 tickets to Europe’s biggest indoor rock concert since the start of the pandemic because “it had just been too long since I was last able to dance and have fun at a concert.”Organized by a group of Spanish music promoters as part of an initiative called “Festivals for Safe Culture,” the concert in the Palau de Sant Jordi was presented as Europe’s boldest effort to get thousands into an indoor venue, without seating or mandatory social distancing. The sole act was Love of Lesbian, a Spanish indie rock band, which formed before Serret was born. “For me, this isn’t about whether I really like their music, but about being able to feel and live their music, right next to so many other people,” Serret said.The sole act was Love of Lesbian, a Spanish indie rock band.Albert Gea/ReutersTrial concert or festival events have been held in several European countries, including in Germany and the Netherlands, as part of efforts to allow crowds to form again to see live music. The British government will also run a series of test events next month, including one at a nightclub in Liverpool, also without requiring social distancing.Europe’s famed summer music festivals, which draw tens of thousands of fans to open outdoor spaces, are in doubt this year despite the tests. Several major festivals have already canceled their June lineups, including Rock am Ring at the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany and Sonar festival in Barcelona. Sonar’s management pushed their flagship festival to 2022 and is planning two smaller events in October. Still, Roskilde, Denmark’s biggest, hopes to go on in June with acts including the rapper Kendrick Lamar. The Danish government said last week that it aims to restart pop concerts from May 6 onward with the help of a “corona passport” that will allow people to show their status of vaccination, proof of recent negative tests for the virus or documentation they have recovered from Covid-19.At a time when countries like France and Italy have recently put their residents back under lockdown to help stop another wave of infection, the people behind the Barcelona event said their goal was to look ahead.Albert Gea/ReutersLluis Gene/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOne of the organizers, Ventura Barba, the executive director of the Sonar festival, said in an interview that Saturday’s concert was “a small but important step toward normality.” Barba forecast that the Barcelona concert would break even, but he stressed that it was “not a commercial project,” nor could it be replicated for festivals that operate over several days and with other financial constraints. Ticket sales accounted for 36 percent of the Barcelona concert’s budget of about €250,000, with 30 percent covered by public authorities, 24 percent from private sponsors and 10 percent from the promoters themselves.A hospital team helped test the concertgoers for Covid-19 before the event, using as their model a smaller concert last December in another Barcelona venue, the Sala Apolo. At the Apolo, the audience of 500 people was tested before the show, as well as another 500 people who acted as a control group, and everybody got tested again eight days later. The Apolo’s concertgoers all tested negative, while two people in the control group tested positive, according to Josep Maria Llibre, a specialist in infectious diseases from the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital northeast of Barcelona who is also monitoring the Palau concert.Ahead of Saturday’s concert, six people tested positive, according to the organizers. However, the medical team is using neither a control group nor postconcert testing, relying instead on public medical records to track whether any concertgoers will later get Covid-19.Dr. Llibre said the decision was made both for financial and practical reasons. He acknowledged in an interview that the tracking method used Saturday would be less accurate than that used at the Apolo, but he argued it could still help show that a safely-organized concert “is not a super-spreading event,” contrary to what some might presume. “In the case of concerts, there has been very little or no data, but it has been empirically assumed that it is a very high risk to have people dancing together,” he said.The Palau can welcome 17,000 people, but the 5,000 ticketholders were not allowed into its stands and instead were kept divided within three areas of the dance floor, while having to wear FFP2 face masks (the European standard) provided by the organizers.Healthcare workers prepare to collect swab samples from concertgoers before the show.Albert Gea/ReutersOn Saturday, some concertgoers said they felt fully reassured by the safety protocols, but a few others said they had briefly hesitated before going.“If I had not been vaccinated already, I really would have thought twice about coming here,” said Cristina Delgado, a doctor. But Ana, her sister, who was also vaccinated because she works in health care, felt differently. “I was going to come whatever, because I want to save culture and return us to normal life,” she said.Inés Villasuso, a 24-year old nurse, also said that “it would have been better to get everybody tested again later, to have scientific evidence that can really convince the authorities that such a big event can be held safely.” But she and her twin sister, Eva, agreed that the concert outstripped their expectations. “It felt like living a total dream,” Eva said.In an interview before the concert, Julián Saldarriaga, a member of Love of Lesbian, said that the band’s decision to perform had received very broad support, but also generated “some criticism, from people who have called us irresponsible or who say that we only care about money.” But for his band, he said, “we really saw this as an opportunity to take part in the recovery of culture.”Rather than featuring a supporting act, the concert was preceded by a series of videos about Covid-19, shown on the big stage screen and interspersed with hits from the distant past — like “Come Together” and “Here Comes the Sun,” by The Beatles — whose themes warmed up the crowd.To comply with the safety protocols, on Saturday, concertgoers visited one of three smaller Barcelona music venues to get a rapid antigen test for Covid-19. The cost was included in the €23 ticket price.Christiana Guldager, a photographer, said that she cried before her test at the Razzmatazz nightclub. “I’ve been dancing so often in that place that it made me feel very emotional to find it instead converted into a mini-hospital,” she said.Santi Balmes, the lead singer, invited the crowd to deliver the chorus of a song. Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLater that night in the Palau, emotions also ran high. The dance floor was lit up by cellphones as well as white face masks. When Santi Balmes, the lead singer, invited the crowd to deliver the chorus of a song, he got a powerful response. “Woohoo, you still remember how to sing!” Balmes shouted back. As he brought the concert to a close, Balmes told the crowd, “the band is not important: What is important is the experience and the experience is incredible.”Pablo García, 27, an illustrator, agreed. “Of course I never stopped listening to music, but you really need to be at a concert to feel the bass right inside your heart.”Alex Marshall contributed reporting from London. More

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      Jack Bradley, Louis Armstrong Photographer and Devotee, Dies at 87

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      His trove of pictures formed the foundation of a vast personal collection that is now part of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens.Jack Bradley at his home on Cape Cod in 2008. For 12 years he was Louis Armstrong’s fan, friend and photographer, as well as a collector of Armstrong memorabilia.Earl Wilson/The New York Times Jack Bradley, an ecstatic fan of Louis Armstrong’s who became his personal photographer, creating an indelible and intimate record of the jazz giant’s last dozen years, died on March 21 in Brewster, Mass., on Cape Cod. He was 87.The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his wife, Nancy (Eckel) Bradley, said.Mr. Bradley first attended a concert by Armstrong and his band on Cape Cod in the mid-1950s. “I never heard anything like that,” he said in an interview in 2012 for a documentary about Armstrong, “Mr. Jazz,” directed by Michele Cinque. “My life was never the same.”Using a Brownie, Mr. Bradley snapped his first photo of Armstrong at another performance — the first of thousands he would take, first as a devotee and then as part of his inner circle. He took pictures of Armstrong at his home in Corona, Queens; in quiet moments backstage; at rehearsals and concerts; during recording sessions; and in dressing rooms.Mr. Bradley photographed Armstrong in his backyard in Queens in about 1960. In all, he took an estimated 6,000 photos of Armstrong.Louis Armstrong House Museum, Jack Bradley CollectionArmstrong and Mr. Bradley in Framingham, Mass., in 1967. “What we had in common,” Mr. Bradley said, “was this unending love for the music.”Louis Armstrong House Museum, via Associated Press“With that face and his beautiful smile,” Mr. Bradley was quoted as saying in a family-approved obituary, “how could anyone take a bad shot?”Mr. Bradley did more than take photographs. He became a voracious collector of anything related to Armstrong’s life and career: 16-millimeter films, reel-to-reel tapes of recordings and conversations, 78 r.p.m. discs and LPs, magazines, manuscripts, sheet music, telegrams, fan letters, figurines — even Armstrong’s slippers and suits, and a hotel laundry receipt that included “90 hankies,” which he famously used to wipe away perspiration during performances.“One day Jack went into Louis’s study and Louis was ripping up picture and letters into little tiny pieces,” Ms. Bradley said by phone. “Jack said, ‘No, you can’t do that!’ and Louis said, ‘You have to simplify.’ To Jack it was history and shouldn’t be thrown out.”Mr. Bradley’s refusal to simplify brought him renown as an Armstrong maven and led to a deal in 2005 in which the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation awarded Queens College a $480,000 grant to acquire his collection for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, where Armstrong and his wife, Lucille had lived.Mr. Bradley’s vast collection of Armstrong material, including fan mail, was acquired by the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens.Earl Wilson/The New York Times“Our cornerstone is Louis’s stuff,” said Ricky Riccardi, the museum’s director of research collections, referring to the vast trove of material that Armstrong left behind when he died in 1971. “That will always stand on its own. But Jack’s is the perfect complement. Louis was obsessed with documenting his life, and Jack was obsessed with documenting Louis’s life.”The museum’s collections, now housed at Queens College, will be moved to an education center nearing completion across the street from the museum, which has been closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.Mr. Bradley was not a salaried employee of Armstrong but was compensated for each photograph he took by Armstrong’s manager, Joe Glaser. To earn extra money, Mr. Bradley took some commercial photography jobs as well.“I don’t think he ever made more than $10,000 in any year,” his friend Mike Persico said.Dan Morgenstern, the jazz critic and historian, wrote in a Facebook tribute to Mr. Bradley that he had called him “One Shot” because “he would snap just once, in part to save film but also because he trusted his eye and timing.”Mr. Bradley captured Armstrong and the band leader Guy Lombardo during a rehearsal for a performance at Jones Beach on Long Island in the mid-1960s.Jack Bradley Collection, Louis Armstrong House Museum Mr. Bradley once photographed Armstrong naked from behind, in a dressing room. According to Mr. Morgenstern, Armstrong, when he heard the click of Mr. Bradley’s camera, said, “I want one of those!” An enlarged print of the photo hung in Armstrong’s den.John Bradley III was born on Jan 3, 1934, on Cape Cod, in Cotuit. His mother, Kathryn (Beatty) Bradley, had many jobs, including hairdresser. His father left the family when Jack was 10.A love of the sea inspired Mr. Bradley to attend the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, from which he graduated in 1958. He then left for Manhattan, where he immersed himself in jazz clubs and met Jeann Failows, who worked for Mr. Glaser helping to answer Armstrong’s mail. She and Mr. Bradley began dating, and Armstrong, seeing him with her, became convinced that Mr. Bradley was someone he could trust.“What we had in common,” Mr. Bradley told JazzTimes in 2011, using one of Armstrong’s nicknames, “was this unending love for the music. Pops never sought fame for fame’s sake. He just wanted to play his horn. Louis had a message — a message about excellence.“I’ve never met a man who had more genius for music,” he continued. “He could hear something once, and it was locked in his brain forever.”Mr. Bradley was often by my Armstrong’s side from 1959 to 1971, sometimes driving him to engagements and spending hours at Armstrong’s house. In all, the self-taught Mr. Bradley took an estimated 6,000 photos of Armstrong.Armstrong and the clarinetist Joe Muranyi rehearsing in 1967. Mr. Bradley took numerous photos of other jazz musicians as well. Jack Bradley, via Louis Armstrong House MuseumOne sequence of photos, taken in December 1959, shows Armstrong warming up before a concert at Carnegie Hall and jamming with his band before taking the stage, then performing, greeting friends afterward and signing autographs for fans outside the stage door.Mr. Bradley’s focus was not entirely on Armstrong. He photographed many other jazz artists and is said to have taken one of the last pictures of Billie Holiday in performance — at the Phoenix Theater in Greenwich Village in May 1959. (She died that July.)In the 1960s, he was a merchant marine and managed a jazz club, Bourbon Street, in Manhattan for a year. In the 1970s he was a partner in the New York Jazz Museum, in Midtown Manhattan. He also spent time as the road manager for the pianist Erroll Garner and the trumpeter Bobby Hackett.Mr. Bradley returned to live in Cape Cod after the jazz museum closed in 1977. He became a charter boat captain, lectured locally on jazz and hosted a local radio program on which he interviewed jazz musicians. His wife taught high school Spanish.Mr. Bradley, seated, in 2008 with Michael Cogswell, the executive director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives. “Louis was obsessed with documenting his life,” the museum’s Ricky Riccardi said, “and Jack was obsessed with documenting Louis’s life.”Earl Wilson/The New York TimesMr. Bradley crammed his massive jazz memorabilia collection — of which the Armstrongiana was only a part — into his modest house on Cape Cod in Harwich.“He had it in closets, the attic, shoe boxes, sea chests, the basement, the attic, everything but in oil drums,” said Mr. Persico, who has helped organize the archive.Mr. Bradley died in a nursing facility in Brewster. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sisters, Emmy Shanley and Bonnie Jordan, and his brother, Bob.Ms. Bradley said she did not mind that her marriage had been, in effect, shared with Armstrong.“That was OK,” she said. “The third guy was a lot of fun.” More

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      Justin Bieber’s ‘Justice’ Debuts at No. 1, Ending Morgan Wallen’s Run

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      The pop superstar’s new album and the latest from Lana Del Rey bumped the country singer-songwriter to No. 3 after 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200.After 10 weeks of domination by the country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen, the Billboard album chart has a fresh champion: Justin Bieber.Bieber’s new album, “Justice,” opened at No. 1 with the equivalent of 154,000 sales in the United States, including 157 million streams and 30,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking service. It is Bieber’s eighth time in the top spot; at 27, he is the youngest solo artist to achieve that feat. (Elvis Presley was rounding 30 by the time his “Roustabout” soundtrack topped the chart, in early 1965. The members of the Beatles were all 26 or younger when “Yesterday and Today” became their eighth No. 1, in 1966.)Bieber also takes the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with “Peaches,” the fifth single from “Justice,” after a long marketing campaign that began in September.The No. 2 album this week is also new: Lana Del Rey’s long-awaited “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” debuted with the equivalent of 75,000 sales.Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which came out in early January, became a streaming blockbuster — still a rarity among country releases — and has ruled the chart ever since, surviving an industry rebuke after Wallen was caught on video using a racial slur. Wallen held on through a combination of fan loyalty and a lack of serious competition. This week, “Dangerous” falls to No. 3.The arrival of new albums by two boldface-name artists heralds a change on the chart, and the return of a more competitive release schedule. Many artists held off from releasing new music over the winter, in part over uncertainty about this year’s touring prospects. But with a return of concerts looking more likely this summer or fall, albums are beginning to flood the market. New titles from Carrie Underwood and the rapper NF are already out, to be followed soon by releases from Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift and many others.Also on the album chart this week, Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” is No. 4 and Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” is No. 5. More

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      The Unstoppable Merry Clayton

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      One of music’s greatest backup singers is releasing “Beautiful Scars,” her first new album in over 25 years, after surviving an accident that proved that her incredible strength isn’t only in her voice.In 1962, an excited 14-year-old Merry Clayton turned up for her first big recording session. After entering the storied Capitol Studios in Hollywood, she took her place among the other young women who had been called to sing backup for a Bobby Darin record. Soon after they started to sing their part of the song, however, Darin stopped the session cold.“There’s somebody really loud in there and we don’t know who is it,” Clayton recalled him saying. Because the other women knew exactly who it was, “they asked me to back up a bit from the microphone,” she said. “Then we started again and Mr. Darin stopped us and said, ‘That voice is still so loud!’ So the girls asked me to back up even more. Before I knew it, I was almost out the door. Finally, Mr. Darin recognized who it was and beckoned me to the booth to ask me my name. When I told him, he said, ‘My God, Merry, you sure can sing!’”The strength of Clayton’s voice so impressed Darin that he moved the teenager up front where she delivered an incredibly mature vocal on a duet with him, “Who Can I Count On?”The Rolling Stones provided Clayton with her most famous platform, a ferocious duet with Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter.”GAB Archive/Redferns, via Getty imagesFive decades later, another event in the singer’s life would make it abundantly clear that Merry Clayton’s voice is far from the only strong thing about her. After a half-century as one of music’s most in-demand backup singers — during which she had several shots at becoming a star in her own right — Clayton suffered a tragedy that has tested the limits of both her physicality and her faith.At the time, she was enjoying one of her highest-profile moments via her central role in the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Feet From Stardom,” which threw a light on the undervalued and mainly Black backup singers who helped define popular music in the last half-century. But just four months after the film won the award, in June 2014, Clayton was in an automobile accident near her home in Los Angeles that ended so violently, she had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee. She would spend the next five months in the hospital, followed by years of rehabilitation.The singer, 72, recalls nothing of the accident itself. But last month, she spoke with surprising humor and grace about its aftermath in a long video interview. Resplendent in a shimmering azure-blue dress, Clayton sat in her electric wheelchair in the chic Malibu office of the record producer and label owner Lou Adler. “Uncle Lou,” as Clayton calls him, has served as her advocate since 1969, when he signed her to his label, Ode, resulting in several roiling rock ’n’ roll solo albums.Now, along with Terry Young, Adler has co-produced a new album for Clayton, “Beautiful Scars,” her first in over 25 years, arriving April 9. It stresses songs of overcoming, several of which were written by pop artists like Diane Warren and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The others tap into the deep well of gospel music Clayton has been singing since she was a toddler in the church of her minister father.Because he believed music would be crucial to her recovery, Adler started asking Clayton about singing in the studio again just weeks after she regained consciousness. “I said, ‘Excuse me? I’m laid up in the hospital and you’re telling me I’m supposed to be singing?’” she recalled asking him incredulously.“If there was a space in the market that Aretha Franklin had brought about, I felt she could be in that space,” the producer Lou Adler said of Merry Clayton.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesOn the day she learned what had happened to her, Clayton said her family sat by her bedside crying profusely while a team of doctors came into the room. “I wondered, ‘What the heck is going on?’” she said. The doctor delivered the news about her legs. “They thought I was just going to fall out at that point. But I just asked them, ‘Did anything happen to my voice?’ When they said no, I started singing, ‘I Can Still Shine,’ a song Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford wrote for me. Once I did that, my sister said, ‘Let’s get out of here. If she’s singing, she’s fine.’”The response shocked a nurse who had been standing behind Clayton with a large needle at the ready, “just in case I got riled up,” the singer said with a laugh. “I told her, ‘Honey, I’m not going to get riled up. It’s in God’s hands. He hasn’t failed me yet!’”Clayton’s unshakable belief has been the ballast of her recovery. In the interview, she mentioned God no fewer than 19 times. She first made the connection between faith and music at the age of 3 when she sang the spiritual “I’m Satisfied” in her father’s church. Located in her birth city of New Orleans, the congregation drew stars of the gospel world from Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers to Mahalia Jackson. “They called me ‘little Mahalia,’” Clayton said.Her parents — who gave her the name Merry because she was born on Christmas Day — saw no separation between sacred and secular music. So, after the family moved to Los Angeles when Clayton was 8, they encouraged her desire to pursue a career in pop. By 15, she had the chance to cut a single under her own name — the first version of “It’s in His Kiss,” a song that later became a smash by Betty Everett. Clayton said she didn’t mind that her version didn’t click. “What mattered to me was that I sounded good,” she said.In 1966, she realized a dream by joining Ray Charles’s backing group, the Raelettes. “I was the youngest, but I was their lead singer,” Clayton said. There she met her husband, the saxophonist Curtis Amy, who was Charles’s musical director. They remained married until his death in 2002. By the late ’60s, Clayton branched out to become one of the go-to backup singers for the superstars of rock. “We didn’t sing behind them,” she said. “We sang alongside them.”Ray Charles with the Raelettes, from left: Alexandra Brown, Merry Clayton, Gwendolyn Berry and Clydie King.Gary Null/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesHer collaborations included classic recordings with Joe Cocker (whom she calls “Ray Charles in another color”) and the Rolling Stones, who provided her most famous platform, a ferocious duet with Mick Jagger on the ultimate anthem of ’60s fear and loathing, “Gimme Shelter.” “At first, I told them ‘I’m not trying to do no ‘rape’ and no ‘murder,’” Clayton said, quoting from the song’s famous refrain. “Then it hit me that we’re talking about Vietnam and racism and police killing people. It’s just a shot away. I felt like I was screaming out from my ancestors to give us shelter from this world.”The authority of the recording led Adler to sign her. “She had all the qualities you look for when you’re about to put time and money into an artist,” he said. “If there was a space in the market that Aretha Franklin had brought about, I felt she could be in that space.”Clayton’s early solo albums featured songs written by rock and pop artists, including James Taylor’s “Country Road” and a revelatory version of Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” Her enraged and righteous reading of Young’s lyrics about “bullwhips cracking” and “crosses burning” went fathoms deeper than the original possibly could. “The lyrics are what got to me,” Clayton said. “My father said the world needs to hear you sing this song.”Ironically, Clayton had sung backup on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” whose lyrics clapped back at Young for “Southern Man.” By singing on the Skynyrd song, Clayton felt that she was bringing her understanding of Alabama’s racist history as a private protest. Still, she never mentioned to the band that she had also cut Young’s song. “I didn’t think it was wise,” she said.Despite the power of her solo albums, they didn’t sell well. Adler believes that had partly to do with the resistance of radio to a Black woman singing rock. “Commercially, it probably would have been right for Merry to sing rhythm and blues,” he said, before describing the albums’ sales as “one of my great disappointments.”Over the years, Clayton released several other solo records, most recently “Miracles” in 1994, but she never wanted for backup work. Stars hired her not only for her vocal ability but for the full history and culture her voice brings to a recording. “They don’t say ‘Merry, we want you to come sing,’” she said. “They say, ‘we want your spirit. We want you.’”“Of course, there were times my heart broke,” Clayton said. “But I never said, ‘Why me?’”Joyce Kim for The New York TimesAfter the accident, the first person to hire her for backup work was Martin, resulting in two guest spots on Coldplay’s “A Head Full of Dreams” in 2015. Martin wasn’t aware of her accident at the time, hiring her purely for her track record and for his belief in what she could bring to the music. “It needed someone who could go free in an amazing way, which she could do,” he said. “Her voice is so full of experience and life lessons.”Several years later, when Clayton’s team asked Martin if he had any songs for her album, he offered “Love Is a Mighty River,” inspired by his experience performing with the Soweto Gospel Choir. “When I heard her version, I thought, thank goodness she’s singing this and not me!” he said. “She did it way better.”When Adler contacted Diane Warren to see if she might have a piece for the album, she hadn’t heard about the accident either. “But when Lou told me her incredible story, I thought of a song I had: ‘Beautiful Scars,’” Warren said. “It’s about someone who not only survives but thrives. That song was born for her to sing.”Still, the piece that made the deepest impression on Clayton was Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” a version of which she had cut back in 1971. For the new take, Adler elected to retain the sax solo from the original that had been performed by Clayton’s husband. Adler didn’t tell her that he added it before she listened to the playback. “When I heard it, I just lost it,” the singer said.While recording the album, Clayton said she thought about the loss of her husband as often as she did about her accident and ongoing rehabilitation. “Of course, there were times my heart broke,” she said of the physical and psychological adjustments that she has made. “But I never said, ‘Why me?’ I never questioned God. I didn’t realize how strong I was until I went through my situation. But I had to go through all that to get to where am I now, which is living.”“I am alive!” she declared. “Alive!” More

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      Paul Laubin, 88, Dies; Master of Making Oboes the Old-Fashioned Way

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      He learned the craft from his father and continued to make his instruments by hand. Laubin oboes are cherished for their dark and rich tone.Paul Laubin, a revered oboe maker who was one of the few remaining woodwind artisans to build their instruments by hand — he made so few a year that customers might have to wait a decade to play one — died on March 1 at his workshop in Peekskill, N.Y. He was 88. His wife, Meredith Laubin, confirmed the death. She said that Mr. Laubin, who lived in Mahopac, N.Y., had collapsed at his workshop at some point during the day and the police found his body there that night.In the world of oboes, his partisans believe, there are Mr. Laubin’s oboes and then there is everything else.Mr. Laubin was in his early 20s when he began making oboes with his father, Alfred, who founded A. Laubin Inc. and built his first oboe in 1931. He took over the business when his father died in 1976. His son, Alex, began working alongside him in 2003.Oboists in major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony, have played Mr. Laubin’s instruments, cherishing their dark and rich tone.“There is something that strikes a chord deep in your body when you play a Laubin,” said Sherry Sylar, the associate principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic. “It’s a resonance that doesn’t happen with any other oboe. It rings inside your body. You get addicted to making that kind of a sound and nothing else will do.”In a dusty workshop near the Hudson River, lined with machines built as long ago as 1881, Mr. Laubin crafted his oboes and English horns with an almost religious sense of precision. He wore an apron and puffed a cob pipe as he drilled and lathed the grenadilla and rosewood used to make his instruments. (The pipe doubled as a testing device: Mr. Laubin would blow smoke through the instrument’s joints to detect air leaks.)His father taught him instrument-making techniques that date back centuries. As the decades passed and instrument makers began embracing computerized design and factory automation, the younger Mr. Laubin steadfastly resisted change. As far as he was concerned, if it took 10 years to build a good oboe — well, so be it.“What’s the rush?” Mr. Laubin said in an interview with The New York Times in 1991. “I don’t want anything going out of here with my name that I haven’t made and checked and played myself.”Mr. Laubin would store the blocks of his rare hardwoods outdoors for years so they could acclimate to extremes of weather and become more resilient instruments, resistant to the cracks that are the bane of woodwind players. After he drilled a hole that would become the instrument’s bore, the chunk of wood sometimes needed another year to dry out.Mr. Laubin, who was a professional oboist as a young man, constantly played each oboe he worked on in search of imperfections. “Every key is a struggle,” he told News 12 Westchester in 2012.When a Laubin oboe was finally completed, its unveiling became a cause for celebration. One customer arrived at the Peekskill workshop with a bottle of champagne, and as he played his first few notes, Mr. Laubin raised a toast.Mr. Laubin learned oboe-making from his father, who made his first instrument in 1931.via Laubin familyPaul Edward Laubin was born on Dec. 14, 1932, in Hartford, Conn. His father, an oboist and music teacher, started making oboes because he was dissatisfied with the quality of the instruments that were available; he built the first Laubin oboe as an experiment, melting down his wife’s silverware to make its keys. Paul’s mother, Lillian (Ely de Breton) Laubin, was a homemaker.As a boy, Paul was enchanted by the instruments he saw his father making, but Alfred initially did not want his son to pursue music. Paul kept pestering him; when he was 13 his father reluctantly gave him an oboe, a reed and a fingering chart, and Paul taught himself how to play.Mr. Laubin studied auto mechanics and music at Louisiana State University in the 1950s. Before long, his yearning to perform got the better of him, and he landed a spot in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Soon after that, he finally joined the family business and began to build oboes with his father in the garage of their home in Scarsdale, N.Y.In 1958, they moved their workshop to a clarinet factory in Long Island City in Queens, and for a time the business was churning out (relatively speaking) 100 instruments per year.Mr. Laubin married Meredith Van Lynip, a flutist, in 1966. He moved the company to its current location in Peekskill in 1988. As time passed, Mr. Laubin’s team got smaller, and so did his production.By the 1990s, A. Laubin Inc. was producing about 22 instruments a year. By around 2005, the average was down to 15. Over time, the scarcity of Laubin oboes only added to their legend. The company has rarely advertised, relying on word of mouth. A grenadilla oboe costs $13,200, and a rosewood instrument costs $14,000.In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Laubin is survived by a daughter, Michelle; a sister, Vanette Arone; a brother, Carl; and two grandchildren.Mr. Laubin was well aware that selling so few instruments a year, no matter how exquisite, did not necessarily make financial sense. “I chose to follow my father even though I knew I’d never get rich on it,” he told The Times in 1989. “I would have to think twice about starting it today.”The company’s fate is now undetermined. Alex Laubin served as office manager and helped with some aspects of production but did not learn the full process. He often urged his father to modernize their operation — to little avail.“No one sits down anymore and files out keys,” Meredith Laubin said. “No one turns out one oboe joint at a time. This is all automated now, like how robots make cars. But Paul wasn’t endorsing any of these things. To him, there was no cheating the family recipe.”But Mr. Laubin knew the old ways would come to an end. In recent years, he was finding it harder to ignore the stark realities of being an Old World artisan in the modern era.“Paul got to have one part of his dream, which was to be able to work with his son,” Ms. Laubin said. “But the other part of his dream, knowing that his work would continue on in the way he did things, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.”Nevertheless, he hewed to tradition. On his work table the day he died lay the beginnings of Laubin oboe No. 2,600. More

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      Artist of the Week: Silk Sonic

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      Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak kick off their collaborative project with a bang as their soulful debut single ‘Leave the Door Open’ soars high on multiple charts.

      Mar 29, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Comprised of two Grammy winners Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic is packed with talent. The super-duo immediately heated up the chart with their slinky smooth R&B debut single “Leave the Door Open”. It rose to the second spot on Billboard Hot 100 with over 38.7 million spins on radio and 19.4 million streams.

      The two musicians really complimented each other on the lead single of their upcoming collaborative album titled “An Evening with Silk Sonic”. “24K Magic” hitmaker Bruno played the piano and belted out the hook while “Bubblin” star Anderson was in charge of the drums and seduced fans with his flirty lyrics.

      “He’s one of the baddest drummers I ever seen, you know,” Bruno gushed over his bandmate in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And you’re gonna hear that all over the album. That’s what really inspired so much. I had never created music like that, with drums being the focus.”

      “He comes from a different era, that’s what it felt like when I heard him play drums in the studio. It’s like, man, you don’t come from this new school of musicians, you come from those old school musicians back in the day that one drummer would play on everyone’s record, like the Funk Brothers at Motown.”

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      While they only released the first single recently, they actually have been working on material since 2017 when they were touring together. “We kept coming up with music and it felt like why you fall in love with music in the first place,” Bruno recalled. “This wouldn’t happen if it didn’t make sense and it didn’t feel natural and organic.”

      The recipe for creating magic in studio for them is the “live” element. Despite the pandemic, the duo insisted on making music face-to-face instead of connecting through email or zoom.

      “We can’t do shows right now. We just, we in there, so we created a show within the studio. It’s always showtime with us. We can’t help it. We could try to be regular, probably, at some point in our lives, but we can’t help it. It’s not in our nature,” Anderson said.

      He also explained, “People don’t understand that when you get in and you can jam with someone, another artist that can hold it down… that’s different. And you really creating a groove from scratch. You guys are trying to figure out what’s gonna work, what’s the math behind this that’s gonna get everybody feeling good. What is it? Is it too heavy? Is it not heavy enough?”

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      Justin Bieber Dethrones Morgan Wallen as 'Justice' Tops Billboard 200 Chart

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      Meanwhile, Lana Del Rey’s ‘Chemtrails Over the Country Club’ follows it behind as her new set bows at No. 2 in this week’s chart with 75,000 equivalent album units earned.

      Mar 29, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Justin Bieber’s new album “Justice” has arrived at No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. Taking over the leading position from Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” which spent 10 consecutive weeks in a row, the set earns 154,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 25, according to MRC Data.

      Of the number, SEA units comprise 119,000 which equals to 157.02 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. As for album sales, it comprises just over 30,000 with a little more than 4,000 are in the form of TEA units. This marks the Canadian star’s eighth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. The album is also the second-biggest debut week for an album in 2021 after “Dangerous” (265,000).

      Back to this week’s chart, Lana Del Rey’s “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” trails it behind as it bows at No. 2 with 75,000 equivalent album units. Meanwhile, former leader Morgan’s “Dangerous” falls to No. 3 with 66,000 equivalent album units earned.

        See also…

      At No. 4 is Pop Smoke’s former leader “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon”, which dips two spots with 40,000 equivalent album units earned. Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” is also one of those albums which descend this week, falling from No. 3 to No. 5 after earning 36,000 equivalent album units.

      Pooh Shiesty’s “Shiesty Season” is stationary at No. 6 with 31,000 units. As for The Weeknd’s “After Hours”, the album plummets from No. 4 to No. 7 with nearly 31,000 units earned. Lil Baby’s “My Turn” also falls one rang from No. 7 to No. 8 with 30,000 equivalent album units.

      Occupying No. 8 is Lil Durk’s “The Voice” that lowers from No. 8 to No. 9 after earning 28,000 units. Closing out the Top 10 of Billboard 200 chart this week is Luke Combs’ “What You See Is What You Get”. The album bounces back to the Top 10 with 27,000 equivalent album units.

      Top Ten of Billboard 200:

      “Justice” – Justin Bieber (154,000 units)
      “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” – Lana Del Rey (75,000 units)
      “Dangerous: The Double Album” – Morgan Wallen (66,000 units)
      “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” – Pop Smoke (40,000 units)
      “Future Nostalgia” – Dua Lipa (36,000 units)
      “Shiesty Season” – Pooh Shiesty (31,000 units)
      “After Hours” – The Weeknd (nearly 31,000 units)
      “My Turn” – Lil Baby (30,000 units)
      “The Voice” – Lil Durk (28,000 units)
      “What You See Is What You Get” – Luke Combs (27,000 units)

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      Virtual Concerts to Watch

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      Looking for signs of a return to normal? Sitting back to enjoy a live-music performance might be a good place to start.The performing arts have endured a year like no other, but the decimation of touring and in-person shows has in no way squelched music fans’ love of a live performance. And in many ways, the pandemic has yielded creative new ways for artists to engage with their listeners.Since March 2020, for example, the wildly popular Instagram Live series Verzuz, created by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, has recruited some of the biggest names in rap, hip-hop and R&B for nostalgia-driven battles. Highlighting their musical oeuvres and mimicking D.J. battles, each artist plays a song, then their opponent follows with one of their own works, chosen with the intention of one-upping. Engaged audiences argue passionately about the victor. (In a testament to their popularity and relevance, the voting rights activist Stacey Abrams appeared on a November show featuring the Atlanta artists Gucci Mane and Jeezy to promote voting in the Georgia Senate runoffs.)At the same time that small concerts with socially distanced audiences are gradually beginning to return, livestream musical events allow the unvaccinated and those across the country to take part in intimate shows from some great artists. Here is a selection of performances in the coming week that are worthy of a festival lineup, but with a comfortable front-row seat guaranteed.March 30Pandora LIVE Powered by WomenPandora is honoring Women’s History Month with a streamed all-female event, hosted by Hoda Kotb, which will include performances by Jazmine Sullivan and Gwen Stefani. They will also sit down with the fellow artists Becky G and Lauren Alaina for a round-table discussion on issues facing women in music. 9 p.m. Eastern, free for Pandora members; pandoralivepoweredbywomen.splashthat.com/PRApril 2Blind Boys of Alabama Easter Weekend SpecialThe Grammy-winning gospel group will perform a Good Friday show to celebrate the Easter holiday with a slate of new and old hits. The ensemble began performing in the late ’30s — its first members were children attending the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind — and since then there has been a rotating roster of band members, many of whom are visually impaired. The socially distanced, in-person show, held at Nashville’s City Winery, will be livestreamed. 9 p.m. Eastern, tickets start at $18; boxoffice.mandolin.comApril 3Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle, “Woofstock at the Winery”Steve Earle, who was recently featured on a cover of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” to benefit Feeding America, will perform live with the country-music icon and avid dog-rescuer Emmylou Harris. Filmed at City Winery Nashville, the performance will benefit the animal charities Crossroads Campus and Bonaparte’s Retreat a canine-rescue initiative founded by Ms. Harris and located on her property. 9 p.m. EST, tickets $15; form.jotform.com/210543759066156April 4Dionne Warwick At Home With YouThe legendary songstress has had a very busy past year, increasing her fan base by becoming a must-read on Twitter, appearing on the third season of “The Masked Singer” (she was disguised as a mouse) and popping up for a guest appearance on the Gladys Knight vs. Patti LaBelle Verzuz battle. Ms. Warwick, who was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in February, will be performing two virtual shows on Easter Sunday, plus another two on Mother’s Day. She is also expected to resume touring in October. 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST, tickets $20, boxoffice.mandolin.com/pages/dionnewarwickApril 4Verzuz: Isley Brothers vs. Earth, Wind & FireThe Verzuz battles have become one of the singular joys of quarantine Following the esteemed pairings of Snoop Dogg and DMX, and Alicia Keys and John Legend, the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire will appear in the next round of the beloved series, the first time that two bands have duked it out on the series. 8 p.m. EST, free to view on Instagram Live @verzuztv or on Triller. More