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Daniel East reports on NAMM Conference 2004
I thought you might like a little news from the NAMM conference held last weekend in Anaheim, California. (National Association of Music Merchants) I must say that I was disappointed by most media coverage that just seemed to regurgitate the press releases from the vendors. Here are just a few of my highlights from what was a very successful show by all accounts.
Clearly, the hot item on everybody's list was GarageBand. The large Apple booth was complete with theatre (seating about 100 people and never having an empty seat at the GB demo). Both the most seasoned touring musicians and novice "wannabe" people stood almost ten rows out into the trade show isles to catch and eye and earful of Apple's lastest. It was, quite literally, what everyone was talking about...
Another highlight was the appearance of legendary singer/songwriter, Jackson Browne at the M-Audio booth. Browne, who was there performing with the George Washington Sr. High School, was surrounded by both the kids and a ton of Apple hardware for the presentation. The school's music program received grants and products from M-Audio, Apple and Browne, himself, who was even playing "roadie" setting up mics for the students. An electrifying performance that brought roars from the crowd.
On the product front, the clear pro-audio standout had to be Sennheiser's new G2 Evolution line. The next generation of their highly successful Evolution line brings great sound at a modest price. Evolution was updated to offer a sleeker new design, longer battery life (on wireless units) and incredible sound for more affordable pricing. That, combined with their new booth (complete with performance stage), made them the hot property at the show. Appearances on their own stage included college radio goddess, Michelle Shocked; pop-rocker, Janet Robin, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) showing up with a spectacular four year old drummer at the "Little Kids Rock" booth and others.
You can't talk about NAMM without mentioning the nightime parties which included The Reverend Horton Heat at House of Blues for Shure, Vertical Horizon at The Grove for Sennheiser, and Steve Vai and Joe Satriani at Guitar Player's showcase.
Other notable appearances at NAMM were made by Stevie Wonder, George Clinton (P-Funk), David Denny (Steve Miller Band), Delmar Brown (Sting), Tim Carmon (Eric Clapton), Bonnie Raitt, Steve Lukather, Paul Stanley (Kiss), and top many others to mention. Excitement was high as music buyers, merchants and manufacturers converged on Anaheim for the best NAMM show in recent memory. Even with the presence of all of these legends, Apple was the talk of the show with most of the aforementioned musicians making an appearance at Apple's booth.
Clearly, there is far more than what can be mentioned here; however, I felt these were some key highlights and I hope to have some of my own photos online shortly.
Cheers,
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