Pioneers of Sound - Oscars Past

Oscar time is upon us and it's always interesting to see how history has evolved, who the talent of today are, as well as recognizing the overlooked heavyweights that have paved the way for sound in 20th century cinema.

Ladies and gentlemen, Douglas Shearer and Alfred Newman are two of those heroes.

Douglas Shearer (November 17, 1899 - January 5, 1971)

Born in Westmount, Quebec, a leader of sound desi

gn and technology for motion films started his career in the 1920's. He relocated from Canada to Hollywood when his sister Norma was able to find him a home at MGM. While there, Shearer out of necessity originated the concept of "playback" to eliminate undesirable background noise during sound recording. MGM's 1929 musical "The Broadway Melody" was the first time Shearer attempted to use this technique. It was the top grossing movie of the year and was the first sound picture to be awarded the Academy Award for best picture. He won his first Oscar for "The Big House" in the Best Sound Recording category (1930) and went on to win eleven more through the duration of his career in the categories of Best Sound Recording, Best Special Effects, and Scientific and Technical for such films as; "Naughty Marietta" (1935), "San Francisco" (1936), "Strike Up the Band" (1940), "10 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944), "Green Dolphin Street" (1947), and "The Great Caruso" (1951). Shearer has worked on more the 900 movies in his career, has been nominated for an Academy Award 21 times, winning 7 times for Sound and Special Effect.

Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 - February 17, 1970)

If you're not familiar with his work go and grab an

encyclopedia right now. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S on March 17th, 1900 Newman is the most nominated composer in Oscar history and falls second to Walt Disney as individual winner. He was know in his position at Fox to have contributed an extraordinary amount to film as a music composer, arranger, musical director and conductor. Best known for composing music in over 200 films he was also nominated for 45 Academy Awards. You may recognize his memorable scores in "How to Marry A Millionaire" (1953), "The Seven year Itch" (1955), "The King and I" (1956), and "Camelot" (1967) to name a few. In addition, he conducted the orchestra for all Rodgers and Hammersmith musical film adaptions with the exception of "Oklahoma!" and "The Sound of Music". His daughter, nephew ad two sons have played an important role in carrying on the Newman legacy to this day.

The Silver Screen would not have evolved sound wise where it is today without the influence of both of these talented individuals committing each to forty years of passion, innovation and dedication in their field.

This year's 2011 films nominated for both Best Sound Editing and Best Sound include Inception & True Grit. Also, Inception is up for Best Music (Original Score) and just won the BAFTA award for Best Sound in Britain.

Since it's Oscars Eve "everyone" is a winner for now. Enjoy the show!

The Artists Project - Showcasing Rea Kelly

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the wonderful and unbelievably talented Rea Kelly!

Rea is not only an award-winning broadcast producer for many of Canada's top advertising agencies, she's also an event planner and one heck of a visual artist.

Mark the date in your calendars folks. The Artist Project, an event not to be missed.

Little City to Rock Canadian Music Week

There's nothing little about this band. Classic and solid, "Little City" is one loaded gun of a band. Every performance is delivered with strong emotion, lyrical intelligence and a wide variety of instruments. Your heart strings will be tugged at and your dancing shoes will start tappin' all by themselves.

Little City rocks the house at Canadian Music Week on Saturday, March 12th at the Velvet Underground. Doors open at 7pm, show begins at 8pm and Little City goes on at 9pm.

Tattoo Sponsors Select Events at CMW Festival!

We're amped to the "nth" degree about our Canadian Music Week branded partnership with MuseBox !

We'll be sponsoring the Living Room Shows on Thursday, March 10th to Saturday, March 12th from 2pm-5pm. What's the Living Room Show you ask? It's a series of stripped down acoustic sets from top Canadian artists in an intimate environment. Come join us at the Toronto Institute for the Enjoyment of Music to hear the ambiance of acts like Paper Lions, Allie Hughes, and The Elwins to name a few.

In addition, we're also sponsoring the Ballroom CMW Mixer which is an exclusive event to industry professionals and artists from the festival only. Secret location and secret time. We can tell you that the lineup will include the likes of Allie Hughes, The Lines plus some DJ action.

Stay tuned for further details.

Rock n'roll.

Wooo Caela!

Production Coordinator | Media & Culture Liaison

Want proof that big things come in small packages? Meet Caela.

At an intimidating 5’ 2”, Caela packs more smarts, charm, and talent into one human being than anyone we know.

In fact, we needed two job titles just to contain all the great things she brings to TA2.

Ridiculous production chops. A gargantuan voice. Scads of friends in the worlds of music, advertising, photography, and oceanography.

Caela even lives large. She’s partied with Dave Matthews and Daniel Lanois. She’s a regularly performing singer/songwriter. And she has a scar four inches long but will never tell you why or where.

As you can tell, we think she’s kind of a big deal.

February EarJam Playlist

In the words of Ray Charles: "I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart...It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water."

Hungry for great new music? our February playlist is up showcasing the likes of Hands and Teeth, Data Romance, Behind Saphire, Ori Dagan, Lady Hayes, Pacifika and The Rucksack Willies!

Download the Tattoo Sound + Music EarJam app for free here!