Rockbites: Jazz flautist rides The Beastie Boys for free press

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May 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Jazz flautist rides The Beastie Boys for free press
24 May 2000

Earlier this month, California based jazz/classical flautist James Newton made headlines by suing The Beastie Boys over their use of a six second, single note sample taken from his 1982 track Choir. The band used it on their 1992 song Pass The Mic from the LP Check Your Head.
    The lawsuit acknowledges that The Beastie Boys obtained permission from Newton’s record label, ECM, but questionably claims that the publisher did not have the right to grant that permission. Newton is also suing The Beastie Boys’ publishing company, producer, distributor, and record labels. He is not suing his own label.
    Beastie Boys member Mike D (Michael Diamond) wrote “We obtained and paid for all necessary clearances for this sample. We dealt directly with ECM Records, the owner of the master recording, and lived up fully to the agreement we made with them.”
    (At press time James Newton’s own Web site was experiencing too many hits for us to log on.) | Live Daily story | | The Beastie Boys | | James Newton | | discography | | sample from The Sounds Of Science | | top of page |

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