2010
May 02 : Exclusive: Michael Jackson Recorded A New Album in 2007
Michael Jackson recorded a whole new album of material in the fall of 2007. The information about the album was only recently revealed by sources close to the late pop star. Readers of my old column will recall that I reported on November 19, 2007 that Jackson spent three months with the Cascio family in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey after decamping from a Northern Virginia home he’d been renting courtesy of then manager Raymone Bain. Jackson, his kids, nanny and tutor landed on the Cascio doorstep at the end of the summer of 2007 and stayed until November 7th. During that time Michael was not idle, as some thought. He recorded at least a dozen tracks with Eddie Cascio, who is also known as Angel.
June 25 : On the first anniversary of Michael’s death. The whole world pays tribute to the King Of Pop.Randy, Janet, Jermaine, Tito, Austin, Jermaine Jr, Autum, Jaimy, Jeremy, Frank Cascio, Tom Mesereau & Karen Faye attend a private memorial at the Forrest Lawn Cemetary.
ABC’s 20/20 airs a two-hour special featuring new interviews with Frank Cascio, Frank Dileo, Dr Tohme, Brian Oxman, Kai Chase, Randy Philips, Travis Payne, Ola Ray, Karen Faye & Michael Bush among others.
September 15 : Taryll Jackson tells Teddy Riley this is not Michael’s voice on the Cascio songs. Randy & Jermaine listen to them and say the same thing.
September 19 : Teddy Riley’s manager, Lawanda writes emails to Joel Katz, Sony Music and MJ Estate to warn them about the Cascio songs. She asks for the original files of the songs. Sony delivers the files nine days later.
October 14 : Michael Prince delivers the track “Hollywood Tonight” to Teddy Riley to remix it. When Prince first hears the songs “Breaking News” , “Monster”, “Keep Your Head Up”, he has concerns over Michael’s voice…
October 15 : The tracklisting for the “Michael” album is selected during a meeting at Sony’s NYC headquarters. John McClain doesn’t want the Cascio tracks to be included beacause they are fake.
October 16 : In Los Angeles, Taryll Jackson starts working on the song “Hollywood Tonight” with Teddy Riley. During a meeting at the MJ Estate’s office, Taryll tells John Branca & Howard Weitzman that he Cascio songs are fake and asks for a listening session with Michael’s close music collaborators.
October 17 : In Los Angeles, a listening session of the Cascio tracks takes place at Encore’s Recording studio with 12 close collaborators of Michael including Teddy Riley, Jean-Marie Horvat, Matt Forger, Michael Prince, Dr Freeze, Harrison Funk, Taryll and Cory Rooney.
October 19 : Eddie Cascio and James Porte fly from New Jersey to LA to attend a meeting at the MJ Estate’s office with their attorney, Taryll Jackson, Michael Prince, John Branca and Howard Weitzmann. Cascio and Porte claim they have no other hard drives because MJ asked them to destroy “all of the outtakes”.
November 4 : New York, NY – The much anticipated album of newly completed recordings from Michael Jackson entitled MICHAEL will be released on December 14 by Epic Records in conjunction with the Estate of Michael Jackson. Tomorrow, an exclusive teaser for the project will appear on http://www.michaeljackson.com/.
On Monday, November 8th the world premiere of “Breaking News,” a full track from the album, will stream on the site for one week only.
The creative process never stopped for the King of Pop who was always planning for his next album; unbeknownst to many fans around the world Michael Jackson was writing and recording songs continuously everywhere from a friend’s home in New Jersey to studios in Las Vegas and Los Angeles with a small group of handpicked collaborators. Now, through the unique stories that will be told about the songs that comprise MICHAEL, fans will get mind-blowing insight into how this artist worked and a chance to hear the songs he most recently created along with tracks that Michael had a desire to bring to fruition.
“Breaking News,” a never heard before song by Michael that appears on the new album was recorded in New Jersey in 2007 and recently brought to completion.
Fans can begin pre-ordering the album on http://www.michaeljackson.com in the next 24 hours.
November 8 : The song “Breaking News” is premiered on michaeljackson.com, members of the Jackson family took to Twitter to raise their voice against the track.
Taryll Jackson on Twitter : “I am shocked that things have gotten this far. This is ridiculous. I tried so hard to prevent this craziness, but they wouldn’t listen. I KNOW my Uncle’s voice and something’s seriously wrong when you have immediate FAMILY saying it’s not him … They can’t give me answers, yet continue to move forward with lies and deception. Sounding like Michael Jackson and BEING Michael Jackson are two different things.”
TJ Jackson on Twitter : “There’s many MJ vocal impersonators. Some better than others. But there is only ONE Michael Jackson. Why they would ignore the obvious, look the other way and rush a suspicious track that was NEVER on my Uncle’s radar is beyond me. I’m disgusted, disappointed and saddened … We know how much he valued his legacy and his fans. And cheating either is unacceptable. ‘Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.’”
November 9 : Sony Music issues a statement over “Breaking News” controversy : “We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own.”
Teddy Riley on Twitter :“ The truth of this of it all [is that] no one knows [but] MJ and God knows. I have nothing more to say and I can’t prove anything. I did not original produce his vocals nor these songs. I’ve answered all that I can answer for MJ fans. The Cascios have a [Twitter] page. They have your answers.”
November 11 : Michael Jackson Estate issues a report: “Six of Michael’s former producers and engineers who had worked with Michael over the past 30 years – Bruce Swedien, Matt Forger, Stewart Brawley, Michael Prince, Dr. Freeze and Teddy Riley – were all invited to a listening session to hear the raw vocals of the Cascio tracks in question. All of these persons listened to the a cappella versions of the vocals on the Cascio tracks being considered for inclusion on the album, so they could give an opinion as to whether or not the lead vocals were sung by Michael. They all confirmed that the vocal was definitely Michael.”
Cory Rooney on Twitter : “I have read the statement from the MJ estate and I have to say that it’s just more bullshit! I was in that room, and the majority of the people mentioned did NOT agree that it was MJ! Some felt it sounded like him but all agree that there was nothing there that was consistent with any MJ habits like finger snaps, headphone bleeding, foot stomping or just simple things like his voice asking for another take. Both Dr. Freeze and Teddy Riley sat with Taryll Jackson and myself and stated that they felt what we felt.”
Taryll Jackson on Twitter : “There are many inaccuracies and omissions in that statement. For one, I was also in that meeting and that was not the outcome. You will hear my story because this is way too important for my Uncle’s legacy. The truth will prevail.”
November 18 : Randy Jackson on Twitter : “Obviously there has been a lot of questions concerning the vocals on the new album that I want to address. Me and my nephew were the first to say that it wasn’t his voice on some of the tracks. The family and the executers of the Estate, Branca and Mclain are not on the same page. John McClain insisted that no family members were allowed at his studio where the project was being completed. Teddy Riley was brought in just to mix and insisted on switching studios. At which he called me to come down and hear my brothers music, may he rest in peace. I heard the music and I immediately said it wasn’t his voice. Now McClain points the finger at Sony, when he got the tracks before it even went to Sony. I invited McClain to the burial, Ironically, he didn’t show up. Neither of the executors didn’t show up to pay their respects. Maybe they were too busy getting deals done. Some of the songs are him, and some aren’t. I would bet my life on that. I will miss his laughter. I will miss his silly jokes. I even miss our arguments.
December 6 : The entire Cascio Family, which has been called “Michael’s second family,” appears on the Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, to speak of their long-lasting relationship with Michael.
Teddy Riley also appears to refute the controversy over the fake songs. Riley claims that Michael would be loving the controversy regarding the album, while attempting to convince Oprah, and the world, that vocals on the Cascio tracks are authentic.
“This is Michael’s voice,” he said nervously.
The only problem with Riley’s statement, that ‘no one can do a strong scream like Michael Jackson’, was that the screams heard on the Cascio tracks, i.e. “aow!” and “hoo!” were actually stolen from previously released Jackson recordings – something that Jackson’s nephew TJ has addressed in an earlier statement:
“Deceptively merging shady vocals with MJ samples (from prior MJ records) will never fool me.”
“I’ve always admired the talent of Teddy Riley,” stated Taryll Jackson after the Oprah interview aired on television. “But after hearing him lie on Oprah I am terribly disappointed.”. I remember when Teddy and I were at Encore listening to ‘Keep Your Head Up’,” . We both knew it wasn’t my Uncle. [Teddy] stopped working on it because (and I quote) ‘it didn’t sound enough like Michael. Michael doesn’t swing like that.’ He also said he was only working on the Cascio records in hopes that he would eventually be given a ‘real Michael Jackson song.’ As he knows, I never agreed with that logic.”
December 13 : Producers Teddy Riley and Eddie Cascio attend a fan celebration of the new Michael Jackson album “MICHAEL” at Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
Jackson Dynasty 