There are the Grammys, the VMAs, the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame, but it’s hard to think of a room more loaded with music-business heavyweights than the annual UJA-Federation of New York luncheon. In fact, it’s hard to think of a room more packed in general, with more than 650 executives crammed into the ballroom of The Pierre in Midtown Manhattan, across from Central Park. Any attempt to list all of the luminaries present would take all afternoon, but suffice it to say that a huge percentage of Billboard’s Power 100 — including Clive Davis, Doug Morris, Marty Bandier, Craig Kallman, Julie Greenwald, Lyor Cohen, Jason Flom, Joel Katz, Neil Portnow, L.A. Reid, Daniel Glass and Rob Stringer — were all in the house on Thursday, and Alicia Keys and Elle King both performed.
The event is a fundraiser for the organization (United Jewish Appeal), which supports a network of nearly 100 nonprofits that serve 4.5 million people in New York and in 70 countries around the world through programs that provide food, medicine, job training and more to people in need.
The day’s MC was director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge and the forthcoming Netflix series The Get Down, which is based in New York in the mid-1970s), who introduced the pair as “two great music guys” and noted that UJA generated a whopping $200 million last year.
He also spoke about the benevolent work the UJA has done, and noted that the luncheon had already raised $1.2 million.
Next up was Bleachers leader and fun. co-founder Jack Antonoff, who could look at standup comedy as an option if he ever gets tired of music.
“I always pictured record-company villains as big scary guys with a cigar — and I’m not talking about Marty Bandier, he’s one of the greatest — guys telling people that you have to do things that would break your heart in order to break records.
“But with Tom and Peter, we talk about music, records — it’s not just about smashing the world with a [hit]. We’re talking about people who really want to do great work, music that matters. Anything I’ve done that really mattered to me started with these conversations about making a great record.”
He then played a comic video that showed him turning up at RCA’s offices looking for Edge and Corson (who weren’t in), trying to gather quotes for his tribute. A receptionist and label president Joe Riccitelli gave half-hearted descriptions, both of whom described the pair as “like yin and yang.” He then calls Miley Cyrus, who pitches him on a fantasy TV series where she’s a high school student by day and superstar at night — but a klezmer superstar.
He calls Justin Timberlake next, who says, “Tom and Peter? Who is that?” before adding slightly more seriously, “I love Tom and Peter, and it’s been a real struggle watching them try to survive as the record industry continues to plummet.”
Dave Grohl appears briefly, saying, “I’m not f—ing Jewish!”
The video ends with Antonoff, asleep in the lobby, finally approached by Edge and Corson. “Where were you guys?!”
“We were at temple with Rabbi Shlimovitz.”
The pair received musical tributes from Elle King — who performed an acoustic version of “Ex’s & Oh’s” and said “Tom and Peter have changed my life in a very big way” — and Alicia Keys, who performed “In Common” (accompanied by a percussionist) and a solo version of “If I Ain’t Got You.”
Keys, her hair piled up on her head, clad in a gold, flowery jacket with pastel-colored numbers on it, said, “These are really two very long-term friends of mine and I’m so happy to be here celebrating them.” She told the story of how she originally wrote “If I Ain’t Got You” for an unnamed other artist and played it for Edge, who said, “I love the song, but there’s no way in hell I’m letting you give it away.”
A spoken tribute from Doug Morris followed. “When Tom and Peter took the reins at RCA, it would be a compliment to say it was a company in distress,” he began. “Over the past five years they’ve made it one of the most successful companies in the country. … They’ve done it with integrity, loyalty and class, and these guys must have been very well-parented because they are so special.”
Finally, Edge and Corson gave acceptance speeches, focusing largely on thanking the UJA and the people at RCA and Sony and throughout their careers, as well as the artists who participated in the event. They also spoke about their visit last week to the Educational Alliance, a nonprofit in the UJA Federations network on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that provides early childhood education, arts programming, drug-abuse prevention and addiction services. The pair also met with teens from the Edgies Teen Center, which provides more than 350 young people with educational and career-oriented programs. Thanks to the program, “Kids have the chance to get out of survival mode — and dream,” Corson said.
Edge thanked Clive Davis (“who took a chance on me in 1996, I learned at Clive school”), Doug Morris (“who I’m proud to call a colleague”), and Keys (“who I’ve worked with for 20 years — yes, it’s really been that long”).
Yet it was Corson, who started by donning a bleach-blonde wig — “I couldn’t find any yarmulkes so I put on a Sia wig” — who provided possibly the afternoon’s most moving moment, choking up briefly when he recalled his early days at A&M Records, where his boss, the late Gil Friesen, introduced him to his secretary, Susan. “We’ve been married for 28 years.”
He concluded by saying about his staff: “It’s not just the people you work with, it’s the people you work with, they’re your family and your community.”
All photos by Michael Priest