Audio Recordings

In yet another trade dispute with Japan--this time over music by recording stars ranging from the Four Tops to the Doors--the United States formally complained to the World Trade Organization on Friday about Tokyo's failure to observe foreign music copyrights prior to 1971. The period from 1946 to 1971, said U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, touting his Nashville heritage, was "one of the most vibrant and popular periods in the history of American music."

The world knows Maya Angelou as President Clinton's favorite poet and the award-winning author of the autobiographical novel "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." But Scamp Records wants us to know her as the calypso singer whose 1957 album, "Miss Calypso," was reissued this week by the tiny, New York-based label. It's tempting, after seeing the album cover, to dismiss the collection as a spoof--maybe something from Spy magazine.

Police seized about 42,000 pirated compact discs and cassette tapes from a local storage locker Thursday, calling it one of the largest seizures of pirated music in Southern California. Santa Ana police said they found the tapes in a warehouse at 4918 W. 1st St. while following leads from the arrests last weekend of four people suspected of selling pirated music at the Orange Coast College Swap Meet in Costa Mesa. Most items seized Thursday--more than 35,000--were compact discs.

QUINCY JONES: The musician-producer-arranger-executive's 26 Grammys rank second only to conductor Sir Georg Solti's 30. And he's the all-time leader in nominations with 76. "I listen to everything--from classical to Third World, Brazilian to what's going on now, like Tha Dogg Pound, or whatever. 'Waiting to Exhale' is great. Babyface! I adore Babyface. He'll be here a long time because, on top of his talent, he's really together. And I like Me'Shell NdegeOcello a lot.

Using our highly selective ballot, note your own favorites in one column and use the other to mark the actual winners. Record of the Year "One Sweet Day," Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men (Walter Afanasieff and Carey, producers) "Gangsta's Paradise," Coolio featuring L.V.

None of my usual Grammy brickbats this year--well, not as many. The crop of 1996 classical nominees is notable for the increased presence of music that deserves to be heard, rather than for names of performers who hardly need the exposure that awards bring. Shostakovich's genius has been belatedly recognized (in four categories), for example, and some interesting rare operas have cropped up in place of the usual titles.

Settling more than two decades of often bitter litigation, the National Archives and attorneys for the estate of Richard Nixon agreed Friday that virtually all of his secretly recorded White House tapes may be heard by the public starting this fall.

The way they talked about her, behind her back, on the air, in court, you'd have thought she was on trial. Oh, an aspiring screenwriter, are you? From North Carolina? How much are you selling those tapes for? Were you and Det. Fuhrman good friends? Of all the figures in the O.J. Simpson trial, whose principals learned how even ancillary fame can alter the stream bed of lives, Laura Hart McKinny is one of the most compelling.

Athletes aren't the only ones going for the gold this summer. Organizers of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics are hoping to strike gold (500,000 sales) or even platinum (1 million sales) with "The Sound of the Games," an ambitious, five-album collection designed to raise money for, among others, the U.S. Olympic team.

A sixth-grade teacher has been placed on administrative leave after one of his students tape-recorded him yelling at his class. The unidentified teacher at Palmdale Learning Plaza was placed on leave with pay Thursday pending completion of an investigation by the Palmdale School District, district officials said. On the tape, the teacher can be heard telling a student, "I'll spit all over you if you don't shut up."