Musicians

He may be one of the most influential music executives in the world, but Clive Davis was never a music geek. He didn't like rock 'n' roll as a teen, doesn't describe that lightning-strike moment when sound first truly explodes. He didn't collect albums, and seldom paints himself as an aesthete. Yes, throughout his new autobiography, "The Soundtrack of My Life," he's attending concerts and knows talent when he sees it - he signed Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston - but more with an ear for commerce than for challenging musical norms.

Tweets of admiration continue to roll in for Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who died Monday at the age of 80. A sampling: Lakers forward Pau Gasol: "Today is a very sad day for all the Lakers and basketball. All my support and condolences to the Buss family. Rest in peace Dr. Buss. " Former Laker Dennis Rodman: "My thoughts and prayers are with the Buss family. Dr. Jerry Buss was like a Dad to me and is a tremendous loss to Lakers fam. " Former Lakers announcer Spero Dedes: "Rest in peace, Dr. Buss.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - The piano was delivered to its bluff-top perch under cover of fog nearly two weeks ago. It is scheduled to leave this coastal enclave in a burst of flames on Sunday. In between the fog and the fire, musician and sculptor Mauro Ffortissimo has been treating his neighbors to an illicit outdoor concert series grandly dubbed Sunset Piano. Chopin, Debussy, a tango or two. The performances are timed to end the moment the sun sinks below the horizon. He plays to cyclists and dog walkers, babies in strollers, his landlady in a folding chair, the charmed, the perplexed.

Roland Moritz Longtime L.A. Philharmonic flutist Roland Moritz, 86, who played flute for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than 40 years and for a time shared the concert stage with his father, Frederick Moritz, the Philharmonic's longtime principal bassoonist, died Jan. 11 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla after a heart attack and strokes, his family said. The younger Moritz joined the Philharmonic in 1954, playing with noted conductors including Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, André Previn and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Pham Duy, Vietnam's most prolific songwriter, who captured the strength of his people through years of turbulence and composed dozens of tunes after settling in California, died Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City. He was 91. His death was confirmed by his daughter Thai Hanh. He had been suffering from heart ailments after two operations, according to his family. Known as the "musician of 1,000 songs," Pham was revered by generations of Vietnamese, who memorized his melodies and taught them to their children and grandchildren.

In the L.A. housing market, "gangnam style" appears to translate into "traditional condominium. " Psy , the South Korean musician and dancing phenomenon of "Gangnam Style" video fame, and his own "sexy lady," wife Hye-yeon Yoo , have bought a place in a 1989 building in Westwood for $1.249 million. The Blair House condo features city views, high ceilings, a den, a balcony, two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The contemporary complex offers a saltwater swimming pool, a tennis court, a gym, a doorman and concierge services.

Spend an evening wandering the sonic fun house that is SoundCloud, an online music- and sound-sharing site that contains some of the world's most active virtual music scenes, and you're likely to land in some strange realms. Roam through the millions of hours and you'll find, for example, the new single "Millions" by Def Jam Records and Kanye West-affiliated rapper Pusha T; a brief recording of an Estonian thunderstorm; an analog synth improv by Boston composer Keith Fullerton Whitman; a group of the DJ mix that got DJ Shadow booted off the decks at a Miami dance club; and a new hip-hop track recorded in the "trap" subgenre featuring a sampled Homer Simpson barking "d'oh!"

Hit the road, Jack. That may well be the take-away for musicians when reading Calendar's annual Ultimate Top 10 list, a ranking that combines income from recordings as well as the concert box office to show who had the most lucrative years according to numbers reported by Nielsen SoundScan and the concert industry-tracking publication Pollstar. Since the Ultimate Top 10 began in 1998, there's often been a sizable split between the acts that make their nut from touring and those earning most of their money at physical and virtual cash registers from recordings.

There's a lot of pain and suffering in "Amour," the latest feature from Austrian director Michael Haneke. The award-winning movie, about an elderly couple facing mortality, can often be difficult to watch. But the misery is alleviated by moments of unexpected beauty from classical pianist Alexandre Tharaud, who performed the movie's soundtrack. Tharaud, who hails from France and spent most of his career in Europe, has seen his international exposure rise in recent months thanks to "Amour" as well as two other recent releases.

Some ideas that seem so simple unleash waves of creativity that expand in exquisitely complex ways. One such musical brainstorm is to offer a new body of work as notated sheet music, as Los Angeles songwriter Beck Hansen has done. His new work, "Song Reader," consists of 20 new pieces that the artist hasn't recorded. Rather, he teamed with the book publisher McSweeney's to unveil the songs in notated form. It is designed as a folio, and the hope is that the individually illustrated songbooks included within will inspire other musicians to interpret the written music and then share it. It was, describes writer Jody Rosen in the liner notes, "an experiment in ventriloquism": Provide the melodic and lyrical dialogue, but leave the aesthetic voice to strangers, who would head to parlors both real and virtual to perform the results.