Branca: Unreleased Music Unlikely in the Foreseeable Future

Back when Xscape was holding listening parties for fans and the media, I vaguely recall reading something from someone who was in attendance that spoke to John Branca. He apparently said that he believed the songs to be legitimate, but the estate wouldn't release any others on future projects due to the fan backlash.

If true, I imagine that's why no apology has been issued.

The Cascio tracks remain one of the most interesting aspects of the posthumous run simply due to the fact that I'm amazed that they even made it through.

Whatever happened to that A Truth Untold book that was supposed to discuss Michael's recording sessions from 2006-9 and the process of the Michael album? The last update I can find is from late last year.

It didn't meet the funding so they didn't bother releasing it. It's not as if they could have released it for free online or anything :rolleyes:
 
He apparently said that he believed the songs to be legitimate, but the estate wouldn't release any others on future projects due to the fan backlash.

If true, I imagine that's why no apology has been issued.

One man's arrogance? Tut.
 
My honest opinion on the Estate when it comes to the Michael album.. get mad at me if you want! it's my opinion.. I don think the estate released any non MJ vocal with intent. I am one to think it Is very possible they received the tracks 'completed' from Cascio.. If this was in Cascios 'arcive' that would tell me that he submitted it to the estate in hopes to make them album... If Cascio was trying to make the album - I doubt he'd send the "original demo"...

And while some fans say it does not sound like Michael, I can understand why It would be close enough to fool a few lawyers and people from the estate.. Especially when (at the time) they had no reason to question..

ALSO I think the way they handled Xscape was them trying to redeem themselves from a bad move.. they gave us updated tracks and all the demos.. I mean that is what we asked for!

I always figured Branca and co. were blinded by the fact that they received twelve new songs from 2007 (a time period from which usable music is lacking) and didn't think twice about taking advantage of it. I simply can't believe they thought to themselves, "These songs are obviously fake but it'll fool the fans! Who cares? Profit!" In that regard, I forgive them, even though I can't imagine how they would believe those songs are real.

Yeah, I don't believe they knew it wasn't Michael and tried to profit off that - after all at the time they had a very good number of unreleased recordings to pick from. They had no reason really to do that...

It was really only a few years ago that I began to believe they weren't Michael. At the time, I heard all this reasoning/excuses that "oh they just heavily processed Michael's voice" and I believed it, I can see why Branca and McCain would believe that as well. There also wasn't any real reason to doubt the Cascios was there? Should they have listened to Michael's collaborators? Yes, but it was possibly too late to pull out by that point? I don't see getting any apology, and if we do, it'll be in the far future when it won't have any impact. Apologising now will only shed light on it again and potentially ruin the future of Michael Jackson posthumous products.

If I was the Estate, I'd honestly just remove the Michael album all-together off the digital services. The production we got for the songs aren't worthy of Michael's name and the songs should be re-utilised in the future to redeem their most potential. A good, more realistic compromise though, would simply be removing those songs off future pressings/iTunes/streaming services (but that wouldn't make much difference at this point - album barely sells now I reckon... which is a good thing).
 
Yeah, I don't believe McClain and Branca would actually pull a move to intentionally deceive fans... that theory is more plausible than the others. It might still be MJ, there is just no solid evidence to prove it is him or it isn't him. Nevertheless, yeah, those vocals should never have been released.

However, what doesn't make sense to me is why would the Cascio family after being so friendly and loyal to Michael throughout his time being alive... why would they just be not loyal when he dies?

I thought every single bit of the album except the Cascio tracks were solid. I think Hollywood Tonight is really funky and sounds like what MJ would have done on HIStory or Dangerous... it's the beatboxing :D.
 
Michael throughout his time being alive... why would they just be not loyal when he dies?
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$$$$
The same as why many others betrayed mj or other celebs etc.although it isnt the whole family
 
I don't see it as a level of loyalty if they were legitimately 'tricked'... Plus I' sure Mikes team did many disappointing things when MJ was around (ie why people were fired, re-hired etc.. - he was just here to say yes or no.. Since he's not they have to make the executive decisions...
 
Michael throughout his time being alive... why would they just be not loyal when he dies?
-------

$$$$
The same as why many others betrayed mj or other celebs etc.although it isnt the whole family
I've personally seen people do the most low down dirty things for money. And I'm talking hundreds or thousands, so no doubt the biggest snakes slither when millions are on the table
 
I dont trust branca much anymore and remember guys mike fired him a while ago
 
They did receive them complete. And collaborators of MJ raised concerns as soon as they heard them. Branca ignored them because he believed them to be real. The cascios also waited until the last possible moment to submit them to Sony. Even Teddy Riley knew as soon as he heard burn tonight that it wasn't him, but he kept working on it in hopes of receiving a real MJ song to work on.
I can certainly understand Branca being duped, since he knew the Cascio family for years through Michael and would definitely know how much Michael cared for them.

So who would think something like that? However, if that is true on Teddy Riley's part-that is definitely deceitful-because he was a collaborator at one time and also said they were real at the time.
 
The estate will always be the 'fall' for any bad move because they represent the legacy.. I hope us as a fan community can understand that the estate is a group of people that can be tricked, bamboozled just like any other group of people. There (at the time) was no reason to question the cascios and the fact Michaels voice consecutively changed over time would give even more reason not to question... Even today the voice can hold its own debate, so back then the estate would have had hardly no reason to question.. Also the excitement of getting something not locked up in the vault, and advertised to the estate as songs MJ worked on before he passed could blind a bit.
 
The estate will always be the 'fall' for any bad move because they represent the legacy.. I hope us as a fan community can understand that the estate is a group of people that can be tricked, bamboozled just like any other group of people. There (at the time) was no reason to question the cascios and the fact Michaels voice consecutively changed over time would give even more reason not to question... Even today the voice can hold its own debate, so back then the estate would have had hardly no reason to question.. Also the excitement of getting something not locked up in the vault, and advertised to the estate as songs MJ worked on before he passed could blind a bit.

I have to disagree with this. Everyone who heard those vocals knew instantly they weren't Michael, but Branca pushed for their release anyway. This could have easily be prevented, and it wasn't. I'm not just gonna give Branca and Co's incompetence a pass.
 
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I have to disagree with this. Everyone who heard those vocals knew instantly they weren't Michael, but Branca pushed for their release anyway. This could have easily be prevented, and it wasn't. I'm not just gonna give Branca and Co's incompetence a pass.

I'm also not aware of the estate or family of any other dead musicial allowing something like this to happen. Inexcusable.
 
I can certainly understand Branca being duped, since he knew the Cascio family for years through Michael and would definitely know how much Michael cared for them.

So who would think something like that? However, if that is true on Teddy Riley's part-that is definitely deceitful-because he was a collaborator at one time and also said they were real at the time.

Yeah it's my rule to not believe much of what Teddy says nowadays as he has a history of being a compulsive liar.
 
I have to disagree with this. Everyone who heard those vocals knew instantly they weren't Michael

I have to respectfully disagree with you. It was probably because I was in denial (as a fan, this was my first Michael Jackson album release so I was VERY keen), but for the first few years I believed them to be Michael's, just that his vocals were overly processed because it was a demo so they wouldn't be top notch. That reasoning was more than enough for me and I simply accepted it as it was. I remember someone even went on... Oprah or Ellen or whatever to say they had applied heaps of "melodyne" to the voice and that was good enough for me. I imagine if you told someone such as McCain (who's background is not in audio engineering, IIRC) either of those reasons, he would've believed it too. Hell, he probably was told that.

There was lots of commotion in the fan community back then... people on different sides with different reasoning. A year or so later, I had changed my opinion to "Undecided" and as of the last few years, I'm very confident they were not Michael's. I can't blame anyone at the time really, especially if they lacked knowledge in the technical side of music production. Dude had no reason to doubt the Cascios too, Michael had a good relationship with them when he was alive.
 
I convinced myself that Breaking News was Michael simply due to the fact that I couldn't fathom two corporations on the level of Sony Music and the Michael Jackson estate ever actually going forward with such a scam. Anyone who came forward and complained I wrote off as being upset that they didn't have a bigger hand in the finalization process. It was just beyond me that the estate would attempt to trick us by having someone (poorly) imitate one of the most famous and recognizable voices in modern pop history. I kept that mindset after Monster and Keep Your Head Up leaked too, even though I started to very openly think, "Okay, something's off."

But what really sealed the deal was when Tony Kurtis (Jason Malachi's longtime producer) came forward and said, "I've listened to Jason sing for years. I know his voice inside and out. And he's singing this song."

I can fully understand why the estate has yet to do anything regarding these songs or the Michael album as a whole, and in an odd way I can't necessarily blame them for it. But at the same time, I find it incredible that this entire controversy even happened.
 
I have to respectfully disagree with you. It was probably because I was in denial (as a fan, this was my first Michael Jackson album release so I was VERY keen), but for the first few years I believed them to be Michael's, just that his vocals were overly processed because it was a demo so they wouldn't be top notch. That reasoning was more than enough for me and I simply accepted it as it was. I remember someone even went on... Oprah or Ellen or whatever to say they had applied heaps of "melodyne" to the voice and that was good enough for me. I imagine if you told someone such as McCain (who's background is not in audio engineering, IIRC) either of those reasons, he would've believed it too. Hell, he probably was told that.

There was lots of commotion in the fan community back then... people on different sides with different reasoning. A year or so later, I had changed my opinion to "Undecided" and as of the last few years, I'm very confident they were not Michael's. I can't blame anyone at the time really, especially if they lacked knowledge in the technical side of music production. Dude had no reason to doubt the Cascios too, Michael had a good relationship with them when he was alive.

Was talking about all of MJ's collaborators. They raised their concerns and were ignored. The meeting they all had to listen to the vocals ended with most of them either saying they didn't believe they were MJ or that it sounded like him but they weren't sure.
 
I convinced myself that Breaking News was Michael simply due to the fact that I couldn't fathom two corporations on the level of Sony Music and the Michael Jackson estate ever actually going forward with such a scam. Anyone who came forward and complained I wrote off as being upset that they didn't have a bigger hand in the finalization process. It was just beyond me that the estate would attempt to trick us by having someone (poorly) imitate one of the most famous and recognizable voices in modern pop history. I kept that mindset after Monster and Keep Your Head Up leaked too, even though I started to very openly think, "Okay, something's off."

But what really sealed the deal was when Tony Kurtis (Jason Malachi's longtime producer) came forward and said, "I've listened to Jason sing for years. I know his voice inside and out. And he's singing this song."

I can fully understand why the estate has yet to do anything regarding these songs or the Michael album as a whole, and in an odd way I can't necessarily blame them for it. But at the same time, I find it incredible that this entire controversy even happened.

Respectfully, it just stuns me when I hear people say that. I heard the first two lines of Breaking the News or whatever it's called and heart sank and jaw dropped.
 
wow... can't believe people is still discussing the Cascio' songs after years...

What J.Branca said is that will be some "exciting projects" coming in the near future...

"projects" = "commercial operations that will help the Estate of MJ to grow up bigger and bigger, pay Michael's taxes, pay all the attorneys involved
in lawsuits and pay for Michael's children expenses of their life".


For the music... Anyone here really believe Michael wrote (and registered) hundreds of songs? (I mean finished songs)
So... no entirely completed tracks, no possiblity to have them on a record. They already said that years ago... "there will be songs for just a couple of albums, no more" ...

Unfortunately that's all! We need to prepare ourself for a different kind of entertainment. It's the real truth of every dead superstar.

Ele74
 
I'm also not aware of the estate or family of any other dead musicial allowing something like this to happen. Inexcusable.

Being a huge MJfan I of course listen to the legit songs on the Michael album, and whats done is done and cannot be undone, but I can't help but imagine that the people who okayed the album looked like this upon its release.:lol:
4E4a6Csh.jpg
 
Hopefully this means no more terrible remixes (Xscape ones weren't too bad).

And more importantly there's a possibility of a Blu Ray i.e. Michael in HD :wild:
 
The 7 great songs on Michael are really good. - So they should simply make a release and say that due to qustions regarding the legity of the vocals - these songs will be taken of the album until vocals are confirmed to be or not to be MJ. -- Then they would never ever have to work more in it, the album would simply be a 7 songs album. - So sad some don't listen to all the great real MJ songs just because of 3 songs...

I really hope there will be more albums like Xscape - IMO it was really a great album. - we got the demos and new versions. Win-win.

But some Blu-Ray (or even 4K) releases would be perfect too.
re-release Vision in Blu-Ray - release The Making of Thriller and the Thriller 3D thing on Blu-Ray - and the Legend Continues as a bonus on a fan version. And maybe Release a Blu-Ray concert. - they could make 2017 the year MJ really went on Blu-Ray. :lol:
 
I dont like the new Music like the xscape Album. Good that they have the Original ones on it. So i dont like when they Release new songs, maybe demos and Ideas from him were good. From each album a demo Album is a good idea, but the estate doing nothing for fans only for money. My opinion.
 
http://www.naplesnews.com/story/mon...sits-bonita-springs-radio-interview/96498298/
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John Branca gave a rare interview to WGUF Naples Talk Radio last Thursday (12/01/2017) to talk about his career and of course being the head of the Michael Jackson Estate.

Here below the part of the show where he speaks about Michael Jackson and the Estate:

Branca represented Michael Jackson for many years. The CBS news show “60 Minutes” credited him, as a trustee of Jackson’s estate, with the single greatest turnaround in entertainment history after he helped return more than $600 million to the estate in the first three years after Jackson’s death. The estate was $500 million in debt.

“It was challenging at first,” he conceded.

Here are just a few of the projects Branca helped orchestrate as a co-executor of the estate:

» Michael Jackson ONE, a permanent Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas Mandalay Bay show that opened in June 2013 and is breaking attendance records;

» Release of “Xscape” in 2014, an album of previously unreleased Jackson recordings, which reached No. 1 on the charts in 52 countries;

» “Slave to the Rhythm,” a “holographic” Jackson performance at the Billboard Music Awards, netting over 11.5 million “live” views and hundreds of millions of views online.

Branca teased there’s “more to come.” He credits the success of the estate more to Jackson’s talents than to his own, describing Jackson as the “greatest entertainer that ever lived.”

“Michael was always breaking the rules and pushing the boundaries,” he said.

Branca said he has kept relationships with other clients strictly professional, but that Jackson was different. Years ago, Jackson was the best man in Branca’s first wedding and showed up with a well-dressed date (his chimp, Bubbles, in a tuxedo). Branca still laughs when he talks about it today.
 
Paris78;4181482 said:
http://www.naplesnews.com/story/mon...sits-bonita-springs-radio-interview/96498298/


John Branca gave a rare interview to WGUF Naples Talk Radio last Thursday (12/01/2017) to talk about his career and of course being the head of the Michael Jackson Estate.

Here below the part of the show where he speaks about Michael Jackson and the Estate:

Branca represented Michael Jackson for many years. The CBS news show “60 Minutes” credited him, as a trustee of Jackson’s estate, with the single greatest turnaround in entertainment history after he helped return more than $600 million to the estate in the first three years after Jackson’s death. The estate was $500 million in debt.

“It was challenging at first,” he conceded.

Here are just a few of the projects Branca helped orchestrate as a co-executor of the estate:

» Michael Jackson ONE, a permanent Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas Mandalay Bay show that opened in June 2013 and is breaking attendance records;

» Release of “Xscape” in 2014, an album of previously unreleased Jackson recordings, which reached No. 1 on the charts in 52 countries;

» “Slave to the Rhythm,” a “holographic” Jackson performance at the Billboard Music Awards, netting over 11.5 million “live” views and hundreds of millions of views online.

Branca teased there’s “more to come.” He credits the success of the estate more to Jackson’s talents than to his own, describing Jackson as the “greatest entertainer that ever lived.”

“Michael was always breaking the rules and pushing the boundaries,” he said.

Branca said he has kept relationships with other clients strictly professional, but that Jackson was different. Years ago, Jackson was the best man in Branca’s first wedding and showed up with a well-dressed date (his chimp, Bubbles, in a tuxedo). Branca still laughs when he talks about it today.

The recent article that credited Michael's turnaround to the Estate's 'MAGIC' and this one that credited the Estate with the "single greatest turnaround in entertainment history" are flat out wrong and glad Branca called them out.

It was Michael's unfortunate death that did it, and the fact that people don't appreciate what they have until it's gone.
 
I would love more unreleased material, obviously. But if not there are TONS of other projects they need to focus on. For one, Michael Jackson is praised as the greatest performer of all time, and so it's mind boggling how little officially released footage we have of him live.
 
....the fuck?
What the hell is that video for Another Part of Me, then? And the non-amateur-quality filmed concerts we've seen over the years? Or is it talking about full, film-quality, slighty-better edited concerts?
 
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