Quick Takes: Paul McCartney to be feted before Grammys

Paul McCartney will be feted Feb. 10, two nights before this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, at a star-studded dinner at the Los Angeles Convention Center to raise funds and awareness of the Recording Academy’s MusiCares philanthropic wing, which aids musicians in need of emergency financial or medical assistance, help with substance abuse and other issues.

As previously announced, McCartney has been named the 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year, the Recording Academy’s annual honorarium recognizing musicians’ artistic and philanthropic efforts.

The 69-year-old ex-Beatle joins a long roster of honorees that has included Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Barbra Streisand and Luciano Pavarotti in the 22 years since MusiCares Person of the Year event began.

After a cocktail reception and silent auction, attendees will take in a concert of McCartney’s music played by a variety of guests, a lineup that will be revealed in coming weeks.

— Randy Lewis

‘Cabin’ will screen at SXSW

“The Cabin in the Woods,” a horror movie produced and co-written by Joss Whedon and directed by “Cloverfield” screenwriter Drew Goddard, will have its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival’s opening night March 9, festival organizers announced Wednesday.

About a group of friends (Chris Hemsworth, Jessie Williams, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz and Kristen Connolly) who decamp to a remote cabin for a weekend of excess, “The Cabin in the Woods” continues SXSW’s historic focus on genre movies. In addition to premiering the film, Whedon will participate in a conversation at the festival March 10.

SXSW also announced that it will premiere the first three episodes of Lena Dunham’s new HBO series “Girls,” and Dunham and executive producer Judd Apatow will participate in a panel March 13. For Dunham, it will be a return to the festival that launched her career — Dunham’s indie comedy “Tiny Furniture” premiered at SXSW in 2010.

Additional films announced include Kevin Macdonald’s Bob Marley documentary, “Marley”; Jonas Akerlund’s black comedy “Small Apartments”; “Beauty Is Embarrassing,” a documentary about artist Wayne White; “Citadel,” a psychological horror film from Irish director Ciaran Foy; and a special presentation of the 1919 Ernst Lubitsch silent film “The Oyster Princess,” with an original live score performed by the quintet Bee vs. Moth.

The complete festival lineup will be announced in early February.

— Rebecca Keegan

Urban returns after surgery

Keith Urban will return to the stage Feb. 3 at the Grand Ole Opry for the first time since vocal surgery.

The country superstar had a polyp removed from a vocal cord at Vanderbilt University Medical Center late last year and has been on vocal rest.

His appearance at the Ryman Auditorium next month will be his first public performance since he recorded a song for the “CMA Country Christmas” TV special in mid-November.

He was forced to postpone his “All for the Hall” benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame that was scheduled for Jan. 18. He also rescheduled the tail end of his 2011 concert tour for later this year.

— Associated Press

Lil Wayne book is about prison

Lil Wayne is offering a literary tour of his prison days.

The million-selling rapper has signed with Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, for the memoir “Gone Till November.” Hachette announced Thursday that the book will tell of his eight months spent at the Rikers Island complex on a gun possession charge. Scheduled to come out in November, two years after his release, the book will be an “internal monologue,” based on diaries he kept while in prison.

Born Dwayne Carter Jr., Lil Wayne had the best-selling album of 2008 with “Tha Carter III,” which won a Grammy for rap album.

— Associated Press

New resident composer named

Composer Andrew Norman will be joining the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as its new composer-in-residence. Jeffrey Kahane, the orchestra’s music director, has appointed Norman to the post for a three-year period starting in July.

Norman, 32, will succeed Derek Bermel as the orchestra’s eighth composer-in-residence. As part of his appointment, the composer will work on a new commission from the orchestra and assist Kahane on a number of tasks, including visiting select local high school and college composition classes. His music will receive performances by the orchestra.

The composer, who was raised in central California and lives in Brooklyn, has worked with some of the country’s top music organizations. In 2011, he presented his piece “Try” at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with members of the L.A. Philharmonic conducted by John Adams.

— David Ng