Carrabba Free Agent

AY CARRABBA: One of the casualties of this week's Sony Music reorganization was well-respected Jive Label Group EVP/GM Tom Carrabba, who had been with the company 23 years, joining in 1988 when it was still just a scrappy label/production/publishing group named Zomba under South African entrepreneur Clive Calder. Carrabba worked his way up from SVP Sales & Marketing to his most recent post as longtime colleague Barry Weiss’ right-hand man. That experience makes him a real asset to any company looking for an inside guy to make the trains run on time and keep an eye on the bottom line. Most believe Weiss will bring his two-decade-plus cohort into his new inner circle to help him manage the East Coast for UMG. (8/26p)