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Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.

Festival

Newport Jazz Festival 2012: A Celebration of Diversity

Source: Watch Jazz Happen by Dan Kassell
July 26, 2012

Tickets are selling briskly for the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival! To everyone’s surprise last year, the festivals ended with a surplus of several hundred thousand dollars, after the Newport Festivals Foundation invested $3 million in both festivals, the Associated Press reported. What was the impetus for setting up a nonprofit foundation? In a phone interview prior to last years' jazz festival George Wein explained, “The only way to get help is to go not-for-profit. I'm working pro-bono, it has nothing ...

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Performance / Tour

She’s Not Billie, Not Sarah, Not Ella. It’s Cynthia Holiday

Source: Watch Jazz Happen by Dan Kassell
July 25, 2012

BIRDLAND Showcase Thursday, July 26, 2012 Dinner from 5:00pm Showcase 6:00pm-7:00pm $20.00 Cynthia Holiday always gets asked two questions about her name: Is Holiday a stage name? “My maiden name is Cynthia Holiday,” and, are you related to Billie Holiday? “I find it flattering and always say, We are sisters in the name of song." “My family name is Cynthia Joyce Holiday, born to Johnnie and Betty Holiday in Newark, NJ.” Song ...

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Performance / Tour

Nicki Parrott: Jazz At Kitano

Source: Daniel Kassell
June 2, 2012

On the last Wednesday night of the first month in the newly renovated bar musical director Gino Moratti announced a quiet policy intended to focus attention on the subtleties of Nicki Parrott’s Trio. Moving from the second floor after six successful years to the first floor adjacent to the hotel in the former Park Avenue Rockefeller Townhouse, the official opening on the weekend of May 2nd, 2012, found it’s now called: JAZZ at Kitano. The mahogany walls, banquettes, skylights set ...

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Event

“What We Do” at the Louis Armstrong House Museum

Source: Daniel Kassell - Authentic Marketing
December 8, 2011

What do they do at the Louis Armstrong House? A Who's Who of the Jazz world were introduced to Louis Armstrong singing “That's My Home" in the first moments of a video about “What We Do." At this first Louis Armstrong House Museum Gala on December 6th, 2011 the first “Louie," went to a 92-year-old, jazz cognoscenti fan and record producer, George Avakian. Meeting Armstrong many times, since 1943, he quoted Armstrong's expression of purpose: “Bring Happiness to the World." ...

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Music Industry

2011 is Now, "Live Jazz" Thrives at APAP since 2007

Source: Daniel Kassell
January 8, 2011

By Daniel Kassell For the fourth consecutive year Jazz Journalist Association members have noted the influx of Jazz presenters showcases highlighted at the Association of Performing Presenters (APAP) in New York's Hilton Hotel and in 2011 concurrently at every conceivable venue in NYC. APAP's vision is to develop and support professionals who offer “Live" performance such as Talent and Management, Representatives, Artists, Performers and supporting services. This year expect 1000 independently produced Showcases and educational events. A sample of this ...

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Interview

Bill Taylor Remembered Thomas "Fats" Waller

Source: Daniel Kassell
January 3, 2011

By Daniel Kassell Billy Taylor was a generous man. His enthusiasm relating his memories of seeing Fats and how that influenced his piano style was contagious. To me “Billy was it! He cut it, man!" I offer this in tribute to our greatest jazz media personality. At the International Association of Jazz Educators Convention publicist Arnold Jay Smith arranged a private interview with pianist educator Billy Taylor on January 24, 2004: Dan Kassell: Well I want to thank you in ...

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