Book / Magazine News

Delta Blues

Source: Michael Ricci
November 9, 2008

Hearts Full of Sorrow

DELTA BLUES

The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music

by Ted Gioia

It has been 70 years since Robert Johnsons death and 25 since Muddy Waterss. It has been 16 years since the founding of the House of Blues nightclub chain and eight years since the burning of Juniors Place, in Chulahoma, Miss., one of the last of the great Delta juke joints. We are in the post-history of the blues, ...

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Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats

Source: All About Jazz
November 7, 2008

An unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at jazz legends By Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Nica de Koenigswarter (Photographer), Gary Giddins (Foreword by), Nadine de Koenigswarter In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Pannonica de Koenigswarter, known as Nica, was a constant and benevolent presence on the thriving New York jazz scene. Known as the Jazz Baroness (she was born into the wealthy Rothschild family and later married a French aristocrat) she befriended such giants as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Barry Harris, Art Blakey, Miles ...

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The 27s Has Arrived

Source: JamBase
November 7, 2008

The 27s - The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll Has Arrived

The 27s is the grandest story of rock & roll, firmly ingrained in popular music and culture yet the saga somehow slipped through the cracks of time until today. If you're reading this you probably know that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain's lives were cut short at age 27, but the same fate happened to thirty other musicians. Sure, they weren't all equally famous, ...

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As Sammy Davis Jr's Star Imploded

Source: Michael Ricci
November 4, 2008

Deconstructing Sammy A fascinating look at the life of Sammy Davis Jr

Sammy Davis Jr. was the epitome of the artist as brilliant naif, blazing as he collapses into a cold, dark star, a posthumous object best described (considering Sammy's diminutive stature and gargantuan talent) as a giant dwarf, a fate understood most clearly by those who came later, the lawyers and accountants who first realized Sammy had bounced his last check, busted, so left his descendants nothing but memories ...

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AllAboutJazz-New York November 2008 Issue Now Available

Source: All About Jazz
November 2, 2008

This particular issue comes at a time of upheaval for the United States. Whether you have good or bad memories of the past eight years, as you sit and read our November issue, you have an important, nay, vital responsibility before you. Nov. 4th is Election Day, where the 44th President will be elected. In addition to this race, there are a number of Congressional and Gubernatorial contests to be decided. We at AllAboutJazz-New York implore you to take your ...

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Jazztimes Editor Responds to Prex Critique

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
October 29, 2008

JazzTimes editor Lee Mergner responds to the PREX critique of Downbeat and JazzTimes: Objectively, I believe he's overreacted to our cover choices, including most recently Return to Forever, Esperanza Spalding, Freddie Hubbard and David Sanborn. I'm not sure why he dropped the cover artist Rahsaan Roland Kirk; I suppose it didn't fit his argument. Apparently, picking what we deem as the most commercial and accessible story for the cover makes me a corporate suit and the magazine a tool of ...

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Jazz Magazines Bad for Jazz?

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
October 29, 2008

A blogger at the Princeton Record Exchange Club takes jazz media to task for “vacuous writing, PR cliches, and tame thinking," singling out Downbeat and Jazz Times as primary suspects. The writing and argument is a little rough around the edges, but it's a provocative point. Like the author, I subscribe to both magazines, and there's no doubt that they represent the mainstream jazz “establishment," such as it is. But are they really damaging jazz, as he suggests? Would the ...

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David Sanborn Featured in Jazz Times Cover Story

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 29, 2008

Saxophonist David Sanborn is the subject of the cover story of the November 2008 issue of Jazz Times, which is hitting subscribers' mailboxes this week. The article written by Geoffrey Himes is headlined “The Blues and The Abstract Truth" - a nice nod to another famed St. Louis saxophonist, Oliver Nelson - and much of it is concerned with Sanborn's new CD release Here and Gone. The oft-mentioned story of how Sanborn discovered the music of Ray Charles, David “Fathead" ...

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