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ObliqSound Signs Vocalist and Songwriter Somi
Source:
All About Jazz
ObliqSound is pleased to announce the signing of its newest artist, vocalist and songwriter Somi, whose label debut will release this fall. A finalist in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her single “Ingele" from her critically acclaimed album Red Soil In My Eyes (2007, Harmonia Mundi), Somi will perform at the 2009 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas next week. She is the second female vocalist signed to seven-year-old independent label ObliqSound. “Somi is an exciting addition to the ...
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Johnny Mercer Project
Source:
JamBase
LEGENDARY LYRICIST/COMPOSER CELEBRATES 100TH BIRTHDAY
Johnny Mercer The Johnny Mercer Foundation and the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University are presenting the fourth annual Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project on Northwestern's Evanston, IL. campus, June 21 to 27. The no-fee, weeklong workshop led by Tony and Grammy award-winning artists is seeking talented young songwriters or writing teams from all popular music genres to participate.
The legendary Johnny Mercer, master of the American song and award-winning composer of “Come Rain or ...
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Zeitlin in the Journal
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, I write about Denny Zeitlin. The piece is pegged to the simultaneous releases of his new trio CD on the Sunnyside label and a Mosaic box set with nearly all of Zeitlin's Columbia trio recordings. The article begins:
In October 1963, a 25-year-old Johns Hopkins medical student sat at a concert grand piano in the East 30th Street studio of Columbia Records in New York and played a masterpiece of a jazz solo. Denny Zeitlin, ...Continue Reading
Best Jazz Songs of Spring (PT. 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
New York experienced 70-degree weather over the weekend. Not bad, considering that the soaring temperatures came a week after a blizzard dumped 10 inches of snow on the region. So yesterday, with the warm breeze coming in over the Hudson River and the clocks pushed forward an hour, thoughts naturally turned to spring.
And songs of spring. But when I began listing my favorite jazz tributes to the coming season, I encountered a small problem: I had too many choices ...
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Best Jazz Songs of Spring (PT. 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
I don't trust Phil--the groundhog. This year, on February 2nd, under a bright sky, Phil saw his shadow, signifying six more weeks of winter. In New York, that would make the warming trend just a week away--on March 16th. But if Phil's track record (and today's chilly temperature) is any indication, that vernal prediction must be taken with a grain of ice-melting salt.
To help nudge spring along (or at least usher in its mood), I'm posting another set of ...
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Best Jazz Songs of Spring (PT. 3)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sick of winter? Based on the e-mails I've been receiving from readers over the past two days, you're not alone. To help cheer you up, I offer you my final top-10 list of jazz songs with spring in the title. This brings my total number of favorites to 30. Which means you can now fire away with your own favorites, and I'll list a selection on Sunday.
On my computer, I've assembled my favorites in a separate iTunes folder, arranged ...
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Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled, 399 Years Late
Source:
Michael Ricci
On Monday in London, Stanley Wells, the chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, unveiled what he claims is the only picture of William Shakespeare painted during the playwright’s lifetime.
The trust explains the significance in a statement on its Web site:
Up to now only two images have been accepted as authentic representations of what Shakespeare may have looked like. One is the engraving by Martin Droeshout published in the First Folio of 1623. The other is the portrait bust ...
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Bernstein’s Workroom Will Head to Indiana
Source:
Michael Ricci
Leonard Bernstein’s children have donated the carefully preserved contents of his main composing studio to Indiana University, which has promised to recreate the space.
Contents of the home studio in Fairfield, Conn., where Leonard Bernstein composed will be displayed in a re-creation of the room at Indiana University in Bloomington.
The items run from the deeply meaningful to the banal. They include Bernstein’s stand-up composing table; a conducting stool that may have been used by Brahms, given as a gift ...
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