Music Industry News

If Fred Astaire Got Grit and Was Swept up by Cuban Orishas

Source: All About Jazz
January 30, 2009

Dancer and percussionist Max Pollak has performed for Fidel Castro one night and rural Cuban sugar workers the next. He has painstakingly transcribed a Mongo Santamaria timbales solo for six tap dancers and has traded moves (and shoes) with Cubas rumba masters. It all started when Pollak realized he not only wanted to play Afro-Cuban music, he wanted to dance it. Not dance to it; but audibly create the rhythms with his feet and hands. Its as if Fred Astaire ...

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Jazz St. Louis Seeking Input on Bistro Bookings

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 30, 2009

Jazz St. Louis is looking for input from local jazz fans regarding who they'd like to see booked next season at Jazz at the Bistro. Interested individuals may offer their opinions by responding to a survey that went up today on the Jazz St. Louis Web site. (To find the poll, look in the right-hand column of the front page, about halfway down.)Musicians under consideration for the Bistro's 2009-10 season include Alyssa Graham, Bill Charlap, the Caribbean Jazz ...

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The Jazz Hang: 2009 - The Year of Live Music

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
January 29, 2009

Well, here it is the New Year again. It seems I should have some inspiring personal missive or perhaps a bold, optimistic profundity to share. But the truth is people: I got nothing. Oh sure, I’m plenty excited for the January 20th inauguration. Even though the election was back in November, I still grapple to find the words to express how it feels to be alive during such an unprecedented moment in history. Trust me, it’s big stuff for me...for ...

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The Value of What We Do

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
January 29, 2009

Over the coming weeks we are going to run a series of posts relating to the value of live music, jazz, culture and the importance of what we as musicians do and how it effects others. This has been something that SJS has been thinking about doing for a while and we are not entirely sure where it will go, but we invite you the reader to ponder these questions as well. Better yet, if you have some comments to ...

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Armstrong Park Redivivus

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
January 29, 2009

As New Orleans makes its slow way back from the devastation of hurricane Katrina and the fumbling federal and state crisis response, there are rays of hope on the cultural front. The jazz journalist Larry Blumenfeld, who has become a semi-permanent New Orleans resident, writes about it in The Wall Street Journal.Once alight with bulbs that spelled out “Armstrong," the large steel archway above North Rampart Street, across from the venerable Donna's Bar & Grill, was dark much of ...

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Bernard/Medeski/Hess/Moore

Source: JamBase
January 29, 2009

Will Bernard with John Medeski, Andy Hess, Stanton Moore Tour

Will Bernard Currently touring in support of his latest Palmetto release, Blue Plate Special, two-time Grammy nominated guitarist and composer, Will Bernard is joined by John Medeski (Medeski, Martin & Wood) on keyboards, Andy Hess (Gov't Mule, John Scofield) on bass and Stanton Moore (Galactic) on drums.

Will Bernard follows up his Grammy-nominated album Party Hats with the Palmetto Records release Blue Plate Special. The collective experience of the band ...

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Signed Guitar by the Dead from Obama Inauguration

Source: JamBase
January 28, 2009

HeadCount Auction: Signed Les Paul By The Dead from Obama Inauguration

Bid now for a truly one-of-a-kind historic item!

As The Dead descended on Washington to appear at the historic Mid-Atlantic Inauguration Ball, they signed a black Gibson Les Paul guitar on behalf of HeadCount, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that registered over 100,000 voters last year.

Marking the unique occasion, the guitar was also signed by DC-Deadheads like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama's transition team Co-Chair (and former ...

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Seattle Times: At Tula's, the Last Stand of the Jazz Open Jam

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
January 28, 2009

About six months ago, Mack Waldron had the contract in his hand. Sign it and the club he had owned for 15 years, Tula’s, would belong to someone else. All he had to do was sign his name. His lease was ending. His rent was going up. He was 67. His knees and his feet ached (that was the gout and the arthritis). Still, he’d always told himself he could do any of the jobs in his club if he ...

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