Music Industry News

James Taylor Tells the Stories Behind His Favorite Covers

Source: All About Jazz
November 28, 2008

For years, James Taylor has been covering many of his favorite songs from the 1950s and 1960s during soundchecks before his concerts. This past September, he released some of them on Covers, a collection of twelve classic tracks he recorded at his Massachusetts studio. He recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss some of his favorites songs on the set, from Leonard Cohen to Elvis Presley to the Drifters. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne Leonard predates me a ...

Continue Reading...

Deadly Clash in Hollywood Between Swedish Rapper and Jazz Performer

Source: Michael Ricci
November 28, 2008

After midnight Sunday, John Osnes, a pianist who performed jazz standards and Beatles songs at piano bars in Hollywood, put an empty glass down on the counter of one of his favorite haunts, The Spotlight, and waved goodbye to an employee. “He said, 'Benji, I will see you tomorrow for sure,' “ bartender Benjamin Avery recalled. An hour later, Osnes, 55, lay dying in a crosswalk a few blocks away, the victim, police say, of a violent road rage attack ...

Continue Reading...

Nowra Gets into the Jazz Groove with La Fumee

Source: All About Jazz
November 28, 2008

PUT three 18-year-old musicians together and the last thing you’d expect to get is a jazz band. But that is exactly what Le Fumee is – a three-piece jazz ensemble made up of high school friends Tom Sherringham, Tom Wade and Pat Langdon. They have only been performing as an ensemble for a few months but the response from the community has been surprising, to say the least. “We’ve had a good response, surprisingly good,” Pat said. “People have come ...

Continue Reading...

Meet a Singer Who's Right on Song: Christine Tobin

Source: All About Jazz
November 28, 2008

Christine Tobin stops mid-sentence and tells herself to put her shovel away and stop digging. The Dublin-born singer has just been waxing lyrical about the power of sad songs to make both singer and listener feel better when she realises she might be setting herself up for inclusion in the miserable-git school of performer. She's far from miserable. It's true that, with arguably the most distinctively alluring voice on the British jazz scene, Tobin can sound like the roof's just ...

Continue Reading...

Paul Desmond's 84th

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
November 27, 2008

Yesterday was Paul Desmond's eighty-fourth birthday. Years after Paul's death, his guitar companion Jim Hall said, “He would have been a great old man," The last birthday Desmond celebrated, his fifty-second, fell on Thanksgiving, 1976. He spent it with Jim and his wife Jane at their daughter's tiny apartment in New York City. He had taken a hiatus from his lung cancer therapy to play the Monterey Jazz Festival and an engagement at Barnaby Conrad's El Matador in San Francisco. From Take ...

Continue Reading...

Umphrey's McGee: 2009 Dates

Source: JamBase
November 26, 2008

On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, Umphrey's McGee will release Mantis (read up on the release here). Following the release of Mantis, the band will take the new material on the road for a massive tour that goes into April. Of particular interest, the band's April 5 gig at Toad's Place in New Haven, will be an entirely acoustic show.

Umphrey's McGee's single “Made to Measure," from their forthcoming studio album Mantis was just released. You can listen to it ...

Continue Reading...

Watters Brothers (Ken & Harry Watters) Sign on as Newest Jupiter Artists

Source: All About Jazz
November 26, 2008

AUSTIN, TEXAS October 29, 2008 Musicians and brothers, Harry and Ken Watters, have signed on as artists and clinicians for Jupiter. Playing the trombone and trumpet, respectively, the Watters brothers are key educators who will provide clinics at schools and universities with a portion of their fee paid by Jupiter through the artist program. They are frequently asked to perform guest solos with ensembles, including winds, jazz, and orchestra. “It is truly an honor to be a member of the ...

Continue Reading...

U2, Coldplay, Killers Help Launch (Red)Wire

Source: Billboard Magazine
November 26, 2008

Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a new digital music magazine launching on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1). U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kick-off party on Dec. 1. For $5, users will receive a new ...

Continue Reading...