Music Industry News

The Chicago Jazz Ensemble Announces Staff Promotions

Source: Carolyn McClair Public Relations
November 10, 2008

Dana Hall Named Music Director and Darius Hampton Tapped as Education Director CHICAGO, IL - The Chicago Jazz Ensemble (CJE), under the artistic direction of Jon Faddis, named Dana Hall as its Music Director and Darius Hampton as Education Director, it was announced by J. Richard Dunscomb, CJE Executive Director. In addition to their new roles, Hall will maintain his seat as drummer for the CJE and Hampton will continue as Music Librarian. We are pleased to celebrate the expanded ...

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Alton Amphitheater Almost Finished, but Not yet Named

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
November 10, 2008

Although work on the new outdoor amphitheater in Riverfront Park in Alton, Illinois is almost complete, a proposal to name it after legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis apparently has stalled, according to an article in Saturday's Alton Telegraph:“In recent months, there was a drive by some people to have the city name the amphitheater after the late jazz musician (Miles) Davis, who was born in Alton. Publicity about that idea spawned other people to suggest other names, from tying ...

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The Arrival of Victor Feldman

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
November 10, 2008

Multi-instrumentalist Victor Feldman was a musical prodigy who sat in on drums with Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band at the age of 10 and was hailed by the English press as “Kid Krupa.” After continuing his rise to fame in the 1950s British jazz world, Feldman moved to America and eventually made his way to the West Coast jazz scene. We’ll hear the records he made both as a sideman and a leader, playing piano and vibes with Cannonball ...

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Hollywood Sheet Music Faces the Music

Source: Michael Ricci
November 9, 2008

LEDE-IN: The Internet imperils the survival of the low-tech but beloved Sunset Boulevard store.

Early last month, behind the facades of Gower Gulch, that Old West town of Baskin-Robbins, Rite Aid and a Denny's restaurant facing Sunset Boulevard, some 46 vocalists and one showgirl poured into Hollywood Studio Bar and Grill, banding together for a cause the only way they know how -- by unleashing, for more than four hours, tunes about ducks that samba and personalizing the lyrics of ...

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Jazz at the Bistro, Scott Joplin House Named in Article on "Nine Great Jazz Joints"

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
November 9, 2008

St. Louis' Jazz at the Bistro and the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site are among the music venues cited in “Nine Great Jazz Joints," an article appearing in the current issue of Budget Travel magazine and online at CNN.com. The magazine asked six musicians to name some of their favorite spots to hear jazz, and St. Louis native and multi-reedman J.D. Parran nominated the Bistro and the Joplin house. The article also offers the recommendations of baritone ...

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Evelyn Glennie Inducted into Pas Hall of Fame / Endorses Hammerax Hybrid Instruments

Source: All About Jazz
November 7, 2008

Clearwater, Florida – Hammerax, famed for making cymbal-like instruments with sustain and musical effects that go well beyond the sonic possibilities of ordinary cymbals, has made Dame Glennie an official endorser. The first artist to sustain a full-time career as a touring solo percussionist, Glennie performs on the company's Boomywhang hybrids, which produce deep, fluttering sounds with cymbal-like highs. She also is playing Hammerax glass hybrids, instruments that can be crashed, raked or rolled with one hand. This approach to ...

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Lester Young Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 7, 2008

“I had a decision to make between Frankie Trumbauer and Jimmy Dorsey, you dig, and I wasn't sure which way I wanted to go. I'd buy me all those records and I'd play one by Jimmy and one by Trumbauer, you dig? I didn't know nothing about Hawk then, and they were the only ones telling a story I liked to hear. I had both of them made... I developed my tenor sound like an alto, to sound like a ...

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Lou Levy Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 7, 2008

“I remember sitting, with the saxophone section in the bend of the piano--Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Sam Marowitz and Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff when these guys would stand up to play, I would hear all this stuff coming out. When the section would play, I would hear Al Cohn. Now I didn't know him that well, but I could hear that sound coming out of the section, that soulful sound. Then when he'd stand up to play a ...

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