Music Industry News

Focusing the Spotlight: A Little More About Ritmo Masacote

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz
October 15, 2008

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Happy Birthday, Thelonious Monk!

Source: JamBase
October 15, 2008

JAZZ'S GRAND TRICKSTER WOULD HAVE BEEN 91 THIS WEEK

There's no one quite like Thelonious Monk. His impact on the instrument of piano, jazz and music as a whole is beyond comprehension. He's one of those rare individuals whose imagination and fearlessness break up the calcification that builds up on music and frees it to wriggle and leap in the most amazing ways. Without Monk we would likely have no Marco Benevento or Brian Haas (JFJO). Without Monk ...

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Other Places: The Guardian's John Fordham

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
October 14, 2008

For more thirty years, John Fordham has been favoring the British public with his finely-honed critiques and observations about jazz. Most of his work has appeared in the newspaper The Guardian, but he is also the author of an entertaining and informative history of jazz. Fordham is a full-range listener with good ears and a writer with an open mind, as interesting on The Bad Plus as he is on Humphrey Lyttleton. 

In a flow of 881 words, Fordham's most ...

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Side Monk: Thelonious Monk as Sideman

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
October 13, 2008

As a musician and a man, Thelonious Monk must have provided easy inspiration for the title-namer of his 1956 Riverside album, The Unique Thelonious Monk. His singular sound on the piano, his inability to perform in New York City for several years (due to NYC's cabaret laws), and his unorthodox compositions that sounded like urban spirituals filtered through stride and bop, nodding at some strange deity of cool, all contributed to a relatively low profile until the late 1950s, when ...

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Jazz Lives Here: Bringing Jazz Back to the Home: Hour 20 & Hour 21

Source: All About Jazz
October 12, 2008

Hour 20 By Sunday afternoon, the previous night’s revelers may be taking it easy, but many jazz musicians are bringing jams into their own homes. In Park Slope, Brooklyn, latin jazz great Arturo O'Farrill is leading a jam session with his two sons and their schoolmate. O’Farrill’s children originally did not want to be musicians, but can now improvise and hold their own. “I think I chose the drums because I figured it would be the most annoying, but I ...

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Jazz Lives Here: How Jazz Nourishes the City's Soul: Hour 16 & Hour 19

Source: All About Jazz
October 12, 2008

Hour 16 At 8 a.m. Sunday, jazz great Wynton Marsalis is in his apartment, saying it’s not so bad having the sleepy time blues. “It's early in the morning, it's still kind of dark. Well, not now, it's 8 o'clock, but I'm imagining it,” says Marsalis, before breaking into a piano improvisation. “It's just the blues.” Marsalis offers the visiting television crew some coffee and an extra cup of encouragement. “It's good that you’re staying up, because that's the real ...

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YMCA Program Teaches Students About Music, Life

Source: All About Jazz
October 12, 2008

The music is opening up doors for other stuff Fourteen-year-old Tommy Fleming didn’t know playing rock ‘n’ roll could be so good. That was before he learned to play jazz. He didn’t know jazz could be so good, either. That was until he joined the YMCA Center for the Creative Arts, an after-school program of the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley. The program is dedicated to creating music opportunities for school-aged children. Since 2003, the program has allowed students such ...

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Hitmaking Producer/Saxophonist Darren Rahn Joins De'Nate'

Source: Cheryl Hughey Promotions
October 12, 2008

Saxophonist/producer Darren Rahn recently announced that he has joined De'Nate', the nuGroove band created by industry veteran David Chackler. “The chemistry between Rahn, Connors and Harasim is remarkable. In many ways, it reminds me of the magic that happened when Keith Olsen and I introduced Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham to Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. It's an indescribable energy that you can see feel and hear," said David Chackler, President of nuGroove.

Rahn, who has been responsible for several ...

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