Music Industry News

On a Turquoise Cloud: Duke Ellington After the War, 1945-47

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz
August 4, 2008

At the end of World War II Duke Ellington was coming off one of the most commercially and artistically successful periods of his career--the so-called Blanton-Webster years of the early 1940s. He had managed to keep much of his orchestra intact during the war and had maintained a high public profile with concerts and broadcasts during the 1943-44 recording ban that kept him and other artists out of the studios. In late 1944 he'd scored a smash hit with “I'm ...

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Renting Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs Home

Source: All About Jazz
August 3, 2008

It was the city where the Rat Pack partied, Elvis honeymooned and Eisenhower swung the only hole in one of his life.

Palm Springs, California's fabled desert oasis, has long been a winter playground for the Hollywood set; the city lies just 100 miles (160 km) east of Los Angeles. But it is also home to an extensive array of beautifully preserved Modernist structures that have turned this golf- and-cocktails resort town into a must-see destination for devotees of architecture. ...

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Paul Lansky Computer-Music Man Unplugs

Source: Michael Ricci
August 3, 2008

AFTER 35 years immersed in the world of computer music, the composer Paul Lansky talks with wonder The enormous capacities of primitive objects carved from trees or stamped from metal sheets: violins, cellos, trumpets, pianos.

I'm interested in writing for real people at this point. To create the sound of a violin -- wow! I can't do that on a computer. --Paul Lansky-- in acoustic-instrument mode.

Mr. Lansky has written a new chapter, or at least ...

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Xeric Winner "Jazz: Cool Birth" Based on '50s Album Cover Design

Source: All About Jazz
August 1, 2008

Through study of album covers, television program title artwork, and common illustrations used in everything from health booklets to instruction manuals from the 1950s, author/designer Gary Scott Beatty created recent Xeric Foundation grant winner “Jazz: Cool Birth," a jazz club murder mystery. The comic will appear in September's Previews preorder magazine under Aazurn Publishing. “I hope to pull readers into the late night clubs of 1957, feeling the music through the visuals," Beatty explained. Ignoring paint and ink magazine illustration, ...

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Dispatches from the End of the Jazz Wars

Source: All About Jazz
August 1, 2008

By Darcy James Argue We've heard it all before: Classical music is dead. Punk is dead. Hip hop is dead. Jazz is dead. Whatever the musical genre, you can be sure that someone somewhere is saying it's dead. Apparently, musical death is, like death in superhero comics, both ubiquitous and impermanent. That's not to say that a marginal art form like jazz doesn't face special challenges in this brave new post-music-industry era. Online sales of classical music have been surprisingly ...

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Jerry Garcia Honored on Sirius

Source: All About Jazz
August 1, 2008

SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO TO COMMEMORATE JERRY GARCIA'S LIFE AND LEGACY “Jerry Week" beginning with the anniversary of his birth on August 1

Jerry Garcia by Jay Blakesberg WHAT: SIRIUS' Grateful Dead channel to celebrate Jerry Garcia with nine days of special programming devoted to the life of the legendary Grateful Dead frontman. Beginning August 1, Garcia's birthday, and ending August 9, the anniversary of his death, the Grateful Dead channel will commemorate the life and legacy of Jerry ...

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Newly Discovered Beatles Tape for Sale

Source: All About Jazz
July 31, 2008

Can Buy Me Laughs!

(LONDON) -- A tape recording of The Beatles chatting and breaking into giggles during an early recording session is to be sold next week in England. Cameo Auctioneers said Thursday that the reel-to-reel tape was recorded in 1964 and was recently found by a man in northern England while he was clearing out his father's attic. On one part of the half-hour tape, John Lennon and Paul McCartney repeatedly collapse in laughter as they try to ...

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5 Latin Jazz Bass Players Driving Today's Scene

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz
July 31, 2008

Quite a while ago, I wrote a post entitled 5 Latin Jazz Bass Players That You Must Hear!. This article was meant as a quick introduction to some of the bassists that have defined the style since its initial development. Its been a fairly popular post, being read daily by numerous people. I wanted to return to that idea with a look at the bassists that are currently driving the Latin Jazz scene. These are bassist from many sides of ...

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