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Music Industry

Nnenna Freelon: Capturing the Holiday Spirit

Source: All About Jazz
October 14, 2005

Freelon didn't want to mimic Lady Day; she wanted to match her Nnenna Freelon isn't exactly channeling Lady Day on her latest album and tour, which honors the 90th anniversary of Billie Holiday's birth. But she does feel her spirit. “She's ecstatic," said Freelon of Holiday. “She sits on my shoulder and says, 'You better be who you are.' “ It's that kind of self-confidence and strength that the acclaimed Freelon draws from Holiday to make her tour, “Blueprint of ...

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Music Industry

Katrina's aftermath: The jazz city's music still speaks to our nation's soul

Source: All About Jazz
October 14, 2005

The last time I was in New Orleans, I watched a funeral parade march by. About 30 musicians, serious of purpose but hardly solemn, walked down the street playing a joyous old tune to honor the newly dead, a “second line" of stragglers and celebrants trailing behind. I never thought it might be an early wake for the aging grande dame of a city herself. With New Orleans in chaos in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we've belatedly come to ...

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Music Industry

Jazz Festival Offers Echo Of Big Easy

Source: All About Jazz
October 14, 2005

CLEARWATER For two New Orleans jazz masters, emotions will lie close to the surface when they perform at this weekend's MarineMax Clearwater Jazz Holiday. On the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina devastated his hometown, jazz vocalist and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins packed a bag, boarded up his house and bar-hopped through all his favorite Crescent City haunts. At 5 a.m. the next day, he and his family were off to Baton Rouge. When he returned home, he found his home in “pretty ...

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Music Industry

Katrina's Aftermath: the Jazz City's Music Still Speaks to Our Nation's Soul

Source: Michael Ricci
October 11, 2005

Friday, September 16, 2005 By MATT SCHUDEL, THE WASHINGTON POST The last time I was in New Orleans, I watched a funeral parade march by. About 30 musicians, serious of purpose but hardly solemn, walked down the street playing a joyous old tune to honor the newly dead, a “second line" of stragglers and celebrants trailing behind. I never thought it might be an early wake for the aging grande dame of a city herself. With New Orleans in chaos ...

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Music Industry

Kansas City Jazz Label Celebrates 10-Years

Source: All About Jazz
October 11, 2005

KANSAS CITY USA -- 'ASR RECORDS was co-founded in 1995 by award-winning artist and Kansas City native, Alaadeen; along with longtime community arts advocate, Victoria Dunfee. Their initial purpose and goals, which were relatively modest and simple, centered on providing a professional music label for deserving recording artist talent. Alaadeen was also the initial founding artist on the label, with his first commercial US Release of the CD titled, “Blues for RC and Josephine Too (ASR1001)". That debut release was ...

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Music Industry

Kansas City Jazz Label Celebrates 10-Years

Source: All About Jazz
October 9, 2005

KANSAS CITY USA -- 'ASR RECORDS was co-founded in 1995 by our Kansas City native award-winning artist, Alaadeen; along with longtime community arts advocate, Victoria Dunfee. Their initial purpose and goals, which were relatively modest and simple, centered on providing a professional music label for deserving recording artist talent. Alaadeen was also the initial founding artist on the label, with his first commercial US Release of the CD titled, “Blues for RC and Josephine Too (ASR1001)". That debut release was ...

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Music Industry

Finding Dixieland

Source: All About Jazz
October 7, 2005

The birthplace of jazz may have been affected by the hurricane, but what about its heritage and musical roots? By Megan Wright The Shorthorn staff Hurricane Katrina changed a lot about the South. Homes that have stood their ground for years blew away like newspapers in the wind. The streets resembled rivers, and people who had firm roots in their communities packed up and headed elsewhere. The face of the once culturally affluent New Orleans and ...

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Music Industry

Pearl Django: Gypsy-Jazz Group Helps Distinctive Music Carry On

Source: All About Jazz
October 5, 2005

Imagine being an American playing French-Gypsy jazz to 3,000 Django Reinhardt enthusiasts — in France. “It was a little nerve-racking," said Michael Gray, a violinist with the jazz band Pearl Django. “Now I have sympathy for the average European blues band coming over here." But the listeners at the 2002 Festival de Jazz de Django Reinhardt, near Paris, “were thrilled that we had taken the style and run with it," Gray said. “We got nothing but great feedback." For the ...

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