Jazz News

ASCAP Bows Online Invoice

Source: All About Jazz
July 2, 2010

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced the launch of cue sheet access on its Member Access online portal, allowing its almost 400,000 members to monitor data on music performed in audio-visual programming.

Cue sheets, which act as a kind of invoice, are the most reliable source for keeping track of musical content in a particular film or television program, and determine royalty payments to composers, lyricists and publishers. “America is the leading source of film and television ...

Continue Reading

Spartacus' Score Gets Upgrade

Source: All About Jazz
July 2, 2010

This year marks the centenary of Alex North, the composer of “A Streetcar Named Desire," “Cleopatra" and nearly 60 other scores, and the first composer ever to be awarded an honorary Oscar for his body of work.

“Spartacus," the 1960 score for the Kirk Douglas classic that is widely perceived to be North's finest, is about to be issued in a deluxe package that also happens to be the 1,000th album of film music produced by Robert Townson of soundtrack ...

Continue Reading

Remastered Film Celebrating Elvis Presley's Career to be Shown in Theaters Across the Country

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

Elvis Presley is returning to the big screen again in the remastered film “Elvis on Tour: 75th Anniversary Celebration," which will be shown July 29 at more than 460 movie theaters around the country.

The movie will feature remastered footage of concert performances and interviews from the 1972 documentary “Elvis on Tour" -- the singer's last film before he died in 1977.

The film's release commemorates the 75th anniversary of Elvis' birth and includes a retrospective from his former wife, ...

Continue Reading

Screenwriters Find Work is Dwindling

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

Looking to cut costs, Hollywood studios recast the rules under which they have long hired writers.

Screenwriter David Steinberg was invited last fall by a producer to pitch his idea for a rewrite of a “high-concept comedy" about an adult slacker for a major studio. Steinberg figured he had a good shot at the assignment with credits like “American Pie 2" under his belt, even though he heard there were many other writers competing for the opening. After an initial ...

Continue Reading

Jeff Lofton Electric Thang Does Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew"

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

Jeff Lofton Electric Thang does Miles Davis' “Bitches Brew" at Lamberts plus sets at Antone's Austin - In the tradition of Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton expands his sound and takes on a new challenge with his side project, the Jeff Lofton Electric Thang, presenting Miles Davis' Bitches Brew at Lamberts, 401 W. 2nd Street, Friday, July 2 at 9:30 p.m. Cover is $7.00. The Jeff Lofton Electric Thang also plays a set at Antone's, 213 W. 5th, at ...

Continue Reading

Phil Spector Documentary to Screen in Hollywood

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

A new British documentary, The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector, will screen for a week in August at the American Cinematheques Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, where the films director and co-producer, Vikram Jayanti, will be on hand for the opening night on Aug. 19.

Jayanti interviewed Spector in depth during his first trial in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in 2003. That trial ended in a hung jury, but on re-trial, Spector was convicted ...

Continue Reading

Apple to iPhone 4 Users: It's the Bars, Stupid

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

Apple says iPhones have been displaying too many signal bars because of a software glitch.

After going back to the lab and doing some retesting, Apple Inc. says it's not a defective antenna causing an apparent drop in reception in its newest iPhone, it's the bars showing signal strength. Apple issued a press release addressed to its iPhone 4 users Friday in response to complaints that the device drops four or five bars of reception when holding it in such ...

Continue Reading

A Plank Slate for an Oral Surfing History

Source: Michael Ricci
July 2, 2010

Hawaiian legend Duke Kahanamoku and other wave riders relax on the beach at San Onofre in the 1940s. Surfings roots are in Polynesia, but the lifestyle of modern surfing was born in Southern California.

The Surfing Heritage Foundation is undertaking an effort to collect the oral histories of wave riders from California and elsewhere. 'We're running out of the old-timers,' says a surfing writer. If you owned a surfboard 20, 40 or even 60 years ago, and used it often, ...

Continue Reading