Jazz News

Actor Dennis Hopper Dies at 74

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper, best known for directing and starring in the 1969 cult classic “Easy Rider," died on Saturday at his home in Venice, California, from complications of prostate cancer.

Hopper, the maverick director and costar of the landmark 1969 counterculture film classic “Easy Rider" whose drug- and alcohol-fueled reputation as a Hollywood bad boy preceded his return to sobriety and a career resurgence in the films “ Hoosiers" and “Blue Velvet," died Saturday. He was 74. A longtime ...

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Chopin: 1 Composer, 2 Centuries, Many Picks

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

The classical music world, embarked on a bicentennial tour through the Romantic era, is just now preoccupied with the melancholic master Frdric Chopin, born near Warsaw in 1810.

Beloved by pianists for his abundant legacy, he is cherished by countless others for the teeming worlds of color and emotion he conjured. The classical music critics of The New York Times have combed through the many recordings devoted to Chopin and selected their favorites.

Anthony Tommasini

HOROWITZ PLAYS CHOPIN, VOL. 1 ...

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Harry Gregson-Williams Works for Ogres and Princes Alike

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

It's the life of a film composer: One week you're in a fairy-tale world populated by green ogres and talking donkeys, the next week you're dashing around 6th century Persia with a spunky princess and a magical dagger.

“Had the tasks been similar, it would be a very dull life," says Harry Gregson-Williams, composer of both “Shrek Forever After" and “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," two big summer movies opening within a week of each other this month. ...

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Beethoven May Not Have Died of Lead Poisoning, After All

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

Scientists began speculating about what really killed Ludwig van Beethoven almost as soon as he was buried in 1827.

He had complained of a wretched existence, with a long list of symptoms: abdominal pain, digestive trouble, colic, chronic bronchitis, foul body odors and extremely bad breath. And of course there was the hearing problem. Thirteen years ago scientists, including one who had investigated whether Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning and whether the paint on the Shroud of Turin dated to ...

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Musicians Differ in Responses to Arizona's New Immigration Law

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

For the singer Larry Hernandez, the 2010 Billboard Latin Music Awards should have been a moment of pure celebration.

But when it came time for Mr. Hernandez to accept his award as new artist of the year, he got drawn into politics, prefacing his remarks with a condemnation of the tough new immigration law that his home state of Arizona had just adopted.

It is deplorable that they are discriminating against us just for the simple fact of looking Latino, ...

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The 2010 Airstream International RV: Nature, Meet Man-Made Wonder

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

Like a lot of Angelenos, I like to ditch the city every once in a while and experience nature. Briefly. My last escape involved 1,000 or so Cub Scouts, a battered, borrowed tent and two days of port-a-potties and pump-station water. This time around I was looking to rough it, but rough it “lite," during a weekend getaway with my best friend and our two young children. Enter the 2010 Airstream International, whose manufacturer, like many RV companies this year, ...

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Apple-Google Fight is Expected over Future of TV

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

Another battle is brewing between Apple Inc. and Google Inc., and this time it may come into your living room.

One week after Google announced its bid for the hearts and eyes of America's TV viewers with Internet-based Google TV, its Silicon Valley rival is reportedly poised to overhaul its own offering, Apple TV. The stakes are high. Whoever wins could play a leading role in one of the great technological transformations of recent memory by piping limitless video and ...

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Jazz at Snape Proms 2010 - A Star Line-Up

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, set in the beautiful Suffolk countryside, is one of the loveliest music venues in the UK.

This year's Snape Proms brings yet more diversity to Snape Maltings Concert Hall with a programme that is both exciting and innovative. Maceo Parker brings the audience to its feet on the first weekend, Sunday 1 August at 7:30pm with one of the greatest ever exponents of funk. He navigates between James Brown's 1960s soul and George Clinton's 1970s freaky ...

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