Jazz News

Make Room on Your Desk for M-Audio's Rock-Solid Boxes

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2010

You've got, like, a petabyte of music on your PC, but those built-in speakers can barely squeeze out a new-email alert. Pump up the volume with a proper desktop sound system. You're doing all of that music on your PC a disservice by attempting to filter sound through those coin-sized built-in fakers. A proper set of speakers won't set you back a month's rent and will have you rocking until the cops show up. If desktop real estate is no ...

Continue Reading

New CD by Retta Christie + Dave Frishberg and David Evans Due 5/18

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
April 26, 2010

Retta Christie makes American music to be enjoyed. If the Portland vocalist has a heartfelt reaction to a song, she sings it her own way, regardless of the style or tradition whence it came. She draws on Western swing, jazz, country and western, and the Great American Songbook and makes all of it her own. Christie's surprising song choices, her breezy sense of swing, and her gift for conveying the emotional essence of a lyric are in ample display on ...

Continue Reading

Purvis Young, Folk Artist Who Peppered Miami with Images, Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2010

Purvis Young, a self-taught painter who emerged from prison as a young man and by dint of his striking, expressionist vision of urban life and mammoth output over more than three decades transformed a forgotten Miami neighborhood into a destination for contemporary art aficionados, died on Tuesday in Miami. He was 67. An untitled painting on paper and mounted on cardboard by Mr. Young. Many of his works were made on found materials. The cause was cardiac arrest and pulmonary ...

Continue Reading

Saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis at Iridium

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2010

The saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis played just one original in his first set at Iridium on Thursday night, and it delivered the only dose of nonswinging groove. That ratio felt emphatic, like a statement of principle. Mr. Ellis, leading a cohort credibly billed as his all-star band -- with Mulgrew Miller on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums -- was signing on to a mainstream jazz program, accepting the terms and conditions. He seemed intent on ...

Continue Reading

Word War III: Google vs. Governments

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2010

In how many ways did Google respond to this week's letter from the data protection authorities of nine countries criticizing the company's approach to privacy? The first response came in the form of a statement from Google's official PR operation. Predictably, it was blander than bland. “We try very hard to be upfront about the data we collect, and how we use it," the statement suggested. “Of course we do not get everything 100 percent right -- that is why ...

Continue Reading

Top Scribes Reap Pic Rewrite Riches

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2010

Once upon a time, the ultimate Hollywood ambition was to direct. Nowadays, clients are more likely to tell their reps: “What I really want to do is polish scripts." For Hollywood's dozen or so top-tier script doctors, that means commanding $250,000- $300,000 a week, being booked months in advance and keeping their efforts largely cloaked in anonymity. Script rewrites have been part of the filmmaking process since the days when Irving Thalberg kept a stable of scribes competing for his ...

Continue Reading

Gene Lees Jazz Historian and Critic Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2010

A Canadian by birth who moved to Ojai more than 30 years ago, he wrote highly personal essays and biographies of such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman and Johnny Mercer.

Gene Lees, a jazz historian and critic known for his pugnacious, highly personal essays and biographies of such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman and Johnny Mercer, died Thursday at his home in Ojai. He was 82. Lees had struggled for many years with heart disease, said ...

Continue Reading

What New Facebook Updates Might Mean for Your Privacy

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2010

Good insights are popping up deconstructing Facebook's big moves this week to extend its reach across the Web. Bottom line: You should pay attention, and consider tweaking your privacy settings again to control the experience. Basically, the giant social network wants to replicate your Facebook experience everywhere you go on the Web. It is starting with just a few launch partners for what it calls the new “Facebook Platform" -- music service Pandora, review site Yelp and Microsoft Docs. Facebook ...

Continue Reading