Jazz News

Treme Recap: Just One Episode and Already More Jazz Than That Whole Ken Burns Documentary!

Source: Michael Ricci
April 12, 2010

You hear Treme, David Simon's new television series, before you see it. Over black, with title cards that read “New Orleans, Three Months Later," a trumpet sounds the staccato clarion call that traditionally convenes the brass bands and second-liners and announces the beginning of the street parade--Puh-PAH puh-PAH.  With those four notes, Simon makes two things clear: 1) this is going to be a show about music, and 2) he's done his research.

Instead of portraying a city, as they ...

Continue Reading

Graciela Perez Grillo Afro-Cuban Musician Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
April 12, 2010

Graciela Perez Grillo, an Afro-Cuban music pioneer who was known as the First Lady of Latin Jazz, has died. She was 94. Graciela, as she was known professionally, died April 6 of natural causes at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, where she had been hospitalized for some time, according to her representative, Richie Viera. “She was almost the last of those great musicians who came here from Cuba in the 1940s and early 1950s," WSKQ-FM (97.9) radio ...

Continue Reading

WGA Supports Composers, Lyricists

Source: All About Jazz
April 12, 2010

Last week's Writers Guild of America endorsement of film and TV composers' attempts to union ize through the Teamsters was a big boost for the musicians. It not only adds the backing of some heavyweight Hollywood names, but it also comes with a good deal of historical precedent. Nearly 20 years ago, the WGA supported the fledgling Society of Composers & Lyricists in its at tempts to re-establish a union for those who pen scores and songs for movies and ...

Continue Reading

Hear Martin Taylor's New Album on AAJ

Source: Michael Ricci
April 12, 2010

If you can imagine the ideal soundtrack to driving through the scented country roads of France on a hot lazy summer's day then it would be the music of Martin Taylor's Spirit of Django. To mark the 100th Anniversary of the birth of one of the founders of European jazz Django Reinhardt, Martin Taylor has reformed his award winning group Spirit of Django after a 15 year hiatus for the new album, 'Last Train to Hauteville'. Martin Taylor first came ...

Continue Reading

Erik Telford - Kinetic (2010)

Source: Something Else!
April 12, 2010

By Pico We all know that Austin, TX is a hotbed for music, with so many artists located there to take advantage of its vibrant scene. Normally when we think of Austin music, blues-rock, roots, folk and singer-songwriter acts come to mind, like The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Eric Johnson, Monte Montgomery, Marcia Ball and James McMurtry, just to scrape the tip of the iceberg. But the capital of Texas is also home to so much more styles of music. When it ...

Continue Reading

The George Kahn Quintet Returns to West Los Angeles for a Free Show on April 30

Source: Imaginary Friends
April 12, 2010

Los Angeles Jazz favorite, The George Kahn Quintet, will perform at The Radisson, Culver City, with two shows on Friday PM, April 30th. The first set begins at 7:30 and the second set will start at 9:30. Featuring George Kahn on piano, he will be accompanied by all star players including, John Fumo on Trumpet, Larry Klimas on Sax, Karl Vincent on Bass and M.B. Gordy on the drums.

George will be performing selections from his soon to be released ...

Continue Reading

2010 Taipei International Summer Jazz Academy Welcomes Young Musicians from Asia to Join!

Source: Michael Ricci
April 12, 2010

Taipei International Jazz Season just unveiled the performers and the faculty of the Summer Jazz Academy of its 7th season online. These 11 masters of jazz include internationally renown jazz musicians, faculty of European and American conservatories. They will gather in Taipei in late July to do a demonstrative concert and teach in our Summer Jazz Academy. Long-term cultivation of talents, cross-regional fusion of ideas is the motto of TIJS, Taipei International Jazz Season. This original guiding concept comes from ...

Continue Reading

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
April 12, 2010

For the younger generation of jazz musicians, those in their thirties today, the path is not always as smooth and easy as we may think it is. Nobody likes to live in anybody's shadow. Jazz is populated with giants who left their mark and those who look up to them in order to be able to move on.

Just like Nicholas Payton before him--who had to hear the endless comparisons jazz critics and fans kept throwing at him with Louis ...

Continue Reading