Jazz News

Wayne Shorter to Perform at Art After 5 (Philadelphia)

Source: Michael Ricci
April 11, 2010

Art After 5 will mark a significant milestone in April with the world premiere of an original composition by Wayne Shorter, widely acknowledged to be the greatest living composer of jazz music. Shorter has been hailed for breaking down the barriers between jazz and classical music and creating beautifully complex tunes. He was commissioned to produce a new work based on the Museum's renowned collection of East Asian art. He will perform the new work on Friday, April 23, with ...

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Hollywood Mourns Passing of the Oldest Munchkin from "The Wizard of Oz"

Source: Michael Ricci
April 11, 2010

Hollywood said goodbye on Saturday to Meinhardt Raabe, one of the original Munchkins in the “Wizard of Oz." Flowers were placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star for the Munchkins, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Raabe, 94, was considered the oldest living Munchkin and died Friday in Florida. Raabe was on hand with other cast members in 2007 when the Munchkin star was finally dedicated on the Walk of Fame. Many considered the honor long overdue. In ...

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'Designing Women' Actress Dixie Carter Dies at 70

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2010

Dixie Carter, best known for her role on “Designing Women" died Saturday at 70. Publicist Steve Rohr, who represented Carter as well as her husband actor Hal Halbrook, would not disclose where she died or the cause of death. “This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement. “We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy." She had been married to Holbrook since 1984. Carter made her professional stage debut ...

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Lagging Libraries Shift Hollywood Mindset

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2010

How fitting that when “Alice in Wonderland" is the top draw so far at the box office this year, Hollywood itself is starting to feel as if it's fallen down a rabbit hole. The industry is waking up to a topsy-turvy world where everything it's gotten used to for decades has again changed -- perhaps forever. Studio libraries have lost their value, and making movies is now about how much you can make theatrically rather than banking on the kind ...

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Subprime Goes Hollywood

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2010

The Wall Street wizards who gave you credit default swaps want to turn the movie industry into their next casino.

If you thought the mortgage-backed securities and other complex financial instruments that crashed the economy were risky, you'll love Wall Street's latest brainwave: a new financial market in which players can gamble on whether upcoming Hollywood movies will be blockbusters or bombs. For years, Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment firm, has been operating the “Hollywood Stock Exchange," a fake-money ...

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Should the Beatles Have Worked It Out?

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2010

Looking back after 40 years, that seems like a ridiculously short lifespan for a band as important as the Beatles, who were, from left, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

Seven years and seven months. That's how long the world officially knew the Beatles as a recording act, spanning from the date they released their first single in England to the day their breakup was announced on April 10, 1970. Looking back after 40 years, that seems ...

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"SGT. Pepper's," "Rubber Soul" Remasters Due in Sept.

Source: All About Jazz
April 11, 2010

On September 9, 2009, after a nearly 22-year wait, digitally remastered versions of all of the Beatles studio albums will be released.

Each album will feature the track listings and artwork as it was originally released in the U.K. and come with expanded booklets including original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited time, each of the Fab Fours 12 proper albums will be embedded with a brief documentary about its making. The rereleases will include ...

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Raabe, Munchkin Coroner in 'Wizard of Oz,' Dies

Source: All About Jazz
April 10, 2010

Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in “The Wizard of Oz" and proclaimed in the movie that the Wicked Witch of the East was “really most sincerely dead," has died. He was 94. His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe died Friday morning at a hospital in Orange Park, Fla. He was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film. Bosnyak said he complained of a sore throat at his retirement community before collapsing and going into cardiac ...

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