Jazz News

If You Tell Them on Facebook, They Will Come...Again and Again

Source: Michael Ricci
March 20, 2010

In continuing to look at the way that Facebook has become a driving force behind online news consumption, Heather Hopkins of Hitwise has dove into the numbers again, this time examining how Facebook users compare with others in return visits. According to her article, Facebook not only drives a high amount of traffic, higher than Google News, but its users are far more loyal, as well. Hopkins took a look at the data earlier this month, noting that Facebook drives ...

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Gilberto Gil's Human-Powered Tour

Source: Michael Ricci
March 20, 2010

For the Brazilian musical idol Gilberto Gil, the cultural always is the political -- and vice versa.

It has been that way since the 1960s, when Gil and several artistic comrades were imprisoned and driven into London exile by Brazil's ruling military junta. Ostensibly, Gil and his colleagues, including Caetano Veloso , were guilty of stirring up the populace with a genre-shattering, socially alert, Afro-rock hybrid called tropicalismo.

It was indeed a radical act in a country that takes music ...

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Chet Baker's "Let's Get Lost

Source: Michael Ricci
March 19, 2010

Lined and ravaged as it is, the face is ageless: as sunken as a dead man's, as softly bewildered as a child's. Chet Baker's face, and the extraordinary ways in which Bruce Weber has photographed it, encapsulate the story of Baker's life in a succession of ghostly, indelible images that are at once hauntingly beautiful and desperately sad. Applied to a different subject, Mr. Weber's methods might seem disturbingly superficial, but they suit this portrait perfectly. The man, his music ...

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Lucasfilms the Clone Wars: Best Political Cartoon Ever?

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Political murder, mercenary violence, military occupations and callous terrorists dont just kill as newspaper headlines. They've also made excellent thematic fodder for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, whose dark second season wraps with a three-week stand starting Friday night. The procedural and corporate intrigue has also solidified Lucasfilm's CGI tween fever dream as one of Earths coolest political cartoons. But is it the best? The three-part conclusion of The Clone Wars second season begins with Fridays episode Senate Murders, which ...

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iPad May Beat iPhone's First Three-Month Sales

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Apple's iPad so far reportedly has chalked up hundreds of thousands of pre-orders. The tablet, due out April 3 in a Wi-Fi only version, starts at $499. Another version, that has Wi-Fi and can also run on a 3G cellular network, is expected in late April. Apple could sell more iPads in the first three months of availability than it sold original iPhones in the same period, according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “Hundreds of thousands" of ...

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Jazzing Around L.A.

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Saxist Don Menza Vibrato Bel Air Saturday

Elliott Caine Quintet with Mahesh Balasooriya, piano Jax Glendale Saturday

Guitarist Anthony Wilson Trio Blue Whale Saturday

Vibist Nick Mancini Bleecker Street 18640 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana 818-996-3008 Saturday

Cannonball/Coltrane Project The Lighthouse Hermosa Beach 11 a.m Sunday

Saxophonists Louis Van Taylor ...

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Stewart, Fanning Glam It up in Runaways

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Film is a smart showcase to help stars break out as they take on adult roles. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie in the tumultuous story of the 1970's all girl rock band, The Runaways. “The Runaways," chronicling the rise and fall of Joan Jett's first band, easily could have degenerated into a movie-length music video, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning merely glam-rock poseurs. Yet music-video veteran Floria Sigismondi makes an impressive feature-film ...

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Earliest Signature of Renaissance Artist Found

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Hidden beneath arabesque decorations, art experts have found what they believe is the earliest signature placed on a painting by the Renaissance master Raphael (1483-1520), who at the time was a 16-year-old boy. Featuring the words “RAPHAEL SANT" Santi was Raphael's real surname the signature has been detected in an obscure painting that has been kept in private collections for the past three centuries. The finding will be unveiled on Saturday in Gothenburg, Sweden, where the painting will go on ...

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