Jazz News

Saxophonist Hailey Niswanger Tapped for Alto Chair in Either/Orchestra - Berklee Sophomore Also on NPR's Jazzset Starting 10/01

Source: MFA - Mitchell Feldman Associates
September 28, 2009

(Boston, MA - September 28, 2009) Saxophonist Hailey Niswanger (pronounced NICE-wonger), a 19-year-old sophomore studying jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a full scholarship, has been selected as the new alto saxophonist in the Either/Orchestra, saxophonist Russ Gershon, the founder and music director of the Cambridge, MA-based band announced today. Miss Niswanger is the first woman to become a full-time member of the ensemble (as opposed to appearing as a guest vocalist or substitute instrumentalist) ...

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The Jason Parker Quartet Release Their Second Album "No More, No Less" Oct. 24

Source: Michael Ricci
September 28, 2009

J&J Music is proud to present the release of The Jason Parker Quartet’s second album, “No More, No Less”. The JPQ will celebrate with a CD Release Party at Lucid Jazz Lounge on October 24, 2009 at 9:30pm. The JPQ is: Jason Parker (trumpet), Josh Rawlings (piano), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass) and D’Vonne Lewis (drums). They are joined on three tracks by special guest Cynthia Mullis on tenor sax.

“No More, No Less” is the follow-up to the JPQ’s self-titled debut ...

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AllAboutJazz-New York October 2009 Issue Now Available!

Source: Michael Ricci
September 28, 2009

When talking about the impact of Thelonious Monk, where does one begin? Is it his inimitable style and approach to the piano, one still being dissected today worldwide? Is it his body of compositional work, music absolutely essential to the repertoire of both the most straightahead and avant garde groups? Or perhaps his persona, defining the introspective and cerebral jazz player, is a good starting point. Certainly his massive discography, Picasso-like in its divisions, on labels like Blue Note, Riverside ...

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Pianist Fred Hersch Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
September 28, 2009

From the start of his career as a sideman in the 1970s for such jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson, Art Farmer and Stan Getz to his own ensembles and solo projects, there has always been a great diversity and intensity to Fred Hersch's art. Having won a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition (2003) and having been the first piano player in The Village Vanguard's 70 year history to do a week's solo residency, Hersch has managed to be both a ...

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Roman Polanski's Attorneys Stunned by Arrest

Source: Michael Ricci
September 27, 2009

Director Roman Polanski and his attorneys were stunned by his arrest in Switzerland on Saturday on a child sex charge filed decades ago in Los Angeles, according a French newspaper report. “We absolutely were not expecting such an arrest, in so far as he regularly goes to Switzerland, and he’s done so for several years,” lawyer Herve Temime told Le Figaro, adding that Polanski “even owns a chalet situated in the Gstaad," a Swiss ski village. Polanski was arrested 31 ...

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Composer Marvin Hamlisch Writes Score for Steven Soderbergh's 'Informant!'

Source: Michael Ricci
September 27, 2009

In Steven Soderbergh's new offbeat film The Informant!, a rather incongruously sappy and dramatic piece of music plays during the opening credits while images of tape recorders, notebooks and assorted surveillance equipment appear on screen. The jaunty tune seems to promise romance, mystery and intrigue and brings to mind the vintage film scores of composer Marvin Hamlisch.

That's because it is Hamlisch. Composing a feature film score for the first time since working on Barbra Streisand's 1996 film, “The Mirror ...

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Obama Appoints Scholar as New Copyright Czar

Source: All About Jazz
September 27, 2009

The “Copyleft" and the “Copyright" are both applauding the presidential appointment Friday of Victoria A. Espinel to become the nation’s first copyright czar.

Congress created the new czar position last year as part of intellectual property reform legislation.

Espinel, who requires Senate confirmation, has a past in teaching and government. Most recently, she was a visiting scholar at the George Mason University School of Law, where she taught intellectual property and international trade. The White House said she was an ...

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Stars Attend New York Philharmonics 168th Season Opening Night

Source: All About Jazz
September 27, 2009

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