Jazz News

Ran Blake Live on WGBH !

Source: All About Jazz
March 16, 2009

To celebrate the release of his new album, Driftwoods, Ran Blake will play a rare live solo piano performance at 9PM on WGBH this Wednesday March 18th, airing locally on 89.7FM Boston and streaming globally via wgbh.org/jazz, click on “Listen Live.”

Ran Blake is an iconoclast. Since his 1961 collaboration with Jeanne Lee on RCA, Ran Blake has released 35 albums on such labels as ESP, Soul Note, Arista and hatOLOGY. His 2006 album on the Tompkins Square label, All ...

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"I'm Old Fashioned" by Sadeo Watanabe Jazz Trio Reissued

Source: All About Jazz
March 16, 2009

Test of Time Records is proud to announce the remastered release of I'm Old Fashioned by Sadeo Watanabe with the Great Jazz Trio.

Recorded on May 21, 1976, this was the first studio album where Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams performed together as The Great Jazz Trio. In this album, they back up renowned Japanese sax player, Sadao Watanabe.

Watanabe started playing clarinet and alto sax in high school. After moving to Tokyo, he joined Toshiko Akiyoshis bop-oriented ...

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Arsenalarts Presents Berklee Jazz on Monday Nights - Bruno Raberg Quartet

Source: Joanne Barrett Public Relations
March 16, 2009

ArsenalARTS presents the next offering in their Berklee Jazz series, Bruno Raberg Quartet featuring Noah Preminger (Saxophone), Ben Monder (Guitar), Bruno Raberg (Bass), and Ted Poor (Drums).

Innovative bassist/composer Bruno Raberg will present a program of original music from his recently released 2-CD set Lifelines The Arsenal Center for the Arts is located at 321 Arsenal St. in Watertown. Performances start at 7:30 p.m.

Free parking is available and the venue is handicapped accessible. Tickets are $15, or $10 for ...

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Announcing the Winners of the "Dr. Lonnie Smith - Rise Up!" Giveaway!

Source: All About Jazz
March 16, 2009

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When Bad Times Make Good Movies

Source: All About Jazz
March 16, 2009

Where are you, Fred and Ginger, now that we need you?

Back in the darkest days of the Great Depression, the brightest lights of the silver screen sang, danced, quipped and smooched to keep America's mind off its woes, if only for a couple of hours at a time. These days our economic prospects may not be as bleak -- at least that's the ardent hope. But there's plenty of grim stuff out there to be distracted from, and big-screen ...

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Altovise Davis Dies Widow of Sammy Davis Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci
March 15, 2009

Altovise Davis, the widow of Rat Pack singer and dancer Sammy Davis Jr., died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from a stroke, her business partner, Barrett LaRoda, said. She was 65.

Davis was surrounded at the Los Angeles hospital by friends and family, including her son, Manny Davis.

Trained as an actor and dancer, Altovise Davis met the legendary showman in the mid-1960s, when they were both appearing in Broadway musicals, he in the lead of “Golden Boy" ...

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Joseph Bloch, Guide to Juilliard Pianists, Dies at 91

Source: Michael Ricci
March 15, 2009

The pianist confronts an embarrassment of riches. To a performer embarking on a concert career, five centuries of keyboard music beckon, with every phrase of every prelude and fugue, every sonata and partita, mazurka and minuet, impromptu and intermezzo, rhapsody and fantasy and scherzo and concerto the hundreds of thousands of pieces the repertory comprises open to an array of possible interpretations.

Joseph Bloch, who toured as well as taught, in the 1980s. To this vast storehouse of ebony-and-ivory treasures, ...

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Depression Movies Redux

Source: Michael Ricci
March 15, 2009

Hey, brother, can you spare a remake?

The Great Depression: bad for the economy, good for movies. The 1930s proved to be a prosperous time for Hollywood, with several film genres — screwball comedies, gangster films, socially conscious dramas, epics and horror films — coming of age and resonating with audiences looking for any kind of escape. In today’s tough times, many films from that era seem ripe for recycling with just a little tweaking.

Here are a few remakes ...

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