Jazz News

L.A. Times Unifies Arts and Entertainment Coverage in One Department

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2009

The Los Angeles Times today created a new department that will centralize the newspaper's coverage of arts and entertainment and expand its focus on Hollywood news.

The move will consolidate into one department more than 50 reporters, editors and Web producers who have been handling arts and entertainment for the paper's Calendar and Business sections and for its online site, latimes.com.

“Taking this comprehensive approach allows us to broaden the reach, breadth and depth of our entertainment coverage," Times Editor ...

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Prosecution Alters Pirate Bay Charges in Bid to Win Conviction

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2009

The Pirate Bay prosecutor altered the copyright-infringement charges Tuesday to make it easier to convict the four defendants who co-founded the world's most notorious BitTorrent tracker.

Moments later, Hollywood investigators testified about the ease with which they obtained copyright works using the 5-year-old site. But at the outset of Tuesday's proceedings, the prosecutor, Håkan Roswall, announced a alteration of the charges, which legal scholars suggested would make it more likely to win a conviction.

The prosecutor removed one sentence from ...

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Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger Hearing Becomes Battle over Chicago Music Scene

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2009

The Live Nation Ticketmaster merger was brought before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights yesterday, with the Chicago music scene at the epicenter of testimony both for and against the merger.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Windy City was used as an example of how the merger wouldn’t violate antitrust laws, with Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino citing that his company only put on 16 percent of the concerts in Chicago, compared to the 29 ...

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Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Panned at Senate Hearing

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2009

Senators and independent concert promoters took turns at a hearing Tuesday slamming a proposed merger of two of the biggest forces in the music industry -- Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Worldwide Inc.

“It seems to be monopolistic, plain and simple," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “This is not the American dream, as the companies' witnesses might have you believe."

The Senate's antitrust subcommittee grilled chief executives Michael Rapino of Live Nation and Irving Azoff of Ticketmaster and ...

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Google Backs European Case Against Microsoft Browser

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2009

Google Inc. is joining forces with European regulators in an attack on Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of the Web browser market, injecting more bad blood between two of computing's most powerful companies.

The latest assault on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, announced Tuesday, comes as Google is trying to expand the use of its own Web browser, the 6-month-old Chrome. A complaint by Opera Software, maker of another Explorer rival, prompted the European Commission to open an investigation into whether Microsoft's bundling ...

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'Let Freedom Sing': 70 Years and 58 Songs of Civil Rights

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2009

Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement is a three-disc, 58-song collection.

When Barack Obama became the nation's first black president in January, many said he stood on the shoulders of those who fought for and sacrificed for civil rights.

Some of the most important music from the past 70 years of the movement is collected in Let Freedom Sing, a new three-disc, 58-song Time Life collection that cuts across genres with voices both famous and obscure. ...

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Cuneiform Artists on Tour: March, 2009

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2009

BEAT CIRCUS April 18 - Orion Sound Studios - 2903 Whittington Ave. - Baltimore, MD 21230 (with Fern Knight) DAVID BORDEN/MOTHER MALLARD [40th anniversary celebration] March 26 - Barnes Hall - Cornell University - Ithaca, NY March 28 - Johnson Museum - Cornell University - Ithaca, NY CHEER-ACCIDENT April 25 - Avant-Fairfax Festival - Old Town Hall - University Dr. & Main St. - Fairfax, VA - with Stag Hare, Anduin, Mike Tamburo, Kuschty Rye Ergot, Insect Factory, Kohoutek, Outpost, ...

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Charles Gayle Celebrates 70

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2009

Charles Gayle, pioneering saxophonist and genius piano player, turns 70 this Saturday, February 28, 2009

Born in Buffalo NY, Charles played piano as his first and only instrument until the age of 19. He played saxophone with Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders in New York City in the early 60's, although no recordings seem to exist from the period. Charles spent nearly two decades as a homeless musician playing in the subways and streets of Manhattan before surfacing with some ...

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