Jazz News

Pop Music and Jazz Figures Passings 2008

Source: Michael Ricci
December 28, 2008

Pop music and jazz figures

Bob Popescu, 77; co-owner of Catalina Bar & Grill, turned the Los Angeles club into one of the top jazz venues in the country (Jan. 5)

Ken Nelson, 84; longtime Capitol Records talent scout had an ear for country music (Jan. 6)

Lew Spence, 87; composed “Nice 'n' Easy," the Grammy-nominated Frank Sinatra song (Jan. 9)

Pete Candoli, 84; leading high-register jazz trumpet player (Jan. 11)

John Stewart, 68; singer-songwriter who wrote the Monkees hit ...

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Delaney Bramlett Songwriter Who Wrote 'Let It Rain'

Source: Michael Ricci
December 28, 2008

Delaney Bramlett, 69, a singer, songwriter and producer who penned classic rock songs such as “Let It Rain" and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, died Saturday at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles as a result of complications from gallbladder surgery, his wife Susan Lanier-Bramlett said.

Born in Mississippi in 1939, Bramlett came to Los Angeles in the 1960s and played guitar in the house band for the TV pop show Shindig. With his then- ...

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RNC Candidate Distributes Controversial Obama Song

Source: All About Jazz
December 28, 2008

RNC candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting to committee members includes a music CD with lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” first played on Rush Limbaugh’s popular radio show.

Saltsman, a personal friend of conservative satirist Paul Shanklin, sent a 41-track CD along with a note to national committee members. “I look forward to working together in the New Year,” Saltsman wrote. “Please enjoy the enclosed CD by my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.” The ...

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Soul Bearers

Source: Michael Ricci
December 28, 2008

You weren’t supposed to hear the struggle. At least that was the idea with most Motown artists during those breadbasket years of the ’60s, post- J.F.K., pre-Tet, more AM than FM.

The plan, as dreamed up by Motown’s founder and the architect of its sound, Berry Gordy Jr., was not so much to make black music safe for a white audience but to make it colorblind, to get black and white kids out on the dance floor together without their ...

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Musicians Give Back

Source: All About Jazz
December 28, 2008

We are very excited to share with you what Rhythmworkz was involved up in Reno last week. An opportunity was made available for Larry Washington, Joe Alessandro, Mike Sims and Kevin Flournoy to lead some clinics & classes, and perform at assemblies in two schools in the Washoe County School District in Reno.

The initial contact was developed by Traner Middle School Arts teacher Cynthia Ford, who arranged a meeting for us with the principals of both Traner and Hug ...

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Eartha Kitt an Appreciation

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

Yes, she played up her sexy image, but she was also a pioneer among African American entertainers.

Even as a pre-adolescent growing up in subarctic Rochester, N.Y., watching Eartha Kitt's Catwoman taunt Adam West's Batman always made me feel a little, um, hot. Julie Newmar, Emma Peel and the rest of the leather-jumpsuited superwomen/femmes fatales of the '60s were fine too. But for my inchoate tastes in all things feminine, Kitt was the insouciant queen. Of course, most of the ...

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Rewarding Mr. Ayers' Courage

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

The original Disciples of Beethoven Award honors the street musician who has touched so many hearts. For a half century of devotion to music. For a talent that knows no bounds. And for a story of courage and perseverance that speaks to thousands.

They had every kind of trophy you could imagine at House of Trophies in Boyle Heights. Soccer, basketball, baseball, football, even fishing. They had trophies 6 inches tall and 6 feet tall, plaques and desk ornaments too, ...

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Hard Day's Night for Beatles Reissues

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

If you still believe in Santa Claus, you might also have expected to wake up on Christmas morning and find an iPod stocked with the long-promised reissues of all the Beatles albums. But if you know the shocking truth about Santa, you probably know that the vaunted Beatles reissues don’t exist either, outside the vaults of EMI, the group’s record label, and Apple, the company the band set up in 1967 to oversee its interests. Other long-anticipated Apple projects, like ...

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