Jazz News

Broadband Stimulus Plan: How About Some Data First?

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

During the Great Depression, the government tried to revive the economy with the New Deal's public work projects, and ended up paying people to dig unneeded ditches. In today's deep recession, digital age advocates are trying to persuade President-elect Barack Obama to put billions into a nationwide broadband build-out as part of his planned economic stimulus package.

Given that the internet has grown into an indispensable tool for the economy, for people's personal lives and for the nation's political discourse, ...

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Farewell to L.A.'s Shuttered Clubs

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

THE YEAR IN NIGHTRANGER: FAREWELL TO L.A.'S SHUTTERED CLUBS, GREETINGS TO THEIR REPLACEMENTS

It may have been the year the recession tightened its grip on households nationwide, but, in L.A. anyway, there were always a few bucks left in the budget for booze, beats and bashes in ’08. Truth be told, the escapist energy of our city’s still-booming nightlife was more necessary than ever. So as the year comes to a close, Nightranger offers its annual look back at the ...

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Shelly's Manne Hole

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

By early 1967, the list of artists that had played the Manne-Hole read like a Who's Who of jazz. The bandstand at the Manne-Hole had to be expanded for the big bands Shelly brought in. The bands of Kenton, Herman and Gerald Wilson were among them. Shelly continued to insist that the help not hustle the patrons for drinks.

He would use the quintet opposite some of the headliners on weekends - imagine seeing visiting name artists and Shelly's band ...

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Portland Jazz Festival Blue Notes 70th Bash

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

The Portland Jazz Festival will present numerous free performances throughout Portland, February 13-22.

Performances will take place at venues that include The Art Bar at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Rogue Ales Public House, West Caf and Dragon Fish at the Paramount Hotel. The ongoing PDX Jazz @ RiverPlace series at the RiverPlace Hotel will also present Portland vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, saxophonist Devin Phillips and pianist/vocalist Dave Frishberg. The festival will also include late-night jam sessions hosted by ...

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The Karaoke King

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

Brooklyn-based writer and karaoke obsessive Brian Raftery has written a book about his passion for belting out songs in public. Don't Stop Believing: How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life follows the hobby from its Japanese origins across the ocean to America and into Raftery's heart.

With over ten years of karaoke experience, from the cheaply produced laser discs to live action performances backed by the Georgia-based indie rock group Of Montreal, Raftery has sung it all. TIME ...

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Cheney's Legacy of Deception

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

A CNN poll released this week rated Dick Cheney as the worst Vice- President in history.

In the end, the shame of Vice President Dick Cheney was total: unmitigated by any notion of a graceful departure, let alone the slightest obligation of honest accounting. Although firmly ensconced, even in the popular imagination, as an example of evil incarnate - nearly a quarter of those polled in this week's CNN poll rated him the worst vice president in U.S. history, and ...

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Notable Deaths of 2008

Source: Michael Ricci
December 26, 2008

Actor Paul Newman died this year. So did Larry Harmon, who was better known as Bozo the Clown; W. Mark Felt, who was the mysterious Deep Throat; and William Stulla, who as Engineer Bill delighted a generation of children with a glass of milk.

William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, also left the scene, as did singer and self-proclaimed “sex kitten" Eartha Kitt and the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter.

Millionaire Steve Fossett's adventurer's life came ...

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John Costelloe 'Sopranos' Johnny Cakes Dead in Suicide

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

Police: 'Sopranos' actor who played gay cook 'Johnny Cakes' dead in apparent suicide in NYC

Police say the actor who portrayed the gay lover of a closeted mobster on The Sopranos has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New York. Police spokesman Lt. John Grimpel says John Costelloe was found dead in an apparent suicide at his Brooklyn home on Dec. 18. Police were called to his residence after family members were unable to reach him. The ...

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