Jazz News

Poncho Sanchez & Gato Barbieri at Lehman Center

Source: Leah Grammatica Public Relations
December 19, 2008

LEHMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS presents TWO GIANTS OF LATIN MUSIC! PONCHO SANCHEZ & GATO BARBIERI Lehman Center for the Performing Arts continues its exciting season with a concert featuring two GRAMMY® Award-winning Latin jazz greats – PONCHO SANCHEZ and GATO BARBIERI – on Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 8pm. Conguero PONCHO SANCHEZ has led one of the most popular Latin jazz bands in the world for a quarter of a century, merging Afro-Cuban rhythms with the ...

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Jazz Vocalist/Composer Sylvia Winsby's New Release: "Looking to the Light"

Source: All About Jazz
December 19, 2008

Indigo Dream Music releases a new single, 'Looking To The Light', an original song by Sylvia Winsby. Glowing jazz harmonies warm up the winter holiday season in this duo recording featuring Murray Low, Grammy nominated pianist, with Sylvia's heartfelt vocal. Their sound feels like a private concert in your living room, setting a mellow tone for gatherings or moments of meditative solitude. It's the perfect soundtrack to inspire positive reflection for the coming new year.

Available in limited edition single ...

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B.J. Jansen Interviews Howard Mandel, Author and President of the Jazz Journalists Association

Source: JM Creative
December 19, 2008

B.J. Jansen interviews, Author, Critic and President of the Jazz Journalists Association, Howard Mandel. Subscribe to The Jazz Life PODCAST. The Complete Interview will air on WPSC 88.7 FM, January 4th, 2009 to kick off Jansen's exploration of the Jazz Industry during the month of January. B.J. created his show, “The Jazz Life", to bring audiences to the Next Generation of Jazz Artists, who generally would receive little or no airplay in the United States. The programming format of “The ...

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Al Di Meola to Perform at Drom in NYC Friday, December 18, 2008

Source: All About Jazz
December 19, 2008

Al Di Meola will make a guest appearance 10:30 PM, Friday, December 18, at Drom, 85, Avenue A, in New York. Guitar Great Al Di Meola jams in New York It’s not often that you get the chance to hear jazz fusion guitar great Al Di Meola jam in an intimate club in New York. So when I heard he’d be playing with Turkish clarinet virtuoso Husnu Senlendirici at Drom on Monday night, I high-tailed it down to Avenue A. ...

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Launch of Giant Steps Jazz Course - Mini Course

Source: All About Jazz
December 19, 2008

Launch of Giant Steps Jazz Course - mini course Three residential weekends and four self-study weeks Starting 28th February 2009 At the De Vere Uplands, High Wycombe, Bucks

Thought to be the first course of its kind, the Giant Steps Jazz Course combines the best features of a weekend workshop, a residential course and a full-time music education. Open to players of all jazz instruments, the course comprises three residential weekend modules, interspersed with ...

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Tony Bennett at the Apollo with Count Basie Orchestra

Source: Michael Ricci
December 18, 2008

Tony Bennett performed standards and holiday songs on Tuesday night with the Count Basie Orchestra at the Apollo Theater. Poise in the wind of uncertainty is a very old idea in American pop. Basically outdated and nearly archaeological, its the default disposition of all songs that cycle constantly through cocktail-hour soundtracks, songs from a disappearing race of sanguine, moral-romantic heroes. When Tony Bennett, now 82, enacts that kind of poise onstage, whats impressive isnt that hes doing it at all ...

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Aretha Franklin to Sing at Obama Inauguration

Source: All About Jazz
December 18, 2008

Aretha Franklin will sing, the Rev. Rick Warren will pray and more than 11,000 U.S. troops will be watching over inauguration ceremonies in case of an attack during President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in on Jan. 20. As many as 4 million visitors are expected to be on hand when Obama takes the noontime oath from Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Capitol. The program is to feature poet Elizabeth Alexander; the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a veteran civil rights ...

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Jazz in the White House/ When the President Blew His Sax

Source: Michael Ricci
December 18, 2008

It had to happen, and when it did, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. After President Clinton gave his final remarks at the White House jazz festival, the saxophonist Illinois Jacquet handed him a saxophone, and off the band went into Miles Davis's blues waltz, “All Blues."

Happy to say, the President (who in his early career as a saxophonist had committed Mr. Jacquet's landmark improvisation on “Flying Home" to memory), didn't equivocate, change his mind ...

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