Jazz News

Major Breakthrough: Music's 'DNA' Decoded

Source: All About Jazz
August 9, 2008

Peter Neubcker, the German music software engineer responsible for the popular pitch correction Melodyne, has created a program called Direct Note Access (DNA) that can dissect a chord into individual notes so that the chord can be re-formed into something new.

For music producers who use computers -- which is just about all of them -- this constitutes a major game changer whose implications for the future of music are deep and widespread. For example, Direct Note Access will make ...

Continue Reading

Introducing "Dirt Road Blues" on truefire.com

Source: Just Roots PR
August 9, 2008

Master Player and Teacher, Paul Rishell Releases Interactive Video Software for Learning Country Blues Guitar

Just released! Featuring 16 songs taught and performed in 40 video segments with notation, text comments, interactive powertab, looping, frame advance, zoom, and other useful controls. Works on PC or Mac and also includes access to Truefire TV on the web. For intermediate and advanced students and players.

Playing and singing country blues guitar is no easy task. It's just you and the box summoning ...

Continue Reading

Paul Newman Says He Wants to Die at Home

Source: Michael Ricci
August 9, 2008

Paul Newman tells loved ones he wants to die at home Get out your Kleenex, people.

You're gonna need it.

According to new reports, actor Paul Newman has weeks to live and has told his family that he wants to die at home.

Newman has finished chemotherapy treatment for cancer and was photographed leaving a New York hospital in a wheelchair. He looks predictably frail and fragile.

“Paul didn't want to die in the hospital," a source has said.

Newman ...

Continue Reading

Actor and Comedian Bernie Mac Dies at Age 50

Source: Michael Ricci
August 9, 2008

Bernie Mac, the actor and comedian who teamed up in the casino heist caper “Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for his sitcom “The Bernie Mac Show," died Saturday at age 50.

“Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family's privacy be respected. The comedian suffered ...

Continue Reading

Celebrating Bird! A Tribute to Charlie "Bird" Parker

Source: ASR Records - Publicity Division
August 9, 2008

CELEBRATING BIRD! A Tribute to Charlie “Bird" Parker Family to Attend Lament and Celebration 1pm, Sunday, August 24th, at the Grave Site Afterwards at the Historic Mutual Musician's Foundation Kansas City, Missouri: August 29th is Charlie “Bird" Parker's birthday but Kansas City is celebrating it on Sunday, August 24th so more people can come. This year's annual Tribute to Charlie Bird Parker will begin at 1pm at the Lincoln Cemetery grave site nearby at ...

Continue Reading

Polish Jazz Cools Red Hot Bodrum

Source: All About Jazz
August 9, 2008

Popular Turkish summer spot Bodrum will host two Polish jazz female vocalists this week. Already known to Turkish audience, Anna Maria Jopek in Bodrum Castle, and the “new hope of jazz scene," Aga Zaryan, in Cabo Verde club in Yalkavak Marina, are going to give their concerts tonight. Enthusiasts of warm female jazz vocals will face a difficult choice tonight. Two great voices from the Polish music scene are coming to Bodrum to perform in two separate concerts. Aga Zaryan, ...

Continue Reading

Jack Black Talks Tropic Thunder and How He Got the Girl

Source: All About Jazz
August 9, 2008

They teach it in Interviewing 101: find common ground with your subject. But when your subject is rich, famous, plump and happy Jack Black, that might be tricky. Do your homework and there, in the details of his 2006 wedding to cellist Tanya Haden, is the hook. “You know, the toughest interview I've ever had was with your father-in-law." Black takes the bait. His father-in-law? The legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden . You need to bone up on your jazz ...

Continue Reading

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition Coming in September

Source: All About Jazz
August 9, 2008

MILES DAVIS - Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition 2-CD + DVD + LP + book + poster (Columbia/Legacy) Originally released by Columbia Records on August 17, 1959, Kind of Blue heralded the arrival of a revolutionary new American music, a post-bebop modal jazz structured around simple scales and melodic improvisation. Trumpeter/band leader/composer Miles Davis assembled a sextet of legendary players -- Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Bill Evans (piano) ...

Continue Reading