Jazz News

"This Way" Triumph and Tragedy Behind Darryl Alexander's New CD

Source: All About Jazz
July 27, 2008

This Way is the new smooth/urban jazz CD by Darryl Alexander, and was created amidst a period of great triumph and tragedy.

Right before I started the songwriting phase of This Way I was tremendously blessed to be able to move into a new home. I had lived in my previous one for almost 20 years and witnessed a once thriving, vibrant neighborhood, where neighbors knew each other, talked with one another, and helped and cared for each other turn ...

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Bernstein as a Fount of Fusion

Source: Michael Ricci
July 27, 2008

Elegance without ostentation That would describe the overview of Leonard Bernstein songs that the pianist Bill Charlap and the singer Kurt Elling brought to Bernstein's theater music at the opening program of the 92nd Street Y's Jazz in July series on Tuesday evening. Bernstein, especially in his score for “West Side Story," which dominated the concert, created some of the most operatically ambitious music ever composed for Broadway. Emotional extravagance, swirling urban color, Latin American fireworks -- in ...

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Jordon's Genius Closes out Jazz Fest

Source: All About Jazz
July 27, 2008

YOU CAN SAY what you want about other jazz artists. But the truth, the absolute truth, is there is nobody like Sheila Jordan. At age 79 (and a half, she meticulously observes), she can still hold a 500-plus audience in pin-drop thrall as she and bassist Cameron Brown did for 90 magical minutes Saturday night in the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax. It was the first of three concerts on the last night of the 2008 Atlantic Jazz ...

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Guitarists Go Beyond Conventional Harmony & Chords with Modern Chord Melody

Source: All About Jazz
July 27, 2008

Jazz chord melody may very well be the most challenging of all guitar styles to truly master. Players must develop right-hand thumb and finger independence, a robust vocabulary of jazz voicings, a strong sense of melody and and arranger's feel for composition. And these are just the fundamentals. Once you have the “easy" stuff down, it's all about groove, arrangement, performance and improvisation. Modern Chord Melody takes the student beyond conventional harmony and chords by introducing a broader, more contemporary ...

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You Sing Jazz (Vol. 1)/Downloadable Sing-a-Long Tracks

Source: Sound Visions Media
July 27, 2008

Finally a sing-a-long recording that provides not only a real jazz rhythm section, intros and endings, room to solo but six different singer friendly keys too! These tracks are recorded with chord changes only in the style of seven standard jazz tunes that every singer should know arranged in traditional settings that provide a realistic idea of typical jazz performance settings. Singers can purchase the key that best suits their range or work in several different key changes. Perfect for ...

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Rolling Stones Switch Labels

Source: Michael Ricci
July 27, 2008

Ending months of speculation in the music industry, the Rolling Stones have left EMI, the record label that has released the group's music since the early 1990s, and signed a long-term recording deal with the Universal Music Group, the company announced on Friday.

The worldwide contract covers three new albums and the rights to release the band's valuable catalog of music recorded since 1971 for about five years, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations who were not authorized ...

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Freddy Cole to Perform at the OC Pavilion on August 29

Source: All About Jazz
July 27, 2008

The OC Pavilion is pleased to welcome jazz great Freddy Cole on August 29 at 8 PM. Lionel Frederick Cole was born on October 15, 1931, the youngest of Edward and Paulina Nancy Cole's five children. His three elder brothers, Eddie, Ike and Nat (twelve years Freddy's senior) were all musicians. “I started playing piano at five or six," Freddy remembers. “Music was all around me." In the Chicago home of his youth, visitors included Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and ...

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Hiram Bullock Late Night with David Letterman Guitarist Dies

Source: All About Jazz
July 26, 2008

Hiram Bullock, onetime barefoot guitarist for Paul Shaffer's World's Most Dangerous Band, dead at the age of 52. Bullock had been fighting a tumor in his throat since January. Bullock played guitar behind Shaffer from the debut of Late Night With David Letterman in 1982 until 1984; rumor had it that he suffered from an attendance problem. He also played on Steely Dan's Gaucho, Paul Simon's One Trick Pony, Michael Franks' Skin Dive, Barbra Streisand's A Star Is Born, and ...

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