Just For Fun
Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
ECM Records Announces Change in Name, Direction
European label turns its eye toward the future as EDM. ECM Records will mark its golden anniversary with a defining change in direction, according to an announcement released today. After operating as Edition of Contemporary Music since its small-scale beginning in 1969, the eclectic European label has confirmed plans to adopt the new title Exciting Dynamic Music to signify a wholly revamped outlook. Though the new abbreviation EDM began as a simple typo in a promo poster mock-up, ...
read moreRARE!! Florence Foster Jenkins Find
Dyspepsia Records Announces the April 15 release of “The Greatest Arias and Duets of Florence Foster Jenkins." Dyspepsia CEO, John Featherwhistle announced today that the long-awaited album of the great operatic Diva's hits will be released April 15. Fully re-mastered, re-mixed and enhanced with the latest in digitized auto-tune technology, the recording sheds new light on the legendary Soprano who was memorialized recently cinematically by Meryl Streep. “We here at Dyspepsia are pleased to ...
read moreTragedy Strikes at CES
In a little-reported story from this year's CES, an audience of over a hundred late-middle-aged men was inadvertently vaporized by a malfunctioning demonstration. Attendees arrived eagerly anticipating the public debut of the latest collaboration between Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and Sony Music Group, the Chanteuse 3000, Mark IV. This Chanteuse 3000 is a fully programmable “jazz"-singing android capable of performing any song whatsoever -as long as it is from the Great American Songbook. The designers have been close-lipped about the most ...
read moreColumbia Releases Miles Davis: The Rest
The can't-miss box set of the year Miles Davis: The Rest completes Columbia Records' thorough excavation of the great trumpeter's session work. As the press release notes, “Columbia was proud to offer eight steel-spine box sets of Davis' sessions, followed by our 70-disc Complete Studio Albums Collection, followed by our The Genius Of Miles Davis set that collected the steel-spine boxes in a trumpet case, followed by our six-volume Bootleg series, followed by our mono issues on vinyl. Now, with ...
read moreLove Jazz, Hate Jazz
Years ago, when I dabbled in cartooning, I developed a presentation style where the character on the left makes a statement with a speech balloon while the character on the right responds with a thought balloon--typically in sharp contrast. I had a lot of fun with it. Here, illustrator Keith Henry Brown and I collaborated on this speech / thought exchange. Just in time for the holidays, we've made the illustration available on a poster, t-shirt, ...
read moreHey, George Frazier--I’m 10 Years Old Over Here
I went a little crazy when I discovered jazz as an 8-year-old kid. I already played trumpet in the school band, but none of that music swung. My ears begged for something with more energy and urgency. The family record collection was of little help. We owned precisely five albums, the jazziest of which was Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Herb and the boys kept some decidedly mixed company in my house. I remember a Barbara Streisand LP only ...
read moreYogi Berra Explains Jazz
In memory of the man who came to the fork in the road, and took it. Interviewer: What do you expect is in store for the future of jazz trumpet? Yogi: I'm thinkin' there'll be a group of guys who've never met talkin' about it all the time... Interviewer: Can you explain jazz? Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part ...
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Contest Giveaway
ELIGIBLE WINNERS: 10 | DAYS REMAINING: 26
Prize: 10 copies of Rhythm Abstraction: Azure by Frank Macchia
Rhythm Abstraction: Azure is the first volume of new compositions created as a follow up to 2018’s release Rhythm Kaleidoscope. As with that release, Brock Avery improvised drum and percussion solos. Frank Macchia then composed music for woodwinds and orchestra to Brock’s creations. Azure is the first of three extended play albums of 6-7 compositions which will be released starting in January and followed up in April and July. In Azure we have a created a group of pieces that continue our quest for honoring the art of improvisation with a “stream-of-consciousness” sense of composition,...
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