Results for "AAJ Staff"

Merry Christmas to One and All

December 25, 2013

Making YouTube Central to Your Music Career

December 26, 2013

Though YouTube has many limitations and problems it also offers a unique way to combine one's social media, music marketing, music and merch sales and concert promotion efforts with one's music and visual art. That's a lot for any website to take on but YouTube can combine all that in a single shareable video. Recently The ...

No Christmas is Complete Without Bird

December 25, 2013

Sixty-five years ago today in the early hours of the morning, Charlie Parker and his quintet were close to wrapping up their broadcast from the Royal Roost in New York City when someone requested a Christmas song. Parker obliged. Christmas 1948 with Charlie Parker, Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, Tommy Potter and Max Roach. I hope that ...

Yusef Lateef, R.I.P.

December 24, 2013

The roll call of distinguished jazz artists leaving us seems to grow longer by the day. Now comes news of the passing of Yusef Lateef, who died today in Detroit. He was 93. As a youngster in Detroit, Lateefmastered several reed instruments and early in his career became a respected performer, composer and educator. He was ...

Yusef Lateef (1920-2013)

December 24, 2013

Yusef Lateef, a saxophonist and flutist who was one of the last surviving members of Dizzy Gillespie's 1949 big band and who helped pioneer spiritual jazz in the mid-1950s, soul-jazz in the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley, and metaphysical jazz starting in the 1980s, died on December 23. He was 83. Yusef was among the first black ...

$2.75 Million Later, Music Discovery Platform Exfm to Shut Down

December 23, 2013

After four years and $2.75 million in investments, social music discovery platform Exfm is shutting down.  As with many other failed music startups, Exfm's founders blame the music industry. "The technical challenges are compounded by the litigious nature of the music industry," the NYC based startup said in a statement, “which means every time we have any meaningful ...

Dinah Shore: A Ton of Fun

December 23, 2013

Dinah Shore has long been discounted as a '50s pop bore, which is terribly unfair. Part of the problem with her image is her sunny mass-market appeal and girl-next-door personna. But in truth, she was highly regarded by all of the major singers and could swing with the best of them. Few could beat her natural ...

'Zat You, Santa Claus?

December 23, 2013

We Americans and our religious holidays are hard to figure, that's for sure.  First, you hear us demanding tolerance and equal time for people who choose to affiliate with an anti-religious philosophy, or no religious practice at all. The next minute, we are decrying the absurd religious discrimination being ...

Is the RIAA Planning Another Attack on Musicians' Rights?

December 21, 2013

By Mike Masnick of Techdirt.   We've written a few times about how the RIAA has been fighting hard to screw over tons of musicians by taking away their “termination rights." Termination rights are a bit confusing, but the simplest way of thinking about them is that after 35 years, if a copyright holder had assigned ...

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/Spring 2014 Jazz Preview, Part 2

December 22, 2013

This week, it's part two of our winter/spring 2014 preview taking a look at some of the touring jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis next year. Part one, published last week, covered the month of January. Today, we pick up the timeline at the start of the following month for our ...