London, UK a€' Much to the excitement of prog fans worldwide, legedary Curved Air founding member and violinist, Darryl Way is releasing a new album on Right Honourable Records, via Cherry Red on May 19, 2014. 'Children of the Cosmos' is Waya€(TM)s first prog album in over twenty years and demonstrates his creative view of Progressive Rock, forty years after being one of the early...
What do Sonny Rollins and Michael Jackson have in common? They're both in my column this week, along with a Lou Reed tribute and a rare trio recording by Francy Boland in 1967. Sonny Rollinsa€'Road Shows Vol. 3 (Doxy/OKeh). There's a majestic quality to Sonny on tour. You can hear it in the audiencea€'whether it's Japan, France or St. Louis. The six tracks here on his latest "live...
Q: Some people, especially those who familiar with progressive-rock albums from the '70s, would expect Space and Alienation as a science-fiction concept record. But Space and Alienation have a deeper meaning on your album, judging from the emotional tone of certain pieces. Is Space and Alienation what we feel from everyday living? In other words, we seek space but yet feel alienated once we have too...
All About Jazz is celebrating Sonny Fortune's birthday today! When critics speak of Sonny Fortune, names like Coltrane, Cannonball, Young, Bechet, Hawkins and Parker are mentioned. Quite a legacy - but well deserved - for Sonny Fortune embodies all of the finest qualities of those late, great musicians: hard work, dedication to his art, and exceptional music. Lucky for us, Sonny is still here and blowing...
Herbie Hancock a€' pianist, composer and maker of musical revolutions a€' is coming to San Francisco this week (May 16-18) for a series of sold-out shows at SFJazz. With his visit in mind, wheels began to turn: Why not create a list of the dozen greatest living jazz musicians? Hancock would be on it; that was a no-brainer. But who else would make the cut......
2014 has seen the launch of a variety of crowdfunding platforms around the world suitable for music projects. The following three, Payola.fm, Crowdtivate and Crowdtilt Open, represent very different approaches including pledge-based music-specific crowdfunding, crowdfunding as a form of startup acceleration and a hosted DIY platform with open source self-hosting options......
A jazz-busy weekend followed by even more through the coming week. A The final three performances of Song of the Jasmine (Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa), the season finale of Jazz @ St. Barneys, a triple vocal treat at Hopkins Center for the Arts, some of the best avant-garde at Studio Z and the Icehouse, a rare visit by one of the living legends of vocal jazz, the return of one of our hottest...
Vocalist/Composer m: Kavita Shah is set to perform at Joe's Pub in New York on Tuesday, May 27 at 7:30PM in celebration of her debut album, Visions. The performance will feature renowned Benin-born guitarist m: Lionel Loueke , who co-produced the album, as well as special guest saxophonist m: Greg Osby . In addition, Shah will be joined by guitarist Michael Valeanu, pianist m: Guy Mintus , bassist...
All About Jazz is celebrating Jackie McLean's birthday today! John Lenwood (Jackie) McLean was an alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City. His father, John Sr., who died in 1939, played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw\'s orchestra. After his father\'s death, his musical education was continued by his godfather, by his stepfather, who owned a record store, and by several noted...
All About Jazz members are invited to enter the "Pete Robbins - Pyramid" giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on June 16th. Click here to enter the contest (Tracking Pete Robbins at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Pete Robbins on Pyramid......
The new jazz generation converges with its Afro-American roots this year at the Souillac Jazz Festival (Lot 46), to be held from 15 to 21 July 2013. SIX EVENING CONCERTS The Trio da€(TM)en bas will stage an entertaining and unusual spectacle in the Grottes de Lacave (16 July) The drummer Daniel Humair will lead his a€oeSweet and Soura€ Quartet (double-bassist JA(C)rA me Regard,...
Brian Buchanan of Enter The Haggis recently shared his thoughts on crowdfunding via Bandzoogle's blog. He gives a lot of solid crowdfunding advice while taking a look at their differing experiences using Kickstarter, PledgeMusic and Bandzoogle (to run a DIY crowdfunding campaign). I was surprised to find more evidence of Kickstarter losing its leading position but, overall, your choice of platform...
First they told you to build your fanbase on Facebook. A Then Facebook changed its timeline rules. A Next they told you to engage on Twitter. But its hard to get noticed in a stream of continuous updates and their user growth is slowing. A While social media is still essential, it turns out that good old fashioned email may still be the best way to engage a fanbase......
I'm a huge fan of Marcos Valle's music. Who isn't? If you love Samba de VerA oa€'known in the U.S. as Summer Samba (So Nice)a€'then you know what I'm talking about. As soon as I heard Marcos was going to be making a rare New York appearance at Birdland May 27-31 with the legendary Roberto Menescal, I just had to chat with him for The Wall Street Journal. In today's paper, I interview...
A variety of jazz-related artwork collected by Richard "Rich" McDonnell, the late founder and owner of MAXJAZZ records, will be available for viewing and purchase in a special event from noon to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at the MAXJAZZ offices, 115 Lockwood Ave in Webster Groves. Jeff Appel, a photography dealer and friend of the McDonnell family who's managing the sale, says the collection encompasses...
All About Jazz is celebrating Woody Herman's birthday today! After early experience in Chicago with the bands led by Tom Gerun and Harry Sosnik, Woody Herman toured with Gus Arnheim. In 1934, he joined Isham Jones, and when Jones\'s group disbanded in 1936 Herman used its leading sidemen as the nucleus for his own orchestra. This band went through a number of changes of personnel, such as the inclusion...
Cambridge, MA: Cambridge's jazz hotspota€'the Regattabara€'will present An Evening with A Superband: Mike Pope and the House of Cardinals featuring acoustic and electric bassist and composer Mike Pope, pianist m: Eldar Djangirov , vibraphonist m: Joe Locke , saxophonist m: Bob Franceschini and drummer m: Mauricio Zottarelli on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, 7:30 PM. The Regattabar is located...
A weekly radio series featuring Eastman School of Music jazz performances through the years premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, on Jazz90.1 WGMC. Titled Jazz@Eastman: Past, Present, and Future, the programs will feature performances as well as works by Eastman faculty, students, and alumni. The series is a collaboration between Eastman and Jazz 90.1 and is underwritten in part by RG&E......
Shazam has landed investments from the world's 3 largest label groups, A Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music have each invested $3 million in the music and audio identification app. A Shazam is currently valued at $500 million, making their collective stake less than 2%. Music tech investments by the big three music groups, who are hoping to both diversify their portfolios and have more control...
Earlier in the week I was doing some research and stumbled on what has to be the oddest version of m: Quincy Jones 's Stockholm Sweetnin'. It features two singers, Kersti Johanson and Marje Aarea€'and that's about all I know, except in the video clip they appear to be at the museum at night, almost in a dream sequence, winding up in front of a kitsch portrait that doesn't seem to belong......