Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Record Labels Plan Video Site

A generation after the launch of MTV, the four largest record labels are hoping to revive the music video business online by creating a website grouping together all their artists' videos.

Plans under discussion include a partnership with Hulu, the online television and film joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal; the creation of a premium service on YouTube, Google's video-sharing site; or a standalone venture between some or all of the four largest recorded music groups.

Industry members had hailed deals struck with YouTube last year as a way of driving profits from the popularity of professional music videos and from offering them as soundtracks to amateur efforts on such usergenerated content sites.

However, some are questioning whether either side has made much money from arrangements that require YouTube to share advertising revenues and, in many cases, pay a few tenths of a cent to the music company each time a video is streamed.

Universal Music, the industry leader, has said it makes "tens of millions of dollars" from YouTube.

Warner Music failed last week to agree a new deal with the site, however, saying it was not being adequately compensated and demanding that the site take down its artists' videos and amateur content using songs from its publishing arm such as "Happy Birthday To You".

Representatives of two music companies, who would not be named, said they were in discussions with Hulu. They said no announcement was imminent but that the site appeared to be the favoured partner.

Both said, however, that any deal to create a standalone music video service would not replace existing deals with YouTube and that there was interest in supplying content for a potential premium service on YouTube, which has begun to offer high-definition videos. Warner may yet return to YouTube should it agree new terms.

The industry's search for digital income comes amid collapsing compact disc sales, which have not yet been offset by digital revenue growth. Warner, the only quoted music company, reported 39 per cent growth in digital revenues for 2008 to $639m, or 18 per cent of total sales.

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York
Financial Times

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Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year year to all the visitors of JazzHQ. It's just for fun, but I'm pleased that you found your way here and grateful if you've done it more than once.

Best wishes to you all. Good health and peace in the new year.






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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Dave Koz To Participate In Rose Parade

Dave Koz will join many entertainers and millions of spectators from around the world when he celebrates the New Year by participating in the 120th Rose Parade. Koz is scheduled to appear and perform on one of the parade’s many floats.

As it is known the world-over, the Rose Parade will once again feature the beautiful pageantry and tradition of magnificent floral floats, high-stepping equestrians and spirited marching bands.

President of the 2008-2009 Tournament of Roses, Ronald H. Conzonire revealed earlier in the year that the 120th Rose Parade would be themed, Hats Off To Entertainment.

“I chose the theme for the 2009 Rose Parade because the Rose Parade is a collection of America and the world’s great entertainers, both past and present,” says Conzonire.

“With such amusing Grand Marshals serving in the past, and with the wonderful bands, float riders and equestrians that participate every year, the 2009 festivities will pay tribute to all that is entertainment. In its many forms, entertainment touches all of our lives. It brings family and friends together and it brings joy to people everywhere.”

The 120th Rose Parade themed Hats Off To Entertainment will take place on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 8 a.m. (PST). Following the Rose Parade, at 2 p.m. (PST), the 95th Rose Bowl Game will feature an exciting match-up between Bowl Championship Series ranked No. 8 Penn State and No. 5 USC.

For additional information you can visit the official website, tournamentofroses.com.

Earlier this month Koz appeared in a one hour holiday special on the TV Guide Network channel and he also made an appearance on the Bonnie Hunt Show. He recently wrapped up the Dave Koz and Friends: A Smooth Jazz Christmas 2008 tour which he was headlining with special guests Jonathan Butler, Jeff Golub, and Keiko Matsui.

For further information on Dave Koz you can visit his website, davekoz.com.

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Monday, December 29, 2008

Jazz Great Freddie Hubbard Dead At 70

Freddie Hubbard, the Grammy-winning jazz musician whose style influenced a generation of trumpet players and who collaborated with such greats as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, died Monday, a month after suffering a heart attack. He was 70.

Hubbard died at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his manager, fellow trumpeter David Weiss of the New Jazz Composers Octet. He had been hospitalized since suffering the heart attack a day before Thanksgiving.

A towering figure in jazz circles, Hubbard played on hundreds of recordings in a career dating to 1958, the year he arrived in New York from his hometown Indianapolis, where he had studied at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music and with the Indianapolis Symphony.

Soon he had hooked up with such jazz legends as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Coltrane.

"I met Trane at a jam session at Count Basie's in Harlem in 1958," he told the jazz magazine Down Beat in 1995. "He said, `Why don't you come over and let's try and practice a little bit together.' I almost went crazy. I mean, here is a 20-year-old kid practicing with John Coltrane. He helped me out a lot, and we worked several jobs together."

In his earliest recordings, which included "Open Sesame" and "Goin' Up" for Blue Note in 1960, the influence of Davis and others on Hubbard is obvious, Weiss said. But within a couple years he would develop a style all his own, one that would influence generations of musicians, including Wynton Marsalis.

"He influenced all the trumpet players that came after him," Marsalis told The Associated Press earlier this year. "Certainly I listened to him a lot. ... We all listened to him. He has a big sound and a great sense of rhythm and time and really the hallmark of his playing is an exuberance. His playing is exuberant."

Hubbard played on more than 300 recordings, including his own albums and those of scores of other artists. He won his Grammy in 1972 for best jazz performance by a group for the album "First Light."

As a young musician, Hubbard became revered among his peers for a fiery, blazing style that allowed him to hit notes higher and faster than just about anyone else with a horn. As age and infirmity began to slow that style, he switched to a softer, melodic style and played a flugelhorn. His fellow musicians were still impressed.

"The sound he gets on just one note. I know he does all the flashy stuff and the high stuff and it's all great but ... he'd play `Body and Soul' on the flugelhorn and it was just that much better again than everyone around him," trumpeter Chris Botti said in an interview earlier this year.

AP-

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Secret Garden Top Ten Covers Of 2008

The smooth jazz cover has, in recent years, become something of an art form. Far removed from a straight forward copy of another artists work, these re-imaginings have breathed new life into music that, typically, originated in the classic soul era of the 60’s and 70’s. Even these boundaries have, of late, been frayed so, by way of paying homage to the very best that this sub genre has to offer, here is my very personal choice of Secret Garden Top Ten Covers of 2008.

‘I Stand Accused’ by Gerald Albright from the CD ‘Sax For Stax’. Albright takes this spine tingling Isaac Hayes classic and makes it entirely his own. The original, from the ‘Isaac Hayes Movement’, was an eleven minute plus odyssey but here Albright condenses it into the sexiest five minutes of instrumental R & B you will hear anywhere.

‘She’s Gone’ by Bradley Leighton from the CD ‘Soul Collective’. This Hall and Oates smash finds flautist Leighton in collaboration with sax icon Tom Scott to incredible effect. The fact that the tune generates a luscious horn driven warmth is due in no small part to the excellent trumpet and trombone of former Tower of Power mainstay Mic Gillette.

Read on for the remainder of this year’s top ten covers.

Continue reading "The Secret Garden Top Ten Covers Of 2008

This is an original post by Denis Poole at smoothvibes.com

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Friday, December 26, 2008

WLVE/Miami Flips To Rhythmic AC

The coming of Christmas Day left radio with one less major-market Smooth Jazz outlet, as Clear Channel's WLVE (Love 94)/Miami returned from all-holiday programming at 10 a.m. with a new format: Rhythmic AC, as "93.9-FM MIA, Move to the Music." The station is launching commercial-free with core artists the Bee Gees, Madonna, Prince, Justin Timberlake, and Jennifer Lopez.

"If you can sing and dance to it, we'll probably play it," said Clear Channel/Miami President/Market Manager Brian Olson. "There is tremendous passion across South Florida for this format. We are thrilled to bring this exciting and upbeat programming to listeners."

WLVE's former Smooth Jazz programming will soon be available on 93.9's HD2 subchannel, Olson said.

In the past year, major-market flips away from Smooth Jazz have included Lincoln Financial's move of KJCD/Denver to Sports, Emmis' flip of WQCD/New York to Triple A as WRXP, and Citadel's decision to move WJZW/Washington to Oldies.
radioink.com

Note: I only leanred about this, this morning. Not good. Good news though. It frees up a button on the radio. Having said that, I won't know how to use that button, as there is less on the radio almost daily. I also believe XM/Sirius will go belly up. We'll be listening to internet radio and our iPods only in the future.

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Upcoming Jazz Releases | 12/30/08

Fri 26-Dec-2008

Anthony Williams - Spring (EMI Japan )
Cliff Jordan - Cliff Jordan (EMI Japan )
Mansun - Legacy (EMI Japan )

Reissues
Freddie Hubbard - Breaking Point (Blue Note)
Grant Green - Grantstand (Blue Note)

Sun 28-Dec-2008

The Bob Szajner Triad Iv - "on the bench_in the zone" (RMS008 Records)
The Bob Szajner Triad Iv - "on the bench_in the zone" (RMS008 Records)

Wed 31-Dec-2008

Best Small Jazz Bands - Best Small Jazz Bands (Fremeaux & Assoc. FR )
Trio De Clarinettes - Ramdam (Fremeaux & Assoc. FR )

Tue 06-Jan-2009

Bennie Green - Bennie Green (Pid )
Bobby Burgess & Big - Live At Rosenau Stuttg (Pid )
Booker Little - Booker Little (Pid )
Corona - Old Devil Moon (Pid )
Courtois & Courvoisi - As Soon As Possible (Pid )
Danilo Rea & Martux - Reminiscence (Pid )
Danny Green - With You In Mind (Alante Recordings)
Danny Green - With You In Mind (Alante Recordings)
Dave Liebman & Enri - Liebman Meets Intra-Li (Pid )
Gil Scott-Heron - Very Best Of (Pid )
Harry Waters - Harry Waters Band (Harry Waters )
Ilgter - Live Ilg (Pid )
Ilgter - A La Carte (Pid )
Ilgter - Due (Pid )
Ilgter - Folk Songs (Pid )
Ilgter - Fieldwork (Pid )
Jackie Paris - Sings The Lylics Of Ira Gershwin (Pid )
Keiko Lee - Delight (Sony Japan )
Kenny Dorham - Jazz Contemporary (Pid )
Kenny Dorham - Showboat (Pid )
Lee Ritenour - Gentle Thought (Pid )
Maria Pia De Vito - Dialektos Ft.Gabriele (Pid )
Max Roach - Award-Winning Drummer (Pid )
Now Arabia 2009 - Now Arabia 2009 (EMI Arabia )
Raymond Lefevre - Palmares Des Chansons (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - Palmares Des Chansons 2 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - Palmares Des Chansons 3 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - Palmares Des Chansons 4 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 5 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 6 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 7 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 9 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 10 (JVC Japan )
Raymond Lefevre - No 12 (JVC Japan )
Science Fiction Jazz 11 - Science Fiction Jazz 11 (Mole Listening Pearl )
Sonny Clark - Sonny Clark Trio (Pid )
Stanley Turrentine - Stan The Man Turrentine (JVC Japan )
Stanley Turrentine - Tommy Turrentine (Pid )
Terry Gibbs - Hootenanny My Way (Pid )
Various Artists - Give It One (Cala )
Victor Harris - Midnight At Malibu: Essential Victor Harris (Omega )
Victor Harris - Midnight At Malibu: The Essential Victor Harris (Omega )
WE - I Like Too Much (Pid )


Our thanks to:New release information provided by allaboutjazz.com
The Upcoming Release Center at allaboutjazz.com is the most comprehensive new release listing for jazz music on the internet.
The information is updated biweekly by John Kelman


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Thursday, December 25, 2008

US singer Eartha Kitt dies at 81

American singer, dancer and actress Eartha Kitt has died at the age 81, her friend and publicist has said.

Kitt died of colon cancer on Thursday, Andrew Freedman said.

She was one of the few artists to be nominated in the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award categories and was a stalwart of the Manhattan cabaret scene.

She famously played Catwoman in the Batman television series in the 1960s and was known for her distinctive, feline drawl.

She also had a number of hit songs, including Old Fashioned Girl, C'est Si Bon and Santa Baby.

Kitt was blacklisted in the US in the late 1960s after speaking out against the Vietnam War at a White House function.

She also caused controversy when she toured apartheid South Africa in 1974, arguing that she had helped wean the regime by raising awareness of racism.

However, she returned triumphantly to New York's Broadway in a 1978 production, Timbuktu!, and continued to perform regularly in theatre shows and concert halls.

From the 1980s onwards she appeared in numerous films, and her 1984 hit Where Is My Man found her another generation of night club fans.

Big break


Kit rose to the top of the entertainment world from humble origins.

Her mother worked on a cotton plantation in South Carolina and was just 14 when she gave birth.

Kitt was then given away at the age of eight and sent to live with an aunt in New York.

Her break came at 16 when she got a job as a dancer with a professional troupe touring Europe. She later sang in Paris nightclubs and appeared in several films in the 1950s.

Kitt, who had one daughter from a brief marriage in the 1960s, lived in the US state of Connecticut.

Source: BBC News



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Bela Fleck Gives Christmas A Flecktone Fervor

Bela Fleck's jazz-bluegrass fusion gang is renowned for its technical mastery, with Fleck on banjo and bassist Victor Wooten ranking among the world's best on their instruments. On Jingle All the Way, they breathe new life into the Christmas canon, approaching classics like "What Child Is This" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" with a distinctively Flecktonian fervor.

In a session with host David Dye, Fleck's band shares the Christmas spirit, showcasing songs from its first-ever seasonal recording.
NPR Jazz & Blues

*Listen Now
(*Note: This is the correct NPR audio file, but will appear as a Mary Chapin Carpenter interview. Please comment if it fails.)





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JibJab - 2008 Year In Review

Baby New Year '08 takes you on a tour of all of the good, bad, and worst the past year had to offer, all at breakneck speed.


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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

White Christmas - The Drifters (Video/cartoon)

Sung by The Drifters. Cartoon by Joshua Held.
Featuring Bill Pinkney on lead bass and Clyde McPhatter on tenor.



Sing along:

Ooh
Doop doop, doop doo doop
Ooh
Doop doop, doop doo doop

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where those treetops glisten, and children listen,
To hear sleigh bells in the snow, the snow.

Then, I-I-I am dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days, may your days, may your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.

I-I-I am dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the treetops glisten, and children listen,
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I-I-I am dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days, may your days, may your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells all the way.
Ooooh.

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A Christmas Jazz Tale

A Christmas Jazz Tale

by Don Heckman

‘Twas the night before Christmas and the gig was running late;
No sugar plums, no candy canes, just another overtime club date,
Holidays are work days in a jazz musician’s life,
A chance to make some extra bucks to take home to the wife.
Chanukah’s underway, Kwaanza starts tomorrow,
The Ramadan fast soon ends, and I’ll forget the others to my sorrow.
If you want to make a living in the music world these days,
You’d better learn to celebrate in many different ways.
The clock slowly turned toward the midnight hour,
As we played a jazzed up version of the “Waltz of the Flowers.”
We labored on, “White Christmas,” “Frosty” and “Silent Night”;
And I wondered if we’d still be jamming “My Favorite Things” at first light.
But we finally got lucky, as the leader kicked off the final medley.
The singer mauled “The Christmas Song,” a version Mel would have found deadly,
We did the “Jingle Bell Mambo” and the “Drummer Boy Bossa Nova,”
And wrapped it all up, with a rock “Hallelujah” coda.
I packed my horn, gave the guys my best wishes and headed into the night.
The streets were dark and quiet, the stores closed up tight.
Not that it would have mattered, since the gig barely paid the rent,
And whatever I could afford for presents had already been spent.
I walked through the falling snow, filled with memories of Christmas past,
Of marching bands and Christmas parades, of lighted trees and times too good to last.
And I wondered if my kids, when adulthood beckons,
Would remember their holidays with the same sweet affection.
My footsteps led me home to a house warm and cozy,
Where my wife and my children lay innocently dozing.
So I sat for a while in the late night still,
Watching the snow fall gently on the hill.
When I suddenly heard a familiar sound in the distance,
A rhythm section swinging with hard driving persistence.
But this one was strange, something I’d never heard before,
A brisk and spirited clatter I can only describe as hoof beats galore.
Then a new sound, one both familiar yet odd,
Called out through the snowflakes, like a leader commanding a squad.
“On Trane! On Dizzy! On Monk! On Duke!
On Sonny! On Bird! On Miles! On Klook!”
The next thing I heard was just as amazing,
A set of riffs, hard-swinging and blazing,
Played on an instrument that was new to me,
The sting of a trumpet, the silk of a sax, the tone of a bone, all blended with glee.
I ran to the window to see what was coming,
And was met with a sight incredibly stunning,
What looked like a bright red ‘57 Chevy,
Pulled through the sky by eight reindeer in a bevy.
They landed in my yard and the driver leaped out;
Grabbing a pack from the back he quickly turned about.
I blinked my eyes at this strange apparition,
His cheeks like Dizzy, his smile like Pops, as natty as Miles, a man on a mission.
“Call me Father Jazz,” he said as he came through the door, musicians are my specialty.
I’ll even make a stop tonight with a little something for Kenny G.”
Then, opening his pack, he lightly danced to our tree,
Placing presents beneath it, ever so gently.
“There’s a drum set for Alex,” he said, “that kid has great time.
And a guitar for Allegra, ’cause the songs she writes are so fine.
And the books and the wristwatch you wanted for your wife,
That you couldn’t afford, living a jazz musician’s life.”
This is way too weird, I thought, it must be a dream;
Something like this is too good to be what it seems.
“Oh, it’s the real deal,” said Father Jazz, with a riff-like snap of his fingers.
“You’re on my list of serious jazz swingers.”
Moving to the doorway he turned back for a final review:
“And if you’re wondering why no box has been left for you,
It’s because your present has already been given.
You know what it is? It’s the spirit that makes your imagination so driven.”
“Musicians like you know that the gift of music is the gift of love.
It’s a gift that can only have come from above.
And those non-jazz Beatles had it right, for all our sakes,
When they said, ‘The love you take is equal to the love you make’.”
He bounded lightly through the snow to his flying red Chevy,
Blew a celestial riff on his amazing horn — so heavy!
And urged his team forward with a rallying command,
“On Dizzy! On Bird! On Miles! On Trane!”
As his eager steeds rose into the winter sky,
Father Jazz called out one last stirring cry.
Looking down with a radiant smile and a farewell wave:
“Stay cool, Bro’ and keep the music playing.”
copyright © 2003 Don Heckman
The International Review Of Music

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Allaboutjazz Musician Of The Day - Chet Baker

Chesney Henry “Chet” Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma, died May 13, 1988 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was an American jazz musician.
Raised in a musical household in Oklahoma (his father was a guitar player), and coming of age in Southern California during the bebop era of jazz, Baker found success as a trumpet player in 1951 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. Baker became famous on the strength of his solo on their recording of My Funny Valentine, a piece he was later said to “own”. The Quartet, however, lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest on drug charges. In 1954, Baker won the Downbeat Jazz Poll, beating Miles Davis among others. Over the next few years, Baker fronted his own combo, playing trumpet and singing. He became an icon of the west coast “cool school” of jazz, helped by his good looks and singing talent. By the early 1960s, Baker had begun playing the fluegelhorn, as well....>The entire article at allaboutjazz.com



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