NAMM Show 2007: What's Next In Music?
By Dean Truitt


Every year, the Anaheim convention center becomes a gathering ground for anyone interested in what makes the sound go ‘round: music gear.

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Montreal Jazz Festival
By Scott Yanow


In Canada during late June/early July, the country hosts a series of overlapping jazz festivals that often stretch for 10-12 days. This year, Winnipeg’s ten-day festival (June 15-24) and a relatively “modest” seven-day marathon in Alberta (June 19-25) mostly preceded festivals in Ottawa (June 21-July 2), Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria (each of which took place June 23-July 2), topped off by the largest one in Montreal (June 29-July 9).

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The New Feeling of Jazz:Setting The New Standards
By Jason Sklar


Since the 1930’s, jazz has thrived on commonly known “standards” – a shared lexicon of tunes that unify jazzmen the world over. From George Gershwin’s “Summertime” to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s “Hello, Young Lovers,” jazz has continued to breathe new life into songs made famous by legends such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. These melodies continue to receive new treatments by players like Joshua Redman and Bill Charlap. With the evolution of the standard came the transformed role of the rhythm section, reshaping the genre to become the boundary-pushing, yet reverent jazz we find today.

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The Playboy Jazz Festival: Hef Brings The Jazz Giants
By Scott Yanow


Hugh Hefner of Playboy has always loved jazz. Those of you who buy Playboy for the articles have noticed that Playboy has occasionally featured pieces on jazz artists (Alex Haley once interviewed Miles Davis), and in the past Playboy had its own annual jazz poll. In Chicago in 1959 there was a Playboy Jazz Festival that was quite successful, but not repeated until 20 years later.

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The James Moody Scholarship
By OW


Jazz music filled the air, artwork graced the walls, and patrons radiated positive vibes at the fifth annual fund raising event held on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at M. Hanks Gallery in Santa Monica, California. This year’s beneficiary was the James Moody Jazz Scholarship Endowment, which is part of Purchase College, in Purchase, New York. All of the proceeds went directly to the Endowment.

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Jazz Art Community
By OW


Jazz music filled the air, artwork graced the walls, and patrons radiated positive vibes at the fifth annual fund raising event held on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at M. Hanks Gallery in Santa Monica, California. This year’s beneficiary was the James Moody Jazz Scholarship Endowment, which is part of Purchase College, in Purchase, New York. All of the proceeds went directly to the Endowment.

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Live at UCLA, Feb 24
By Pilar and Douglas Patzkowski
Jolgorio

With this one word, Perú Negro transformed the stage into a rhythmic pageant of percussion and song, satire, and sensuality at UCLA’s Royce Hall on February 24.

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SXSX 2006: A Week Of Magical, Musical Moments
By Dean Truitt


If you were to ask almost anyone in the music industry what his or her favorite week of the year was, you might be surprised by the answer. No, it’s not the Grammys or any of the countless other awards shows.

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Buyer's Guide: Jazz Christmas CDs
By Scott Yanow


Christmas songs and jazz musicians have long been a very compatible mix. Many of the key Yuletide favorites, such as “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph, The Red- Nosed Reindeer,” and “Silent Night,” utilize chord changes that are perfect for jamming. Whether played by dixielanders, beboppers, or modern musicians, Christmas tunes often sound at their best in jazz settings.

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Complete Library of Congress Recordings
By Scott Yanow
The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax

Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941) was one of the most important pioneers of jazz history.  Arguably jazz’s first major composer, arranger, and piano stylist, Morton was writing future jazz standards as early as 1905..

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Reinventing The Beatle
By Ken Micallef
Lennon: The Musical

Tracing John Lennon’s rough and tumble days in Liverpool to his final years at Manhattan’s Dakota, Lennon: The Musical is the Yoko Ono approved production designed to cash in on the public’s current fascination with pop stars and Broadway musicals. Performed at New York’s Broadhurst Theater, Lennon’s nine member cast trades off on some of the Scouser’s best songs, and some of his worst.

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SXSW: Music's Meeting Ground
By Dean Truitt


For one week in March each year, Austin, TX becomes the center of the music world. Bands, singers, executives, promoters, lawyers, managers, agents, and fans converge on the state’s capital to partake in the nonstop musical merriment known as South By Southwest.

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Exclusive Interview With Tommy Ramone
By Dean Truitt


Thomas Erdelyi may not be a recognizable inductee name to those familiar with the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, but his more familiar alias of Tommy Ramone gives the former drummer and successful producer a rare distinction, the only Hungarian to ever enter the hallowed Hall.

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Listen to The Ramones on the ONE WAY CD 14

Alan Lomax: Ambassador To The Ages Part II
By Ken Micallef


Alan Lomax, the man who traveled the world to document cultures little known outside of their locales, the man who developed various means of quantifying the information he gleaned from those cultures, the man who helped launch the careers of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Muddy Waters, and the man whose archival recordings continue to live on in the work of dance star Moby and such popular soundtracks as Oh Brother Where Art Thou? has, as his office’s final resting place, a nondescript building behind Manhattan’s Port Authority building.

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A Personal Note on Nirvana: With The Lights Out
By Mandana Beigi
With the Lights Out

After cashing in on Kurt Cobain’s private diaries and the rushed release of “You Know You’re Right” in the fall of 2002, Courtney Love is now gladly accepting your $60 for an elaborate box set of Nirvana rarities, just in time for the holidays.

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Alan Lomax: Ambassador To The Ages Part I
By Ken Micallef


In one of the greatest acts of artistic hubris since Dick James ripped off The Beatles, dance doyen Moby struck platinum with 1999’s Play largely on the back of prison singers, Southern field workers, and itinerant blues musicians. Using sampling as his modus operandi, Moby warmed his cool synth sounds and monotone vocals with the black folk music of the Deep South recorded while they were playing on porch steps, toiling in the fields, or working in work camps in a life without end.

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Ray Charles: An American Genius
By Jon McAuliffe
Genius Loves Company

He probably had more to do with bringing a modern perspective to American music than any other artist of his or succeeding generations. Jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, gospel, country, and pop music all felt Ray Charles’ direct influence in the form of one word that has been universally used to describe him and his music, and would eventually become its own genre – Soul. .

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Southern Culture In Southern California: An Interview With Mark Neill, Soil Of The South Music Production
By Mel Spinella


In the 1950s, the home of rockabilly music was clearly Memphis, Tennessee and the studio of Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. Inspired by Sam’s vision of merging white hillbilly music with black gospel and blues, legends were created. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Charlie Rich are just some of the famous artists birthed at Sun. So where is the home of rockabilly music today? Soil of The South Music Production in La Mesa, California. So how could rockabilly, with its deep Southern roots, emerge in Southern California? Two words - Mark Neill

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Coachella Valley Music Festival
By


Some 100,000 fans braved the desert heat (100+ degrees) over two days at this year’s Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, California. For the fifth time since its inception, Coachella has proved to be the ultimate American rock fest.

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Turntablism: Not For DJs Only
By Ken Micallef


With iTunes, Napster, and Musicmatch offering more digital downloads than bad music from a zillion teen-pop stars, you might wonder why anyone would still bother with technology as old-fashioned as the analog turntable.

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SXSW Music Conference 2004
By Dean Truitt


For one week in March every year, Austin, Texas, becomes the undisputed “Live Music Capital of the World” during the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Convention. Artists representing every conceivable genre descend upon the city in hopes of gathering interest and promoting their art. Over a thousand different acts perform live in one of the city’s many venues throughout the hectic, week-long event.

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Behind The Names Of Rock
By Mandana Beigi


Have you ever wondered where these great band names come from? Here is the story behind some of the best rock band names of all time.

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By Ken Micallef


As a youngster growing up in Milford, Michigan, my daily routine would include hightailing it home after my third grade classes to beat my sister to the front door. With a window of perhaps 30 minutes before my older sibling arrived, I would sneak into her room and delicately remove The Beatles’ Abbey Road from her collection of pop and folk LPs, place it on her BSR turntable, lower the tonearm, and quickly get lost in the sounds.

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Jazz Present
By Jason Sklar


With holiday spirit in the air, it seems the right time for the Ebeneezer Scrooge traditionalists of jazz to appreciate the transitional period that jazz and the music industry are in. As jazz future is unknown and jazz past is already established, jazz present must be appreciated for both its musicality and exploration.

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How To Buy Speakers (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Listen for the Music)
By Ken Micallef


So you've worn out that crummy college boombox. Or perhaps, after hearing a friend's high-end, multi channel rig, you realize that your world, jazz and classical discs deserve better than tiny computer speakers or plastic boxes stuck in a "home entertainment system." Whatever the reason, choosing a new set of speakers to play your valuable and beloved tunes is not an endeavor that should be entered into lightly. With hundreds of brands and styles to choose from, from the garbage sold at electronics superstores to the ritzy speakers sold at high-end stores, separating the wheat from the chaff is not a task for the ill equipped nor the undereducated.

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Give The Gift Of Music
By


The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation supports music education and its many benefits through the donation and repair of musical instruments to under-served schools, community music programs and individual students nationwide.

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Give The Gift Of Music
By


Not inspired by, maybe the other way around, the recent hit movie School of Rock, Little Kids Rock believes that music is a critical component of a first-rate education. Many elementary schools have been stripped of their music programs. These cuts have had a disproportionately large impact on children from low-income backgrounds.

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Coming Up?
By Mandana Beigi
Coming Up

With a new record label (Concord Records), a new drummer (Mario Claire from the Wall Flowers) and a new EP, Ozomatli is set to take off for 2004. Their new EP, "Coming Up" is a six-song prelude to their full-length album "Street Signs" due out in the spring of 2004.

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Shall We Dance?
By Pat Mavromatis
Dance Of Death

With Bruce Dickinson and Andrian Smith back in the band since 2000-2001 and after long and hurtful internal strife that led to their departure a few years earlier, the Iron Maiden resurgence that started back with 2000's Brave New World still goes strong today and Maiden is cooler than ever. With their scintillating trademark galloping rhythms and twin - oops, I meant tri - guitar harmonies Iron Maiden gain new fans day by day and keep "Running Free" towards their next decade of musical creation.

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Timeless Blues
By Dave Lewis
Time Will Tell

Robert Cray has blues in his blood, but he refuses to allow the genre limitations to restrict his craft. As his latest album Time Will Tell (Cray's first on Sanctuary records) attests, Cray has infused the blues with soul, R & B, rock, jazz and Eastern sounds. The legendary guitar player is often credited with single-handedly revitalizing the blues for a new generation of listeners in the 1980s, and he is continuing to refine and expand his musical talents.

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Latin Music: Where Is It Headed Anyway?
By Mandana Beigi


The commercial success of Latin music in the last few years and its continuing influence on today's forms of popular music and culture have had an enormous impact on the new structure of the music industry. As more and more Latin artists top the pop charts and fill arena seats, the music industry's interest in the development and marketing of Latin pop stars increases.

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Hail To The Thief
By Steve Mellano
Hail To The Thief

As today's musicians succumb even further to the mechanizations of their corporate masters (or worse, they are created by them and their marketing puppeteers), it is absolutely refreshing to have a group such as Radiohead who remain true to themselves and their vision. By their third album, OK Computer (1997), this unassuming band from Britain seemed to equal U2 in their ability to rock an arena full of spectators. For almost seven years, many rock critics have wanted to bestow the title of greatest rock band in the world on the group, but so far they have resisted the call to play up to popular expectations.

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And On The Eighth Day, Punk Was Born!: Part II
By Mandana Beigi


The survival of Punk was almost impossible in a decade when leveraged buyouts and mergers generated a new breed of millionaires and the stock market became a career. But the punk rockers continued making the sound while the Forbes' list of 400 richest people was becoming more significant than its 500 largest companies!

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Music Therapy
By Pat Mavromatis
The Art Of Heaven Concert: Live In Berlin



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Music Therapy
By Pat Mavromatis


You’ve probably heard about physical therapy and occupational therapy. Almost all of us have. But there is a form of therapy out there, which many claim is very effective, that not everyone knows - music therapy.

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A Blues Powerhouse
By Pat Mavromatis
Turn The Heat Up

In a music scene inundated with neo-soul/neo-R&B divas-in-the-making and well, some wanna-be divas, one voice, one woman, shines through with a powerful mix of simple, sexy, sincere, down-and-dirty blues. Robert Plant calls her “the next Tina Turner.” I call her the next Bessie Smith meets Big Mama Thornton meets Etta James. Better yet, I call her Shemekia.

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And On The Eight Day, Punk Was Born: Punk I
By Mandana Beigi


As the 21st century welcomes us into a world built upon technology, corporate laws and commercialism, the bittersweet memory of Punk and its philosophy and ideology may seem a bit tarnished in our minds. What is Punk? What was Punk? How has it altered the music and culture of the late 20th century? What will it become in the years to come?

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Teaching You The Four R's: Readin', Ritin', Rithmetic, Rock!
By Pat Mavromatis


Imagine you are a musician. Now imagine you are an educator. Now imagine that you live in a country where music education in public schools has gone from bad to worse in just a few years. But wait . . . you don't have to imagine that. If you live in the U.S. this is the truth. A sorry state of affairs, really! So, what do you do? Well, if you are Dave Wish you start your own music program, you name it Little Kids Rock, and off you go!

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Ready For The Four Rs? Readin', Ritin', Rithmetic, Rock!
By Pat Mavromatis
Coast To Coast

Imagine you are a musician. Now imagine you are an educator. Now imagine that you live in a country where music education in public schools has gone from bad to worse in just a few years. But wait . . . you don't have to imagine that. If you live in the U.S. this is the truth. A sorry state of affairs, really! So, what do you do? Well, if you are Dave Wish you start your own music program, you name it Little Kids Rock, and off you go!

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