Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes






















*The New York Times featured the Mutual Musicians Foundation. (Tip via Robert Moore.)

*Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II defends his earmarks at his blog. "If I can’t find money for the historic building that is crumbling on top of the players at the Mutual Musicians Foundation," he writes. "Where will it come from?"

*Jazz In the Woods announced their 2009 headliners. (Tip via friend of Plastic Sax.)

*I'm irritated that Jason Harper scooped me on the official release of the Negro Leagues' benefit hip hop CD True To the Game. I've been on the story since last October, but Plastic Sax clearly doesn't rate as highly as The Pitch.

*Holy Fables of Faubus! Here’s the outstanding lineup for the Mingus Big Band on April 18 at the Gem: Lew Soloff- trumpet, Earl Gardner- trumpet, Kenny Rampton- trumpet, Vincent Herring- sax, Craig Handy- sax, Donny McCaslin- sax, Abraham Burton- sax, Jason Marshall- sax, Frank Lacy- trombone, Conrad Herwig- trombone, Earl McIntyre- trombone, Donald Edwards – drums, Boris Koslov – bass and Helen Sung – piano.

*The mastermind behind the always excellent Kansas City With a Russian Accent blog brought an April 12 concert by The Academic Band to my attention. Based on the video included in the post, it looks like a godsend for trad jazz fans.

*The recent Madeleine Peyroux concert at The Folly was reviewed by Joel Francis and Scott Wilson.

*Steve Penn noted that $895 was contributed to the Coda Jazz Fund in lieu of flowers in memory of the late Vince Bilardo.

*The New York Voices concert was previewed by Joe Klopus. He also noted that Topeka's Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival has been canceled this year.

*Do you feel lucky? The American Jazz Museum is selling deeply discounted tickets to this year's Rhythm & Ribs Festival through April 17. The catch? The lineup won't be announced until after that date.

*A tourist gets her Kansas City jazz facts a little mixed up in a blog post.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yo! I picked up the MMF/NYT article the day after you did. What do you think of the issue of elder statesmen vs. college students?

Happy In Bag said...

Jason:

I read your analysis with great interest:

http://blogs.pitch.com/wayward/2009/03/mutual_musicians_foundation_fe.php

It's an open jam. Anyone can play. In 2009, almost by definition, it's gonna be "college kids" willing to play jazz for free (not to be confused with free jazz) at three in the morning.

Jason Harper said...

I can understand why the connoisseurs would prefer to hear seasoned musicians, but most people who wander in after a night of raging probably think mixolydian is a mode of cocktail.

the unthinking lemming said...

A Bb, a Db and an F walk into a bar and ask for some beer. The bartender exclaims that he cannot serve minors. The Db left. They then had an open fifth.

Happy In Bag said...

If you two keep that up, I'm gonna up and quit.