Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Pat Metheny's Unity Band was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

*A blogger compares Eddie Moore to "other great young and contemporary Houston-bred jazz pianists like Jason Moran and Robert Glasper."  Moore uploaded a track from his forthcoming album to SoundCloud.

*Opportunities for aspiring musicians abound at the Black House Improvisors' Collective.

*The eightieth anniversary of an important recording session by Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra is noted by KCJazzLark.

*A new set of videos documenting a recent KC Youth Jazz performance is impressive.

*Here's another video of a 12th Street Jump "Blues In the News" segment.

*Kristin Shafel Omiccioli reviewed Marilyn Maye's appearance with the Heartland Men's Chorus at the Folly Theater and Project Trio's concert at Polsky Theatre.

*Here a clip of jazz students at Kansas City Kansas Community College playing a Stan Kessler arrangement of "We Three Kings".

*Side By Side, the new album by "antique pop" duo Victor & Penny, was recently released.

*Joe Dimino interviewed Gary Smulyan. 

*Frequent Kansas City visitor Rob Scheps is featured on Marvin "Bugalu" Smith's new album Majestic.

*Comment o' the Week: Anonymous- Thank god we have the Betty Carter jazz program to show us the way. I never realized that playing "All the Things You Are" really well was a solid business model.

*Tweet o' the Week: KCJazzOrch- The new KCJO/Kevin Mahogany Christmas CD is available for download: Itunes, Muve, Rdio, Deezer, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, Spotify, &Google Play.

*From a press release issued by Take Five Coffee + Bar: Take Five Coffee + Bar brings you a packed calendar of stellar music this month from Kansas City and beyond… Friday, December 14, 8pm- Shades of Jade (and a barista competition!)… Saturday, December 15, 8pm- Snuff Jazz… Friday, December 21, 8pm- Matt Chalk with Diverse… Saturday, December 22, 8pm- Mandy Nousain and her Trio… Friday, December 28, 8pm- Parallax… Saturday, December 29, 8pm- Drew Williams Quartet… Friday, January 4, 8pm- The KC Sound Collective.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)