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http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/reviews...1,2188206.story Jazz greats put the show in Showcase benefit By Howard Reich Tribune arts critic March 2 2007, 11:30 AM CST It isn't often that jazz stars such as Danilo Perez, Freddie Cole, Eric Alexander, Benny Green, Jon Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble converge on a single stage. Yet these great artists, and others, convened at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Thursday night for a marathon of musicmaking. The occasion was a fundraiser for the venerable Jazz Showcase, which last December lost its lease in River North and will need hard cash to move into a new site (not yet selected). It's a measure of how much the jazz world reveres this club that so many major names donated their time for the cause. Even apart from its noble purpose, the "Jazz Showcase Relocation Benefit All-Star Concert" offered some heady listening. By far the most thrilling performance belonged to pianist Perez, who partnered with frequent collaborator Jack DeJohnette on drums and Chicagoan Larry Gray on bass to play music of often astonishing originality and creative freedom. As soon as Perez put his hands on the keyboard, in fact, this concert reached an artistic level that had not yet been broached. Defying conventional song structures, dispensing with familiar chord progressions and unreeling unusual yet thoroughly attractive fragments of melody, Perez reminded listeners why he ranks among the most visionary pianists in the world today. There was a questing quality to his solos, an attempt to search out new forms of voicing and rhythmic improvisation that instantly brought the audience to a hush. Backed aggressively by DeJohnette and Gray, Perez said more in 10 minutes than many pianists do in a lifetime of revisiting well-worn ideas. Chicago saxophonist Eric Schneider isn't nearly as famous as he should be, yet he has been playing more eloquently than ever during the past few seasons. Taking up the alto saxophone on this night, he swung relentlessly in partnership with the elegant Chicago trumpeter Bobby Lewis. Though the evening understandably emphasized the gutsy sound of Chicago jazz, it also embraced the sweetly seductive music of South America when singer-guitarist Paulinho Garcia and tenor saxophonist Greg Fishman played their Two for Brazil repertoire. Garcia's nearly whispered vocals and fleet guitar work were answered by Fishman's easy-breezy tenor lines, the duo bringing delicacy and restraint to music that requires it. And there was so much more to come. Singer-pianist Cole duetted poetically with saxophonist Harry Allen on "I Remember You"; Judy Roberts dispensed with singing to play some of the most hard-charging pianism listeners have heard from her; Willie Pickens gave collaborator Alexander a lesson in gritty blues expression; and trumpeter Faddis, singer Bobbi Wilsyn and the magisterial Chicago Jazz Ensemble turned the pulpy tune "Who Can I Turn To" into a searing blues lament. hreich@tribune.com Copyright 2007 Metromix.com

expecting a great game tonight between george mason and vcu.

WNUR Raises Record Funds For Equipment In Annual Phoneathon Emily Glazer By Emily Glazer The Daily Northwestern With microphones malfunctioning and record needles snapping in the WNUR recording studio, the on-campus radio station's Phoneathon couldn't have come at a better time. The station raised a record $41,034 in its annual Phoneathon, exceeding its goal of $34,000. The event ended Feb. 15, but the station had reached its target amount by Feb 13. "I was totally stoked - I couldn't believe (we reached it so soon)," said Medill senior Anthony G. Walters, WNUR's general manager. The money will go toward equipment-related expenses, like new speakers and a server. WNUR also receives about $40,000 annually from Northwestern. The Phoneathon has been around since the early 1980s, and Walters said it raises more money each year. Last year WNUR raised about $37,500 - about $4,000 more than the 2006 goal. "We beat the pants off of the year before, which always feels good," Walters said. More than 200 WNUR participants took 3- to 4-hour phone shifts during this year's events. Members said this is a particularly important year for the fundraiser. "This is a key year because we're in the process of moving to a new location in Louis Hall," said Chris Wade, Phoneathon's co-director and a Communication sophomore. "Everything that we find to buy, we must buy out of our budget." WNUR is moving to John J. Louis Hall next month because its current home, Annie May Swift Hall, is under construction. To advertise the Phoneathon, WNUR faxed and mailed hundreds of press releases and reminded their listeners hourly, Walters said. A total of 608 callers phoned in, including listeners from Canada, Australia, Japan and France, he said. WNUR also offered incentives such as T-shirts, CDs and theater tickets to donors this year from sponsors such as record labels and publication houses. Theron Humiston, a Music graduate student and producer of WNUR's show "Classical and Beyond," wrote an original composition for a supporter who donated $100 to WNUR during the classical radio show. WNUR also gave away the chance to host "Airplay Show," a show on WNUR that includes live performances. The donor will get to watch the performance in the studio, talk to the band and choose different music sets to play, said Mike Corsa, Weinberg '06 and WNUR's general manager last year. Walters said he thinks WNUR is underrecognized because it plays alternative artists rather than mainstream music, but a combination of creative giveaways and loyal listeners led to this year's record-breaking profit. "It really speaks to the mentality of the radio listeners - the fact that we made $41,000 - people are sick of hearing the same thing every day," Walters said. "We like to think of ourselves as the alternative to the alternative."

bagby must have been a renaissance man. thanks.

The Day the Music Died By Mark Fleischmann February 13th, 2007 Don McLean’s “American Pie” is being used in a Chevy commercial. Again. Another thing I see on my New York late-night TV screen is an ad for “Fresh 102.7,” the latest programming gambit on an FM frequency that used to entertain me for hours every day. The two of them together make me ache. Why? When I first heard “American Pie,” 102.7 FM was the NYC-area home of WNEW-FM. Owned by Metromedia, WNEW-FM was one of the pioneering freeform radio stations of the late 1960s and ’70s. Unfettered by playlists, the DJs played whatever they wanted, exposing me to an incredible variety of rock, pop, and soul. On Friday afternoons I’d be tuned in to Scott Muni, playing the latest releases from the U.K. Alison Steele, whose late-night shift opened with a spooky flutter of flute, gave airtime to progressive rock. I’ll never forget the day when velvet-voiced early-evening guy Jonathan Schwartz declared that he loved Frank Sinatra as much as he did the Rolling Stones and proved it. Along with my older sisters—who got me hooked on the Beatles—WNEW-FM formed my identity as a music lover. My apartment is still stuffed with the vinyl I bought as a kid including Jeff Beck, the Bonzo Dog Band, David Bowie, the Byrds, Cream, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, the Doors, Nick Drake, ELP (still a guilty pleasure), Brian Eno, Fairport Convention—and that’s just a partial list of what’s on the A-F shelf. Today a lot of it would be called classic rock. But comparing the golden age of freeform rock radio to the buttoned-down classic-rock format of today is like comparing fresh vegetables to canned mush. By the time I got to college in the mid-’70s, the end was in sight. WNEW-FM’s management forced their first playlists down the throats of the DJs and my boyhood heroes began drifting away from 102.7. The station adopted a bland AOR (album oriented radio) format that was a mere ghost of the freeform goodness I loved. I stopped listening to it and burrowed deeper into my ever-expanding music library. Following various changes in format, including an ill-fated foray into talk radio, the station is now operated by CBS and has recently changed its historic call letters to WWFS. On the Fresh 102.7 website a few weeks ago was this quiz: “Which Fresh artist is your pick for record of the year?” The choices were James Blunt, Mary J. Blige, Gnarls Barkley, the Dixie Chicks, and Corrine Bailey Rae. Some fine musicians there, but the sum total of them is not for me. The new logo festooning the station’s website and TV ads looks like something you’d see on a box of laundry detergent. How Listening Has Changed Don’t you just hate clueless old people who say their generation’s music is the best and close their ears to anything new? I don’t want to become one of them, but from where I sit, in my cranky old man’s armchair, it’s easy spot the ways in which the music industry makes it harder to love rock today. It goes beyond the destruction of commercial freeform radio. Here’s a partial list: The transition from analog to digital has degraded the listening experience. And the transition from digital to compressed digital has only made it worse. Lack of exposure to good gear impoverishes listeners. Though the audio industry and some musicians have banded together to rebel. Good music requires an involved listener to appreciate it. Technologically and demographically driven changes in listening habits have driven down the quality and intensity of listening. And good old music industry greed continues to drive talent out of the music business. Celebrate the musicians who have made it, or at least made it onto the Internet, but weep for the ones you’ll never get a chance to hear. The Latest Threat to Musicians and Listeners Guess what? There’s a new struggle for the soul of music. And guess what else? The good guys are losing. The issue is the loudness war. I’m not talking about the volume buttons on your iPod or the state of your hearing. (Go easy, though—your ears are your greatest asset as a listener. They can never be replaced!) Though labeled as loudness, the issue is really dynamic range. The problem is that the ratio of soft to loud sounds is inexorably shrinking as the music industry competes to get its product noticed in various low-fi distribution channels. Excessive compression not only deprives any kind of music (definitely including rock) of its emotional power. It also gives our ears less time to rest between blasts, making listening to music more physically fatiguing. To get a handle on the issue, read this British newspaper report, then check out this video on YouTube. More details here and here. What you learn will horrify you. There is good compression and bad compression. “Riding gain” is part of a recording engineer’s job. He needs to keep the signal above the noise floor and below the point where the recording medium distorts. In classical music and other audiophile recordings, this is done as little as possible. In well-recorded rock, compression is used a little bit more, and that’s OK—it keeps you from having to adjust volume repeatedly. Even the freeform radio stations of yore compressed their LP- and 45-generated analog signals a little bit to boost soft sounds above the everpresent hiss of FM noise. But today’s digital mixing and mastering tools are being used as meat grinders to squash dynamics almost completely, literally turning music into noise. This stuff takes more out of you than it gives back. Is it any wonder that you drift away, as I drifted away from my teenage radio roost, and go play a DVD or a video game? Musicians are not at the root of the problem. And neither are producers and engineers, though the blood is on their hands, and the better ones feel bad about it. It’s the music industry executives who have forced the people who record and master music to kill dynamics. It is they who are driving the loudness war. How much longer will the music-industry mandarins go on butchering their own product, and watching sales wither, before they wise up? What will it take to make them realize that good sound is crucial in the bond of listeners to the music we love? Mark Fleischmann is the author of Practical Home Theater, audio editor of Home Theater Magazine, and tastemaster of happypig100.com. Copyright © 2007 Digital Trends http://www.digitaltrends.com

listening to frishberg's 'dodger blue' in memory of clem labine.

steve shwartz played some very nice numbers with eddie davis and doc bagby. i loved the way bagby played and would love to hear more of his music and know more about him.

and you listened to him?

the threadman is serenading me, at the moment. great beerdrinking music. sincere thanks, congratulations, and we're just getting started. the jenkins was of the HIGHEST order. would not hear this anywhere else!

gonna check it out after i finish this bouble bock at 4pm

sam adams double bock--------not bad----sweet and heavy and bitter. getting an early start.

Dude, it's already going on in the dance underground. Has been. Of course, it's not "all natural" anymore, but oh well. club djs tell me they are so sick of that 70's stuff resampled........

can we agree that music as a standalone product is nearly extinct? one hoping to create or ride any new popularity waves must concoct an ingenious array of media to the lowest possible denominators to deliver their product and seduce the masses. as we hear more and more music, individual works of music(artists) are becoming unimportant. ... music will be drowned by other media just as music has drowned the silence.

I really doubt it. I think that mass market-driven musical trends are about played out. very interesting thought. thanks.

Former Sox Pitcher Worth Billions? Land White Bought Is Rock Quarry Combined Wire Services March 1 2007 Matt White, a journeyman pitcher trying to make the Dodgers, could become a billionaire, and it has nothing to do with his arm. He owns a rock quarry in western Massachusetts. White, a former Rule 5 pick of the Red Sox who has appeared in seven games, paid $50,000 three years ago to buy 50 acres of land from an elderly aunt who needed the money to pay for a nursing home. While clearing out a couple acres to build a home, he discovered stone ledges in the ground. A geologist estimated there were 24 million tons of the stone, which is being sold for upward of $100 a ton, meaning there's well over $2 billion worth of material. "It sounds bogus even saying those numbers," White said. "I'm just a small-town guy trying to get to the big leagues. It's beyond comprehension." Dr. Peter Pannish, an adjunct professor in the department of geosciences at UMass, said he believes the stone was formed about 400 million years ago. "It's basically a slabby rock that can be used for sidewalks, building faces and stone walls," Pannish said. "There are some sidewalks here on campus that are made of that same rock." Pannish said he believes White could sell his property for several million dollars, or more. "As far as hundreds of millions, I doubt if that's possible because of all the expenses that would have to be considered," Pannish said. "But it could be quite a bit of money." The Red Sox took White, 29, from the Indians in the 2003 Rule 5 draft. He allowed 11 runs in 32/3 innings with the Sox, including six runs in two-thirds of an inning in his debut at Yankee Stadium. He was traded a month later to the Mariners and allowed three runs in three innings. He pitched once for the Nationals in 2005 and hasn't appeared in the majors since. Shoulder issue for Jenks: Bobby Jenks threw nine pitches in the White Sox's opener Wednesday before being taken out because of right shoulder tightness. Jenks said he is OK. "There is no pain at all, no sharp pain, just one pitch where it caught right away," Jenks said. "There is nothing wrong with it. It is just tight." Jenks, who had 41 saves last year, faced three batters in a 12-4 loss to Colorado before being taken out. He hit his first batter, walked the second and fell behind 2-and-0 to Joe Koshansky before being removed. ... White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle allowed four runs and six hits in the first two innings, while righthander Jon Garland gave up seven runs - six earned - and eight hits in the next two innings. ... Rockies righthander Aaron Cook allowed one hit in two scoreless innings. Outfielder Brad Hawpe had three hits: a two-run double off Buehrle, and a double and a single against Garland. Outfielder Matt Holliday went 2-for-3 with a single and a two-run homer, while third baseman Garrett Atkins and catcher Javy Lopez had two hits each. Wainwright solid: Cardinals righthander Adam Wainwright opened his bid for a starting job with three hitless innings in a 6-3 victory over the Marlins. He walked one batter and fell behind several others, but needed only 30 pitches - 15 strikes - to get through the first three innings, facing 10 batters. Former Cardinals starter Rick Ankiel, trying to win a spot as an outfielder, went 2-for-2 with a two-run single, but was thrown out at the plate twice. Marlins' Johnson won't be ready: Marlins righthander Josh Johnson, 23, has yet to throw from a mound because of a sore arm, and manager Fredi Gonzalez said it is unlikely he will be ready for Opening Day. A source told MLB.com the injury could keep Johnson out for a good part of the season. Johnson, 23, went 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 157 innings last year in his rookie season. He missed the last three weeks of the season with a similar injury. Sergio Mitre and Yusmeiro Petit, who was acquired from the Mets in the Carlos Delgado trade, could replace him in the rotation. Bonds received death threats: Barry Bonds, who is 22 home runs from passing Hank Aaron's career record of 755, told a San Francisco radio station that he has been receiving threats, but refused to talk about it at Giants camp Wednesday. Bonds has been closely guarded by a Major League Baseball security official throughout spring training for the second straight year. Kielty out 3-6 weeks: A's outfielder Bobby Kielty needs arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and will be out three-to-six weeks. Kielty was injured during a rundown drill Sunday. If he'd been hurt closer to Opening Day, Kielty said he would have opted against the scope. Manager Bob Geren said the injury won't affect Kielty's role with the team. Kielty, expected to be a bench outfielder, hit .325 against lefties, including seven of his eight homers. ... A's center fielder Mark Kotsay had an MRI on his stiff back. Milton Bradley will start in his place for Oakland's first two games, beginning today against the Brewers. ... The Giants and righthander Matt Cain are close to a four-year contract with an option. Cain, 22, led all rookies with 13 wins and 179 strikeouts last year, going 13-12 with a 4.15 ERA in 1902/3 innings. ... The Angels are telling righthander Jered Weaver, 24, not to rush his recovery from biceps tendinitis just to make it by Opening Day. ... Former Rockies third baseman Vinny Castilla will manage Mexico at the Pan American Games July 11-19 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant

all the boys need is to be seen in a hip hot movie or guest on a bigtime tv show with the wind blowing right. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- someday there's going to be a hit movie about the aacm, scored by wynton and michelle legrand, of course, starring harry connick as muhal. that might catch on. my point is that if 'jazz' ever resurfaces in popular culture, it will be so bastardized you and i wont recognize it.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/.../703020333/1005 That's wiggity-whack! Rap hits decline Fans tired of lyrics, soft-porn videos BY NEKESA MUMBI MOODY ASSOCIATED PRESS Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit. The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society. Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the Web site allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap . . . the negativity is just over the top now." The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society. Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap, but says it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book "I Am Hip-Hop" partly to create something positive about rap for children, including her 4-year-old daughter. "I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me," says Duncan-Smith, 33. "I can't listen to that nonsense . . . I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood anymore and ghetto revivals . . . I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?" Linked to mayhem Hip-hop also seems to be increasingly blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls. Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last week's NBA All-Star Game was blamed on hip-hoppers. "(NBA Commissioner) David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize," columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, wrote on AOL. While rap has been in essence pop music for years, and most rap consumers are white, some worry the black community is suffering from hip-hop -- from the way America perceives blacks to the attitudes and images being adopted by black youth. But the rapper David Banner derides the growing criticism as blacks joining America's attack on young black men who are only reflecting the crushing problems within their communities. Besides, he says, that's the kind of music America wants to hear. "Look at the music that gets us popular -- 'Like a Pimp,' 'Dope Boy Fresh,' " he says, naming two of his hits. "What makes it so difficult is to know that we need to be doing other things. But the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can bring certain things to the light," he says. Long-time criticism Criticism of hip-hop is certainly nothing new -- it's as much a part of the culture as the beats and rhymes. Among the early accusations were that rap wasn't true music, its lyrics were too raw, its street message too polarizing. But they rarely came from the youthful audience itself, which was enraptured with genre that defined them as none other could. "As people within the hip-hop generation get older, I think the criticism is increasing," says author Bakari Kitwana, who is part of a lecture tour titled "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?" "There was a more of a tendency when we were younger to be more defensive of it," he adds. During her '90s crusade against rap's habit of degrading women, the late black activist C. Dolores Tucker certainly had few allies within the hip-hop community, or even among young black women. Backed by folks such as conservative Republican William Bennett, Tucker was vilified within rap circles. In retrospect, "many of us weren't listening," says Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, a professor at Vanderbilt University and author of the new book "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women." "She was onto something, but most of us said, 'They're not calling me a bitch, they're not talking about me, they're talking about those women.' But then it became clear that, you know what? Those women can be any women." One rap fan, Bryan Hunt, made the searing documentary "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," which debuted on PBS this month. Hunt addresses the biggest criticisms of rap, from its treatment of women to the glorification of the gangsta lifestyle that has become the default posture for many of today's most popular rappers. "I love hip-hop," Hunt, 36, says in the documentary. "I sometimes feel bad for criticizing hip-hop, but I want to get us men to take a look at ourselves." Dances get heat, too Even dances that may seem innocuous are not above the fray. Last summer, as the "Chicken Noodle Soup" song and accompanying dance became a sensation, Baltimore Sun pop critic Rashod Ollison mused the dance -- demonstrated in the video by young people stomping wildly from side to side -- was part of the growing minstrelization of rap music. "The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning 'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged 'bucks,' " he wrote. Crime connection And then there's the criminal aspect that has long been a part of rap. In the '70s, groups may have rapped about drug dealing and street violence, but rap stars weren't the embodiment of criminals themselves. Today, the most popular and successful rappers boast about who has murdered more foes and rhyme about dealing drugs as breezily as other artists sing about love. Creekmur says music labels have overfed the public on gangsta rap, obscuring artists who represent more positive and varied aspects of black life, such as Talib Kweli, Common and Lupe Fiasco. "It boils down to a complete lack of balance, and whenever there's a complete lack of balance people are going to reject it, whether it's positive or negative," Creekmur says.

my favorite, by far of this winstone,(husband)taylor,kenny wheeler collaboration, the first they recorded about 35 years ago is the 'touchstone.' subsequent recordings have been fine, but dont equal touchstone. the empathy between vocals, piano-keyboards, and trumpet-flugel is astounding. beautiful beautiful. in fact i bought another german pressing just in case. of my 5000 recordings, this one is securely in my top 10. end of rant. my the way, taylor has a sumptuous new trio disc, not on ecm. There's also a fine ECM LP with Tony Coe in place of Kenny Wheeler - sort of an 'honourary' Azimuth. All of the ECMs are well worth having IMO. Saw that group many years ago (1987?) at an early incarnation of the Bath Festival in Georgian suroundings. Superb ! coe/didnt noe/thanks!!!

thanks!

thanks!

my favorite, by far of this winstone,(husband)taylor,kenny wheeler collaboration, the first they recorded about 35 years ago is the 'touchstone.' subsequent recordings have been fine, but dont equal touchstone. the empathy between vocals, piano-keyboards, and trumpet-flugel is astounding, that is if you like chamber jazz. beautiful beautiful. in fact i bought another german pressing just in case. of my 5000 recordings, this one is securely in my top 10. end of rant. by the way, taylor has a sumptuous new trio disc, not on ecm. speaking of naim, check out their gorgeous beautifully recorded charlie haden-chris anderson duo recording from some years ago. if you dig the sensitivity of john taylor, you will LOVE chris anderson. Thanks for that, but I already have the Chris Anderson album. Speaking of him, you probably already know about his solo album on Mapleshade, Love Locked Out. It's really great too. Have you heard is trio album on Jazzland called Inverted Image? I don't know if it's ever been released on cd before, but it's worth seeking out. i love love locked out. thanks for the inverted image tip.

my favorite, by far of this winstone,(husband)taylor,kenny wheeler collaboration, the first they recorded about 35 years ago is the 'touchstone.' subsequent recordings have been fine, but dont equal touchstone. the empathy between vocals, piano-keyboards, and trumpet-flugel is astounding, that is if you like chamber jazz. beautiful beautiful. in fact i bought another german pressing just in case. of my 5000 recordings, this one is securely in my top 10. end of rant. by the way, taylor has a sumptuous new trio disc, not on ecm. speaking of naim, check out their gorgeous beautifully recorded charlie haden-chris anderson duo recording from some years ago. if you dig the sensitivity of john taylor, you will LOVE chris anderson.

teach the valve 'bone , too, i suppose?

i loved her stuff with the eckstein band when she was the girl singer, especially the duets with billy. the recordings sound sucks but the music is wonderful.

listening to count basie 'hey jackie robinson, hit that ball.'