Beatboxing is where you make the sounds of a drum kit with your mouth. Sounds funny, but some people are really Really Reeellly good at it. You can view some good quality tutorials on how to do "beatboxing". The guys who created these excellent videos run a company called BZ Productions which creates video and web media. Lots of samples of their work are on their web site.  ¶ 10:58 PM

Frank Mantooth has died. If you've gone through a high-school jazz band program you've probably played some of his arrangements.  ¶ 6:08 PM

With the popularity of young, twentysomething Sinatra-clones such as Michael Buble or Jamie Cullum (which I must say are great in their own way), we forget the previous generation of singers, many of whom are still around and singing with the energy of their heyday. One such artist, who was a friend of Frank Sinatra, is Kenny Colman. You can listen to excerpts from Kenny Colman's CD "Straight Ahead" at Justin Time records. What I like about Colman, as opposed to his youthful imitators, is the degree of sincerity and life experience which he expresses in his singing. It doesn't immediately strike you as the arrogant tones of some slinky young gigolo jazz-cat in some hip dive, but rather as the voice of someone who has taken a lifetime to develop his deeply personal musical tone, in the face of everything that's commercialized about jazz.  ¶ 1:28 AM

The lyrics to "A Child is Born" by Thad Jones:

(these are the original lyrics by Alec Wilder)

Now, out of the night;
New as the dawn,
Into the light,
This Child,
Innocent Child,
Soft as a fawn,
This Child is born.

One small heart;
One pair of eyes;
One work of art,
Here in my arms,
Here he lies,
Trusting and warm,
Blessed this morn
A Child is born.

(thanks to Google Groups)
  ¶ 12:00 AM

Looking for a cool Internet radio station to listen to?

Try Bop City at Radio Cubik. "The Heart of Modern Jazz: Bebop, Hardbop, and Postbop". In one day, they are sure to play some Fats Navarro, Horace Silver, Jackie Mclean, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Criss, Sonny Rollins, or Tommy Flanagan. It's a great mix, with really accessible music that is understandable, yet really creative and intellectually stimulating.

Other stations they've got are: Radio Tango (Passion of Buenos Aires), Radio Salsa, Bossa Brazil, Metal Mistress, Beats and Pieces - real good quality music! Kind of like being on an airplane listening to the little headphones, except the selection is better and doesn't repeat every 1.5 hours!  ¶ 12:16 AM

Music and Business - it's a combination that has worked so well for many famous artists. I recently saw a MuchMusic bio on Kid Rock that talked about his shrewd business sense. Or just look at Kenny G. I recall someone saying once that a famous saxophone player was asked if he respects Kenny G as a musician - and he said, "Well, I respect him as a businessman."

Another example of such a businessperson/musician is Jaz Sawyer, a drummer who has played with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, who is currently studying for his Masters degree in business. Although I wouldn't class him with Kid Rock or Kenny G in terms of their musical styles! See this New Orleans article that talks a bit about Sawyer's life. You can read a review of a concert that Sawyer gave with the group The Pursuers in San Francisco.

On another note, try searching Google for "Vancouver wedding" and see who comes up No. 1 in Google's ranking. My efforts in Internet marketing have finally paid off.  ¶ 12:04 AM

The Jerry Jazz Interview with stellar jazz pianist Kenny Barron is worth a read.

Kenny Barron is one of my main influences - I just love transcribing his solos and discovering cool new ideas. In the above mentioned interview, Barron leaves the reader with a thought: when asked if thinking of slowing down, Barron says, "no - I don't see myself slowing down. Slow down for what? There's time enough when the Big Sleep comes. I'll sleep a long time then."  ¶ 11:03 PM

Is it possible for bands that play in bars to be good? According to this article, yes it is.  ¶ 12:21 AM

Free jazz.... something that I'm just beginning to explore.
Some places to start:

Evan Parker, soprano and tenor saxophonist. An MP3 track is available of his music.

Cecil Taylor, free jazz pianist.

Other stuff:
New electronic music: Check out mp3's by the artist Ryoji Ikeda.

Mp3's of amazing Dutch jazz singer Masha Bijlsma. Cool stuff.

More from Jazzline (a site worth checking out): Deanna Witkowski (New York Jazz Singer and Pianist), Matthias Schubert (German jazz saxophonist).

Listening to some of this stuff, especially Bijlsma and Witkowsi, makes me want to go practice. What cool original tunes they are playing!  ¶ 10:15 PM

I've posted 5 full length jazz MP3 tracks that the Geoff Peters Trio recently recorded. Hope you enjoy them.  ¶ 9:44 AM

I'm interested in the legality of Streamripper, a program that lets you record Internet radio using Winamp. It automatically creates and names separate tracks for each song that it records. That means you can leave your computer online during the day, and when you come home you'll have a whole bunch of new MP3 songs to listen to. After all, who said you shouldn't record the radio! At least you won't have to worry about getting sued for downloading music.  ¶ 8:24 PM

Article on Apple.com talking about how pianist Herbie Hancock and his band use Mac computers during their performances.  ¶ 8:19 PM

Article in the Globe and Mail which talks about how the Blue Note record label has been releasing "non-jazz" albums through artists such as Norah Jones and Van Morrison, which is disturbing to some purist jazz critics.  ¶ 4:25 PM

Into the Vortex - a site with lots of interesting jazz music links.  ¶ 9:14 PM

Ray Barretto is a jazz conga virtuoso. This article talks a bit about his life, where Barretto recollects, "When I was younger," he said in humored reflection, "and would be dating some young lady and take her out to a club to hear jazz, I'd wind up totally ignoring her because my heart, my passion was completely on the playing. I was a terrible date."
  ¶ 1:31 PM

Original Electronic Music (OEM) Radio is a site where musicians can submit their tracks to have them added to the playlist for their high quality streaming audio stream. It's worth a listen - the choices they have made are really creative.  ¶ 9:27 PM

I'm happy to announce that the Geoff Peters Trio has released new tracks from a CD we recorded over the holidays. The recordings feature special guests Kevin Shan on saxophone and Mimi Benoit on vocals, as well as the regular trio of Geoff Peters on piano, Mark White on bass and Colin Defreitas on drums. You can listen to excerpts from the recordings here.

Special thanks go to Nick Carr who did an incredible job mixing in his home studio, working with Colin to achieve a great sound, with tasteful reverb and effects when appropriate. I'll definitely recommend Nick to anyone who needs their recordings engineered or mastered. He also does cool stuff with his turntable and sampler, as well as being a whiz with Cubase. Yea Nick!  ¶ 12:11 AM

I was feeling inspired and recorded a composition of mine, Blues for Mimi, on my computer. Hope you enjoy it.  ¶ 9:27 AM

This article describes the recent death of Rick Berman, an eccentric jazz pianist and jazz enthusiast in Israel. He was nicknamed "G C" because he could only play in those keys. But as Mel Rosenberg said, "If you see jazz as a language, then there are some people who know all the grammar and talk very correctly, but have nothing to say. Ricky had a lot to say, despite being weak at grammar."
  ¶ 12:01 AM

Interesting (but technical) article: Chick Corea - a Style Analysis.  ¶ 6:17 PM

Article on the "Best Music of 2003". A rather eclectic list!  ¶ 1:00 PM

Jay McShann, pianist and composer, is one of the few surviving greats from the big-band era. This New York Times article about him is worth a read.  ¶ 12:57 PM

There seems to be a growing market for twenty-somethings who sing straight ahead vocal jazz. Sara Gazarek is another of these. According to this Seattle PI article, "she has won numerous honors, including the John Coltrane Memorial Scholarship, the Hilton Head Jazz Society Scholarship and the 2003 Downbeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Collegiate Vocalist," and she will be performing at Jazz Alley in Seattle this Monday. Sara's web site has five full length tracks to download and listen to, including a version of Some Day My Prince Will Come that is quite similar to Holly Cole's version of I Can See Clearly Now.  ¶ 12:32 AM