Colin Stetson: New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Saxophonist Colin Stetson’s New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges evokes the quote by cowboy philosopher and former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know…
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Marcus Miller: The Perfect Balance

Marcus Miller is a master musician of calm wisdom and impeccable taste, whose talent has been exposed to the elements under different kinds of light through the years, only to magnify the evident supremacy he so gently seems to hold over the bass guitar in recent years. As a multi-instrumentalist of deep musical curiosity, he has also placed a difficult instrument like the bass clarinet as one of his most distinctive trademarks. His recordings are always surprising, and his soul remains wide open and well centered: you must never sacrifice what you believe in. His musical joy is in what he leaves behind for others to feel. This is his time and his place…
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CTI Masterworks: The Second Batch

After a mighty kickoff near the end of 2010, CTI Masterworks is pushing ahead full-steam with another set of six remastered reissues, beautifully packaged in soft digipak editions. Its first batch of reissues included a tremendous, four-disc retrospective box set, CTI Records–The Cool Revolution, and an expanded, double-disc version of 1971′s California Concert: The Hollywood Palladium, alongside a half dozen of some the label’s cream of the crop such as trumpeter m: Freddie Hubbard‘s influential Red Clay (1970), saxophonist m: Stanley Turrentine‘s career-defining Sugar (1971) and flautist m: Hubert Laws‘ popular Morning Star (1973). For its second round–hopefully the first of many in 2011–CTI Masterworks crosses a variety of styles with a half dozen more significant artists, with albums covering a five-year period and ranging from mainstream cool to orchestra-driven funk and a whole lot more…
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Take Five With Mike DiRubbo

Meet Mike DiRubbo: Born on July 25, 1970 in New Haven, Connecticut, Mike DiRubbo began his musical life as a junior high school clarinetist, and switched to alto saxophone at 12. A primarily self-taught saxophonist, he developed into a talented instrumentalist drawn inexorably to the notion of improvising. At a high school band concert, Mike had the opportunity to perform with the Dwike Mitchell–Willie Ruff duo, an experience that would add to his desire to be a professional musician and also spark his interest in jazz music…
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AWARD: 2011 Sag Awards Winners and Nominees

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role (Winner) Colin Firth, "The King’s Speech" Jeff Bridges, "True Grit" Robert Duvall, "Get Low" Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network" James Franco, "127 Hours"

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role (Winner) Natalie Portman, "Black Swan" Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right" Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole" Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter’s Bone" Hilary Swank, "Conviction…
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TV/FILM: Live! From New York! Ita€(TM)S Mark Zuckerberg!

Who says Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has no sense of humor when it comes to "The Social Network," the Oscar-nominated film which he has said got nothing right except his T-shirt collection?

Zuckerberg made a very sporting cameo tonight on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, running lines with guest host Jesse Eisenberg and SNL player (and frequent Zuckerberg "impersonator") Andy Samberg, during the show’s opening monologue…
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EDUCATION: Lecture on Bob Dylan February 23 at University of the Pacific

Bob Dylan Expert to Discuss Folk Icon’s Connection to the Blues

During his nearly 50 years in the music business, Bob Dylan has been labeled the "voice of a generation and "America’s Troubadour." He often is described as a genius, a music sensation who seemed to appear nearly out of thin air after being selected by a Greek muse to write lyrics that will be discussed and studied for generations. And he is always labeled as a "folk" artist…
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OBITUARY: Composer Milton Babbitt Developed the First Electronic Synthesizer

Composer Milton Babbitt, who was known for his complex orchestral compositions and credited with developing the first electronic synthesizer in the 1950s, died Saturday. He was 94.

Paul Lansky, a composer and Princeton University colleague who was once a student of Babbitt’s, said Babbitt died at a Princeton hospital. Lansky said he did not know the cause of death…
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OBITUARY: Ron Patterson, Renaissance (Fair) Man

Ron Patterson, who nearly half a century ago helped found the country’s first Renaissance fair, which inspired a thriving nationwide industry of jousters and jesters, hawking street vendors and brave men in doublets and tights, died on Jan. 15 in Sausalito, Calif. He was 80.

Ron Patterson, center, was a pioneer of the first Renaissance fair. Mr. Patterson, who lived in San Francisco, Homewood and on a houseboat in Sausalito, had been in declining health for some time and died of natural causes, his son Kevin said…
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PERFORMANCE/TOUR: Dancin’ the Boggie-Woogie

boogA ie-woogA ie (bg-wg, bg-wg) n. A style of blues piano playing characterized by an up-tempo rhythm, a repeated melodic pattern in the bass, and a series of improvised variations in the treble.

Originally called Barrelhouse. Boogie Woogie was more of a Piano musical style (C,G,A,G) than a dance with Pinetop Smith writing the first official Boogie Woogie song in 1928. However, there were main parts of the music style as far back as 1900…
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