Grammy Travesty Continues by John Santos – 1/27/12 Well, it’s that time of year again – Grammy fever. CBS ramps it up with a constant barrage of mega-bucks commercials of all lengths and even specials leading up to the February...
Report by Oscar Montagut Bogota, Colombia – January, 2012 For nine consecutive years the Danilo Perez Foundation has celebrated the Panama Jazz Festival with the best of the jazz world. Precisely this week people in...
Mundo: The World of Jane Bunnett To Be Released By EMI Canada On February 14, 2012 Double CD Retrospective Package Features 2 New Tracks Toronto, Ontario – January 13, 2012 – There are many possible...
The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra to Celebrate Historic 10th Anniversary Season with Special Program at Symphony Space, January 20 & 21 January 20 Benefit Concert to Feature World-Class Special Guests, Including: Randy Weston, Ray Santos,...
On April 6, 2011 the Governing Board of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (The Grammys) announced the elimination of 31 categories. According to NARAS, the categories were eliminated to “tighten and create a parallel structure among the various fields.” It is worth noting that the Governing Board met behind closed doors and dues paying members of the Academy were not informed of the meetings, or asked for their opinion in the decision making process [...]
Cuban jazz legend Chucho Valdés returns to NJPAC’s Prudential Hall for the first time since 2003 on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 3pm with the Afro-Cuban Messengers, the band with which he recorded his latest Grammy-winning CD. Japanese jazz/pop pianist Hiromi and her Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Philips share the bill in an afternoon concert that spans genres and continents. The performance is part of NJPAC’s Wells Fargo Jazz Series [...]
On Monday, November 7th, 2011 at the San Francisco Executive Arts Commission Meeting the resolution, spearheaded by Commissioner John Calloway was proposed to the board commissioners asking them to issue a formal request to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to immediately reinstate the 31 categories of music genres that were dropped from GRAMMY consideration on April 6, 2011 [...]
One of Panama's most significant cultural events, the Ninth Annual Panama Jazz Festival will be held on January 16-21, 2012. Already a reference in the global jazz calendar and attracting more than an estimated 100,000 people since its inception, this year's festival is dedicated to tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett, one of the most prolific Panamanian-Americans in jazz, known for working with artists such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and [...]
Grammy Award-winning bassist John Benitez was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, and by age nineteen was the first-call bassist in San Juan's thriving Jazz and Latin music scenes. Since moving to NYC in 1993, John has gigged and recorded with a plethora of jazz and Latin greats ranging from Wynton Marsalis and Ravi Coltrane to Ray Barreto and Mongo Santamaria. In 2001, John released his first album as a leader, “Descarga in New York” [...]
For more than three decades as both a leader and a sideman, conguero Poncho Sanchez has stirred up a fiery stew of straightahead jazz, gritty soul music, and infectious melodies and rhythms from a variety of Latin American and South American sources. His influences are numerous, but among the more prominent figures that inform his music are two of the primary architects of Latin jazz – conga drummer and composer Chano Pozo and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie [...]