Tag Archives: jazz

The Washington Post reports: Al Jarreau, a Grammy Award-winning singer whose versatile tenor voice and vibrant stage style blurred the lines between jazz, soul and pop music, died Feb. 12 at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 76. His publicist, Joe Gordon, announced the death, saying the singer had been treated for exhaustion. The cause was not immediately known. Mr. …

Lovely soulful jazz. With musclebears. The bear keyboardist is Mike “MRF” Flanagan, the title artist. His current release, Mob Music, recently topped the iTunes jazz chart and is streaming in full on Spotify. Flanagan is quoted in the press materials: “This is the most personal song (and favorite) I’ve ever written, so I wanted the video to be the same. …

Via PBS News Hour: “While rehearsing for his one night only benefit concert to support arts education, Kevin Spacey performs That’s All, first sung by Nat King Cole in 1957.” UPDATE: PBS has pulled the clip.

Featuring gay jazz star Dave Koz.

Courtesy of the Karpel Group, tonight we’ve got three copies of Summer Horns,  the new album by openly gay jazz superstar Dave Koz. Summer Horns is now on sale nationwide. Enter to win Summer Horns from Dave Koz! Concord Records presents SUMMER HORNS, the brand-new album from Grammy-nominated saxophonist DAVE KOZ with a little help from his friends: Gerald Albright, …

JMG reader Gary points out this Jazz Times article about openly gay jazz artists, where I found mention of Dave Koz’ new cover of Burt Bacharach’s 1968 classic, This Guy’s In Love With You. “I’ve refashioned that as a wedding song in support of gay marriage,” Koz says. “It’s an interesting way to re-listen to a classic. That’s one of …

Here’s another brilliant jazz piano composition from Henry Hey, this time set to a speech by Dubya. I posted Hey’s take on Sarah Palin’s speech patterns back in October. The artist says he listens to a speech a few times, then improvises his accompaniment. Is there a fancy musical term for this kind of composition? (Via – Someone In A …