Chita Rivera onstage at New York City’s Birdland Jazz Club – October 13, 2009.

Saxophone giant Charlie “Bird” Parker called it the “crossroads of the world.” New York City’s famed jazz club, Birdland, was just that on Tuesday for the launch of beloved Broadway star Chita Rivera’s new album, And Now I Swing.

READ MORE >>

The Cat Piano from PRA on Vimeo.

Winner of numerous awards and the latest from an innovative Australian studio, The People’s Republic of Animation, THE CAT PIANO is a beautifully animated short that blends Jack Kerouac-inspired beat poetry with the romantic and haunting poems of Edgar Allen Poe. It is directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson and smoothly narrated by iconic Australian musician and artist Nick Cave. The film’s graphic 2D look is a highly versatile technique of animation and is quickly becoming a signature style at The People’s Republic of Animation.

In a city of singing cats, a lonely beat poet falls for a beautiful siren. When a mysterious dark figure emerges, kidnapping the town’s singers for his twisted musical plans, the poet must save his muse and put an end to the nefarious tune that threatens to destroy the city.

Dr. Billy Taylor at the piano.

Dr. Billy Taylor, who turns eighty eight on July 24th, celebrates this milestone with the posting of eighty eight videos on his website.

For the past six years, Billy has been working closely with web jazz video maven Bret Primack to digitize his video archives. Bret has been posting the video on his YouTube Jazz Video Guy channel, as well on Billy’s website. The video player on Billy’s home page now features eighty-eight different videos documenting his remarkable career.

Reaction to these postings on YouTube, where Dr. Taylor’s videos have
garnered nearly one and half million views and has been “overwhelmingly enthusiastic,” reports Primack. “There is a growing global audience for web video and posting this documentation of Billy’s long and very productive career has enabled new listners, all over the planet, to learn about Jazz from a true Master.”

Just for starters, check out this fantastic video of Dr. Billy Taylor and Ramsey Lewis dueting on “I’ve Got Rhythm.”

Learn More:

Watch Videos on Dr. Billy Taylor’s Website

See Dr. Billy Taylor in Concert

Bret Primack’s Jazz Video Guy Channel

Dave Weckl (center) on drums with Oz Noy (L) on guitar and Will Lee (R) on bass at Iridium.

BETWEEN SETS WITH OZ NOY, DAVE WECKL AND WILL LEE

Iridium Jazz Club, just north of Times Square in New York City, plays host to some of jazz’s most established legends as well as the hottest newcomers. Recently, Iridium hosted the fantastic trio of headliners performing as the Oz Noy Trio Feat. Noy was joined by drumming legend, Dave Weckl and bass virtuoso, Will Lee for an unforgettable (and totally packed) gig at Iridium. Sundancechannel.com was lucky enough to catch up will all three musicians between sets. Click to read Part 1 with Oz Noy and Part 2 with Will Lee.

READ MORE >>

Oz Noy on guitar, Dave Weckl on drums and Will Lee on bass at Iridium Jazz Club

BETWEEN SETS WITH OZ NOY, DAVE WECKL AND WILL LEE

Iridium Jazz Club, just north of Times Square in New York City, plays host to some of jazz’s most established legends as well as the hottest newcomers. Recently, Iridium hosted the fantastic trio of headliners performing as the Oz Noy Trio Feat. Noy is one of the most respected young guitarists on the world jazz scene and was joined by drumming legend, Dave Weckl and bass virtuoso, Will Lee for an unforgettable (and totally packed) gig at Iridium. Sundancechannel.com was lucky enough to catch up will all three musicians between sets.

READ MORE >>

A very cool video note-by-note visualization that follows along with John Coltrane’s seminal jazz recording “Giant Steps” from the 1959 album of the same name.

Relatedly, here’s the song played by a Japanese robot in a moment which will later be cited as the origin of the Great Robot Rebellion.

[Via]

Jeremy Pelt plays the music of Herbie Hancock center stage at Iridium

BETWEEN SETS WITH JEREMY PELT:

Iridium Jazz Club, just north of Times Square in New York City, plays host to some of jazz’s most established legends as well as the hottest newcomers. In our continuing interview series, BACKSTAGE AT IRIDIUM, sundancechannel.com is proud to introduce you to the dynamic young trumpet master, Jeremy Pelt. We sat down with Jeremy during Iridium’s recent series of concerts saluting Herbie Hancock.

Read more of the interview with Jeremy Pelt…

READ MORE >>

Guitarist Allan Holdsworth onstage at Iridium with Chad Wackerman on drums

BETWEEN SETS WITH ALLAN HOLDSWORTH (PART 2):

Sundancechannel.com caught a few minutes to chat with legendary British guitarist, Allan Holdsworth after a fierce concert at Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. Be sure to check out Part 1 of our conversation with Holdsworth if you missed it.

Read Part 2 inside.

READ MORE >>

Designer Logan Walters redirects his “mild OCD” (his words) tendencies into something awesome: Walters has begun re-creating new covers for all 21 Wu-Tang albums with a nod and fist pound to the Blue Note jazz art style. The result is a surprising but fantastic mash up.

Side note: My headline pays homage to an infamous moment at the 1998 Grammy Awards when Wu-Tang member Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP) protested their group’s loss in the Best Rap Album category by interrupting a speech and proclaiming, “Wu-Tang is for the children.” Indeed.

I’ve been using the iTunes Music Store pretty much since the day it launched, but I’ve never really spent any time poking around iTunes U, the section of the store devoted to podcasts, videotaped lectures, and other content from universities, museums, and similar institutions. Participants include the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the University of California at Berkeley, and Duke University.

Much of the available iTunes U content consists of artlessly filmed lectures and presentations, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff scattered throughout. For example, Berkeley’s Journalism and Media section (iTunes link) includes audiotaped talks by Seymour Hersh, Helen Thomas, and Michael Pollan. MIT’s Public Policy section includes a recent videotaped interview with John Barry (iTunes link), the author of The Great Influenza, a book about the devastating worldwide flu pandemic of 1918 — a subject that’s scarily relevant to this week’s headlines.

My favorite current offering from iTunes U is a series of jazz-history podcasts by Gordon Vernick (iTunes link), a music professor at Georgia StateUniversity. The first track is devoted to 1959, a crucial jazz year that saw the release of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, among other seminalalbums.

Here’s a guided video tour of iTunes U on Apple’s website.

BETWEEN SETS WITH ALLAN HOLDSWORTH (PART 1):

Just three blocks north of Times Square in Manhattan, you’ll find the world-famous Iridium Jazz Club (51st Street and Broadway). Featuring a perfect blend of the top established names in jazz and the most talented up and coming musicians, Iridium is the perfect place to celebrate and support live music. If you’re in the vicinity, unplug your earbuds and check out Iridium’s stellar lineup of upcoming concerts.

Nearly every professional and amateur guitarist in the vicinity of Manhattan packed into Iridium this past weekend to catch the legendary British guitarist, Allan Holdsworth in concert with his trio. Sundancechannel.com was lucky enough to squeeze into the Saturday night concert and to catch up with Allan (a surprisingly humble and soft-spoken man) for our BACKSTAGE AT IRIDIUM series.

sundancechannel.com: That was an amazing set … is that your regular trio these days?

Allan Holdsworth: Well, the usual trio is Chad Wackerman on drums and Jimmy Johnson on bass. Jimmy often tours with James Taylor as well, so sometimes we get a conflict. I’ve played with Ernest Tibbs, who is the bassist with me at Iridium, for quite a few years with a different drummer. But my current regular trio is usually Jimmy Johnson, Chad Wackerman and myself.

sundancechannel.com: On your album None Too Soon, you bring your own distinctive style to the Django Reinhardt tune, “Nuages.” What, if any, kind of an influence was Django on you as a young boy?

Allan Holdsworth: He had a huge influence on me. The two main guitar players were Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian – because my Dad was a jazz musician – a really fine piano player – and he had a lot of records lying around… and so those were the first two guitar players that I heard. Yeah, Django was amazing…. absolutely amazing.

sundancechannel.com: Who was your first guitar teacher?

Allan Holdsworth: I never actually took lessons, formally, from a guitar player, but my Dad actually became quite proficient on guitar over the years. He just understood how it was tuned. He knew where the notes were and everything… so it actually helped me because I didn’t learn a lot of “guitaristic” things. In fact, it kind of… a lot of the chords he would show me were a lot like piano voicings, so they were a little bit different. I’m glad about that, actually. (laughs)

sundancechannel.com: Is that lack of boundary something that perhaps led you to your involvement with developing and creating new guitar technology and sound capabilities?

Allan Holdsworth: Perhaps…maybe so, but I think mostly it was because I really wanted to play the saxophone. And… but at that time, you know, my parents weren’t very wealthy or anything, so they couldn’t afford to buy me a saxophone. But my uncle had a guitar lying around, so my Dad bought it for me and I really didn’t have much interest in it in the beginning. I just, like, used to stand in front of the mirror with it (laughs). But then, slowly, I just started to get a little bit of an interest in it and as soon as my Dad saw that I was trying to learn stuff on it, then he started buying me all these books and he really, really focused on me then… tried to help me.

sundancechannel.com: Where did you grow up?

Allan Holdsworth: Bradford, Yorkshire England.

sundancechannel.com: You once said that the early 1970’s were a bit of a feast or famine time for you… so many musicians – even famous ones like you – go through those difficult financial and professional periods. What brought you through those hard times and kept you from giving up?

Allan Holdsworth: Just love of music and persistence. I mean, you’ve just got to keep going, you know, just keep trying. You’ve got to take a day job once in a while – but it’s ok (laughs).

sundancechannel.com: And what kind of day jobs did you have?

Allan Holdsworth: (laughs) Oh, I had some crazy ones! I was a basket maker for a while. I actually enjoyed that job a lot. I worked in a lot of mills in Yorkshire – they were really terrible jobs (laughs). One of them, I had to stand inside of a…. well, like a bale, while the other guys threw the wool in and I’m supposed to compress it by jumping up and down… (laughs) crazy jobs.

sundancechannel.com: When your name is mentioned to a group of musicians – often a highly critical crowd – their faces light up and they usually refer to you as a “virtuoso.” How does it make you feel to be such a favorite among your fellow musicians?

Allan Holdsworth: Well, it’s kind of flattering and embarrassing at the same time (laughs). I guess I don’t think about it too much…

sundancechannel.com: And the term “virtuosity…”

Allan Holdsworth: Well, Paganini comes to mind (laughs)… but, no, not where I’m concerned…

Be sure to check out Part 2 of our interview with Allan Holdsworth.

Learn More:

Allan Holdsworth Official Site

Iridium Jazz Club Official Site