Music

Though the Budos Band's bio touts their music as tough to describe, it has the opposite effect on me.

Here's some bitchin' news for Hartford-area hippies. Nectar's, the Burlington, Vt.

Jennifer Lopez continues her massive comeback with an album of radio-ready hits while the Beastie Boys deliver one of their career bests and Bay Area prog-rockers Dredg team up with Dan the Automator.

Jim Dickson, a key architect of the '60s folk-rock sound and the original manager of the Byrds, died of unknown causes April 19 in Costa Mesa, Calif. He was 80. Born in Los Angeles, Dickson worked as a record producer in the early '60s, cutting proto-folk-rock sides by singer-songwriter Hamilton Camp, progressive bluegrass units the Dillards and the Hillmen (which included future Byrds member Chris Hillman) and singer-songwriter David Crosby...

ALAN PAUL at YOUSHI'S, San Francisco on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 2:49 pm, just added. For those folks up in the Bay area, I'll be performing at YOSHI'S in San Francisco on Mother's Day Sunday, May 8th and then again on Tuesday May 10th on a double bill with The New York Voices. Got a great band, my pal Ted Perlman on guitar, Andy Langham on piano, Paul Nowinski on bass and Joel Taylor on drums. It will be a swingin' time so come on over...

Ginny Owens takes prayer seriously, and will help lead Thursday's National Day of Prayer.

Boston, MA&#151This week, Boston's Hynes Convention Center played host to the inaugural Rethink Music: Creativity, Commerce and Policy in the 21st Century, presented by Berklee College of Music and MIDEM, in association with Harvard University's Berkman Center and Business School. The conference brought together 500 attendees including creators, industry experts, policymakers, and academics for high-level deliberation seeking and developing solutions for the unpredictable trajectory of the music industry...

College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor, Maine, will once again be the site for the third annual Samba Meets Jazz Workshops program, taking place July 24 through 30, and July 31 through August 6. Under leadership of its Artistic Directors&#151world-class jazz guitarist and educator roni ben-hur and artistic director virtuoso brazilian bassist nilson matta&#151 the faculty is expanding in 2011 to include legendary pianist, composer and educator arturo o'farrill multi-instrument reed player steve wilson (saxophone, flute, clarinet); vocalist and co-founder of the New School's Vocal Jazz program, Amy London (returning for her second year), percussionist Gilad [recognized by Jazziz as "one of the world's great percussionists" and drummer Zack O'Farrill, recently lauded by All About Jazz as one "of the youngest Latin jazz lions to roar onto the scene in quite some time...

Stripped Down African Trio Album by Leni Stern Manages to Create an Epic Austerity, Gets Digital Single Preview via Powerful Track, 'Still Bleeding' 'Sabani' CD to Showcase Guitar, N'goni Ba, Calabash and Tama; Single is First Song Stern Has Ever Written on N'Goni Ba On her upcoming, stripped down African trio EP Sabani, acclaimed Global Music artist Leni Stern creates an epic austerity evocative of U2's powerful ballads such as "One" and "Red Hill Mining Town...

Duncan Cleary, Kevin Strong and Chandler Knapek, Congratulations! You're the lucky winners of the "Anthony Wilson - Campo Belo" giveaway. All About Jazz will contact you about claiming your prize. We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the contest and please visit Anthony Wilson's site for the latest information...

'The Book of Mormon,' created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, picked up 14 Tony nominations.

Hard to believe, but just last year Jennifer Lopez's career looked like it was about to go Louboutins-up - possibly for good.

On Friday, May 27th, New York's acclaimed Triad Theatre (158 West 72nd Street) presents a special jazz concert, featuring a solo performance by pianist m: Steve Kuhn and a performance by Saxophonist m: Daniel Bennett and his band. Steve Kuhn will perform selections from his critically acclaimed album, "Mostly Coltrane" on the ECM label. The Daniel Bennett Group will perform selections from their newest album, "Peace and Stability Among Bears." Advance discounted tickets are available for purchase at brownpapertickets.com. Tickets are available at the door for $25. The concert starts at 9:30pm and is an all-ages event...

Stevie Nicks enlisted others to write some of the tunes on 'In Your Dreams.' Stevie Nicks lives in a world of clues and innuendos.

All About Jazz is celebrating Bing Crosby's birthday today! Bing Crosby was the fourth of seven children of Tacoma, Washington, brewery bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Kate Harrigan Crosby. He studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the drums and singing with a local band. Bing and the band\'s piano player, Al Rinker, left Spokane for Los Angeles in 1925. In the early 1930s Bing\'s brother Everett sent a record of Bing singing "I Surrender...Bing Crosby was the fourth of seven children of Tacoma, Washington, brewery bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Kate Harrigan Crosby. He studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the drums and singing with a local band. Bing and the band\'s piano player, Al Rinker, left Spokane for Los Angeles in 1925. In the early 1930s Bing\'s brother Everett sent a record of Bing singing "I Surrender... more...

Mosaic Records founder, renowned reissue producer and overall jazz authority Michael Cuscuna shares his intimate thoughts on the experience of seeing the classic John Coltrane Quartet and he also talks about how the music of Trane has moved him in his life. Excerpts featured in this episode: "Spiritual," "Alabama," "Ascension" and "Transition...

We of course live today in a global village. We take as a matter of course that musical traditions that centuries ago would reach our shores solely in the form of immigrants now can be studied in depth via recordings and live concerts by world-class practitioners from every corner of the globe. We may only be on the edge of what this could mean for music in the world at large, but it is an exciting time for those who wish to reach out and explore what humanity has accomplished with their "second voice" in the widest sense...

It's not touring that's important, it's HOW you're touring. And according to some of the most successful managers and artist development executives, the secret is to really sink your teeth into the territory. That means NOT passing through, saying 'hi-bye' and expecting an impact. "You won't be in the fabric," Glassnote Entertainment founder Daniel Glass warned an audience at MusExpo in Hollywood on Monday. The Glassnote roster includes Phoenix, Mumford & Sons, Temper Trap, and Two Door Cinema Club, success stories that required patience and strategizing. "The world is flat if you put the time into it and have the right strategy...

While we've talked about a lot of fusion guitarists over the last five years, this is about a new album by the first one. That's right, though John McLaughlin is widely regarded as the guy who shaped and defined jazz-rock guitar, no one was successfully reconciling the two elements into a coherent, identifiable playing style before Larry Coryell. While only about 21 years old in 1966, he joined the proto-fusion group The Free Spirits (a group drummer Bob Moses was also in). A little later, Coryell was part of a classic Gary Burton's quartet with Steve Swallow and Moses in 1967-8 that was arguably the first real fusion group, largely because of Coryell himself. As a leader, he made some very fascinating records of his own in the late 60's and early 70s that got submerged in the tidal wave of rock-jazz started by Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. Coryell's best known fusion work came from his '72-'75 Eleventh House unit that was ironically seen as a follower of Davis and Davis alumni Chick Corea (Return To Forever), Herbie Hancock (Headhunters) and McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra). So, Coryell kind of got the short shrift in recognition of his contributions to this hybrid genre...

The Headhunters have completed an ambitious new jazz release&#151one that continues to push the edges of fusion, incorporating hip hop and funk with the presence of Snoop Dogg and George Clinton, yet still retains the band's fonky core sound. That's perhaps nowhere better heard than on this standout track from Platinum, to be issued by the Owl Studios label on June 14...