Month: February 2009

Louie Bellson Dies at 84

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Sad news today:
Louie Bellson, a jazz drummer and bandleader who combined remarkable instrumental virtuosity with far-ranging compositional skills, has died. He was 84.

According to his wife Francine, Bellson died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications of Parkinson’s disease following a broken hip in November.

Got to play with him a bunch of times while in College as he was living in San Jose at the time (I think). He looked frail back then, but as soon as he sat down at the drums he was like a little kid…….and was simply amazing.

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Gerry Niewood Dies In Plane Crash

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Lohud reports:
“Rochester native Gerry Niewood, whose jazz saxophone was a familiar sound for four decades in venues ranging from the downtown Rochester Shakespeare Lounge to “Saturday Night Live,” was among the victims of Thursday night’s Continental Airlines crash.

Niewood, who was 65, was on his way to Buffalo to play in last night’s Chuck Mangione concert at Kleinhans Music Hall. The two had known each other since childhood, both growing up in the Clinton and Joseph avenues area.”

AllaboutJazz and MSNBC also have stories on this as well.

Damn tragic story.

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TIME: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

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Time Magazine has an article about the abuse of AutoTune. Another reason why the “Pop” music industry sucks. It is a dangerous tool………obviously prone to abuse. And some “singers” would not have the stardom they have without it.

Or……..some people can use it to ingeniously mock

Of course, nothing sounds better than someone who doesn’t need any help

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Interesting Music Stand

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Barry Wood has finally put up his NAMM 09 Oddities page. There was this interesting item.
pageturner-d
The QiVinci s is modelled on the classic music stand and was conceived especially with performing and learning string- and wind-musicians in mind.
With QiVinci s, the musician can dedicate his full concentration to the music, rather than interrupting the flow of his performance at the end of every page. By means of a foot switch, the pages are turned automatically, silently and inconspicuously. Whether learning or in the midst of a concert performance, the QiVinci s provides musicians with an elegant, stress-free way of playing from one page to the next. QiVinci s not only opens a new repertoire to the concert musician, it also accelerates the practice process for the music student.

Who said paper is dead?

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