Academic pep talks are color coded.
The News Review:
- Academic pep talks are color coded.
- Jazz musician Kenny G is seen in this undated photo. He will
- Reviews of new pop country/roots jazz and classical releases.(Sound…
- Jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins dies.
- It’s hopping at Berkeley’s Down Low. Who needs San Francisco?
Academic pep talks are color coded.
Free with registration – Contra Costa Times – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 27, 2007
27–With schools under increasing pressure to improve test scores Mount Diablo High School has resorted to a new way to motivate students: by race. The Concord campus on Friday held separate assemblies for students of different ethnicities to talk about last year’s test results and the upcoming slew of state exams this spring. Jazz music and pictures of Martin Luther King greeted African-American students whereas Filipino Asian and Pacific Islander students saw flags of their foreign homelands on the walls. Latinos and white students each attended their own events too complete with statistics showing results for all ethnicities and grade level. “They started off by saying jokingly ‘What up white people’” said freshman Megan Wiley 14. Teachers flashed last year’s test scores and told the white crowd of students.
Jazz musician Kenny G is seen in this undated photo. He will
央è§åé – Feb 27, 2007
A phenomenally successful instrumentalist whose recordings regularly make the pop charts his sound has been a staple on adult contemporary and smooth jazz radio stations since the mid-’80s making Kenny G a household name. Kenny G is a fine player with an attractive sound known to caress melodies putting particular emotion into his solos. Because Kenny G does not improvise much his music largely falls outside the exact categorization of jazz. However because Kenny G is listed at the top of “contemporary jazz” charts and is identified with jazz in the minds of the mass public he can be classified by you as jazz.
Reviews of new pop country/roots jazz and classical releases.(Sound…
Free with registration – Philadelphia Inquirer – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 27, 2007
(Sound recording review) –>CPYRIGHT 2007 The Philadelphia Inquirer Pop: DEAN & BRITTA “Back Numbers” (Zoe 3 { stars) Dean Wareham has excelled at quiescent Velvet Underground-derived rock for a couple of decades now stretching back to his days leading the sometimes somnambulant trio Galaxie 500 in the ’80s through his years making delicately restrained music with Luna. But the New Zealand native really got his slow-motion groove on with L’Avventura his 2003 collaboration with Luna bassist Britta Phillips who is now Wareham’s wife. The seductive L’Avventura served up an exquisite mix of covers and originals that worked an irresistible boy-girl back-and-forth. Back Numbers follows that same foolproof formula with Lee Hazlewood’s “You Turned My Head Around” (originally sung by Ann-Margret) and Donovan’s “Teen Angel” (not the Dion song) shining amid a clutch of fetching originals. With Wareham’s debonair spoken-sung vocals playing against Phillips’ dulcet voice in understated arrangements that leave room for tasteful synthesizer squiggles grown-up indie- rock romance doesn’t get more gently beguiling than this.
Jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins dies.
Free with registration – UPI NewsTrack – AccessMyLibrary.com – Feb 27, 2007
–>CPYRIGHT 2007 United Press International NEW YRK Feb. 27 (UPI) — Violinist and composer Leroy Jenkins a dominant force in the 1970s’ free jazz movement died in New York of complications of lung cancer at the age of 74. Jenkins who began playing violin at age 7 blended the lines between jazz and classical. CPYRIGHT 2007 United Press International.
It’s hopping at Berkeley’s Down Low. Who needs San Francisco?
San Francisco Chronicle – Feb 27, 2007
It’s laid-back not overly glitzy but no dive either. Reddish-tinted lighting exudes a warm relaxed feeling; veiled circular couches that serve as VIP tables add an air of comfortable exotica but without the pretentiousness synonymous with “ultralounges. ” But the Down Low’s appeal mainly comes down to the music. Not many places can morph from a salsa club to a reggae club to a hip-hop club (and throw in the occasional live funk or world music band for good measure) but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Down Low every week. n a recent Wednesday evening the Down Low’s dance floor was packed with salseros stepping to the sounds of La Verdad a Latin band with impressively rhythmic chops. The energy was intensely electric. As much heat as the band gave off it was returned and then some by the dancers who appeared to be there primarily for the dance and not just to see and be seen… For another they share an eclectic musical sensibility. Cukierman’s tastes run from rock to country to roots reggae to old-school and alternative hip-hop. Martinez listens to everything from soul to jazz to Afrobeat to rap. Having booked artists for the Justice League (now the Independent) Sunset Promotions the North Beach Jazz Festival and the Power to the Peaceful Festival Martinez brought a Rolodex full of contacts to the Down Low. “People didn’t know how to get the listings before. Now we’re booked three months out” Cukierman marvels to which Martinez modestly responds “It’s my responsibility to know what’s hot. ” Cukierman says Martinez’s relationship with the music community has been invaluable.