hkja

• Jazz For Japan;
• Eyal Maoz Quartet; Martin Taylor & Ulf Wakenius live show
• Hanjin (陳奐仁) performed at the 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2011;
• Green Jazz – GIVE OUT CDs;
• A glimpse into Japan's modern jazz;
• Ken Burns's Latest Film "Prohibition";
• The Branding of Today's Jazz;
• Jazz vs Classical;
• 100 Quintessential jazz songs;
• A Big Surprise in the 53rd Grammy Award and 53 rd Grammy Award (2011) Jazz-related WINNERS;
• Sonny Rollins was presented with the 2010 National Medal of Arts;
• RIP Joe Morello (1928 – March 2011) and Geroge Shearing (1919 – Feb 2011)

Jazz For Japan
To help raise money for the people of Japan, Martin Taylor has recorded a tune called “One Day" and is making it available for download (US$5.00). Proceeds from the sale of this track by Martin go to the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.  For other fundraising news, pls. visit our website www.hkja.org
http://www.martintaylor.com/2011/03/martin-taylor-song-for-japan-tsunami-appeal/

Eyal Maoz Quartet
Eyal Maoz Quartet (including Peter Scherr on bass) will perform at Hidden Agenda on 2 April 2011.
http://www.peterscherr.com/performances.htm

Martin Taylor & Ulf Wakenius
Martin Taylor & Ulf Wakenius will perform a series of duo concerts at Tom Lee Academy Hall on the 1st and 2nd April.
http://www.martintaylor.com/2011/02/martin-taylor-ulf-wakenius-in-hong-kong/

Hanjin (陳奐仁) performed at the 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2011 on 25.3.2011
The other artists include Wayne Shorter, Patricia Barber, Esperanza Spalding, Stephen Scott ….
http://www.capetownjazzfest.com/stages.aspx

Green Jazz – GIVE OUT CDs
To promote green jazz among the local jazz community, we will give out 8 used jazz CDs each month through our Newsletter in 2011.  If you know the answer to the following question, pls. forward it to us ("HKJA Webmaster" <hkjawm@hkja.org>) together with your name and email address on or before 30.4.2011 –

• Which Japanese pianist collaborated with Gary Burton in “Afro Blue”?
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKA7Jm8BB_w

We will inform you by email later if you are one of the lucky ones who can win one of the following used CDs chosen for March 2011 –

1. No Name Horses II (2008) – No Name Horses Big Band (Makoto Ozone and others)
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNgIS6Drtts
2. Paolo Fresu 5ET Kosmopolites (2005) – Paolo Fresu
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWA1-n0ic2U
3. Made by Walking (2000) - Tim Garland 
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIN4Cp0glfM
4. Moon Dessert (2001) – Kenny Drew
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WobtE4_CruI&playnext=1&list=PL484C142ED7D04ED9
5. Secret Story (1992) – Pat Metheny
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mz_EcyurNo
6. Lay Your Hands on Me (1996) - Art Porter 
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds5CwMSw4-I
7. Same Space (1998) – Hamiet Bluiett, DD Jackson, Mor Thiam
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDGcGdLwDHc
8. Wet Streets (1999) - Bill Heid
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNEXK8TOMig&feature=related

A glimpse into Japan’s modern jazz
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2011/03/25/134797893/music-heals-modern-jazz-from-japan?ft=1&f=10002

Ken Burns’s Latest Film "Prohibition"
Ken Burns and Wynton Marsalis continue their long time artistic collaboration on “Prohibition,” a three-part documentary directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.  “Prohibition” tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The viewers  will be transported to a time when America learned to swing to the sounds of Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, and Jelly Roll Morton in the Prohibition era (also known as the “Jazz Age”).
http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/2011/03/15/ken-burns-introduces-excerpts-from-his-latest-film-prohibition/

The Branding of Today’s Jazz
Is jazz all but forgotten or is a new image necessary or even possible?  Perhaps what jazz needs today is a brand that is less polarizing and more on the side of being inclusive rather than exclusive to any one camp – Wynthon Marsalis’s or Kenny G’s.
http://jazzonline.com/blogs/the-brand-of-jazz.html

Jazz vs Classical
The lines between jazz and classical have been blurred for a long time.   Michael Brockman discusses it in his article on the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s “Tribute to Benny Goodman” including the first movement from Igor Stravinsky’s “Ebony Concerto”
http://seattlerepertoryjazzorchestra.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/is-it-jazz-or-classical/

100 Quintessential jazz songs
Do you agree that "Take Five", "So What", "Take The A Train", "Round Midnight", "My Favorite Things" should be the top five?  Here is the full list - 
http://www.jazz24.org/jazz100.html

This time, let's pick up a modern version of Bugge Wesseltoft's "Take 5" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWcUQfFENTQ

A Big Surprise in the 53rd Grammy Award
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding, a jazz bassist and singer, has brought us a big surprise in the 53rd Grammy Award.  She is the first jazz musician who wins the Best New Artist Grammy.  Her Wikipedia page was then vandalized.  Whether her victory means that more mainstream attention will be paid to the jazz community around her, and not just to her own career, will have to be checked out.
Who is this Esperanza Spalding?
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/esperanza-spalding-10-facts-best-artist-grammy-winner/story?id=12911679&page=1

Who ransacked Spalding’s Wikipedia page
http://gawker.com/#!5759473/bieber-fans-attack-esperanza-spaldings-wikipedia-page

Video: Little Fly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2JRGv91urY

53 rd Grammy Award (2011) Jazz-related WINNERS
Best New Artist
Esperanza Spalding

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
"The Stanley Clarke Band" - The Stanley Clarke Band

Best Jazz Vocal Album
"Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee" - Dee Dee Bridgewater

Best Improvised Jazz Solo
"A Change Is Gonna Come" - Herbie Hancock, soloist

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
"Moody 4B" - James Moody

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
"Mingus Big Band Live At Jazz Standard" - Mingus Big Band

Best Latin Jazz Album
"Chucho's Steps" - Chucho Valdés And The Afro-Cuban Messengers

Contemporary World Music Album
"Throw Down Your Heart, Africa Sessions Part 2: Unreleased Track" - Béla Fleck 

(the full list of winners is at http://www.grammy.com/nominees) 

Sonny Rollins was presented with the 2010 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for his outstanding contributions to American jazz music. Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era, Rollins’s melodic sensibilities, playing style and solos have delighted audiences and influenced generations of musicians for over 50 years. 

Cloud Based Music Service
In early March 2011, it was reported that hackers had discovered that Google's rumored cloud-based music service not only exists, but is up and running.  In other words, after installing the leaked Honeycomb music player app in a certain way on Android, users can now stream their music files remotely from Google's computers to their mobile device.  (For how will the cloud change the way we think about music ownership, please read http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/23/how-will-the-cloud-change-the-way-we-think-about-music-ownership/) 

RIP Joe Morello (1928 – March 2011)
The visually impaired drummer Joe Morello, who was the longtime drummer with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, has died in March 2011 at the age of 82.  The Quartet's biggest success was Take Five on their 1959 album Time Out, an improvised piece for piano, saxophone, bass and drums - which featured a distinctive solo for Morello.

Video: Take Five 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o&feature=BF&list=PL60E6B01A83F2AA60&index=6

RIP Geroge Shearing (1919 – Feb 2011)
The elegant pianist George Shearing, blind from birth, who wrote the standard "Lullaby of Birdland" and expanded the boundaries of jazz by adding an orchestral sensibility and a mellow aesthetic to the music, died in Feb 2011 at the age of 91.

Video: Lullaby of Birdland 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX-sVnk9Ui4