Either I missed the announcement regarding the memorial service for Lou Colombo (it was a crazy month) or the family wanted to keep it private. Anyway, in lieu of a memorial service announcement I would like to bring your attention to these You Tube documents of this much-loved musician.
Jon Hammond’s video of Lou Part 1, and Part 2, taken shortly before Lou’s tragic accident.
Video of Lou and band on Cape Cod by John Foodie.
The popular veteran trumpeter Lou Colombo died in a car crash on his way home from a gig in Florida last Saturday night. He will be sorely missed, especially in his home base area of Cape Cod. There is an article at Cape Cod On-Line, and a nice remembrance by WFCR’s Tom Reney. Information on the funeral and memorial service will follow.
The FAA reauthorization was passed by the House of Representatives on Friday, February 3 by a 248-169 vote. It subsequently passed the Senate on Monday, February 6, 75-20. The President is expected to sign the bill into law. Included in the bill are provisions that create a uniform national policy regarding musical instruments on airplanes. Any instrument that can be safely stored in the overhead compartment or underneath the seat may be brought on board as carry-on luggage.
Read the American Federation of Musicians article.
Quoting the Boston Musicians Association, AFM Local 9-535:
“Existing law used to allow each airline to set their own policy regarding musical Continue reading Musical Instruments Allowed As Cary-ons
We are always saddened by the closing of a jazz venue, but we can understand this one. Drummer Cecil Brooks III has operated one of the best clubs in the NYC area for the last ten years or so, featuring major artists and locals as well. Several live CDs have been recorded there. Get the story here from NJ.com:
Well-known, maybe should be better-known, pianist Mike Melvoin, and saxophonist Red Holloway, left us this past month.
Veteran jazz and studio session pianist Mike Melvoin was one of those musicians who was heard more than he was known. He was based on the West Coast, and you can read his obituary from the LA Times.
Red Holloway had a long career in jazz and in the early days of R&B. Like Mike Melvoin, Red was based on the West Coast, and there was an obituary in the LA Times. Interesting video of both of these musicians can found on You Tube.
Chicago lost two local veterans, bassist Nick Tountas and pianist Jody Christian. Christian in particular cast a long shadow.
Here in Boston we mourn Artie Barsamian. Local guitarist and Berklee professor John Baboian has written, “Artie Barsamian was one of the great gentlemen in our business and I got to play in his bands for almost the past quarter century. As age catches up to us all, his playing had lost some of it’s luster in the past couple of years, but, the last gig that we played together in December, he was playing better than ever. Artie will be missed by his fellow musicians and by his fans.”
“Artie Barsamian joined the celestial big band on Wednesday after a very brief bout with leukemia. He had been active and well at his retirement home in Orlando, Florida, right up until last Saturday.”
The Chelmsford Community Band and Jazz Ensemble will give their annual Winter Concert this Sunday, March 4, 3:00 PM Chelmsford High School Performing Arts Center, 120-200 Richardson Road, N. Chelmsford, MA.
The Jazz Ensemble will present a set of Classics and Hidden Gems. Here are the program notes:
“Cool” by Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim, comes from their masterpiece West Side Story which was a popular source for many jazz Continue reading Chelmsford Bands Winter Concert
I cannot remember if I wrote about Mediaguide in the BoMuse News, but I do know that I told many of my musician friends with CDs about the importance of sending their work to Mediaguide. It was an automated monitoring service that kept track of airplay of individual tracks on a great majority of radio stations – an important service for those of us who have worked hard to get our music out there. For the time being the Mediaguide Web site is still up as if nothing went wrong and you can view it here to get a better idea of what they were all about.
Unfortunately, as of March 1, they will cease monitoring, and you can read a brief article about that at Radio-Info.com. I will keep readers up to date with developments regarding the replacement of this service as I receive news of them.
I am so close to having the new sit finished that I just had to replace the old one. It has most of the key information, and will be complete very soon, probably by the end of this month (February).
I attended this year’s Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference, and was glad that I did. When the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) collapsed the president Mary Jo Papich pulled together several other educators to organize a new organization to support Jazz Education. You can read my posts from the conference in the Newsletter section of the Massachusetts Associationn for Jazz Education (MAJE) Web-site.