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Jazz

Snarky Puppy and GoGo Penguin: The New Standards of Jazz?

What is Jazz, actually? No, you don't have to answer that question because it is an unanswerable one, all be it theoretical one. Throughout its tracable history, the burden of this question has plagued many, mostly those who have tried to answer it in an attempt to exclude somebody else. The argument is about as old as jazz music itself and with the emergence of two new popular acts, GoGo Penguin and Snarky Puppy, that debate has been reenergized once again. Both bands have attained a popularity and complaints about being filed in the jazz genre.
By Thomas Swan

  • Brazilian Jazz Percussionist Nana Vasconcelos Dead at 71

    Famed Jazz percussionist Nana Vasconcelos has died of lung cancer in his hometown of Recife, Brazil. The acclaimed percussionist and master of the single-stringed native Brazilian instrument berimbau died on March 9. He was 71 years old and was actually born in the town of Recife. Vasconcelos found a fair measure of fame in attention in the United States as well as Brazil.
    By Thomas Swan

  • Miles Davis and Chet Baker Come to Life in Two New Films

    Two of jazz's greatest trumpet players, Miles Davis and Chet Baker, will both be coming back to life in new films due out this spring. Both are set to be played by noted Hollywood actors. In Born to be Blue, due out in theaters March 25, Ethan Hawke portrays the troubled trumpeter of the 50s and 60s Chet Baker. In Miles Ahead, House of Lies star Don Cheadle co-wrote, directed and stars as jazz god Miles Davis.
    By Thomas Swan