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For the lyricists of the Great American Songbook, it was difficult enough to say "I love you" in 32 bars, ­expressing all that passion and profundity in one brief chorus. Yet when the legendary tenor saxophonist Lester Young played those same songs, he crammed even more artistry into that same small space. When Young (1909-1959) plays a chorus of a ballad—or a blues or a riff number—you hear more than "I love you." You hear babies gurgling, flowers blooming, couples making love, dogs barking, mothers crying to their kids, worlds colliding. Young, whose centennial ­arrives on Aug. 27, created a...

First lady tunes up White House with jazz fest Mrs. Obama launches workshop to let students learn from musical legends First lady Michelle Obama, right, and daughters Malia and Sasha attend a concert during a jazz music workshop at the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 2009. View related photos Alex Wong / Getty Images The White House sounded more like the music wing of a high school than a seat of government Monday — and that's just the way first lady Michelle Obama likes it. Mrs. Obama launched a White House music festival...

Guitar legend Huey Long, the last surviving member of the original Ink Spots, died June 10 in Houston at the age of 105. Long was born in Sealy, Texas. He worked various jobs in the Houston area until he got his big break playing banjo in the Frank Davis Louisiana Jazz Band. In 1936, Bill Kenny, the leader of the Ink Spots, talked Long into leaving the jazz trio joining the Ink Spots. ...He moved back to Houston in the 90s, having written and arranged more than 80 songs. Long is survived by his daughter, Houston resident Anita Long, and...

The pianist and vibraphonist was one of the Montgomery Brothers. His siblings included well-known guitarist Wes and electric bassist Monk.Charles "Buddy" Montgomery, the pianist and vibraphonist who was one of the jazz-playing Montgomery brothers that included the legendary guitarist Wes Montgomery, has died. He was 79. Montgomery died May 14 of heart failure at his home in Palmdale, according to his family. Buddy was the youngest of the three brothers who made their names in music. In addition to Wes and Buddy, Monk Montgomery was one of the first significant electric bassists in jazz. Buddy, Wes and Monk played together...

The Ali Joda band performs for a crowd of approximately 200 Iraqi citizens and Coalition forces at the Ziggurat of Ur in southern Iraq, April 1. This concert was open to the Iraqi public and allowed them an opportunity to see the Ziggurat up close. Photo by Spc. Creighton Holub, 1st Cavalry Division. COB ADDER — The smooth sounds of keyboard, drums and saxophone echoed off the walls of the 5,000-year-old Ziggurat of Ur during a concert here, April 1. "This concert is because of all of you," said Dr. Anne Prouse, the Dhi Qar Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) leader,...

"Don't spend my grandson's paycheck. He's only two years old. With Obama in the White House, His future's bought and sold. Stop this immoral spending spree. Stop assaulting our liberty. Let me help you comprehend: It ain't your money to spend."

I was going through some Tea Party treads on Twitter and found this. http://kathleensings.com/ It is the Song at the top, "It Ain't Your Money To Spend".

Larry H. Miller, Husband, Father, Grandfather Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, Dies at 64 Miller's career legacy includes more than 80 companies — the Utah Jazz, Salt Lake Bees, EnergySolutions Arena, and 39 automobile dealerships; he is survived by wife Gail, five children, 21 grandchildren and one great grandchild Salt Lake City, Utah (February 20, 2009) - Larry H. Miller, husband, father, grandfather, a well-known entrepreneur, community advocate and humanitarian, died from complications due to type 2 diabetes today, at home, surrounded by his family. He was 64. Larry H. Miller Larry H. Miller April 26, 1944 - February 20, 2009 Miller,...

"I SAW Cab Calloway perform when I was in seventh grade," remembers Big Bad Voodoo Daddy bandleader Scotty Morris. "I was completely blown away." Right now anyone who knows a little about Cab Calloway may be wondering if indeed he means the Cab Calloway, as in the one from the Cotton Club, who hired, fired and got stabbed in the leg by Dizzy Gillespie, the one who recorded his most popular song in 1931, decades before Morris was born. But it's true, Calloway performed right up until his death in 1994, at age 86. That was the same year Big...

I've borrowed Woody Guthrie's 1942 song to report that this is my last column for the Voice. I'm not retiring; I've never forgotten my exchange on that decision with Duke Ellington. In those years, he and the band played over 200 one-nighters a year, with jumps from, say, Toronto to Dallas. On one of his rare nights off, Duke looked very beat, and I presumptuously said: "You don't have to keep going through this. With the standards you've written, you could retire on your ASCAP income." Duke looked at me as if I'd lost all my marbles. "Retire!" he crescendoed....

Freddie Hubbard, the Grammy-winning jazz musician whose blazing virtuosity influenced a generation of trumpet players and who collaborated with such greats as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, died Monday, a month after suffering a heart attack. He was 70. Hubbard died at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his manager, fellow trumpeter David Weiss of the New Jazz Composers Octet. He had been hospitalized since suffering the heart attack a day before Thanksgiving. A towering figure in jazz circles, Hubbard played on hundreds of recordings in a career dating to 1958, the year he arrived in New York from his...

Over at McNamara's Blog, Patrick McNamara has found another surprising bit of Catholic trivia, about one of the great popular jazz artists of the 20th century: According to his own, cherished tradition, Louis Armstrong was an all-American jazz baby, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the Fourth of July 1900. He believed this to the end of his days, and so did everyone else, until a baptismal certificate confirming his actual birth date as August 4, 1901, surfaced and in the name of scholarship silenced one of the happiest legends in American popular music. Exactly three weeks after his birth,...

Since then, I have had numerous people ask me about what they should buy if they wanted to sample some jazz but do not know where to begin. As I am not a critic but just an aficionado of that American treasure. I recommend the following albums. Feel free to offer your own recommendations as I am no expert by any means. As there is still much jazz I have not listened to, I apologize for any omissions of albums that belong on such a list....

LOS ANGELES - Teo Macero, a producer of jazz albums in the 1960s and 1970s who helped to define the recorded sound of artists such as Miles Davis, died Feb. 19 at a hospital in Riverhead, N.Y. He was 82. more stories like thisMr. Macero - who lived in Quogue, N.Y. - had been ill for some time, said his stepdaughter, Suzie Lightbourn of Morristown, N.J. The cause of death was not given. The thousands of recordings produced by Mr. Macero include the original cast album of "Chorus Line," Simon and Garfunkel's album "The Graduate," and numerous gold records. Beginning...

Jeff Healey is dead. There is no more stark way to say it. Sadly, discussing the end of this man's life in less bleak terminology will not change the outcome. Jeff Healey is dead at the age of 41. I first learned about Jeff Healey in the 1990s, thanks to my teenage daughters. Then he was an up-and-coming Canadian rocker who received great notoriety for his incredible guitar skills. Though blind by age one due to a rare form of cancer known as retinoblastoma, Healey learned the intricacies of the guitar, starting to play in his own unorthodox manner before...

His death was confirmed by Hazel McCallion, mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, the Toronto suburb where Peterson lived. McCallion told The Associated Press that he died of kidney failure. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said he died Sunday. "He's been going downhill in the last few months, slowing up," McCallion said, calling Peterson a "very close friend." During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Former President Clinton has donated the saxophone he played at his inauguration to the American Jazz Museum. The attraction is part of the historic 18th and Vine district, where musicians often play into the early morning at an old union hall called the Mutual Musicians Foundation. "Though he may have been unable to hang in a jam session at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, he is the only leader of the free world to be a jazz musician, and I know he would have loved the chance to sit in on a set," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.,...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Jazz legend Joe Zawinul, who soared to fame as one of the creators of jazz fusion and performed and recorded with Miles Davis, died early Tuesday, a hospital official said. He was 75.

The very great Joe Zawinul has passed at 75 Accordionist, proud Austrian, composer of Mercy, Mercy, In a Silent Way, and Birdland, associate of Miles, McLaughlin, Cannonball, Hancock, and Shorter, arguably the father of world music, Zawinul has left the building.