It seems telling that Todd Sickafoose describes his new CD, Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone), as "instrumental music." Despite his years leading jazz units, first in his native California and more recently in his adopted home of Brooklyn, Sickafoose is best known as Ani DiFranco's regular bassist, and also tours with folk-jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman. Those generic strands weave together in his own music, resulting in a decidedly modern sound that would fit in amid the reviews at Pitchfork as well as it does in the pages of Down Beat...

The outdoor stage upon which tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman and his group will play Sunday at the Bumbershoot music and arts festival is among the more intimate at the event, a cozy nook with room for about 800, surrounded by exhibit rooms, sheltered from the rock-thirsty crowds the event is known for...

Erik Truffaz makes a triumphal return to MusicHall with Malcolm Braff and their 'Indian Project' BEIRUT: It was standing-room only at Wadi Abu Jmeel's best-loved concert venue on Tuesday evening as Erik Truffaz made a triumphant return to MusicHall. The world-renowned trumpet player came bearing gifts from the east, in the form of his "Indian Project...

Saturday, October 11, 2008 Bath Chemical Firehouse 135 S. Walnut St. (Rte. 512) Bath, Pa. 18014 Three Lehigh Valley Jazz bands The Dan DeChellis Trio Acronym And TBA...

Stanford Lively Arts opens its 2008-09 season on Sunday, October 5 with "Marsalis Brasilianos," a vibrant musical dialogue across the Americas featuring saxophone virtuoso Branford Marsalis with members of the Philarmonia Brasileira, led by Gil Jardim. The performance takes place at 2:30 p.m., at Memorial Auditorium, and will be followed by a Brazilian-themed gala celebration including live music and a seated gourmet dinner with special guests...

No Label? No Publisher? No Problem. Conan O'Brien Performance Confirmed for The Spring Standards, This Friday The Spring Standards are proud to announce their national television debut for this Friday night, August 29th, on NBC-TV's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. An independent band in virtually every sense of the word (no label, no publisher, etc,) The Spring Standards have let their music speak for itself, and have seen a path unfold for them that just seems to get better and better. Their EP 'No One Will Know' (co-produced by Rhett Miller of The Old 97s,) was released last month and celebrated with a CD release party at The Bowery Ballroom. Since then, the band has enjoyed a busy summer of touring with Squeeze, The Old 97s, Marc Broussard, The Clarks and Will Hoge...

Monterey Jazz Festival's Family Day Includes Instrument Petting Zoo, Interactive Games, Jazzy Jumper, Percussion Playshop, Art Projects, The Country's Best Student Musicians, Interactive Family Entertainment By Zun Zun, And More! Macy's, Yamaha, Best Buy Team Up To Host Family Day On Sunday, September 21 At Monterey Fairgrounds...

Drummer Steve Foley, who played drums on the Replacements' final All Shook Down tour, died last weekend in Minneapolis after accidentally overdosing on prescription medicine. He was 49. Foley was recruited to join the Replacements after original drummer Chris Mars left following the All Shook Down sessions. Foley joined the band after meeting Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson in a bar and offered them a ride. When they got in the car, they noticed a copy of All Shook Down, prompting both members to declare Foley as their new drummer...

Headlined by world-renowned jazz legends Phil Woods, David Liebman, Bob Dorough, and Urbie Green, the 31st Annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts (COTA) packs 18 sets of ensemble jazz performances, plus theater and arts, into a three-day festival in the scenic Borough of Delaware Water Gap, from Friday, September 5, through Sunday, September 7...

Memphis, Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock and Roll has hosted another spectacular music special event. Blues and Soul music celebrities, executives and fans came together to network and celebrate the accomplishments of their peers at this year's Jus' Blues Music Awards Show held at The Historical Daisy on Beale Street...

A new recording by guitarist Wolfgang Schalk Wanted Frame Up Music Street Date: September 2nd 2008 Wolfgang Schalk: guitar Geoffrey Keezer: piano Dave Carpenter: bass Marvin "Smitty" Smith: drums Recorded at Encore/Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, CA "Schalk creates impressive structures for improvisation, and he fits each and every structure with a hip, catchy melody. If other musicians pick up on these tunes, every single one of them has the potential to become a jazz standard." --Marc Meyers, All About Jazz...

Wynton Marsalis believes that jazz can change all of our lives--artistically, politically, personally, and together as a society. On Tuesday, September 9, Wynton Marsalis comes to the 92nd Street Y for a "master class" on jazz and life, with NY1's Budd Mishkin. Marsalis discusses jazz as the quintessential American expression of personality and individuality. He reveals what it teaches us about listening to and improvising with others and explains its historical role in bringing people together. Marsalis also talks about why these characteristics make it an essential American tradition and art form that is especially relevant in these times of political divide and cultural decline...

In Silent City, a hypnotic work commemorating Halabjah, a Kurdish village annihilated by Saddam Hussein, the kamancheh, an upright four-stringed Persian fiddle, breaks out in a lamenting wail based on a traditional Turkish melody. "Silent City" is included on a new disc of the same name on the World Village label, which Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso kamancheh player, recorded with the young string quartet Brooklyn Rider...

The Labor Day weekend bash attracts musicians and jazz buffs from around the world. It's nearing the end of summer, so everyone is cramming in the most they can - going to the beach, having barbecues and all that jazz. But for music aficionados, they really are soaking in as much jazz as they can at the end of the season...

Multiple music arts grant-award winner Alexandra "Olenka" Gadzik emigrated from the Carpathian Mountains of Poland with her parents and sister in 1977. Growing up in multi-cultural New York City nurtured in her a love and affinity for world music. Now with Olenka's second fully orchestrated release, Rhythms of Another Life, her world fusion rhythms and spiraling Euro-fringe melodies, sing the stories of women, foreigners, and belonging in a global culture. The CD is receiving heavy airplay on radio and is now available at olenka.com, CD Baby and iTunes. Olenka blends funky ethnic grooves and instruments with jazz-caliber musicianship, poetic lyrics, and a pop-friendly sound. Her passion for integrating world music with state-of-the-art production is long standing. In 1989 she collaborated with Peruvian buskers, or street musicians, in New York City on her worldbeat song "Cold Faith". It featured the Peruvian zampona (panpipe) player Ricardo Silva, orchestrated with the recently invented Chapman Stick guitar/bass. That same year "Cold Faith" appeared on the compilation of New York bands entitled Fresh Kills and it now appears on Olenka's debut CD Making Arrows...

Unless you're a musician or jazz geek, you've probably never heard of Ran Blake. But the 73-year-old pianist has more than 30 albums to his name and has played countless concerts from New York to Greece. Tomorrow he's playing in a place that's completely new and completely familiar to him: Blake's performance at the Vernissage restaurant on Beacon Street will be his first public show in his hometown of Brookline...