Category Archives: Jazz

Updated: iRealBook Editor

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Massimo Biolcati, double bassist from NYC and developper of the iRealBook iPhone-App has updated his iRealBook Editor software for Mac. Even if you don’t own a iPhone (or iPod touch), the iRealBookEditor is a really useful piece of software. You can put together leadsheets very fast, transpose the changes, and print them out or send as PDF. Besides this, Massimo has also launched a Forum – you can now send your tunes to the iRealBook Forum, and discuss and share your transcribed changes with other musicians. You can also find and download a couple of alternate versions and new tunes there, that don’t come with the iPhone app (yet). Massimo has solved this integration very simple, but elegant.

Bassist Ben Williams wins Th. Monk Competition

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On Sunday night, bassist Ben Williams won the prestigous Thelonius Mink Competion in his hometown Washington. The six judges, including Ron Carter, Charlie Haden and Dave Holland, winnowed the list to three (Joe Sanders from Milwaukee, Matt Brewer of Albuquerque and Ben Williams) and those finalists performed Sunday with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and a rhythm section of pianist Geoff Keezer and drummer Carl Allen.

“The crowd favorite was 24-year-old Ben Williams, who grew up in Northeast D.C. and graduated from Davey Yarborough’s jazz program at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He pulled hard at the strings, building up a powerful rhythmic attack on Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” locking eyes and trading musical ideas with the ebullient Bridgewater.” reports Matt Schudel/Washington Post.

More about Ben Williams at his MySpace page.

Update: iRealBook 2.2

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Massimo Biolcati has released version 2.2 of iRealBook for Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
What’s new in version 2.2:
• Apple iPhone OS3.0 is required
• 75 more songs added for a total of 700
• New font for improved readability
• Landscape mode with extra large font
• Support for multiple playlists with independent transpositions
• Improved backup
• Custom color themes (e .g. almond background and black text, or white text on beaver, or many else)
• Songs and playlists can now be emailed without leaving the app
• Added 12/8 time signature
• Added 9#5, 13#11, 5, 2, add9 chord qualities
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the opening of emailed songs on OS3.0

How Low Can You Go?

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Dust-to-Digital has published a 3-CD-Box with early american recordings of the double bass. This box comes with a 96 page booklet, and covers music „from tuxedoed symphony ensembles to tipsy calypso bands to honkytonkers in oil-field dives, from elegantly gelled tango orchestras to jazz combos in unspeakable speak-easys to methed-out rockabilly trios“ …

(Thanks, Edward, for this link submisson)

Whitey Mitchell †

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Gordon “Whitey” Mitchell, jazz bassist and comedy writer, died Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 76. Whitey Mitchell, brother of the late jazz great Red Mitchell, started his jazz career in New York playing bass with big band legends Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and Lester Young on the Jazz at the Philharmonic series.
Later, Mitchell became a staff writer and story editor on “Get Smart”, Bob Hope’s comedy TV specials and sit-coms as “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Odd Couple” and “Mork and Mindy”. He also wrote two books: his autobiography, “Hackensack to Hollywood: My Two Show Business Careers,” and “Star Walk: A Guide to the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.”

The LIFE magazine archive hosted by Google

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I really love old photos, so I’m quite happy that Google and the LIFE magazine have published millions of photos of the LIFE magazine archive. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. The photos can easily be searched by keywords, like you’d expect from Google. The first keyword I’ve googled was “Jazz”, and I immediately found treasures like Percy Heath or Paul Chambers in colour.