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Rashida Jones will co-direct Netflix documentary celebrating her father
Jazz icon Quincy Jones will be immortalized in a Netflix documentary with Alan Hicks (Keep on Keepin' On) and daughter Rashida Jones (The Social Network, The Office) at the directorial helm.
Quincy Jones has a streaming service for jazz documentaries
It's easy enough to find concert movies or music documentaries online, but watching them across various services is kind of a pain. Jazz legend Quincy Jones wants to help with that. Along with a French TV producer, Jones is launching Qwest TV. For between €7.49 and €9.90 per month ($8.83 - $11.68; the higher price is for HD/4K streaming) you'll get access to "hundreds of hours" of jazz programming, sourced from European TV and other places. Annual subscriptions are available as well.
Recommended Reading: Trent Reznor on Beats, Apple Music and more
In Conversation: Trent Reznor David Marchese, Vulture Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor helped craft Beats Music, the streaming service that would eventually become Apple Music after the tech giant purchased the popular headphone brand. On the heels of NIN's most recent EP release, Add Violence, the musician sat down with Vulture to chat about a range of topics. Among other things, Reznor talks Beats, Apple Music, streaming, his new music and lessons learned.
'La La Land' composer on electronica's key role in the film
Damien Chazelle's La La Land might not have won that Oscar, but it did scoop up the one for Best Original Music Score. The man behind that score is Justin Hurwitz. Anyone who has seen the film will know that the soundtrack is largely divided between vintage Hollywood music and classic jazz -- the style favored by tortured musician Seb (Ryan Gosling). But for all of its antiquity, one of the biggest conflicts of the movie is Seb's struggle with pop success after joining his friend Keith (John Legend) in a band that fuses jazz flavors with modern electronic music. Hurwitz's challenge, then, was not only to score the movie but also to create a musical backdrop to Seb's journey of self-discovery, a journey that ultimately proves to be a crucial fork in the movie's twisting story.
Apple decides marijuana app belongs in the App Store after all
MassRoots' social network for cannabis users contravened Apple's policy of banning apps that promote drug use, and had to go. Two weeks after that decision was made, an army of hemp-wearing advocates have managed to convince the iPhone maker to change its mind. The contentious issue, you see, was that it's now legal to enjoy jazz cigarettes for medicinal purposes in 23 states, making Apple one of those boring squares that just needed to stop being such a narc.
Jukebox Heroes: Wurm Online's soundtrack
When is a soundtrack not a soundtrack? When it's Wurm Online, of course. This cult sandbox has one of the most unusual scores that I've ever heard paired with an MMO. It's made up of sparsely used incidental music that just so happens to be folksy blues songs (with lyrics), composed by Joss Sanglier and performed by 21st Century Blues. It's catchy, don't get me wrong, but it comes with a case of mental whiplash if you were expecting the typical fantasy fare. Think of it this way: All of these songs sound as if they were originally made for a steakhouse commercial. "In Wurm, we don't play music constantly," explained Lead Designer Rolf Jansson. "Instead we play a song every now and then often based on the setting or a special event such as when you form a village. If you ever played the Lara Croft Tomb Raider game, the rare music scores really enhanced special situations, and that's what I was aiming for as well." To make matters more interesting, recently the Wurm Online team has sponsored the creation of not one, not two, but three concept albums that will be worked into the game itself. The first such album, Meditation and Work, is now out and is quite good. While we're going to look at the "classic" Wurm tunes today, I didn't want to overlook this new project. Perhaps we'll even get back to it some day!
SessionBand Jazz lets you create like a master
UK Music Apps Ltd produces SessionBand, an iOS-based app that gives you chord-based audio loops. You can use these loops for professional recording or to enhance your music experiments while you learn. A new version, SessionBand -- Jazz Edition, was released on June 15th. The new Jazz Edition features over 16,000 precision-cut chord-based jazz loops recorded by bassist Geoff Gascoyne, pianist Tom Cawley, drummer Ralph Salmins, and woodwinds (saxophone and flute) by Andy Panayi. The four UK-based jazz musicians are associated with top London music schools, including Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity College and Guildhall. You can watch an entertaining video and see these musicians in action in SessionBand's introductory YouTube video. You can create your own copyright-free jazz music with your own jazz quartet by selecting and joining together various chord blocks. The SessionBand Jazz provides ten jazz chord variations for each of 15 popular jazz styles. According to UK Music Apps, you can "listen to the same set of selected chords in any of those styles." Also joining SessionBand, the February-released highly rated app, this week are SessionBand -- Piano Edition and SessionBand -- Acoustic Guitar Edition. The Piano Edition features recordings by Tom Cawley, while the Guitar Edition features recordings by Christian Marsac. These versions are on sale in the iTunes Store for $2.99, while the SessionBand - Jazz Edition sells for $3.99. All of the SessionBand apps feature one-touch recording, automated mixing, metronome and count-in, auto-transpose and Audiobus compatibility. The apps are compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, running iOS 5.1 or later, although the company recommends using the apps with the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S or newer devices. Personally, I rather like their tag line: Everyone's got a song in them. What's yours?
Google Maps updates streetview for New Orleans, reminds us the jazz plays on
In many ways, Google's Streetview is a document. A snapshot in time. Usually, this amounts to pictures of a sunny clear day in downtown Localsville, but it can also be a reminder of times less bright. Since Hurricane Katrina, the city has been working hard to rebuild neighborhoods and communities, and better prepare itself for the future. Today -- via Google's Lat Long Blog -- Mayor Mitch Landrieu proudly announced that Streetview has been updated to reflect those efforts, and show New Orleans in that familiar, sunny way. Whether it's Congo Square ("the birthplace of jazz"), the city's parks, or more recent features and attractions, Landrieu proudly extends an invite to all of us to come take a look, enjoy the virtual tour, and "whet our appetite." We say put the Gumbo on.
Augmented reality Tetris game uses Kinect hack, Wiimote, smooth jazz (video)
What does it take for a gaming classic to survive in a world ruled by titles like Portal 2 and Homefront? A Kinect hack, a Wiimote, and some electronic elbow grease, apparently. Trinity College student Keysosaurus -- as he's know to his YouTube pals -- has used a bit of C#, XNA, and OpenNI coding to play 3D augmented reality Tetris using Kinect body controls and a Wiimote. The Kinect gestures do most of the work, rotating the board, zooming the camera in and out, and moving the pieces into place, while the Nintendo controller is used to rotate. Video's after the break, but beware, the familiar strains of "Korobeiniki" have been replaced by smooth guitar jazz, so turn the volume up at your own risk.
The Road to Mordor: You've beaten Sauron. New game? Y/N
Huh... what is there to talk about these days? Really? Such a slow news cycle for LotRO... hm. I guess there's that whole "getting rid of pesky radiance" thing that's going to save me from having to write a column on that convoluted system, so thanks Turbine! Other than that, life in Middle-earth is as quiet as... As... as a... GEEKQUAKE! RUN FOR COVER! EMPLOY EXCESSIVE CAPS LOCK STATEMENTS! LOTRO AHOY! OK, so I might have been a bit facetious there. Shocking all of us, Turbine brought up the servers with the new patch an evening early, granting access to the head start of F2P on Tuesday night. I sort of suspected the devs were up to something when they kept rubbing their hands and cackling maniacally at PAX last weekend, although they claimed it was just a nervous disorder. So it's here -- the biggest non-expansion update to the game yet and a literal game-changer to boot. F2P, wardrobe, scaled instances, Enedwaith, the LotRO store, and lots and lots of new (and returning) players have existing players giddy and twitchy. So how'd the first couple days go so far? Is LotRO F2P really all that and a bag of Shire Sweet-leaf? Read on, my short and stout brethren!
Transformers: War for Cybertron video shows Jazz, Demolishor and Shockwave in action
Joystiq would never condone violence; however, when it comes to robot-on-robot violence, we're all for it. It's not like they can feel anything, right? So we'd like to bring your attention to some pre-order bonuses for High Moon Studios' upcoming not-a-movie-game Transformers: War for Cybertron. Should you decide to enlist in the robo-wars early, you can nab yourself an exclusive character: Jazz, if you pre-order through Best Buy, Demolishor, should you go through Amazon, and Shockwave, if you go the GameStop route. Check out a video of Demolishor above and be sure to head past the break to catch a glimpse of the other two.
Video: robotic marimba player grooves autonomously with jazz pianist
We've seen an orchestra's worth of robotic musicians, but we've yet to see one that integrates this perfectly into a piece without any human intervention. Shimon -- a robotic marimba player created by Georgia Tech's Guy Hoffman (formerly of MIT), Gil Weinberg (the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology) and Roberto Aimi of Alium Labs -- recently made its stage debut by sensing the music from a piano and reacting accordingly in order to provide complementary percussion. Unlike many alternatives, there's absolutely no delay here. Instead, it analyzes the classification of chords, estimates the human's tempo and attempts to extract features from the human's melodic phrases and styles. What you're left with a robot musician that goes beyond call-and-response and actually meshes with the Earthling's playing throughout. The full performance is posted after the break, and make sure to leave a donation as you exit through the doors on the left.[Thanks, Guy!]%Gallery-51150%
Video: Toyota's robo-quartet makes Kerouac cry
After watching Honda's Asimo conduct the Detroit Symphony, Toyota's distressed team of robots hopped a box car with a jug of wine and wound up leaning in and kicking out a clear harmonic cry to some corporate goons in Japan. The band consists of a couple repurposed DJ Robots and new Partner Robots. While laudable, there's not enough ecstasy for us, not enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music... not enough night. Video after the break, Jack.
Salt Lake City's KJZZ-14 to air Utah Jazz games in HD
We know, it's not like you Utah residents really want to see a Game 6, but at least it gives you another shot at catching your Jazz in high-def, right? Salt Lake City's own KJZZ-14 has announced its intentions to serve up all 2008 Utah Jazz playoff games in gorgeous HD, and while there's no mention of what it plans to do next season, we'd say chances are pretty good that it'll keep the newfound tradition alive in 2009 and beyond. Those within reach can catch the games via OTA, but others will be asked to turn to channel 657 on Comcast Digital Cable in order to follow along. That is, of course, if you're staying away from the Energy Solutions Arena this Friday night.[Image courtesy of USUAggies]
Legends of Jazz brings Dolby TrueHD to Blu-ray
One of the ways Blu-ray has trailed HD DVD so far is inclusion of advanced audio codecs, but that will start to turn around later this month when Legends of Jazz "Showcase" is released. As we noted when the series first aired on PBS, it was produced in HD and 5.1 surround sound to enable viewers to fully experience the musicians featured. This disc will be the first Blu-ray release to include a 24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack (along with Dolby Digital 5.1and PCM Stereo options) that Dolby Labs exec Craig Eggers says captures "every nuance" of the performance. In Europe a copy will be included with each Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player, somewhat bittersweet because it doesn't support Dolby TrueHD. The Playstation 3 will, but what other upcoming players can decode the audio format is unclear. Still, especially if you've got a PS3 preordered and an HDMI 1.3-capable receiver at the ready -- who doesn't? -- a better way to experience the 13 performances will be hard to find after its release October 24th, with an MSRP of $34.98.[Via The Man Room]
Wynton Marsalis headlines Private Performance Series in HD
Whether you just sacrificed a few nights out to afford the new HDTV, or don't find much reason in going out after getting one -- and with some of our readers' setups why would you? -- Morton's Steakhouse thinks they have just the thing: A private live performance by jazz great Wynton Marsalis and of course a four-course meal. Marsalis won't actually be live in front of you, you'll be sitting in Morton's "HD Suite" that seats 40 watching a satellite broadcast of his live performance on a 108-inch HD screen (no word on the resolution), with 7.2 surround sound and a limited-edition copy of the performance signed by the performer on HD DVD. It seems like they're really trying to give the feeling of a live in-person private performance with 16 cameras and the ability for guests to have a Q&A after the performance. Looks like the theater, not just the movie theater, needs to be wary of high definition if something like this catches on, two nights only, October 6th & 7th. Still, for $250 some might choose a DVR'd copy of Legends of Jazz and some takeout.
Legends of Jazz series hits PBS-HD
The Washington Post did a nice writeup Friday on this new PBS series. We know from our comments how much everybody enjoys their productions and this looks to be another quality one. Host Ramsey Lewis highlights a different theme and talks to some of the world's best musicians in each half hour segment, all produced in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound.I first heard about this series last fall when it was supposed to air, but didn't know what had happened to it. If you're at all a fan of the music or maybe even if you're not yet, go to the official website and find out when it is airing in your area, it is definitely worth catching.
