Duke Ellington

'Anatomy of a Murder,' 'A Man Escaped': crime and punishment

2013-04-04 08:00:00

Rather than concentrate on the execution of the crime, this week’s DVDs focus on what comes afterward: first the trial, then, for the unlucky, time behind bars. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, 1959’s “...

Jazz Reviews: Charles Lloyd's/Jason Moran's 'Hagar's Song'

2013-04-02 05:00:00

By nature, duet recordings are all about limitations, and an exercise in trying to say more with less. This month marked a pair of high-profile recordings between saxophone and keyboard, and the results are as distinctive as they are rewarding. Say what...

Classical music's spring brings festivals and much more

2013-03-08 07:00:00

Spring is, as always, a season for festivals. The big one in Los Angeles this year is the ongoing celebration of the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, initiated by Los Angeles Opera. The Los Angeles Philharmonic's weeklong Brooklyn Festival in...

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Kimberly Ovitz

2013-02-08 12:37:00

NEW YORK -- Kimberly Ovitz, the daughter of Hollywood power player Michael Ovitz, showed her fall-winter 2013 collection Thursday afternoon at New York Fashion Week. The setting was the now-vacant Cafe Rouge, site of historic performances by such jazz...

Hal Schaefer dies at 87; musician known for Marilyn Monroe liaison

2012-12-16 00:00:00

"The Real Reason for Marilyn Monroe's Divorce from Joe DiMaggio" read the headline on a 1955 Confidential magazine article that exposed a bumbling ambush involving the famous ballplayer and Frank Sinatra. The unlikely duo allegedly had tried to catch...

From the archives: Dave Brubeck at 90: 'I'm very fortunate'

2012-12-05 11:28:00

Two years before Dave Brubeck died, the Los Angeles Times published an interview with the great jazzman on the occasion of his 90th birthday. With Brubeck's death at 92, we share our visit to his home in this profile from Dec. 5, 2010. WILTON, Conn --...

Jazz great Dave Brubeck dies at 91

2012-12-05 10:47:00

The jazz artist Dave Brubeck died Wednesday at 91, according to his manager, Russell Gloyd. He died of cardiac arrest one day short of his 92nd birthday in Norwalk, Conn. The pianist and arranger, born in Concord, Calif., was one of jazz's first pop...

Appreciation: Pianist Dave Brubeck's gift for timing endures

2012-12-05 13:33:00

When thinking about Dave Brubeck, you can't help but also consider time, and not just how much of it fans received from the prolific jazz pianist up to his death Wednesday at age 91. A titan of West Coast jazz, Brubeck was linked with California for...

Critic's Notebook: Vince Guaraldi's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' score is a gift

2012-11-24 07:00:00

It's here. The holiday season. And with it, an ever-creeping onslaught of music stuffed with enough synthetic cheer to weave a polyester overcoat for Dodger Stadium. Hearing such tidings of great joy seems innocent enough, but repeated exposure could...

Dave Brubeck dies at 91; jazz legend

2012-12-05 16:33:00

In the strait-laced Eisenhower 1950s, Dave Brubeck seemed, on one hand, deeply conventional. He didn't drink, smoke or take drugs. He favored expressions like "baloney!" and "you bet" over ruder alternatives. He had a prodigious work ethic that had been...

Maria Cole dies at 89; singer was widow of Nat King Cole

2012-07-13 00:00:00

Maria Cole, the widow of music legend Nat King Cole and the mother of singer Natalie Cole whose own singing career included a stint as vocalist for Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1940s, has died. She was 89. Cole died Tuesday at a hospice in...

Review: A fascinating education in 'The Jazz Standards'

2012-07-22 00:00:00

-------------------- The Jazz Standards A Guide to the Repertoire Ted Gioia Oxford University Press: 528 pp., $39.95 -------------------- I like jazz but I don't know much about it. Or perhaps I should say that I know what I like. Duke Ellington,...

Duke Ellington will be the subject of the Pacific Symphony's annual American Composer's Festival May 16-29.

2013-03-06 00:00:00

Already one of the most acclaimed pianists in jazz, Iyer shifts the focus to the undeniable pull of rhythm. In addition to intricate and immediate originals, Iyer gives songs by Duke Ellington, Henry Threadgill and Flying Lotus an inventive drive that moves both head and body.

2012-12-14 15:33:00

Ellington's centennial, in 1999, saw so many reissues of his music that one might have thought the subject was closed.

2012-12-07 11:14:00