Montreal Jazz Festival – is scheduled for June 28 thru July 7 and had become one of the world’s leading jazz festivals. This year’s festival will include Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Eric Bibb, Ravi Coltrane, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joshua Redman, Wayne Shorter, Quartango, Charles Lloyd, Barry Harris, Holly Cole, Larry Goldings, Bill Frisell, Pink Martini, an Animation Musicale, a Fat Tuesday brass band and a Speakeasy Electro Swing event. www.montrealjazzfest.com/program
Alternate to Satellite Radio in Vehicles – Bluetooth-connected smartphones and iPads have provided a solution to in-car reception of the many thousands of stations now available on the Internet, without a monthly subscription fee as with satellite radio. Livio (who formerly made the Wi-Fi radio we reviewed in 2009) now has now developed their FM Connect system, which is an in-vehicle hardware and software solution allowing FM broadcasters to create two-way links between stations and listeners.
New App for Jazz on Spotify – Concord Music Group has introduced its free music app specially designed for Spotify, to help its streaming listeners to explore and discover the best of jazz among their essential database of over 1200 titles. The app uses turntable-like graphics to guide users thru the vest and often intimidating world of jazz. Its interface smartly adapts to define and organize the user’s personal tastes. It also provides detailed bios on the artists, track information and cover art.
Classical News – The Bank of American is set to foreclose on the Nashville Symphony Center, which is in default and cannot pay its debt. Its expenses have exceed its revenue by $39 million the last few years. Richard Mills, the conductor of Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle, has abruptly quit, citing an issue with “personal chemistry.” Pianist Krystian Zimerman declared from the stage that YouTube was destroying music. His words were prompted by someone using their smart phone during his performance. From the keyboard, he said “Would you please stop that?” One of the best conductors of British music, James Judd—who is music director emeritus of the New Zealand Symphony—has been named the new music director of the Little Orchestra Society. Conductor Yoel Gamzou premiered his own new version of Mahler’s incomplete Tenth Symphony, which makes previous reconstructions by Deryck Cooke and Berthold Goldschmidt seem tame by comparison. His version has been described as more devilish and gripping than the others.