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News2021-09-03T12:44:41-07:00
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Gene Lees Remembers Hugo Friedhofer

May 3, 2024|

"The Hug" Jazzletter, July 15, 1982, by Gene Lees   “David Raksin called that morning, May 17, 1981, and said simply, "Hugo is gone," and my eyes misted, even though we had known he was going to die. He was eighty, he was arthritic, and as his daughter Karyl said later, "he [...]

Nevertheless Awarded Silver Medal

March 25, 2024|

  “Nevertheless” was composed for, recorded by, and premiered at Carnegie Hall by Trio Casals – Alexandr Kislitsyn, violin, Anna Kislitsyna, piano, & Ovidiu Marinescu, cello. Click to hear Trio Casals perform Nevertheless on YouTube

The 100th Birthday of J.J. Johnson

January 22, 2024|

January 22, 2024 marks the 100th birthday of jazz trombone great J.J. Johnson. One of my career highlights was working with him. In 1984 I had just finished a spotting session with Earle Hagen on the Warner lot for the best-forgotten “Dukes of Hazzard.” J.J. and Earle were both scoring [...]

The Musical Gift L.A. Offers Public School Kids

January 12, 2024|

By Kris Bowers It was a perfect summer’s day in June 1999. As a tender 10-year-old, I nervously approached the 1952 mahogany Winter baby grand piano that sat in the courtyard, center stage. I had been invited to perform solo for the students and their parents at my fifth-grade graduation [...]

Problematic!

January 12, 2024|

Taking an old film score and dropping it into a new film is “like wearing somebody else’s underwear,” veteran composer Earle Hagen used to say. Hagen, the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning composer of such classic themes as “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mod Squad,” would have [...]

Carnegie Hall Premiere of Nevertheless

November 16, 2023|

The narrative of Los Angeles-based American composer Bruce Babcock’s engaging new Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano “Nevertheless” is not so much it’s enigmatic, even passive aggressive title and real time story, as the tightrope of barely contained energy and powerful narrative colors that reap substance and satisfaction from the [...]

A Review of Nevertheless

October 1, 2023|

The narrative of Los Angeles-based American composer Bruce Babcock’s engaging new Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano “Nevertheless” is not so much it’s enigmatic, even passive aggressive title and real time story, as the tightrope of barely contained energy and powerful narrative colors that reap substance and satisfaction from the [...]