Jazz

Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

“Mercy Mercy Mercy” is a great tune, but it was a surprise mainstream hit. It was written and originally recorded in 1966 and had reached #11 on the Billboard charts by 1967. Later it was covered by The Buckinghams and the Mauds, and was on the charts again. Written by the influential keyboardist and composer…

Tech News Lily Hay Newman Sep 1

Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith: Cherokee

I saw Lou Donaldson play the other night. Which is crazy, because Lou Donaldson is 86. But he’s still the man. He was joking around and calling out charts. And though his range is kind of impaired at this point, he was using the limitations to be more creative with what he did have. And…

Tech News Lily Hay Newman Aug 18

John Coltrane: Bessie’s Blues

I have this chart as my ringtone. Anytime anyone calls me this is what I hear. Except my phone is almost always on silent, but whatever. The point is, “Bessie’s Blues” is a great tune. And it’s interesting because it’s the only uptempo track on Coltrane’s 1964 album Crescent, which has some pretty dark stuff…

Tech News Lily Hay Newman Aug 4

Duke Ellington: Jack The Bear

This is gonna be a classy Friday night. You don’t have to groove to Duke Ellington all the time, but when you do you should turn on Jack The Bear. This chart showcases Jimmy Blanton (Jack the bear…get it?), a bassist who at 22 brought the band to a new level in the early 1940s.…

Tech News Lily Hay Newman Jun 21

Hiromi: I’ve Got Rhythm

Hiromi is a big deal Japanese jazz pianist who’s getting pretty famous in the U.S. now, too. She’s been touring around the world for awhile and her compositions are really great. Oh and her playing is totally badass. People always talk about Hiromi’s energy as the thing that draws them in, and it’s definitely a…

Tech News Lily Hay Newman May 5

Oscar Peterson Trio: C Jam Blues

Let’s go waaaay back for this one. Almost half a century ago, in 1964, the legendary Oscar Peterson Trio performed this great rendition of Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues” in Denmark. While Peterson could (and often did) burn through standards at breakneck speed, he lets this tune stretch out – displaying his famous Art Tatum-influenced…

Tech News Robert Schoon Apr 12

Blue Note: Because There’s a World of Rad Jazz You Need to Hear

Yeah, we get it. This is the iPod generation, and you won’t listen to anything smarter than a Top 40 song by Shakira or whoever the hell is popular right now, but there’s a lot of classic jazz that you should really learn more about—if only to impress future dates. What does it do? Founded…

Tech News Mario Aguilar Oct 4

A Dr. McNinja video game, a Star Trek jazz album, and a fairy tale cartoon starring Lena Headey

Looking for a few projects to fund this week? We’ve got some intriguing projects still searching for some generous patrons: a video game based on The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, an album filled with Star Trek jazz covers, a collection of racially diverse fantasy artwork, and a Grimm Fairy Tale animated series, with Lena Headey…

io9 Lauren Davis Apr 15

Boom Boom Satellites : Kick It Out

Gotta love this video. It starts out innocently enough with a bit of Jet-style garage rock, then the beat drops and everything goes sideways. Boom Boom Satellites formed back in 1990, when college friends Michiyuki Kawashima and Masayuki Nakano began tooling around. By 1998, BBS had released its debut album 7 Ignitions/Auto Re-Birth, performed at…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Nov 11

Shimon Robot Takes Over Jazz As Doomsday Gets a Bit More Musical

It’s over. Improvisational jazz was the last, robot-free area humans had left, and now it’s tainted by the machines. Even so, you have to admit the tech driving this jazzy robot is pretty amazing. At least they’ll be able to carry a tune as we march into the slave pits, amiright? As you’ll see in…

Tech News Jack Loftus Apr 26

1940s Video Shows Off Crazy Bike Innovations

I’m not completely sure what’s going on in this clip or where it’s even from but it contains a) weird and crazy bicycles, b) jazzy music, and c) old timeyness—thus, it rules. I’m pretty sure the language is Czech, so if any of you know Czech, please tell me what they’re saying! My favorite strange…

Tech News Elaine Chow Aug 2

20 Total Bots In Transformers 2 — Including One Major Surprise

The sequel to Michael Bay’s supercar movie Transformers will up the ante, with 20 transforming robots total: 10 good bots and 10 evil ones, says writer Roberto Orci. And some new photos of the Transformers 2 filming may give some clues to which characters from the Transformers universe could be showing up, including some Chinese…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jun 2

HD DVD’s Animatronic Secret Weapon Not Enough to Defeat Blu-ray

As if 1080p video, full-resolution audio, net connectivity and multi-tuner signal decoding wasn’t enough, Toshiba’s HD DVD team had even cooked up a system of embedded animatronic control before the format was put out of its misery. In this video left over from CES 2008, this little mechanical jazz band playing the Duke Ellington classic…

Tech News Benny Goldman Feb 25

Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith: Cherokee

John Coltrane: Bessie’s Blues

Duke Ellington: Jack The Bear

Hiromi: I’ve Got Rhythm

Oscar Peterson Trio: C Jam Blues

Blue Note: Because There’s a World of Rad Jazz You Need to Hear

A Dr. McNinja video game, a Star Trek jazz album, and a fairy tale cartoon starring Lena Headey

Boom Boom Satellites : Kick It Out

Shimon Robot Takes Over Jazz As Doomsday Gets a Bit More Musical

1940s Video Shows Off Crazy Bike Innovations

20 Total Bots In Transformers 2 — Including One Major Surprise

HD DVD’s Animatronic Secret Weapon Not Enough to Defeat Blu-ray

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