The site has some great video on the power of rhythm, music therapy and Parkinsons’, amusia, and more. There’s also a mind-blowing excerpt on NPR.

I’ll be seeing him on speak on the fifth of November. If you have any questions you would like me to ask, please let me know.

You can find out more about his life and music at his official site and on Wikipedia. His music will be missed but never forgotten.

One of my favorite albums featuring Joe Zawinul as a sideman is Why Am I Treated So Bad? by Cannonball Adderley. The title track features a dirty wurlitzer solo by Joe. To me, the best part is the audience participation. It’s a deep conversation between musician and audience.

Another great track on that album is Mini Mama. The transcription I’m posting below is of Cannonball Adderley’s alto sax solo. This is another soulful blues that gets the audience shouting.

Download the transcription:
Mini Mama Alto Sax Solo

Here’s his own rendition of “Mr. Hi Hat” in tribute to Papa Jo Jones.

Check the press releases for the full details:

EMI: EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

Apple: Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

This is a huge leap towards a DRM-free world and a giant middle finger to the RIAA. If this move actually grows digital music sales, which I suspect it will, then we can expect to see the RIAA sink into the quicksand fast. It’s about time.

It’s not cheap at $100 but it looks worth it just to learn the mics, mixers, effects, and instruments they used to get those classic sounds. I’m definitely buying a copy!

Tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker died Saturday at the age of 57. The artist was one of the jazz world’s most prolific studio musicians. He toured or performed with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Herbie Hancock. Brecker was known for his powerful tone and his stamina for a solo.

This is so sad. He’s been sick for a long time now and I would read the news each day hoping not to see this headline. I’ve studied all of his music. I’ve memorized his solos. Transcribed his toughest lines. I’m going to miss his beautiful music.

He had the most soul of any sax player ever. Rest in peace, Michael.

Some interesting links while I was away:

MySpace to Let Members Sell Music:
A new partnership will allow indie artists and established rockers to sell mp3s of their songs directly to fans on MySpace.

From Crypto to Jazz:
A new jazz album draws on cryptography and number theory for its riffs and rhythms. Listen to saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s melodies with audio clips of digits turned into notes. By Alexander Gelfand.

Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, known for his soaring high notes and for his hit recording of “Gonna Fly Now,” which lent the musical muscle to the “Rocky” movies, has died. He was 78.

Ferguson, who lived in Ojai, Calif., died last night (Aug. 23) at Community Memorial Hospital of kidney and liver failure due to an abdominal infection, friend and manager Steve Schankman said. Ferguson’s four daughters, Kim, Lisa, Corby and Wilder, and other family members were at his side when he died.

“Someone just said, `Gabriel, move over to second trumpet,’” Schankman said from his St. Louis office. “He was the last of the greats. That era is closed. There is no Kenton, no Basie, no Ellington, and now, no Ferguson.”

Born into a musical family in Montreal, Ferguson began playing the piano and violin at age 4, took up the trumpet at 9 and soloed with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Orchestra at 11. He quit school at 15 to pursue a career in music.

The next year he was leading his own dance band, the first of a number of big bands and smaller ensembles he eventually fronted in a career that produced more than 60 albums and three Grammy nominations.

Ferguson, also a much admired teacher, became identified with ear-piercing power and dizzying high notes that he was still able to play with precision. He was named Down Beat magazine’s “trumpeter of the year” three times.

“My instrument is a thing of pleasure, and I play it only because I enjoy it,” he once said. “The most important thing is doing what feels right for me.” The trumpeter — who stood just 5 feet 9 — credited yoga with enabling him to harness the full capacity of his lungs and routinely hit a double-high-C.

As with many esteemed jazz players, mainstream success largely eluded Ferguson. But he scored a top 10 hit with his version of “Gonna Fly Now,” and the single spawned a gold album and a Grammy nomination in 1978.

“I knew it was going to be a hit,” he once said of the Bill Conti composition. “Sylvester Stallone was in the studio when we recorded it,” punching a speed bag to the rhythm of the song.

“If you listen very close to the original recording, you can hear in the mix the sound of him hitting the small bag,” Ferguson said.

Billboard – AP

I met Maynard when he came to my high school in the late 80s. It was a pivotal experience for me. His keyboardist gave me a free lesson and taught me about tritone substitution. That changed everything.

Officials at the CIA and scientists around the world have pondered the “cocktail party problem” for decades. How could they separate one sound – perhaps a voice – from a group of other recorded sounds, perhaps a multitude of voices at a cocktail party? Now, two researchers have found a mathematical solution the problem.

Cocktail Party Problem on Wikipedia.

This is pretty fascinating stuff. The science of sound. read more.

The iconic rocker says the music industry has no right to bitch about piracy when its modern recording technology only screws up good music anyway.

Dylan’s pretty tough on the current state of recording. He’s got good points too. We’ve lost almost all dynamic range in modern recordings. But there’s still good stuff out there so he ends up sounding a little like a grumpy old man. But as part of the rock lineage, you have to show respect to one of the world’s greatest songwriters and listen closely.

Full article: Bob Dylan: Technology Sucks

A neuroscientist explains why women want rock stars to father their children, and how melodies can work like Prozac.

This looks like a good book: This Is Your Brain On Music. I always get nervous, though, when scientists try to reduce everything to “The Brain.” There’s obviously a lot more going on in the universe than just biology.

Full article by Randy Dotinga: Music Makes Your Brain Happy

Like musical instruments, stars can produce notes through their vibrations. Here you can listen to some of the ghostly whistling, drumming, humming, and rumbling sounds that stars make.

Have a listen to the hypnotic drone of HR3831 or the celestial drumming of Xi-hydrae. It will blow your mind! read more.

Seeing as how this week marks the 29th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, as well as Madonna’s 48th birthday, IGN decided to spotlight the Top Ten Rock Movies. The movies selected for this list are not concert films or documentaries but rather narrative films about rock and roll.

Purple Rain would be my number 1. read more.

Duke Jordan, a pianist whose work with the saxophonist Charlie Parker endures in the jazz canon, died on Tuesday in Valby, Denmark, a suburb of Copenhagen. He was 84, and he had lived in self-imposed exile from the United States since 1978, continuing to perform in the musical tradition he helped create.

His death was confirmed by Alistair Thomson, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Denmark.

Mr. Jordan was regarded as one of the great early bebop pianists. The sound that he helped to create in the postwar era was something new in the American landscape, and it remains a cornerstone of jazz.

Full article by Tim Weiner.

Listen to Duke Jordan on Rhapsody.

Louis Armstrong – Dinah (early 1930s)

The Sesame Street song.