Roaring into Johannesburg on its way to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown earlier this month, The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra blew the rafters off The Orbit Jazz Club in Braamfontein in a one-night stand and showed the capacity crowd that big band jazz is more than alive and well in Europe. Reminiscent of the Thad…
Hi Everyone, Hope you’re having a great summer. Here’s my schedule for the next couple months, including a performance at Kitano Jazz Club in New York on 8/13! – I’ll be singing & playing with a great band – please come if you’re in the area, and tell your friends! Diane Hubka – guitar & voice…
28 April 2015 Bookings open on Monday, 4 May for South Africa’s premier arts festival, which runs from 2 to 12 July in Grahamstown Aiming to satisfy, provoke and thrill both the discerning and the curious, this year’s National Arts Festival line-up showcases the best of what South Africa’s artists have to offer, as well…
Meeting Benny Goodman It was 1975 and I was in Chicago for my first visit, supposedly all business. I was employed (you’ll notice I did not say worked for) a company that represented Bell & Howell and Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corp (EBEC) both Chicago companies. EBEC had given me a tour of the Schlitz Brewery…
Opening night with the New York Philharmonic featured the American premiere of Wynton Marsalis‘ ―Swing Symphony‖. A combination of the New York Philharmonic and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra (100 musicians in all) filled the stage at Avery Fisher Hall for this one. My fellow correspondent Lenore Raphael and I both attended and she…
In 1945 Wilson began teaching at the Julliard School of Music. He appeared on film in the 1955″The Benny Goodman Story “. He worked on the staff of CBS radio in the late 40’s and early 50’s. He also did stu-dio work for Station WNEW. He left New York for a brief tour of Europe…
I met Benny Goodman at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago in 1975. His band was the headline act and was preceded, strangely, by Gladys Knight and the Pips. I managed to chat to him back stage for a while but struggled to get in my questions, so enamored was he with my ‗foreign‘ accent. I…