Today's Jazz Events

Pianist/composer Louis Durra returns with an installment of Music, Music, Music, his column featuring advice and ideas for musicians. In "New (?) Ways to Practice," he talks about some new techniques he's  using. Do you have any to share? Post them in the comments section! Also: Jazz guitar fans have another week to look forward to with appearances from John Abercrombie, Stanley Jordan and Bruce Forman. Other featured acts this week include Azar Lawrence, Mitchel Forman and Denise Donatelli. Find out more about these gigs, and what else is happening around town, in Tom Meek's latest installment of About & Out. 

(John Rogers, AP) Freddie Hubbard, the Grammy-winning jazz musician whose blazing virtuosity influenced a generation of trumpet players and who collaborated with such greats as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, died Monday, a month after suffering a heart attack. He was 70. Hubbard died at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his manager, fellow trumpeter David Weiss of the New Jazz Composers Octet. He had been hospitalized since suffering the heart attack a day before Thanksgiving. Hubbard played on more than 300 recordings, including some of the most important jazz albums of the 1960s, including Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," Coleman's "Free Jazz," Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch," Coltrane's "Ascension," Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil" and his own classic, "Ready for Freddie."

Funeral services for Freddie Hubbard will be held at 1pm on Tuesday, January 6 at the Faithful Central Bible Church's Tabernacle, 321 North Eucalyptus Avenue (East of 405/West of LaBrea) in Inglewood. The funeral service will be open to the public. There will also be a viewing beginning at 11 am. The funeral service will be followed by a private repast. For more information, call the church: (310) 412-0372.

The Young Artist Jazz Series will kick off 2009 with a January 13 performance by vocalist Madelyn Deutch at Catalina Jazz Club at 8pm. 17-year-old Madelyn is a graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she studied vocal jazz. She has participated in the Stanford University Jazz Workshop and The Brubeck Institute Summer Colony and has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival's 50th Anniversary celebration. She was recently selected as an Outstanding Vocalist in the Downbeat Student Music Awards. She attends the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Madelyn will be joined by Nikos Syropoulos (p), Garret Lang (b), and a drummer to be announced later. The Young Artist Jazz Series started over 12 years ago with the goal of providing a forum for local young jazz artists to showcase their talents in front of a live audience, while giving the community the opportunity to support and enjoy these musicians.

Jack Quigley died at Providence St. Joseph's in Burbank after a heart attack, surrounded by friends and family, at 79. Quigley studied at the Boston University School of Music, where his compositions were performed by the Boston String Quartet and for the MacDowell Colony. In 1958, he conducted a TV series, "The World Around Us," exploring the phenomena of Jazz in America. He organized a large experimental jazz orchestra that caused a stir at Westerly, RI's Jazz Under the Stars festival in 1959, and was deemed "the hit of the concert" in Downbeat. His recording career becan shortly thereafter. Quigley moved his family to LA in 1961. Three of his solo albums were listed as Jazz Picks of the Week by Cashbox. Quigley's composition "Children at Play" was performed at the LA Music Center by the Los Angeles Neophonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stan Kenton. Quigley continued composing, arranging and conducting into the late 1990s.

Marking  the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, an all-star band will visit the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Samueli Theater January 23 and 24 to celebrate the company's rich catalog of music. Led by Blue Note artist and pianist Bill Charlap, the group will explore classic tunes by Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, and many others. Joining Charlap will be guitarist Peter Bernstein, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, drummer Lewis Nash, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, bassist Peter Washington and alto saxophonist Steve Wilson.

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The El Roble Intermediate School and Claremont High School Music Boosters will present their annual Concert with the Pros event at the historic Bridges Auditorium, on January 24 from 6:30 - 10:00 pm. In addition to the two headlining professional acts - NUTTY and The Night Blooming Jazzmen - the El Roble and Claremont High School Jazz Bands, under the direction of Rick Melanson, will perform.  $10 tickets will be available for presale at the Claremont Chamber of Commerce at 205 Yale Avenue in the Claremont Village; tickets may also be purchased at the door for $12. This annual concert showcases the talent of Claremont's young jazz musicians and aims to raise essential funding for the El Roble Intermediate School and Claremont High School Jazz Band programs.

Page Cavanaugh, who was the leader of a trio whose popularity crested in the '40s and '50s and who continued to perform and record in Southern California until quite recently, died on December 26th of kidney failure. During his trio's early days, Cavanaugh appeared with Frank Sinatra, played for The Jack Paar Show and appeared in a number of films. The trio would place in Top 10 polls in Downbeat, score a number of chart hits, and perform residencies in local venues such as The Captain's Table and The Money TP        Cavanaugh's trio released its most recent CD, "Return to Elegance," in 2006, and he made his last appearance with the group in June 2007. Cavanaugh had no surviving relatives, and no services are scheduled.