Which Herbie Hancock do you prefer? The post-bopper from the revolutionary rhythm section of Miles Davis's 1960s quintet? The tripped-out, funky Head Hunters band leader? And how can you say no to "Rockit"? more ›

After our morning at the Capitol, we made our way over to the Lincoln Memorial for the "We Are One" Concert which was to feature a range of political, celebrity, and musical appearances before an expected crowd of up to 500,000. We were plenty early as we made our way through the masses and it gave us a chance to scan the hundreds of items available to buy from the countless vendors. Shirts, towels, buttons, flags, you name it, it probably has Obama's picture on it and you're going to pay a a lot of pennies for it. Once inside the grounds, we found the press section nestled below the right side of the stage with a nice view, though the set pieces and a jumbotron obscured our view of one of the two onstage podiums as well as the actual Lincoln Memorial, but, still, we weren't complaining. We dodged CNN's John Roberts as he filmed a report from our corral and set up position for the show. more ›

At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother. more ›

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has been stretching the boundaries of modern music composition for the past 50+ years, but he’s not content to rest on his past accomplishments. He’s currently touring to support River: The Joni Letters, a collection of vocal and instrumental arrangements either composed or influential on the venerable Joni Mitchell. Guest vocalists on the album include most of the right-now voices in modern jazz-pop, like Corinne Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, Luciana Souza, Tina Turner, and Mitchell herself. It’s an interesting project to tackle for the nearly 70-year-old Chicago native, who made his mark with jazzbos and casual consumers of free form music alike as a member of Miles Davis’ “second great quintet” in the 1960’s, but Hancock has never shied away from pushing the envelop of composed music. more ›