Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival takes Gleaner Honour Awards, the CEO responds

Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, formerly Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, takes the Jamaican Gleaner Honour Award 2010 in the category of Entertainment. From scores of nominees, the award is given annually to individuals and organisations that have made a difference by positively enhancing Jamaica's quality of life.

Since 1996, the festival has brought thousands of tourists to the Jamaican north coast and January 2010 staging in a new venue, the Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium, attracted over 20,000 patrons over three days. From Ziggy Marley and George Benson at its first staging, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Ritchie in between, to Babyface, Gladys Knight in 2010 the festival has featured well over 100international and local stars.

Big names are being eyed as Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary January 23 -29, 2011.

YolanDa Brown woke to an "amazing gift" from Yamaha Music UK

YolanDa Brown woke up recently to a special delivery of a brand new saxophone from Yamaha Music UK, the world's largest and most successful maker of quality musical instruments with global network extends across 20 countries.

The jubilant multi-award winning Brown posted a thank you on Twitter "Thanks so much to Yamaha UK for my amazing gift! I can't stop playing this beautiful sax - a great sound! aha".

YolanDa Brown, popular young UK sax player with Jamaican connections, recently graduated from a London University with a PhD degree.

Michael Bublé 's "Crazy Love" tops Billboard Jazz Album charts

Canadian jazz crooner Michael Bublé's fourth studio album CRAZY LOVE (2009) stays comfortably atop Billboard Jazz Album charts concurrently as it straddles the Top 200 Album (Pop) at #124 after peaking at #1.

The tracks of CRAZY LOVE; 1. Cry Me a River 2. All of Me 3. Georgia on My Mind 4. Crazy Love 5. Haven't Met You Yet 6. All I Do Is Dream of You 7. Hold On 8. Heartache Tonight 9. You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You 10. Baby (You've Got What It Takes)11. At This Moment 12. Stardust 13. Whatever It Takes.

Michael Bublé (pronounced "booblay") winning stratagem is in taking the old (Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin) and made them new again. He combines pop standards from decades past with a splash of original tunes for a mix that has brought him international acclaim. And, his fans adore him, to the point of swooning like school-aged girls.

And, Michael Bublé is not down yet, find him elsewhere on this week's Billboard charts in the Catalog Album category where IT'S TIME is at #36 having gone to #1 and the recent HOLLYWOOD is at #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Since 2003, Bublé's made a quick trip up the ladder of success with bestselling albums like 2005's IT"S TIME and 2008's CALL MR IRRESPONSIBLE.

YolanDa Brown: A jazz saxophonist with affiliation in academia

Jazz has a preponderance of musicians of high academic achievements who have PhDs, Masters, Bachelors degree behind their names. Maybe the converse holds that high academic achievers, who are musicians, are invariably attracted to this great and wonderful music.

A recent addition to the list of A-Graders is YolanDa Brown,
British born jazz saxophonist, 2008 MOBO Award Winner "Best Jazz", 2008 Urban Music Award Nominee "Best Jazz", Women in Entertainment and Arts Award 2009 "Best Musician", who recently been awarded a Honourary Doctorate of Art degree from the North East London University joining a multitude of jazz musicians with affiliation to academia.

Born in England of Jamaican parents, the princess of sax is widely regarded as the "emerging" voice of mainstream jazz in the UK. Endorsed by Yamaha, supported by MAC Cosmetics, Brown has performed in a range of platform including the London Jazz Festival to an audience with the President of Russia. She has opened for artists including Diana Krall, The Temptation, David Sanborn and played at Royal Albert Hall and significant venues across the world.

Dr. YolanDa Brown is set to play what is undoubtedly a milestone concert at the IndigO2 at the O2, London in November.

Jolly Boys mento rocks ITunes reggae/dancehall charts in Europe

Amazon.com product description underscores the Jolly Boys' Great Expectation CD as "a stunning album of Mento interpretation of contemporary songs", eliciting comparison to Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club.

Released in Europe September as the main clutch of a hectic tour of the continent, Great Expectation, this week, tops all current reggae and dancehall artistes on nine Itunes' Reggae/Dancehall online music store charts.

With even greater expectation, the CD album is expected to be released in the US towards mid year 2011.