Guitarist and prolific recording artist Jack Grassel had already been playing in bands for several years before 1970, when he was finally asked to write a song. At the time, he was involved in the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s recently inaugurated jazz program. “They decided to have a composers’ concert by faculty members,” he recalls...

This column by Jayson Stark amasses a large number of strange, but true facts from this past baseball season. Some of the feats are truly remarkable.Worth the read....

DownBeat is one of the great music fanzine successes and probably the oldest-running publication of its kind. Started in 1934 by devotees of the still-disreputable music called jazz, a sound deemed unworthy of serious consideration in the...

In undergraduate school, I took a course in the history of pop music. It’s kind of surprising that courses like that aren’t closer to the core of a standard liberal arts education. An understanding of the history of contemporary pop gives one a really interesting perspective on what’s going on in the world of contemporary pop culture—makes for a much more literate graduate. Somewhere in t...

Friday dealt another blow to Milwaukee's beleaguered jazz fans: The Pabst Theater announced that, following the resignation of the program's title sponsor, it is canceling its long-running Hal Leonard Jazz Series. "While we will no longer promote the music in a series format, jazz enthusiasts can rest assured that the music will not disappear from our venues," the Pabst Theater Foundation's ex...

Brett Favre Madness October 01, 2007 | 01:43 PM I've kept away from blogging on the entity that is Brett Favre because even those living under rocks have heard that he broke the record yesterday. However, what kind of fan would I be if I didn't at least mark the occasion. First things first, this is a spectacular database that the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel put together to start of this season. ...