• A terrific new charity CD is due next week, benefiting refugee assistance in Sudan's humanitarian crisis. Entitled Genocide in Sudan, the Waxploitation Records release features contributions from an amazing array of socially conscious artists, including Tom Morello's Nightwatchmen, Tweaker with Will Oldham, Danger Mouse with Murs, and DJ Spooky with Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Quad City Symphony Orchestra Conductor Donald Schleicher promised us a “night of beauty, elegance, and gorgeous melody” this past Saturday, November 6, at the Adler Theatre. He, the Quad City Symphony, and guest oboist Robert Atherholt delivered just that at the symphony’s second classical series concert of the season.
Twenty years after it first raised awareness and funds for African famine relief, the Band Aid Trust is active again, preparing to re-record the mother of all benefit projects, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" later this week with Bono of U2; members of Morcheeba, Coldplay, Travis, and Supergrass; Sir Paul McCartney; Dido; Robbie Williams; and Snow Patrol, with guitar power via The Darkness.
In this day and age, making music is easy. What's hard is getting somebody to pay attention. "Anybody with a computer can make music," said Jeff Konrad, the founder of the Rock Island-based Radical Turf record label.
Eddie Henderson, one of today's top and most original jazz trumpet players, joins one of today's best jazz bands when he performs on Friday with the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble at North Scott High School in Eldridge.
• The "ignorance is bliss" mentality of SpongeBob SquarePants turned the freckle-cheeked barnacle into the prince of the Nickelodeon television network, but in two weeks he graduates to the big time with his own feature-length motion picture.
Political enlightenment is the buzz for this coming Tuesday, as three new CDs hope you swing by your favorite record store after voting your conscience. Virgin Records is releasing a eMOTIVe, a collection of politically minded covers by A Perfect Circle, featuring a bonus DVD and a limited edition with a bonus T-shirt.
• Led Zeppelin fanatics get a big screen treat this coming Monday evening at 35 Regal Cinemas across the country, as the theatre chain will dim the lights for a special showing of No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded one day before its DVD release.
• The youthful audience of the WB network's hit show Everwood is getting a music-history lesson with this Tuesday's release of its original television soundtrack. The Nettwerk Records' CD features current artists covering old-school FM-radio fare - from Kristen Hersh's take on Cat Stevens' "Trouble" to the Stereophonics' spin on Roberta Flack's soulful "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
In 1989, the avant-garde composer and sax player John Zorn released Naked City, which I’ve always described as “death jazz.” The album featured an all-star band tackling music that ranged from short blasts of violent noise (with tracks as short as eight seconds) to beautifully atmospheric interpretations of classic film music, including a kick-ass version of the theme from the James Bond movies.

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