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Grammy-nominated jazz songwriter, singer and pianist Dave Frishberg died yesterday, according to a post on his Facebook page. His wife April Magnusson said he had been battling an illness for several years. He was 88.

Frishberg had a long and varied career that stretched from the Greenwich Village jazz scene of the ’50s to work as a studio musician in L.A. in the ’70s, to cutting his own Grammy-nominated albums and doing music for films and TV.

But his greatest fame came from his involvement with Schoolhouse Rock, a 1973-85 series of Saturday-morning shorts on ABC that used music and rhyme to help kids learn basic facts, with such memorable songs as “Elementary, My Dear”, “Conjunction Junction” and Frishberg’s “I’m Just a Bill”. “I’m Just a Bill” was famously spoofed on Saturday Night Live in 2014.

He wrote and performed other...

"We are at the jazz festival, and let me tell you it is really wonderful." Kino Lorber has revealed an official trailer for a 4K restoration re-release of a classic concert doc called Jazz on a Summer's Day. Legendary photographer Bert Stern's groundbreaking concert documentary shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival featuring performances by Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson and more. The 1959 classic is considered one of the most extraordinary and possibly the first concert film ever made. The film was named to the National Film Registry in 1999, and its restoration was funded by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in time to celebrate the film's 60th Anniversary. This looks like an awesome film to see in 4K in a cinema with full-on sound! An exceptional round of jazz music from some of the finest musicians...

It’s a summer without live music, among many other things, but one can live cathartically through classic concert films. One of the most acclaimed of its kind has received a new 4K restoration by IndieCollect and after a world premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival, it will now be arriving to theaters, virtual cinemas, and drive-ins courtesy of Kino Lorber Repertory.

Jazz on a Summer’s Day captures a classic series of performances that occurred at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and features Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, as well as a midnight performance of The Lord’s Prayer by Mahalia Jackson.

Directed by Bert Stern, the film was named to the National Film Registry in 1999, and its restoration was funded by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress in time to celebrate the film’s 60th Anniversary.

Johnny Mandel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter of “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Emily” and the theme from “Mash,” has died. He was 94.

“I was so sad to learn that a hero of mine, Johnny Mandel, passed away,” wrote Michael Buble on Twitter. “He was a genius and one of my favorite writers, arrangers, and personalities. He was a beast.”

“A dear friend and extraordinary composer arranger and all-around brilliant talent, Johnny Mandel, just passed away,” wrote Michael Feinstein on Facebook. “The world will never be quite the same without his humor, wit and wry view of life and the human condition. He was truly beyond compare, and nobody could write or arrange the way he did. Lord will we miss him. Let’s celebrate him with his music! He would like that.”

Mandel was considered one of the finest arrangers of the second half of the 20th century, providing...

Martinis Above Fourth Table Stage presents multi-platinum selling singersongwriter and Tony-nominee Ann Hampton Callaway in Diva Power. The show features a soaring celebration of the legendary ladies who helped shape the soundtrack of our lives - Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Edith Piaf, Etta James, Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Tickets for theToday, September 27performance at8PMare available atwww.ma4sd.comshows.

Martinis Above Fourth Table Stage presents multi-platinum selling singersongwriter and Tony-nominee Ann Hampton Callaway in Diva Power. The show features a soaring celebration of the legendary ladies who helped shape the soundtrack of our lives - Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Edith Piaf, Etta James, Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Tickets for theTuesday, September 27performance at8PMare available atwww.ma4sd.comshows.

What are your plans for the weekend? Here in the U.S., most folks are enjoying a long holiday weekend, filled with food, friends, and fireworks -- and maybe a free concert and a movie or two. On a personal note, with local temperatures soaring above 100 degrees for the past week or so, I'm staying inside and out of the weather as much as I can. And so I was pleased to find Jazz on a Summer's Day is available for free online viewing, courtesy of our friends at SnagFilms.

Directed by Aram Avakian and Bert Stern, the film documents the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and the America's Cup sailing tournament, two events which go together like a cool drink on a hot day. Performers at the festival include Thelonius Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O'Day (pictured), Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, and Mahalia Jackson. My knowledge of jazz is extremely limited,...

By Neil Pedley

With the summer's end in sight, this week might represent the last hurrah in the name of good fun before the gloomy, Oscar-baiting seriousness of the fall release schedule descends upon us. Woody's back, there's a grindhouse/B-movie double header, and in the realm of blockbuster comedy, it's the wily veteran versus the young upstart as Ben Stiller battles Seth Rogen in an all-out race to the stupid.

"Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer"

Although she was overshadowed by such greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day became one of the "three queens of Jazz," in spite of an artform dominated by African-Americans and her struggle with her own personal demons. In this documentary, the famed white jazz vocalist reflects on nearly 70 years in the spotlight, not merely performing jazz, but living it as a lifestyle. O'Day's former manager Robbie Cavolina and...