JAZZ’S VOICE, BILLY TAYLOR, DEAD AT 89

Pianist Billy Taylor, widely regarded as jazz’s most articulate spokesman, has died at age 89. “Before Wynton Marsalis, he was probably the most famous representative the jazz world ever had, a familiar presence on TV and radio, as well as the force behind jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington,” jazz critic Will Friedwald wrote [...]

AL-JAZEERA ENGLISH TO DOUBLE ITS U.K. AUDIENCE

Al-Jazeera English, the Qatar-based satellite news channel that has struggled to find cable outlets in the West willing to carry it, scored a coup on Tuesday when the U.K. cable service Freeview agreed to add it to its lineup beginning on Thursday, July 1. The deal adds ten million homes to the Arab news channel’s [...]