Music & Music Artists

Jo Stafford, 90, an exceptionally versatile singer who worked with Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey and the Pied Pipers and shared a Grammy Award with her conductor-husband for their parody of a tone-deaf lounge act, died July 16 at her home in Century City, Calif. She had congestive heart failure. Singer Judy Collins once said Ms. Stafford's poignant interpretation of folk ballads was pivotal to her own career in folk music. Although she made several acclaimed folk recordings, Ms. Stafford was mostly known as a pop vocalist with a warm, clean voice that music critic Terry Teachout called "rhythmically fluid without ever sounding self-consciously 'jazzy.' " From 1944 to 1954, Ms. Stafford placed nearly 75 songs in the pop charts as a solo entertainer. She was especially well-regarded for her versions of pop ballads including " You Belong to Me," " Make Love to Me," " Autumn Leaves" and "All the Things You Are...

Jo Stafford, a singer who was a favorite of GIs during World War II and whose recordings made the pop music charts dozens of times in the 1950s, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at her home in Century City. She was 90. According to her son, Tim Weston, she had been in ill health since October and had been hospitalized several times since 2002...

Art of Life Records has just launched our new MP3 Digital Download Store. Featuring MP3 Digital Downloads by Gordon Beck, Lenny Breau, Ron Thomas, Ted Greene, Andrea Marcelli, Jimi Tunnell, Tubby Hayes, Eddie Gomez, Joe Diorio, Stephen D. Anderson, Bob Mintzer, Randy Runyon, Ryan Oliver, Tony Moreno, Carl Filipiak, Denis DiBlasio, Chris Vadala, Tsuyoshi Ichikawa, Ari Erev, Phil Markowitz, Nick Rixen, Scott Sherwood, Stan Smith and Steve Zerlin...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 17 (Reuters) - Google Inc reported a weaker-than-expected 35 percent rise in quarterly net profit due to lower interest income and higher expenses for foreign currency hedges, driving its shares down 7 percent on Thursday. While other Internet companies have been suffering from a weakening U.S. economy, Wall Street has come to count on Google to deliver positive revenue and earnings surprises over and above consensus expectations each quarter...

Streaming music site Last.fm on Thursday launched new features and underwent a massive facelift. The new design is far more attractive and user-friendly than its original look, offering a more interactive platform to play, discover, and share free music...

Sony on Wednesday announced that you can now purchase its next-generation Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-S350...

BRUSSELS - The European Union's consumer chief on Thursday launched a crackdown on websites offering mobile phone services such as ringtones after a probe found most were ripping people off, notably teenagers. An initial investigation by EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva into 500 websites providing ringtones, wallpapers, news feeds or videogames worth hundreds of millions of euros found that 80 percent were "misleading" consumers...

BEVERLY HILLS, California - In a move that signals a possible thawing of Google Inc's relations with Hollywood, its YouTube unit has reached a deal to feature film clips from Lions Gate Entertainment Inc on the video-sharing site. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt announced the deal at an Ad Age/William Morris Agency conference on Wednesday and said it would give viewers access to scenes from their favorite Lions Gate movies, accompanied with ads...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Just what the television industry needs, increased competition from those wacky YouTube videos that 68 million people watch every month. Only now, it will be easier than ever to view them on television screens. Beginning Thursday, TiVo will offer thousands of its subscribers the ability to stream YouTube videos onto their television sets through their broadband-enabled TiVo boxes...

Robert Walter Trio Dates Robert Walter Soul-jazz organist Robert Walter built a reputation as one of America's heaviest jazz-funk crossover musicians. Robert is touring as a trio in support of his latest release Cure All. Joining Walter on tour are Johnny Vidacovich and bassist James Singleton. Vidacovich is an elder statesman in New Orleans. He taught many of the local drummers and has been a fixture of the music scene there all his life. James Singleton has an intimate and extensive affiliation with the New Orleans music scene and a member of Astral Project, a fixture there since 1978...