This weekend, the Soul'd Out Music Festival will conclude with a performance by pianist and jazz master Ellis Marsalis, the man responsible for the Marsalis family jazz legacy that includes sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason. Last week, The Skanner News spoke with the pianist from his home in New Orleans.
Ellis, now retired from teaching at the University of New Orleans, still plays a weekly show in New Orleans, but says that his performances during this tour will likely be his last away from Louisiana

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Laurdine Patrick was born on July 31, 1956 in Chicago where he and his elder sister, Rhonda, were raised by their mother, Emily "Mae" Wintersmith, in the home of their maternal grandparents after she was abandoned by her husband. Their absentee father, the late Pat Patrick, was a legendary jazz saxophonist who recorded and performed with everybody from Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to Thelonious Monk to Sun Ra...

ATLANTA (AP) -- With a blond streak running up his uncombed Afro, rapper Wiz Khalifa leans back in his chair seemingly without a care in the world, as the aroma of marijuana rises from his gray sweater.
This is a snapshot of rap's newest sensation.
"Weed is just my thing," says the 23-year-old, whose latest album, "Rolling Papers," debuted this week at No. 2 on the album charts with more than 198,000 copies sold, putting him right behind Britney Spears.

Ma Rainey, in real life, was a ground breaker. She was part of the first generation of female Black recording artists. Her legend was so great that in 1982, playwright August Wilson further immortalized the blues singer in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
Still riding the critical praise of last year's "Radio Golf," The Portland Playhouse will begin its run of "Ma Rainey" this weekend to sold-out audiences.

Comedian/actor/deejay/author Steve Harvey spawned a veritable cottage industry of Black love advice books when he published "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" back in 2009. But none of those imitators which have come along since has matched the success of that runaway #1 best-seller. However, he now has serious competition in "The Strawberry Letter" which was coincidentally written by Shirley Strawberry, co-host of Steve's nationally-syndicated radio program.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Men and women will compete head-to-head, some of the more exotic awards like best Native American album and best spoken-word children's record have been eliminated, and the number of categories has been reduced by more than 30 in the biggest overhaul in the 53-year history of the Grammys.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A crowded nightclub is the setting. Ragtime music echoes through the smoke-filled room.
Actor Jon Seda walks toward the end of the bar, takes a seat and begins a shady conversation with a city insider about what's happening in post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Urban radio and TV personality DJ Megatron, who built a career at hip-hop and R&B radio stations from Philadelphia to Boston and told viewers of a popular music TV show "What's Good," was shot to death early Sunday, his manager and police said.

Soul and disco legend Loleatta Holloway has died. The "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation" singer died on March 21, 2011 after slipping into a coma. She was 64.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien has staked her career on reporting breaking news from domestic disasters like Hurricane Katrina as well as on location at international hotspots ... She was gracious enough to grant me an exclusive interview from the midst of the disaster, checking in by cell to share her eyewitness perspective of the state of affairs in the crippled region.