Previous Next Latest

News Ticker: Freddie Hubbard, Jay-Z and Bjork

12/30/08, 10:45 am EST

Famed jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died yesterday in Los Angeles, more than a month after suffering a heart attack. He was 70. In a career in jazz that spanned 50 years and more than 300 recordings, Hubbard collaborated with musicians like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, just to name a few. “He influenced all the trumpet players that came after him,” said Wynton Marsalis.
Jay-Z’s planned luxury hotel on New York’s West Side is the latest victim of the recession; plans to break ground have been “postponed indefinitely.” The J Hotels line is reportedly just delayed and not canceled, however the current economic climate “can no longer support the $370 million in loans and investment” needed to make the planned five-star hotel a reality.
In other recession news, Bjork is going from helping Iceland’s environment to aiding her homeland’s floundering economy by seeking investors for a venture capital fund aimed at financing new businesses in her home country. Audur Capital hopes to raise $11.8 million (or 1.5 billion kronur) by the end of March to reinvest into “environmentally friendly businesses and technologies.”

Daniel Kreps