N2K's Website, Tribute, Scholarship Fund Honor Miles Davis

On May 26, N2K's JazzCentralStation launched the first officially sanctioned Miles Davis StarSite, MilesDavis.com. An all-star musical and multimedia tribute was held that evening at New York City's Birdland, hosted by Dr. Billy Taylor and recorded by Phil Ramone and Michael Cuscuna for a September release on N2K Encoded Music. May 26 would have been Davis' 72nd birthday.

Created by N2K's JazzCentralStation.com under the guidance and supervision of the Estate of Miles Davis, the site features biographical information; a multimedia timeline featuring photos and audio and video clips; audio interviews with musicians, celebrities, and major figures in Miles Davis' life; sound clips from radio and television interviews; and digitized representations of his original art work.

MilesDavis.com is linked to Music Boulevard, N2K's online music superstore, which, in addition to more than 100 titles of Miles Davis' recordings and videos, offers more than 200,000 music titles and 350,000 sound samples. The site will be updated monthly. Installments will include historical and biographical texts, as well as audio and video clips. The debut installment features Inside Bebop, where fans can learn about the young trumpeter coming to New York to play with his idol, Charlie Parker.

Jazz luminaries who gathered for the historic performance included Wallace Roney, Bob Berg, Jimmy Cobb, Dave Liebman, Geri Allen, Randy Brecker, Harold Maburn, Vince Wilburn, Jr., Bobby Irving, Al Foster, Gary Peacock, George Coleman, Buster Williams, Lenny White, and Mino Cinelu. The tribute was cybercast live on MilesDavis.com and N2K's JazzCentralStation.com in cooperation with Birdland and WBGO, Jazz 88 FM. This cybercast was the first in a series to be presented by the JazzCentralStation.com and Birdland partnership.

A Miles Davis Scholarship Fund, to be administered by the International Association of Jazz Educators, will receive the net proceeds from the sales of the recording. N2K Inc. has seeded the fund with a $10,000 initial contribution.

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