FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec.

Festival Highlights include Patti LaBelle, George Benson, Gary Burton Quartet featuring Pat Metheny, Kind of Blue @ 50 Tribute to Miles Davis featuring Jimmy Cobb SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., Jan.

By Roger Moore They teach it in Interviewing 101: find common ground with your subject. But when your subject is rich, famous, plump and happy Jack Black, that might be tricky. Do your homework and there, in the details of his 2006 wedding to cellist Tanya Haden, is the hook.

Esperanza Spalding, a 23-year-old bassist, vocalist and composer from Portland, Ore., is so wildly talented that when her publicity material announces that she "might well be the hope for the future of jazz and instrumental music," it seems like a reasonable proposition.

By Dan Ouellette NEW YORK (Billboard) - Micro-indie and artist-run labels will once again show their mettle at Wednesday's Grammy Awards, in light of 2005's historic win by Maria Schneider.