Rising Up In Purity
By Ted Panken
Wadada Leo Smith is enjoying one of the best years of his lengthy career. Smith, who is still youthful at age 75, topped three categories in the DownBeat Critics Poll: Jazz Artist of the Year, Jazz Album of the Year (for America’s National
By DownBeat
The complete poll results include more than 60 categories, both for established artists and Rising Stars. Plus, we’ve got brief descriptions of the year’s Top 10 Jazz Albums and Top 10 Historical Albums.
By Phillip Lutz
DownBeat examines the career of trumpeter Don Cherry (1936–’95), who had a long association with Ornette Coleman and later became a pioneer of world music.
By Dan Ouellette
Guitarist Mary Halvorson, who was profiled in our July 2014 cover story, “The 80 Coolest Things in Jazz Today,” continues to win accolades. She topped four categories in the Critics Poll: Guitar, Rising Star–Jazz Artist, Rising Star–Jazz Group and Rising Star–Composer.
DownBeat profiles the three influential artists voted into the Hall of Fame by our Veterans Committee: pianist Herbie Nichols (1919–’63), composer George Gershwin (1898–1937) and pianist Eubie Blake (1887–1983).
By James Hale
Veteran soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom impressed critics and won new fans with her 2016 album Early Americans.
By Ken Micallef
Tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger released an instrumental album of protest music, Meditations On Freedom, in early 2017, and he released Some Other Time on vinyl LP for the Newvelle label last year.
Matthew Garrison
