Vocalist Lauren Henderson (clockwise from top-left), broadcaster and journalist Mark Ruffin, manager Gail Boyd, venue-owner Gerry Eastman and bassist John Clayton recount some of their experiences in the jazzworld.
(Photo: Courtesy Of Artists)Jul 3, 2020 9:00 AM
Though jazz is a genre shared and revered by people of all backgrounds, there’s no equivocating: The music is the sonic embodiment of the Black experience in America. As Louis…
Trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938–’72) performs with the Jazz Messengers on Nov. 15, 1959, at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Jul 3, 2020 9:42 AM
“The first rock ’n’ roll group I was in—me and Archie Shepp, and Reggie Workman for a while, too—was Carl Holmes and the Jolly Rompers.” Thirty-one-year-old trumpeter Lee Morgan—at 18 a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s State Department band, long-associated with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, writer of “The Sidewinder” and leader of his own quintet—was illustrating a point.
“Music is coming so close together,” he said. “Everybody’s using a little bit of everybody else. A tremendous amount of beautiful material is coming from…
