Jan 2, 2025 1:04 AM
Jazz at the White House: Jimmy Carter on Jazz
The following speech by President Jimmy Carter kicked off the jazz festivities he and the First Lady hosted on the…
“I heard Lou Donaldson for the first time, and that down-home feeling of his was a gas,” said Bunky Green about one of his early influences.
Published December 15, 1966
“Keep up the intensity, keep up the intensity!” urged the diminutive alto saxophonist. He was talking to his new group in the midst of a recording session, but he could just…
The cover image of DownBeat’s Sept. 7, 1978, issue, which featured in-depth coverage of President Jimmy Carter’s jazz picnic party on the White House’s South Lawn. The historic gathering honored and was honored by a history of jazz that embraced everything from ragtime through the avant garde.
Jan 2, 2025 1:04 AM
The following speech by President Jimmy Carter kicked off the jazz festivities he and the First Lady hosted on the…
“If you never suffered, you can’t play the blues,” says Lou Donaldson.
Nov 12, 2024 12:15 PM
When it comes to a soulful jazz groove, it just doesn’t get much groovier than Lou Donaldson, whose blues-drenched…
The candidate and his crew, from left, Kenny Barron, James Moody, Rudy Collins, Dizzy Gillespie, Chris White and Shelly Manne.
Nov 4, 2024 9:29 PM
As the…
Albert Ayler
Nov 16, 2021 11:23 AM
In a restaurant-bar in Greenwich Village, tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler was ruminating on the disparity between renown…
T.S. Monk at home
Nov 9, 2021 10:54 AM
What’s it like to grow up the child of a famous father, the son of jazz royalty? What’s it like to share the name…
At 25 years old, bassist Esperanza Spalding wasn’t overly concerned with marketability.
Oct 12, 2021 1:55 PM
Esperanza Spalding buoys with moxie-plus, high-octane ebullience, spirited determination and respectful humility in the…
In addition to making significant contributions to the jazz canon’s batch of standards, saxophonist Benny Golson appeared in a pair of films and was photographed in “A Great Day In Harlem.”
Oct 5, 2021 3:27 PM
If you make it to 80 and still are at the top of your game, you’re one lucky guy.
All you have to do is look…
Tomasz Stańko
Sep 13, 2021 2:41 PM
In 1993, four years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, Poland’s most prominent jazz…
Count Basie (1904–1984)
Sep 7, 2021 1:00 PM
The following discussion took place on a Sunday afternoon in Count Basie’s dressing room during the recent Jazz…
Benny Goodman
Aug 3, 2021 2:45 PM
About 27 years have gone by since they danced in the aisles to the music of Benny Goodman and his band at the Paramount…
