Jan 3, 2020 2:49 PM
Peripatetic Benny Golson
One of the most successful of this country’s regular across-the-pond commuters is a man with several strings to his…
Benny Golson genuinely is excited by the opportunity to write good music in any genre.
Jan 3, 2020 2:49 PM
One of the most successful of this country’s regular across-the-pond commuters is a man with several strings to his…
Woody Herman (1913–1987)
Dec 2, 2019 11:55 AM
New York—“Woody Herman has the greatest ofay swing band in the country—bar none!”
That’s what all the band…
Chet Baker (1929–1988)
Oct 26, 2019 4:47 PM
In the middle 1950s, Chet Baker was the young Lochinvar out of the West, the fair-haired boy of critics and laymen…
Sun Ra (1914–1993)
Sep 30, 2019 10:14 AM
Shards of sound scatter across the concert hall. Blips and bleeps, squiggles and snarls spew out from stage right,…
Ella Fitzgerald (1917–’96)
Aug 30, 2019 1:14 PM
“We had a request to sing,” Ella began over the applause—and suddenly she stopped. “You know,” she grinned,…
Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941)
Aug 5, 2019 11:00 AM
Dear Mr. Ripley:
For many years I have been a constant reader of your Believe It or Not cartoon. I have listened to…
Billie Holiday and her dog, Mister, in New York City during February 1947
Jul 1, 2019 11:09 AM
CHICAGO—You sit with Billie Holiday and watch her smoke cigarettes chain fashion. The first thing that strikes you is…
Oscar Peterson (1925–2007)
Jun 3, 2019 9:54 AM
I have long been disturbed about what I’ve seen of the state of mind of the average young jazz musician around the…
Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972)
May 6, 2019 9:00 AM
“Mahalia, she was a girl in the slave days. She was dreaming of jubilee all the time. Of better days to come. My…
Ornette Coleman (1930–2015)
Apr 1, 2019 2:35 PM
Ekkehard Jost’s description of Ornette Coleman’s music—despite being a little too academic for such a soulful and…
