Jun 3, 2025 1:47 PM
Al Foster: A Journeyman Marks Time with Miles
Recently, Al Foster played a gig with Buster Williams’ band at a club in New York. The drummer’s propulsive and…
“One of the reasons that we appear to be not so popular with the so-called ‘jazz’ public is because they expect Miles to be doing something he did five, 10 years ago,” said drummer Al Foster. “This current band is going in another direction, and I think that it’s wrong to put the music down simply because it differs from yesterday. … My favorite musicians today are Miles, Sonny Rollins and Sly Stone. I love the variety available to us. You lose something when you restrict yourself.”
Jun 3, 2025 1:47 PM
Recently, Al Foster played a gig with Buster Williams’ band at a club in New York. The drummer’s propulsive and…
“To see him is still an experience,” Andy Bey said of Jimmy Scott. “Life force. Still blues-based, still a lot of soul.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:24 AM
The soulful, supple, honeyed baritone of singer Andy Bey, placed at the service of a distinctive point of view, is one…
“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.
Mar 11, 2025 1:04 PM
“Keep up the intensity, keep up the intensity!” urged the diminutive alto saxophonist. He was talking to his new…
“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…
