Jul 13, 2021 4:21 PM
Jazz Festival Updates!
The jazz festival season for 2021 has certainly been a moving target, mostly for the good. With a host of late-breaking…
Galactic will headline the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival.
Jul 13, 2021 4:21 PM
The jazz festival season for 2021 has certainly been a moving target, mostly for the good. With a host of late-breaking…
John Beasley earned Grammy nominations in multiple categories, including Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Jan 8, 2021 3:57 PM
Big band leaders John Beasley and Maria Schneider, pianist Gerald Clayton, trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and…
Dinner Party is the recorded collaboration of producer 9th Wonder, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin and keyboardist Robert Glasper.
Jul 21, 2020 2:50 PM
Friendships forged between young musicians can lead to magnificent collaborations. Sometimes those collaborations…
Thundercat is a second-generation product of the Los Angeles jazz scene: Drummer Ronald Bruner Sr., his father, gigged with saxophonist Rickey Washington, father of Kamasi Washington.
Jun 29, 2020 3:18 PM
Across four full-length efforts, Thundercat has pushed jazz into unknown territories. The bassist, though, remains…
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington worked with director Nadia Hallgren to score the film Becoming, a Netflix documentary chronicling the life of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
May 8, 2020 10:06 AM
Becoming—the Netflix documentary chronicling the recent book tour of former First Lady Michelle Obama—is out today…
Los Angeles-based vocalist Dwight Trible connected with London’s Gearbox Records to release his latest album, Mothership.
Aug 1, 2019 10:30 PM
Stationed behind an unassuming brick facade is the home of the label and analog mastering studio that has helped lead…
Singer and composer Gregory Porter will launch a podcast titled The Hang on Aug. 8.
Aug 1, 2019 4:45 PM
Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter soon will launch a weekly podcast titled The Hang. Each episode will…
Kamasi Washington performs Saturday at SFJAZZ with bassist John Patitucci, drummer Brian Blade and pianist Danilo Pérez during a celebration of Wayne Shorter.
Jan 9, 2019 2:51 PM
At the top of Saturday night’s Wayne Shorter Legacy Celebration in San Francisco, Randall Kline, artistic and…
Ambrose Akinmusire and Kris Davis perform in New York at Vision Festival, which ran May 23–28. Akinmusire’s Origami Harvest earned a 5-star rating in DownBeat during 2018.
Sep 26, 2019 4:45 PM
The list below is a round-up of the 5-star, 4.5-star and 4-star reviews that ran in print editions of DownBeat during…
Josh Johnson (left), Alex Boneham, Jay Bellerose and Jeff Parker perform at ETA in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Jan 7, 2019 12:16 PM
When bassist Anna Butterss moved to Los Angeles in 2014, her plan was to stay for no more than a year. Her main draw to…
Ryan Porter is a member of the West Coast Get Down.
May 1, 2018 9:21 AM
Late 2008 was a memorable time in the life of trombonist Ryan Porter.
Barack Obama had just won the presidential…
The Chicago Jazz Fest (left) and Detroit Jazz Fest will take place over Labor Day Weekend. Admission to both festivals is free.
Sep 3, 2017 8:43 PM
Jazz fans within earshot of Chicago and Detroit might want to pack up the car and head into town, as both cities play…
Herbie Hancock performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Aug. 23
Sep 5, 2017 3:18 PM
A young native of Los Angeles and an adopted icon of the city shared a double bill at the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 23…
Shabaka Hutchings (left) and Kamasi Washington perform during the Gent Jazz Festival in Belgium.
Jul 27, 2017 9:13 AM
The Gent Jazz Festival always presents one of the most adventurous marriages between the music’s hardcore root and…
Chick Corea performs at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival in Florida on May 28.
Jun 7, 2017 11:51 PM
This year’s Jacksonville Jazz Festival, newly centralized in the downtown area, marked a welcome reset for the…
Greg Howe (left) and Roscoe Mitchell at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, on Nov. 9.
Apr 26, 2017 9:13 AM
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington achieved stardom with his 2015 three-CD set, The Epic, and his work on rapper Kendrick…
Wayne Shorter performs during the April 19 press conference, at which headliners for the 2017 Detroit Jazz Festival were announced.
Apr 20, 2017 2:15 PM
The Detroit Jazz Festival, the world’s largest free jazz fest, has announced its full artist lineup for the 38th…
Miles Mosley performed at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Jan. 28.
Feb 16, 2017 4:02 PM
For the last dozen years, the West Coast Get Down has been a collective of supremely versatile Los Angeles musicians,…
Thundercat will release, Drunk, his third studio album, on March 10.
Jan 25, 2017 3:16 PM
Raise your glasses, jazz fans. Bassist and producer Thundercat, aka Stephen Bruner, will release his third full-length…
Kamasi Washington (foreground) and bassist Miles Mosely perform at SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco on Jan. 8.
Jan 17, 2017 3:56 PM
Though Kamasi Washington is a proud native of South Central Los Angeles, the popular tenor saxophonist has a…
Cameron Graves
Dec 14, 2016 11:21 AM
The release of Kamasi Washington’s The Epic last year heralded the arrival of the West Coast Get Down, the Los…
Maria Schneider topped three categories in the 2016 DownBeat Readers Poll.
Oct 28, 2016 12:00 PM
DownBeat is proud to announce the results of its 81st Annual Readers Poll.
Bandleader Maria Schneider topped the…
Rickey Washington (left), Tony Austin, Kamasi Washington and Miles Mosley perform at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 17.
Jul 20, 2016 4:11 PM
In jazz circles, the buzz surrounding the 11th annual Pitchfork Music Festival, which took place July 15–17 at…
Red Wierenga, Matt Moran, John Hollenbeck, Chris Speed and Drew Gress are The Claudia Quintet. The band performed at the Ottawa Jazz Festival June 29.
Jul 20, 2016 12:33 PM
Despite the loss of one of its primary venues—due to renovations and street closures ahead of a visit from U.S.…
Kamasi Washington topped three categories in the DownBeat Critics Poll, including Jazz Album of the Year, for his three-disc set, The Epic.
Jul 1, 2016 3:19 PM
Acclaimed tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, veteran pianist Randy Weston, inventive pianist/keyboardist Vijay Iyer…
Steve Coleman (left) and Jonathan Finlayson perform at the historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, D.C., as part of the DC Jazz Festival on June 14.
Nov 23, 2016 10:17 AM
The 2016 DC Jazz Festival climaxed with a rousing set by tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington on June 19, a fitting…
Henry Threadgill has been honored with a Lifetime Achivement in Jazz award from the Jazz Journalists Association.
Feb 20, 2017 7:14 PM
Henry Threadgill, Kamasi Washington, Maria Schneider and DownBeat are among the honorees for the 20th annual Jazz…
Kamasi Washington will perform at the Pitchfork Music Fest in Chicago, which runs from July 15–17.
Jun 22, 2016 9:49 AM
Fans at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival can look forward to a healthy dose of jazz and improvised music. In…
Kamasi Washington (left) and Ryan Porter perform at Where Spaceways Meet: A Night of Spiritual Jazz, part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in Brooklyn on May 8.
Jul 18, 2019 11:14 AM
In the current climate of reconstituted knowledge—where a list of things you might not know or anything evoking Brian…
Marc Ribot (left) and Joe Henry perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, on April 1.
Apr 21, 2016 2:42 PM
One of the hallmarks of the annual Big Ears Festival, held each spring in Knoxville, Tennessee, is collaboration. This…
Al Jarreau is among the headliners for the 2016 Blue Note Jazz Festival, which takes place June 1–30 (Photo: Marina Chavez)
Jul 11, 2016 1:09 PM
The 2016 Blue Note Jazz Festival will take place June 1–30, and will feature over 100 events in 10 venues throughout…
Kamasi Washington performs material from his three-CD opus The Epic at Webster Hall in New York on Feb. 24.
Mar 22, 2016 1:19 PM
The Los Angeles-based tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, arguably the hottest musician in jazz as measured by the…
