Gets Adventurous
By Suzanne Lorge
Samara Joy has appeared like a lightning bolt on the jazz scene with a Grammy Award for New Artist of the Year and Album of the Year honors in the DownBeat Readers Poll for her hit recording Linger Awhile. We check in with the rising star vocalist to discuss her year at the top!
By Ammar Kalia
For Johnathan Blake, every record is an act of remembrance. Over the past two decades, the Philadelphia-born and New York-based drummer and composer has imbued his work with the imprint of his mentors, channelling everything from the fierce rhythmic urge of Charles Mingus’ music to Pharoah Sanders’ spiritual freedom, from the deep groove of Roy Hargrove to the swing of Ralph Peterson Jr. We check in with Blake as he pays tribute to his father on his latest recording, Passage.
By Bill Milkowski
Back in the ’90s, trumpeter Nicholas Payton was packaged as one of the Young Lions who were supposed to wear nice suits and adhere to the straightahead jazz tradition. Payton had other plans.
By DB Staff
It was another great year, and once again, DownBeat has created an in-depth list of the 4, 4.5 and 5 star reviews we published in 2023.
Emmet Cohen’s first DownBeat Blindfold Test transpired on the only day in September that didn’t involve traveling or a gig for the 33-year-old pianist. Since the onset of the pandemic in spring 2020, Cohen, winner of the 2019 American Pianists Awards, has exponentially expanded his global footprint through 122 livestreamed episodes of Live From Emmet’s Place, his catchy music show on YouTube. Add to his resume two leader albums for Mack Avenue and five self-released Masters Legacy Series albums (most recently with Houston Person) and you’ll get a picture of this pianist’s boundless energy. Cohen took the test from the compact fifth-floor Harlem walkup where he tapes Emmet’s Place.
