September 2025

Volume 92, Number 9

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Cover

Kurt Elling

On Broadway

By Phillip Lutz

At 57 years old, Kurt Elling’s soul remains as restless as ever, compelling him to ruminate about future endeavors even as he immersed himself in present ones. The present ones? His tour in tribute to Weather Report and his continuing duet project with other artists called Wildflower. And the upcoming project? His Broadway debut in the musical Hadestown.

Features

Brandee Younger
Finds Time to Wander
By Stephanie Jones
Joe Farnsworth
Plays 'The Big Room'
By Allen Morrison
Isaiah J. Thompson
Road to Glory
By Gary Fukushima
The Wood Brothers
Slyly Ambiguous Music
By Bill Milkowski

Blindfold Test

A Bay Area hero for many decades, singer-educator Faye Carol has interpreted songs culled from numerous genres through the prism of the blues.“Miss Faye,” as she’s known, articulated the aesthetics that animate her artistry at her first DownBeat Blindfold Test at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival on June 15.

Cassandra Wilson: “Dust My Broom” from Loverly (Blue Note, 2007)
Dee Dee Bridgewater/Bill Charlap: “Mood Indigo” from Elemental (Blue Note, 2025)
Eddie Jefferson: “Body and Soul” from Body and Soul (Prestige, 1968)
Ryan Truesdell and Gil Evans Project: “Laughing at Life” from Shades of Sound (Outside in, 2014/2025)
Shirley Horn: “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” from Lazy Afternoon (Sony/CBS, 1986)
Mark Murphy: “In the Evenin’” from Memories of You: Remembering Joe Williams (High Note, 2003)
Jimmy Witherspoon: “Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do” from Singin’ The Blues (World Pacific, 1956 )
Ella Fitzgerald: “Cottontail” from Ella and Duke at the Cote D’Azur (Verve, 1966/1997)