Mar 25, 2025 11:59 AM
Latin Jazz Con Gusto!
The year 2024 brought an abundant feast of amazing music in jazz from a Latin perspective. We’re catching up with…
“I love the fact that when some people think about my music they think of it as joyous, but there is darkness inside,” Anat Cohen says. “We are complex humans.”
(Photo: R. Sutherland-Cohen)Mar 25, 2025 12:10 PM
Anat Cohen, in conversation, is disarmingly present and fully invested. One gets the feeling that in most interactions she rarely leaves much unexplored, no stone unturned: a…
A recent batch of great jazz from today’s most caliente Latin artists, clockwise from top left: Zaccai Curtis, Salsa de la Bahia, Melfis Santa, Leiba Trio, Duduka Da Fonseca Trio, Hamilton De Holanda & Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Diego Figueiredo and The John Santos Sextet & Friends.
Mar 25, 2025 11:59 AM
The year 2024 brought an abundant feast of amazing music in jazz from a Latin perspective. We’re catching up with…
“It sounds together, there’s nothing random, yet hardly anything was said,” saxophonist Ohad Talmor said of Back To The Land.
Mar 25, 2025 11:52 AM
Ohad Talmor’s new album gestated in the spring of 2020, after Lee Konitz — his mentor, friend and musical…
“Why, being a classically trained musician, do I have to only play the obvious themes?” asks Kristin Lee.
Mar 25, 2025 11:44 AM
Kristin Lee was just 7 years old and didn’t speak a word of English when her family left Seoul, Korea, emigrating to…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
Charles Lloyd (left) and Julian Lage perform at the Zakir Hussain memorial concert on Feb. 28.
Mar 18, 2025 2:50 PM
During his 54 years as a Bay Area resident, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain had an unspoken reputation with locals as…
“This music is really about honoring my forebearers and expressing gratitude to my parents and my grandparents,” Kono says about Voyages.
Mar 18, 2025 2:35 PM
Versatile woodwind artist Ben Kono, a third-generation Japanese American, spent many years as a consummate sideman,…
“I attribute the jazz elements to my upbringing in the Black American classical pedagogy, to my grandparents Kenny and Joanne Barron,” says NIKARA.
Mar 18, 2025 2:23 PM
Brooklyn is indisputably a power spot in the musical universe, especially in terms of its contributions to jazz, R&B,…
“Not in a million years, man,” said saxophonist Jeff Coffin about imagining if he’d be inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. He was last year.
Mar 11, 2025 12:42 PM
If the DownBeat Critics Poll had categories for “most eclectic musician” and “working-est man in show biz,”…
Joel Ross says that Warren Wolf has the best mix of instrumental technique and a deep understanding of multiple types of music.
Mar 11, 2025 12:29 PM
Joel Ross was touring Europe last summer with his group Good Vibes in support of his new Blue Note album, Nublues. On…
Ayers began to play the vibraphone at age 5 after seeing a performance by Lionel Hampton, who gave him a pair of vibraphone mallets.
Mar 11, 2025 12:26 PM
Vibraphonist and composer Roy Ayers, whose soul-driven, electrified approach influenced generations of R&B-adjacent…