Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
The Jack Rudin Jazz Championship provides participating university ensembles with quality literature and a forum for celebrating excellence.
(Photo: Jazz at Lincoln Center)Jazz at Lincoln Center will conduct the third annual Jack Rudin Jazz Championship, a two-day invitational competition featuring ensembles from 10 university jazz programs in the country, on Jan. 14–15 at Frederick P. Rose Hall.
Ensembles competing in this year’s event hail from the following colleges and universities: Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida); Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York); Michigan State University College of Music (East Lansing, Michigan); North Carolina Central University (Durham, North Carolina); Northern Illinois University (Dekalb, Illinois); Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland); Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); Texas Southern University (Houston, Texas); University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming); and Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee).
The Jack Rudin Jazz Championship honors the legacy of Jack Rudin, longtime supporter of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and his founding support for Essentially Ellington, the organization’s signature education program. Launched in 2020, the Jack Rudin Jazz Championship provides participating ensembles with quality literature and a forum for celebrating excellence. The competition introduces university-level teachers and students to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education methodology and philosophy.
This year’s competition will be judged by a panel of leading jazz artists and educators, including Wynton Marsalis, Jeff Hamilton, Ted Nash and Catherine Russell.
“The Rudin Jazz Championship is fast becoming one of the great celebrations for jazz,” said Todd Stoll, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s vice president of education. “The love, camaraderie and fellowship are second only to the level of excellence seen on our stages.”
Tickets are on sale now at jazz.org/jackrudin. The 2023 Jack Rudin Jazz Championship will also be available to stream on Jazz Live at jazzlive.com. DB
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
