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…
A panel of judges that included Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Clark Terry and Terence Blanchard selected Ambrose Akinmusire as the winner of the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition held on Oct. 28 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. As the winner, Akinmusire received a $20,000 scholarship.
Akinmusire was born in Nigeria and grew up in Oakland, Calif. He started playing drums at age 4, drums at age 11 and trumpet at age 12. He studied with Steve Coleman at the Manhattan School of Music and in 2001 began touring and recording with him. Akinmusire has toured with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
Second-place winner Jean Caze was awarded $10,000 and third-place winner Michael Rodriguez received a $5,000 scholarship. The competition will air nationwide on BET and PBS.
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.
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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…
