Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Bassist Dennis Irwin, a mainstay at the Village Vanguard Monday nights starting in the 1980s in New York, died Monday from liver failure caused by cancer. He was 56.
The Jazz At Lincoln Center was to have a benefit concert yesterday for Irwin to help raise money for health care costs. The concert’s focus shifted to a tribute concert for the bassist. Tony Bennett, Mose Allison, John Scofield, Joe Lovano and others played for Irwin. Money raised from the concert will go toward covering Irwin’s health expenses and the Jazz Foundation Of America, which helps provide uninsured musicians with healthcare costs.
He was born on Nov. 28, 1951, in Birmingham, Ala, but was raised in Atlanta. Irwin attended North Texas State University studying classical music and playing clarinet in the orchestra. Drummer John Riley and bassist Marc Johnson helped expose Irwin to jazz and the upright bass.
Guitarist John Scofield brought Joe Lovano, Bill Drewes and Steve Slagle to Irwin’s loft in New York in 1976. The group stayed close after that summer.
Irwin went on to play with Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Johnny Griffin and Horace Silver. He was the bassist of choice for vocalists Jackie Paris, Betty Carter and Mose Allison,
Irwin is the father of trumpeter/bassist Michael Irwin.
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…
Jack DeJohnette boasted a musical resume that was as long as it was fearsome.
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Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
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Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
“Think of all the creative people I’m going to meet and a whole other way of thinking about music and a challenge of singing completely different material than I would have sung otherwise to my highest level in dedication to the moment,” Elling says about his Broadway run.
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Kurt Elling was back at home in Chicago, grabbing some family time in a late-June window between gigs. Sporting a smile…
Pat Metheny will perform with his Side-Eye III ensemble at Big Ears 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, next March.
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Big Ears has announced the lineup for its 2026 festival, which will take place March 26–29 and include 250…
