Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Bria Skonberg adventures beyond her trad-jazz roots on Nothing Never Happens.
(Photo: Dario Acosta)Peering out the window of her practice room high above the East River in New York, Bria Skonberg felt the spirit move her.
Raising her trumpet, she let loose her trademark clarion call—seeming, in the process, to blow away the cares of a decade that saw her alternately feted as the hope of hot-jazz and faulted for not being shackled to it.
“Playing trumpet is the greatest stress reliever in the world,” she said with a half-smile, exhaling generously.
Generosity has been a defining trait of Skonberg’s decade—from the gastronomic delicacies she laid out for a visitor in the waning days of 2019 to the cornucopia of musical offerings that flowed from her horn since she arrived in New York in 2010, armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of traditional jazz built largely on bandstands throughout the West.
Then 26 years old, the native of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, quickly became a fixture on the stages of the Big Apple’s trad-jazz scene—catching the eye and ear of the scene’s stalwarts, like fellow trumpeter Warren Vaché. A onetime teacher and longtime colleague of Skonberg’s, Vaché remains impressed with her sound and savvy.
“She’s a very conscientious young lady with a strong conception,” he said. “And, like most young people these days, she’s very aware of the public, of social media and promotion.”
Within two years of arriving in New York, Skonberg had parlayed those assets into contracts for albums that, like her live shows, attracted audiences intrigued by the spectacle of a young Canadian woman who tapped into the soul of Louis Armstrong. Skonberg had found her comfort zone and, by all indications, could have prospered there in perpetuity.
“That’s not why I came to New York,” she said. “I keep doing a lot of things, but all the time still reaching, learning.”
With Nothing Never Happens, her latest release, Skonberg does just that. Like her most recent albums—2016’s Bria and 2017’s With A Twist, which featured urbane partners like accordionist and arranger Gil Goldstein, pianist Sullivan Fortner, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Matt Wilson—the disc explores new stylistic territory even as it keeps faith with the old.
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”
May 20, 2025 11:58 AM
Branford Marsalis was on the road again. Coffee cup in hand, the saxophonist — sporting a gray hoodie and a look of…
“What did I want more of when I was this age?” Sasha Berliner asks when she’s in her teaching mode.
May 13, 2025 12:39 PM
Part of the jazz vibraphone conversation since her late teens, Sasha Berliner has long come across as a fully formed…
Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.
May 27, 2025 6:21 PM
Arts for Art has announced the full lineup for the 2025 Vision Festival, which will run June 2–7 at Roulette…
