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…
Blues harmonica player Carey Bell died May 6 of heart failure in Chicago. He was 70.
Bell was a veteran of both Muddy Waters’ and Willie Dixon’s bands, and was a guest artist on many blues recordings.
Bell was one of the few harmonica players who didn’t learn his craft by listening to old records, but by studying directly under his teachers Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs and Sonny Boy Williamson II. It didn’t take long for Bell to develop his signature “chopped” harmonica phrasing and deep-blues style.
Carey Bell Harrington was born in Macon, Miss., on Nov. 14, 1936. A fan of Louis Jordan, Bell originally wanted a saxophone, but economic conditioned forced his grandfather to buy him a harmonica instead.
He taught himself to play by the time he was eight, and began playing professionally with his godfather, pianist Lovie Lee, when he was 13.
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…
