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…
Cassandra Wilson’s new album Thunderbird(Blue Note), a collaboration with producer T-Bone Burnett, will hit stores on April 4.
“Working with T Bone took the songs into a whole other place,” Wilson said. “He guided me into the deepest recesses of the material, and that attention to detail and nuance allowed me to delve into my own innermost emotions.”
This album, influenced by the ancient and magical myth of the thunderbird, offers new combinations of musical sounds, instrumentation, styles and different covers of songs that Wilson felt she had to do. “With ‘Easy Rider,’ I had always heard the ‘C.C. Rider’ version of this song covered, but never heard anyone do the Blind Lemon version, which resonated with me,” Wilson said.
The singer, whose past albums were defined by the sparse sounds of acoustic guitars, went in a different direction with Thunderbird, utilizing keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, who also coproduced the album.
Also playing on the album are Marc Ribot, Colin Linden, Mike Elizondo, Reginald Veal, Jim Keltner, Bill Maxwell and Jay Bellerose on drums.
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.
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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.
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