Oct 28, 2025 10:47 AM
In Memoriam: Jack DeJohnette, 1942–2025
Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his…
Unraveling The mystique and influence of one of the most innovative musicians of the last century, Charlie Christian: The Genius Of The Electric Guitar (Columbia/Legacy) sheds a floodlight—musically and biographically—on the guitarist’s incandescent career, which ended at age 25. Gathered for the first time on a four-CD boxed set, the first comprehensive collection of Columbia recordings that Charlie Christian made while a member of Benny Goodman’s Sextet and Orchestra from 1939 to 1941 (with one side trip on the Metronome All Star Nine), will arrive in stores Sept. 24.
Beginning on his first Columbia recording date with producer John Hammond and the Benny Goodman Sextet in October 1939—which yielded “Flying Home,” “Rose Room” and “Star Dust”—the Texas-born, Oklahoma-raised Christian lays the groundwork that earned him a title usually reserved for Albert Einstein and Ray Charles. Genius tracks Christian’s 14 extant Columbia studio dates spanning 17 months through March 1941 (one year before his death), when he recorded “Solo Flight” with the orchestra, the signature by which the famed Gibson ES150 guitarist would be known. The first Goodman feature actually built around Christian, “Solo Flight” found him in transition to the nascent bebop movement, upon which fellow conspirator Thelonious Monk and others considered him a primal force.
Lavishly packaged in a boxed set designed to simulate the appearance of a vintage Gibson amplifier (the classic Amelia Earhart “Tweed” luggage finish), Genius is a major commemoration of Christian. The four discs present some 40 songs over the course of 98 tracks—17 of which have never before surfaced anywhere in the world, 27 of which have never before been issued in the United States.
Jack DeJohnette boasted a musical resume that was as long as it was fearsome.
Oct 28, 2025 10:47 AM
Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his…
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…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
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.
Sep 9, 2025 1:18 PM
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.
Sep 9, 2025 12:19 PM
Big Ears has announced the lineup for its 2026 festival, which will take place March 26–29 and include 250…
