May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
Drummer Foreststorn “Chico” Hamilton will release Twelve Tones of Love April 14 on Joyous Shout! Adding to his 50-plus discography, Twelve Tones of Love celebrates Hamilton’s lifelong romance with music. Composed for and performed with an enlarged ensemble, the album offers a glimpse into Hamilton’s interpersonal relationships both past and present.
Hamilton will appear at a free in-store performance and album April 30 at the Columbus Circle Borders bookstore in New York to promote the new album.
Opening and closing Twelve Tones Of Love are bookend tracks “A Piece Of Music” and “The Alto Of Kelso,” featuring one of Hamilton’s oldest friends, multireedist Jack Kelso. On “Steinway,” Hamilton reminiscences about his younger days, as he wrote it for his childhood friend Gerald Wilson, with whom Hamilton fooled around on the Steinway in a local shop in their shared L.A. neighborhood.
Hamilton attempts to capture Charlie Parker’s melodic playing in “The Charlie Parker Suite.” “In my thoughts of Bird, it seemed to me that today’s sax players are aware of Bird’s rhythmic sophistication in terms of his solos, but have forgotten how beautifully Bird would play the melody, and play off of the melody in his solos,” he said. “Like Trane, they’ve missed Bird’s melodic sophistication.”
“The Charlie Parker Suite” was commissioned by and premiered at the 15th annual Charlie Parker Festival in New York in 2007.
Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.
May 26, 2026 11:08 AM
Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…
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How best to mark Miles Davis’ centennial? By allowing the stories to flow, and cross-discussions to happen.
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Ava Preston, a 12-time DownBeat Student Music Award winner, is currently pursuing her master’s degree in jazz voice at Juilliard.
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Ava Preston, from Cleveland, Ohio, was named the winner of the ninth annual Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition on…
