Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Concord Records has signed Grammy-winning singer Rita Coolidge. The label will produce and release her first new recording in over five-years and her first jazz album of her career.
Coolidge, who scored gold and platinum hits across multiple genres and decades, is perhaps best known for her signature songs “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher,” “We’re All Alone,” “The Way You Do Those Things You Do” and “Fever.” The versatile singer also recorded “All Time High,” the theme for the James Bond movie “Octopussy,” and landed on the adult contemporary charts with “You” and “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love.”
Coolidge’s first album for Concord, slated for summer of 2005, will be overseen by Concord Executive Vice President John Burk, who most recently worked with Ray Charles on the platinum recording Genius Loves Company, and produced by Jimmy Haslip of The Yellowjackets. The CD will include a repertoire of popular jazz and pop standards, as well as “A Song For You,” a song Leon Russell wrote as a love letter to Coolidge that she has never previously recorded.
“I am thrilled that I have finally been given the opportunity to create a jazz CD, a genre that I have loved all my life. To be able to do so with a label that has a reputation as solid and as well-respected as Concord Records is quite rewarding,” Coolidge says. “Everyone at the label is so genuinely passionate about the music. I am very excited to be able to work with them all.”
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall
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New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp
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After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12…
