Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
On Feb. 26, two new ECM albums are set to hit the street: John Abercrombie’s Cat ‘N’ Mouse and Invisible Nature: Live In Tampere And Berlin by John Surman and Jack DeJohnette.
Cat ‘N’ Mouse features Abercrombie on guitar, Mark Feldman on violin, Marc Johnson on bass and Joey Baron on drums. Feldman had previously worked with Abercrombie, and the idea for the new ensemble, recorded in December 2000 in New York, was to “continue the relationship with Feldman and develop a music that was still more open-sounding,” Abercrombie said. Keyboards were abandoned for the recording, with an emphasis placed on strings.
Invisible Nature was recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival and the Tampere Jazz Happening in November 2000. It’s the follow-up to The Amazing Adventures Of Simon Simon, the 1981 debut by the Surman-DeJohnette duo. The musical relationship between the two men goes back further, however. In 1968, when DeJohnette was in London with the Bill Evans Trio at Ronnie Scott’s Club, he took time out to improvise with local musicians. “Jack instigated a jam session series in the afternoon, and the word got out,” Surman said. “So I was there, along with John McLaughlin, Dave Holland and Tony Oxley.”
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
Davis was a two-time Grammy winner for liner notes.
Apr 22, 2025 11:50 AM
Francis Davis, an august jazz and cultural critic who won both awards and esteem in print, film and radio, died April…
“Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”
May 20, 2025 11:58 AM
Branford Marsalis was on the road again. Coffee cup in hand, the saxophonist — sporting a gray hoodie and a look of…
“What did I want more of when I was this age?” Sasha Berliner asks when she’s in her teaching mode.
May 13, 2025 12:39 PM
Part of the jazz vibraphone conversation since her late teens, Sasha Berliner has long come across as a fully formed…
