Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
To honor 50 years of its Jazzmaster electric guitar, Fender will host a 50th Anniversary Jazzmaster Concert at the Knitting Factory on Friday, Sept. 12. The event will include performances by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Nels Cline of Wilco and Tom Verlaine of Television, among others. The event will feature Fender guitar displays and graphics, videos and a Jazzmaster guitar giveaway.
Introduced by Fender in 1958, the Jazzmaster guitar was created as a high-end alternative to the Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars, later used by bands like Television and Sonic Youth.
“This is an important event because the Jazzmaster has always lived in the looming shadows of the Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars,” said Justin Norvell, Fender marketing director for electric guitars. “But under the radar, it became an underground icon in its own right and more than worthy of its own time in the spotlight. The artists who played it then and play it now are some of the musical prime movers who’ve kept the guitar relevant and have pushed it forward sonically.”
More info: fender.com/jazzmaster50th, ny.knittingfactory.com.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
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Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
