Dec 9, 2025 12:28 PM
In Memoriam: Gordon Goodwin, 1954–2025
Gordon Goodwin, an award-winning saxophonist, pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger, died Dec. 8 in Los Angeles.…
Firehouse 12 will release Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute To Octavia Butler on April 29, the new studio recording of Chicago-based flutist Nicole Mitchell’s extended composition of the same name. The piece, performed by her group Black Earth Ensemble, was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Works Presentation program. It premiered in June 2007 at the 12th annual Vision Festival in New York and was performed again at the Chicago Cultural Center in December. The composition is inspired by the work of Afrofuturist writer Octavia Butler.
“My compositional journey was stimulated by my emotional reaction to Butler’s novel Dawn, rather than the specific events of the story,” Mitchell wrote in the liner notes. “Dawn intimately deals with the condition of fear and our ability to adapt in inhumane circumstances. The process of writing this music allowed me to face the feeling of fear head-on, to enter and explore it.
“Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute To Octavia Butler represents a new direction for my work as a composer. I purposefully rebelled from my natural attraction to certain compositional devices in an effort to discover new methods of stimulating human emotion. I created the instrumental music as the surrounding alien environment, and used the voice of Mankwe Ndosi to portray the human element. Ndosi represents a sole human, a woman, in the midst of a wondrous and perhaps frightening landscape.”
More info: nicolemitchell.com
Goodwin was one of the most acclaimed, successful and influential jazz musicians of his generation.
Dec 9, 2025 12:28 PM
Gordon Goodwin, an award-winning saxophonist, pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger, died Dec. 8 in Los Angeles.…
Belá Fleck during an interview with Fredrika Whitfield on CNN.
Jan 13, 2026 2:09 PM
The fallout from the renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to include President Donald…
Flea has returned to his first instrument — the trumpet — and assembled a dream band of jazz musicians to record a new album.
Dec 2, 2025 2:01 AM
After a nearly five-decade career as one of his generation’s defining rock bassists, Flea has returned to his first…
Dec 11, 2025 11:00 AM
DownBeat presents a complete list of the 4-, 4½- and 5-star albums from 2025 in one convenient package. It’s a great…
“It’s a pleasure and an honor to interpret the music of Oscar Peterson in his native city,” said Jim Doxas in regard to celebrating the Canadian legend. “He traveled the world, but never forgot Montreal.”
Nov 18, 2025 12:16 PM
In the pantheon of jazz luminaries, few shine as brightly, or swing as hard, as Oscar Peterson. A century ago, a…
