Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Gary Burton began revisiting his classic quartet in 2005 and the results of this meeting will appear on the 11-track disc, Quartet Live! (Concord) on May 26. The group includes guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Steve Swallow, both of whom were part of Burton’s breakout band in the early 1970s. Antonio Sanchez is on drums.
Metheny, who came up with the reunion idea, remembered that, “as a teeanger growing up in Missouri just starting to appreciate jazz, Gary’s group was the most innovative band around.” The reunited group performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2005 and toured for the next three years. The songs on Quartet Live! were recorded at Yoshi’s in Oakland, Calif.
“We have all continued to evolve as players, so we play the songs in fresh ways now,” Burton said. “We’ve all become better improvisers, too. But, more importantly, though we have each gone on to new ventures, when we got back together again the rapport that always came so easily is still front and center. This has been the most fun I’ve had in a very long time.”
The new Gary Burton Quartet is planning on performing across North America throughout 2009.
Details: concordmusicgroup.com
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
