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…
Composer, theoretician and pianist George Russell passed away on Monday, July 27, from complications due to Alzheimer’s. He was 86.
A major theorist and one of jazz’s most profound composers, Russell was a hugely influential, innovative figure in the evolution of modern jazz. His ideas transformed and inspired some of the greatest jazz musicians in history, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and Dizzy Gillespie. His Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, first published in 1953, is credited with opening the way into modal music. Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, Russell continued to work on developing the concept. From 1960, he began leading his own sextets around the New York area and at festivals; he also toured throughout the Midwest and Europe.
In 1969, Russell began teaching at the newly created jazz department at the New England Conservatory, where his old friend, Gunther Schuller, was president. He played Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian, Sweet Basil, the U.S. West Coast and Europe with his 14-member orchestra and continued to compose extended works that redefined jazz composition.
During a career marked by numerous awards and honors, Russell received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.
According to a press release, there will be no funeral, but a memorial service will be planned in the future.
“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…
