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…
Saxophonist John Ellis’ album, Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow (Hyena), will be released on March 25.
Ellis has gone back to his Crescent City roots, forming a new band dubbed Double-Wide to record his third album for Hyena. He assembled the four-piece unit, featuring Matt Perrine on sousaphone, Gary Versace on Hammond B-3 organ and Jason Marsalis on drums, with a musical vision in mind. Although he’d played with the three musicians in previous configurations, the Double-Wide quartet went into the studio without having previously performed together as a unit.
“For the longest time, I’ve been wanting to make a record with sousaphone, and with Matt Perrine in particular,” Ellis said. “This all goes back to a memorable gig I did in New Orleans, probably around ‘95 or ‘96 at the New Showcase Lounge. David Torkanowsky put the group together, and the band was Johnny Adams on vocals, Herlin Riley on drums, Tork on keys, Perrine on bass and sousaphone, and me on saxophone. Matt’s ability to play the bass function on the sousaphone even outside of the normal tuba-as-bass vernacular blew my mind.”
He will tour behind the album later this year, kicking it off with a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1.
More info: johnaxsonellis.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.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
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.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
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…
