“Legends of Jazz” to Return Next Year

  I  

The television series “Legends of Jazz” will be back on PBS for another season next spring, host Ramsey Lewis told DownBeat Thursday.

The show, which made history in its April 2006 debut as the first jazz-based network TV series in more than 40 years, has picked up rave reviews from media critics and viewers alike.

“All the viewers were 99.99 percent in awe,” Lewis said. ” The only suggestion we got from viewers was that it was too short. Just as they were digging in, the show was over.” To rectify that, next year’s series will consist of six one-hour shows rather than 13 half-hour shows. Lewis and the production crew will tape the episodes this fall, and they are scheduled to air in the spring of 2008.

“A year later, I can look back now and have 20/20 vision that clearly tells me we’re on the right track, that the excitement that we had on the show that I shared with the musicians was real,” Lewis said. “Everybody is happy with what happened, and we’re just moving forward.”



  • Andy_Bey_NYC_2014_by_Steven_Sussman_copy.jpg

    “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.”

    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…

  • Al_Foster_Marketing.jpg

    Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.

  • Branford_Marsalis_by_Mark_Sheldon_copy.jpg

    “Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”

  • Sasha_Berliner_by_Gulnara_Khamatova_copy.jpeg

    “What did I want more of when I was this age?” Sasha Berliner asks when she’s in her teaching mode.

  • unnamed.jpg

    Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.


On Sale Now
July 2025
Joe Satriani & Steve Vai
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad