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…
Pianist Marian McPartland isn’t slowing down for her 90th birthday March 20. Instead, she has a new disc, Twilight World, due out March 11 on Concord and plans to play a series of concerts. She continues to tape her weekly radio show, Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz for NPR.
Twilight World, her first studio CD in nine years, features her regular Piano Jazz trio of bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Glenn Davis and includes some of her originals and a handful of tunes she has yet recorded in her nearly 100 sessions. McPartland includes two versions of compositions by Ornette Coleman. She also interprets tunes by her songwriter friends Alec Wilder (“Blackberry Winter”) and Burt Bacharach (“Alfie”).
“I’m so happy to have done this album,” she said. “It’s nice to have something you’re this happy with at this stage of life.”
During her birthday week (March 19–23), McPartland and her trio will perform at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York with special guests each night. These shows will be taped and highlights will be heard in a 90th birthday celebration edition of Piano Jazz. Among the artists paying tribute over the week’s shows will be Karrin Allison, Regina Carter, Jason Moran, Jeremy Pelt, Ken Peplowski, Chris Potter and others.
McPartland will again play Labor Day weekend at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. This year will find multiple guests paying tribute and collaborating with McPartland onstage in another birthday bash.
More info: concordmusicgroup.com
“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…
“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…
Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.
May 27, 2025 6:21 PM
Arts for Art has announced the full lineup for the 2025 Vision Festival, which will run June 2–7 at Roulette…
