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…
The Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival (Sounds for the People Festival), in its sixth year, will include international acts such as Sun Ra Arkestra as part of a four-week celebration of Liberation music.
The festival, running from June 1-25, will reflect elements of diversity with many musical genres being showcased, including: bent rock, noise, avant folk, free jazz, urban beats, experimental electronics and contemporary composition. Both established musicians as well as younger, emerging artists are scheduled to appear, including 1960’s New York minimalist Charlemagne Palestine, backwoods guitar picker Jack Rose, Scandinavian jazz trio The Thing, Montreal’s Ken Vandermark and Japanese underground artist Tetuzi Akiyama. The festival will also feature a special series on Middle Eastern music and a “Tools of the Trade” workshop series.
“Liberation music is inspired by freedom of expression, improvisation, and sonic exploration and appeals to music aficionados world wide,” said festival founder Mauro Pezzente. “Given the context in which much of this music is made and the reaction it provokes, it is also music that resonates with progressive social movements.”
Details: suoniperilpopolo.org
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…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
“If you don’t keep learning, your mind slows down,” Coleman says. “Use it or lose it.”
Jan 28, 2025 11:38 AM
PolyTropos/Of Many Turns — the title for Steve Coleman’s latest recording on Pi and his 33rd album overall —…
