Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Improvising cellist Tomeka Reid’s most recent recording is The Mouser (Relative Pitch), a collaboration with drummer Filippo Monico.
You put out a record, Signaling, with alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella. Is that duo still active?
Not so much since I moved to New York in 2016, but last year we toured. I’m glad I get to travel to Europe a lot, but I’ve been curious about other places, too. So in 2018, I planned a tour for Nick and I, to Beirut, Istanbul, Alexandria, Cairo and Addis Ababa. We also played the Bergamo Film Festival in Italy, and did a live score for an experimental film, which we repeated last July at Millennium Park in Chicago.
With all this on the road, what do you do at home?
My quartet with Mary Halvorson, Jason Roebke and Tomas Fujiwara is releasing our next record on Cuneiform this summer. We’re playing a set at the Jazz Gallery on April 26, and the second set will be a CD release party for The Mouser, with Tomas subbing for Filippo. Also the Vision Festival—I’m playing in a trio with Andrew Cyrille drumming and Beatrice Capote dancing. I’m in a new group Seven Poets Trio, with Tomas and Patricia Brennan, a great vibes player, and a new ensemble with Gerald Cleaver.
After this film festival, I go to Florida with Hear In Now—that’s Silvia Bolognesi on bass and violinist Mazz Swift—to Big Ears, to South Africa with Nicole, and to my alma mater, the University of Maryland, for a project with my seven-piece Stringtet. Then the Counterflows Festival in Glasgow, where, besides the solo set, I’m in a trio with Nicole and pianist Alexander Hopkins. We go from there to Café Oto in London.
Is it wearing to be traveling so much?
The travel is catching up with me a little bit, but I enjoy it. I’m trying to learn to say no, but I’m asked to do such exciting projects. Go out with the Art Ensemble? With Braxton? Nicole and I have worked together a long time, and I love playing her music. Then there’s my own stuff. I have been hitting the road pretty hard, though, and I’m looking to have a better balance.
Are you doing the String Summit again?
Our fifth edition is May 2 through 5, at four Chicago venues: the Arts Club, Constellation, Elastic Arts and the Hungry Brain. Akua Dixon will be the honoree, and Sara Caswell, a Grammy-nominated jazz violist, is coming. I try to showcase a spectrum of improvisational styles, not all “out” or all “in,” and hope the musicians will bring original music, instead of focusing on standards.
I just won a big award from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts; those funds will help me with this festival. The following week, the Artifacts Trio with Nicole and Mike Reed will play Constellation. We’ve just recorded our second record.
It’s a lot, I know, but I just feel you’ve got to get it out there. You just have to do it. I’m a busy body; I like doing things. You can’t wait on anything. DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater will be among the headliners at this year’s DC JazzFest.
Mar 2, 2026 9:48 PM
The first wave of artists scheduled to perform at the 2026 DC JazzFest have been announced. This year’s headliners…
Blindfold Test proctor Ted Panken, left, with the Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis.
Feb 24, 2026 12:00 PM
After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12…
“These days, with curated news, where people only get half the story, people can’t even speak to family members anymore,” Schneider laments.
Mar 10, 2026 1:43 PM
Maria Schneider is doing her part to try to fix what ails America. Which got her thinking about crows, specifically,…
