Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Carlos Valdéz, the melodic percussionist who played with the likes of Herbie Mann, died Tuesday of respiratory failure in New York. He was 81.
Born in La Habana, Cuba, Nov. 4, 1926, Valdéz fashioned himself as a chef and was known for feeding dozens of fellow musicians and close friends in his Brooklyn home after gigs. He helped develop the tuneable congas and showed Bridgette Bardot how to dance the mambo in the closing moments of the 1956 film And God Created Woman.
In Cuba, Patato played with bands starting out as a teenager in the 1940s, he created the “penguin dance” while with the Conjunto Casino in the ‘50s. When Valdéz appeared on a daily Cuban television show, he would jump on top of the congas and do a penguin dance.
In 1955 his friends Cándido Camero and Mongo Santamaría sponsored his immigration to New York. Santamaría, who was with the Tito Puente band at the time, got some of his bandmates and others to go to the SMC/Coda studios and record two 78 rpms as a demo to demonstrate the skills of Patato. Those records led to his work with Kenny Dorham on the Afro-Cuban date for Blue Note, from there he went on to play with Herbie Mann for many years.
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Jack DeJohnette boasted a musical resume that was as long as it was fearsome.
Oct 28, 2025 10:47 AM
Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
“Think of all the creative people I’m going to meet and a whole other way of thinking about music and a challenge of singing completely different material than I would have sung otherwise to my highest level in dedication to the moment,” Elling says about his Broadway run.
Sep 9, 2025 1:18 PM
Kurt Elling was back at home in Chicago, grabbing some family time in a late-June window between gigs. Sporting a smile…
Pat Metheny will perform with his Side-Eye III ensemble at Big Ears 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, next March.
Sep 9, 2025 12:19 PM
Big Ears has announced the lineup for its 2026 festival, which will take place March 26–29 and include 250…
