Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Bibb delivers an intimate one-man show in Tales From A Blues Brother, which premieres Oct. 8 on Qwest TV.
(Photo: Courtesy Qwest TV)On Friday, Oct. 8, Qwest TV by Quincy Jones will premiere Tales From A Blues Brother, a one-man performance of spoken word and song by blues guitarist and singer Eric Bibb.
Bibb reflects on his life with uplifting memories as well as thoughts on race, music and identity through his stories and original songs, presenting an intimate tapestry of his life and the world at large. He reflects on police brutality and immigration tensions, but he does so through a sense of resilience, and how his music has the power to help cut through the pain and seek a better future.
Bibb comes to music, the arts and activism naturally. He is the son of folk singer and activist Leon Bibb (who knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and nephew to the jazz pianist-composer John Lewis of Modern Jazz Quartet fame. Bibb, now 70, is a child of the Civil Rights movement who grew up surrounded by great musicians and African-American repertoire. He got his first steel-string guitar at age 7 and received personal advice from Bob Dylan soon after.
Tales From A Blues Brother serves as a visual autobiography created from footage of old bluesmen, Bibb’s personal anecdotes and pull-at-the-heartstrings musical performances. Bibb, throughout, has one message — we must work for change.
“My driving wheel is this vision I have in my heart, and my heart and my soul, of a new world coming through,” he said. “It is real for me. I see signs of it everywhere I go. There’s hope — that is what I’m trying to say.”
Watch the trailer HERE.
Bibb also has a new record out called Dear America on Provogue Records. DB
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
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…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
