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…
Composers Addison Frei (left), Zachary Rich and Steven Feifke
(Photo: Courtesy Ravinia Steans Music Institute)In this pandemic era, getting a second shot has been a very good thing. That sentiment also applies to Ravinia’s Bridges Composition Competition.
The three winners of the 2020 Bridges competition received the David Baker Prize, named after the famed jazz composer and educator, as well as $2,500. But they needed a second chance to premiere their award-winning works after last year’s event was canceled. On June 4, at 7 p.m. CST, composers Steven Feifke, Addison Frei and Zachary Rich will debut pieces written for string quartet and jazz rhythm section at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall in Highland Park, Illinois. The event will be live-streamed for an online-only audience.
Feifke, whose winning piece is titled “The Promised Land,” is a pianist, composer and bandleader. He is a two-time semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and a rising star on New York’s big band scene.
Frei, who will premiere “Comment On War,” is a pianist, composer and producer. A Juilliard School alumnus, Frei has won the Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition.
Rich, presenting “Insomnolence,” is a composer, trombonist and educator in Northern Colorado. He was the winner of the 2021 Herb Alpert Young Composer Award, the 2020 Bill Conti Big Band Composition Award.
In addition, 2019 Bridges competition winner Michael Orenstein will perform his piece “Staircase.” The competition was juried by pianist Billy Childs, bassist Rufus Reid and saxophonist Steve Wilson. The Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, running since 1905. 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…