Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
The Ray Charles postage stamp
(Photo: )Ray Charles is joining Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Howlin’ Wolf as the latest music legend to appear on a U.S. Postal Service stamp.
Available Sept. 23 to celebrate what would have been Charles’ 83rd birthday, the stamp is the newest addition to the Postal Service’s “Musical Icons” series, which paid tribute to Johnny Cash in June and Tejano music star Lydia Mendoza last March. (The Charles tribute is a Forever stamp, which is a first class postage stamp that can be used to mail letters weighing 1 ounce or less, regardless of the current postal rate.)
Concord Records is celebrating the stamp with the release of Ray Charles Forever, a CD/DVD out Sept. 24 with 12 remastered classics including “America The Beautiful” and a previously unreleased version of “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” A bonus track, “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” is available on the USPS edition, sold only in post offices.
“‘Georgia On My Mind,’ ‘Hit The Road Jack,’ ‘What’d I Say’ and ‘I’ve Got A Woman’ are among the many hits that are standards and meet the test of time,” said Valerie Ervin, president of the Ray Charles Foundation and co-executive producer of the collection. “But to mark this momentous occasion, I selected [other] songs that also exemplify the forever quality of his performances.”
The 21-minute DVD features interviews and live performances from the 1990s of “Imagine” (1998), “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” (1992) and “A Song For You” (1997).
The stamp is the latest addition to the dozens of accolades Charles garnered over his 58-year career. He received the National Medal for the Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, 17 Grammys and the Recording Academy’s prestigious President’s Merit Award. One of the original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Charles’ music melded r&b, jazz, blues and country. He passed away on June 10, 2004.
Charles’ stamp follows the Postal Service’s long history of honoring jazz greats with commemorative stamps. The USPS released a page of stamps with 10 jazz artists as part of its “Legends of American Music” series in 1995, and in 2011 honored the genre as a whole with the illustrated Jazz stamp.
—Kathleen Costanza
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.
Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
“I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.
Apr 15, 2025 11:44 AM
Between last Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in…
“At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”
Apr 15, 2025 11:55 AM
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
