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…
Telarc announced yesterday that it has signed New York-based jazz vocalist Melissa Morgan. Morgan will make her recording debut in March 2009 with the release of Until I Met You.
Trained in classical music at a young age, Morgan shifted toward jazz in her teen years, due in part to her grandmother’s extensive collection of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson LPs. At SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, she studied with artists like Yolanda Bavan, Jon Faddis and Roseanna Vitro. Morgan gigged around the New York club scene after college and was named a semi-finalist in the 2004 Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition in Washington, DC. Last year, she appeared with the Next Generation of Jazz All-Stars at the Concord Fujitsu Jazz Festival in Japan.
“How amazing it was to listen to Melissa’s recording for the first time,” said Telarc President Robert Woods. “I found myself asking, ‘Where did this wonderful young jazz singer come from?’ She is the real deal. And when I saw her for the first time I was stunned by how grounded, collected and natural she is at delivering the music and the emotion. At a time when we wonder where the next good jazz musician may come from, Melissa is a real treat.”
Of Until I Met You, Morgan said, “I wanted it to be soulful and emotional, and I wanted it to run the gamut of happy and sad and everything in between, with lyrics that are very potent. I also wanted it to be like those classic recordings of the ‘50s and ‘60s, where there are a lot of musicians on it and there’s a real family sense to it. That’s exactly what this record has turned out to be.”
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,…
