Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
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.”
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”
May 20, 2025 11:58 AM
Branford Marsalis was on the road again. Coffee cup in hand, the saxophonist — sporting a gray hoodie and a look of…
“What did I want more of when I was this age?” Sasha Berliner asks when she’s in her teaching mode.
May 13, 2025 12:39 PM
Part of the jazz vibraphone conversation since her late teens, Sasha Berliner has long come across as a fully formed…
Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.
May 27, 2025 6:21 PM
Arts for Art has announced the full lineup for the 2025 Vision Festival, which will run June 2–7 at Roulette…
