Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Jazz Festival New York Posts 2025 Lineup
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
The U.S. Postal Service will honor jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan (1924–’90) with a commemorative Forever Stamp in a ceremony in Newark, New Jersey, on March 29.
(Photo: Courtesy USPS)Vocalist Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan will return to the spotlight yet again, thanks to a concert album and a commemorative stamp.
Resonance Records, with the cooperation of National Public Radio, will release Sarah Vaughan—Live At Rosy’s, New Orleans on March 25. The two-CD set comprises newly discovered recordings made for the NPR program Jazz Alive! during the legendary jazz singer’s live performance at Rosy’s Jazz Club on May 31, 1978.
The set comes bundled with a 36-page book, which contains rare photos and interviews alongside two newly commissioned essays by journalist James Gavin and jazz expert Will Friedwald.
Shortly after the album release, the U.S. Postal Service will honor Vaughan’s legacy by issuing a Commemorative Forever Stamp featuring her image. The ceremony will take place at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall in New Jersey on March 29. The event is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required for admission. (Call Newark Symphony Hall box office at 973-643-8014 for more information.)
A host of major figures from the jazz and political world have signed on to attend the dedication ceremony. Confirmed participants include vocalist Tony Bennett (who will appear in a videotaped tribute), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Mount Zion Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Gloria White, Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman and Grammy-winning actress Melba Moore.
The event will also feature performances by Jazzmeia Horn, winner of the 2013 Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocalist Competition, as well as the Mount Zion Baptist Church Choir and the NJPAC Jazz for Teens Ensemble.
Vaughan, a Newark native, was elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame via the 1985 Readers Poll. A Grammy Award winner and NEA Jazz Master, she died April 3, 1990.
In releasing the Vaughan album, Resonance Records adds to its impressive catalog of archival albums, including In the Beginning (2015), a collection of guitarist Wes Montgomery’s early music; In Paris: The ORTF Recordings (2016), a retrospective on organist Larry Young; and All My Yesterdays: The Debut 1966 Recordings At The Village Vanguard (2016), an assemblage of live recordings from the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.
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…
“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…
Davis was a two-time Grammy winner for liner notes.
Apr 22, 2025 11:50 AM
Francis Davis, an august jazz and cultural critic who won both awards and esteem in print, film and radio, died April…
