Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Violinist Christian Howes will release Heartfelt, his debut on Resonance Records, on Sept. 9. The album is a collaboration between Howes and pianist-arranger Roger Kellaway, former musical director for Bobby Darin.
Howes’ musical career was interrupted in 1992 at the age of 20 when he was convicted of selling LSD to an undercover cop. Howes credits his time in prison as influential to his interest in blues and jazz, which have featured in his solo releases.
“Before, I had been pretty strictly into classical music,” said Howes, “But in prison, I was playing in gospel church services and that was the first time that I was really exposed to a kind of energy of soul and swing and blues and these kinds of ideas. That music made such a deep impression on me that it was then that I got this feeling of, ‘I should really be exploring this more on the violin.’”
The collaborations on Heartfelt include an orchestral arrangements of Russ Freeman’s “The Wind” and Eliane Elias’ “That’s All It Was,” as well as a rendition of Bill Evans’ “Walkin Up.”
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
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
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
