Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
The Bay Area Giants of Jazz photo, which DownBeat published in its January 2000 issue, features vocalist Margie Baker wearing a yellow beret in the third row, right, from the bottom row.
(Photo: Mars Breslow)Margie Baker, a San Francisco-based jazz, blues and gospel singer and educator, died Sept. 27 at age 92.
Born on Oct. 11, 1933, in rural East Texas, Baker moved with her family to San Francisco’s Fillmore district in the 1940s. She graduated high school at age 15 and, after attending the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University, she went on to acquire a PhD from the University of San Francisco and pursued a career in education.
During the summer months, Baker would tour the world with Dizzy Gillespie’s band. And during the school year, Baker sang regularly at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco and other venues that hosted live jazz, including the Las Vegas Hilton and the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, California. She also performed regularly at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
In 2004, Baker released her first CD, Margie Baker & Friends, Live at Rasselas (Consolidated Artist Productions). DB
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
Sep 22, 2026 1:39 PM
Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.
Oct 6, 2026 1:33 PM
As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
Sep 8, 2026 11:52 AM
It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Record producer Bob Thiele’s classic photo that became the cover of John Coltrane’s landmark album A Love Supreme.
Sep 22, 2026 1:36 PM
A tribute to John Coltrane is one thing, but there is much more to the iconic saxophonist’s 100th anniversary…
