Jun 11, 2024 12:06 PM
Willy Rodriguez: Give the Drummer Some Love!
Puerto Rican-born drummer/composer Willy Rodriguez now calls New York City his home, but he isn’t afraid to push…
“I had to lock myself in a room, grab the 5B sticks and punish my body every day,” Rodriguez said of preparing to record with the band Mars Volta.
Jun 11, 2024 12:06 PM
Puerto Rican-born drummer/composer Willy Rodriguez now calls New York City his home, but he isn’t afraid to push…
“I’ve always wanted to explore the piano trio tradition, and to find my own voice within it,” says the youthful Goldberg.
Jun 11, 2024 11:58 AM
This February, a week before his 18th birthday, Brandon Goldberg, a high school senior in Miami, played at Smalls in…
“Being president of Blue Note has been one of the coolest things that ever happened to me,” Was said. “It’s a gas to serve as one of the caretakers of that legacy.”
Jun 4, 2024 12:21 PM
Sitting with Don Was is a comfortable and unhurried exercise. He may seem slightly reserved at first, but ideas and…
Albert “Tootie” Heath with friends en route to a live Blindfold Test at New York University in spring of 2018. From left: Ashley Kahn, Russell Hall, Heath, Jimmy Cobb and Emmet Cohen.
Jun 4, 2024 12:02 PM
Editor’s Note: The following was an assignment that writer Ashley Kahn received not for DownBeat, but for another…
Swedish-born bassist Palle Danielsson (1946–2024) played with a deep, resonant and endlessly warm tone.
Jun 4, 2024 11:20 AM
Palle Danielsson, a celebrated Swedish bass player who worked with a Who’s Who of international jazz musicians over a…
The massive European jazz trade show jazzahead! attracted 14,490 attendees for 40 concert showcases and Clubnight performances that took place April 11–13 in Bremen, Germany.
Jun 4, 2024 11:04 AM
Messe Bremen, the spacious convention center in Breman, Germany, teemed with nonstop activity April 11–14 during the…
“I had total confidence and trust that they were brilliant musicians and would come up with something amazing, which they did,” Harris said of his Blackout band members after their AI-enriched performance at Harlem’s Victoria Theater on Feb. 18.
May 29, 2024 12:26 PM
Seated on steeply inclined risers and packed in like sardines, a community of concertgoers gazes down expectantly, if…
“Maybe now after all these years I’m finally becoming the musician that I wanted to be,” says Bromberg.
May 29, 2024 12:21 PM
Driving into the San Bernardino National Forest, some 40 miles east of Los Angeles, the two-lane road snakes through…
“It has a twang, but it’s not country,” Gardner says of the music from On The Trail With The Lonesome Pines. “And it’s not exactly jazz, but I think it works best when jazz musicians come at it.”
May 29, 2024 12:15 PM
What Hilary Gardner wanted most growing up was to move to New York and sing jazz. But she lived in a small town in…
“If I just sit down and try to play a song all by myself, just tapping my foot, that’s going to be the best thing, because that’s the most honest and most true thing,” says Mulherkar in discussing his debut solo album.
May 29, 2024 12:08 PM
The first time trumpeter/composer Riley Mulherkar met his longtime mentor Wynton Marsalis, he was in the third grade.…