Sep 17, 2026 11:39 AM
New Directions in Music Majors
A generation ago, high school music students thinking about applying to jazz studies programs at the collegiate level…
Rodney Whitaker speaks to students at Michigan State.
Sep 17, 2026 11:39 AM
A generation ago, high school music students thinking about applying to jazz studies programs at the collegiate level…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a…
“Are you for the whole or are you for yourself only?” says Terri Lyne Carrington. “There’s a balance because we live in a capitalist society.”
Sep 15, 2026 1:32 PM
“Toni Morrison said that during these kinds of more critical times, ‘Artists go to work.’ So the one thing I do…
“It’s rare for bassists to get that opportunity to duet with a vocalist,” says Chuck Bergeron. “I thought it would be great to do a whole recording like that.”
Sep 15, 2026 12:29 PM
Over the course of his career as a jazz bassist, Chuck Bergeron has played in the Buddy Rich Big Band, directed and…
SML, from left, Booker Stardrum, Josh Johnson, Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butterss and Greg Uhlmann.
Sep 8, 2026 12:37 PM
In 2016, guitarist Jeff Parker began a weekly gig on Monday nights at ETA, a newly opened cocktail bar in Los…
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…
“I wanted it to be bare,” says Zaccai Curtis of his new album. “I didn’t want to have a ton of overdubs.”
Sep 1, 2026 1:41 PM
Not so long ago, Zaccai Curtis would take long drives through southern New England. COVID had raised the rigor of his…
Marshall Allen, left, and bassist/producer Jamaaladeen Tacuma in front of the Sun Ra House (aka the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra) in Philadelphia.
Sep 1, 2026 1:35 PM
Throughout 2026 the jazz community has commemorated a number of centennials for giants of the music who have passed, in…
“One day, it just hit me — I wanted to record an album,” said clarinetist Harry Skoler, 18 months after a medical emergency sidetracked his music career.
Sep 1, 2026 1:03 PM
In January 2018, shortly after Harry Skoler was appointed interim chair of the Woodwinds Department at Boston’s…
Seamus Blake has taken a deep dive into the music of Eddie Harris. “The more that I listened to him, the more I appreciated and recognized the diversity of his kind of talent.”
Aug 25, 2026 12:42 PM
The London-born, Vancouver-raised Seamus Blake, a role model for a generation of aspiring tenor sax players in Canada,…
