Feb 6, 2024 2:15 PM
From the Abyss to Minimalism
At the beginning of November 2023, Greg Osby flew to Italy for a week of duo concerts with pianist Michele Franzini,…
“I listened to players like Ben Webster and Wayne Shorter, two opposites, who spoke to me profoundly about saying a whole lot with less,” Osby says.
Feb 6, 2024 2:15 PM
At the beginning of November 2023, Greg Osby flew to Italy for a week of duo concerts with pianist Michele Franzini,…
“My dad is always going to be a part of me and my music, especially since I still have so many manuscripts of his to explore,” says Johnathan Blake, who notes that he too has much more to explore.
Jan 31, 2024 2:57 PM
For Johnathan Blake, every record is an act of remembrance. Over the past two decades, the Philadelphia-born and New…
“I like to just click on songs that touched me and see if I could do them in a personal way — especially if it’s a well-known song,” Alpert said about selecting material for his new album.
Jan 31, 2024 2:48 PM
In 2020, writer and director John Scheinfeld released the feature documentary Herb Alpert Is … . “I liked it, but I…
“Everybody thought I was smooth when I was growing up, so they called me ‘silky,’” Sean Mason says. The Southern Suite, his new album, proves it.
Jan 31, 2024 2:39 PM
Pianist-composer Sean Mason lives in New York — he moved there in 2018 to attend Juilliard — but he remains deeply…
Steven Lugerner and Ross Eustis put their experience in the non-profit world into creating Slow & Steady Records.
Jan 31, 2024 2:28 PM
In the land of 1,001 tech startups, Steven Lugerner and Ross Eustis decided to launch a record label.
Founded in…
“One of the first things I checked out heavily when I got serious about playing music was Weather Report’s Heavy Weather,” Payton says of his early influences.
Jan 23, 2024 12:35 PM
There was a time, back in the mid-’90s, when trumpeter Nicholas Payton was being hyped as a Young Lion on the scene.…
Emmet Cohen, right, with one of his heroes, Houston Person.
Jan 23, 2024 12:24 PM
Emmet Cohen’s first DownBeat Blindfold Test transpired on the only day in September that didn’t involve traveling…
Samara Joy performing at the 2023 Monterey Jazz Festival.
Jan 16, 2024 11:55 AM
Samara Joy posted a personal video on her social media this fall in which her grandfather, Elder Goldwire McLendon, is…
The Black Men of Labor Club leads a second line parade, from the documentary City of a Million Dreams.
Jan 16, 2024 11:38 AM
Last year was a good one for jazz and jazz-adjacent documentaries. Most prominent among them are the well-distributed…
Billy Mohler’s Ultraviolet was inspired by Sonny Rollins’ A Night At The Village Vanguard and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come.
Jan 16, 2024 11:27 AM
As part of the finale evening of this year’s Angel City Jazz Festival, bassist-bandleader Billy Mohler took the stage…
