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, his…
“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, his…
“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 2018 by…
“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 or…
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…
