Jan 5, 2021 7:56 AM
Yellowjackets Take Expansive Approach
For the beloved quartet’s 25th album, Yellowjackets decided to go big—as in, really big. The vibrant, robust …
Bob Mintzer (left), Dane Alderson, Russell Ferrante and Will Kennedy collaborate with the WDR Big Band on Jackets XL.
Jan 5, 2021 7:56 AM
For the beloved quartet’s 25th album, Yellowjackets decided to go big—as in, really big. The vibrant, robust …
Han Bennink (left), Sonny Rollins and Ruud Jacobs in concert at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunst in Arnhem, The Netherlands, the evening of May 3, 1967
Dec 25, 2020 9:00 AM
Sonny Rollins lives firmly in the present. The esteemed tenor saxophonist—whose voice as a cutting-edge jazz artist…
Jazz educators John Stafford II (left), Jim Mair and Justin Binek of Kansas City Kansas Community College
Dec 24, 2020 8:38 AM
Being a music educator during the pandemic requires a deep commitment to public health. Teachers who conduct in-person…
Pianist Noah Haidu’s latest album, Doctone, features compositions by the late Kenny Kirkland.
Dec 17, 2020 8:52 AM
Pianist Kenny Kirkland (1955–’98) left us far too soon, succumbing to congestive heart failure. The versatile…
Carla Bley (left), Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard recorded Life Goes On for the ECM label.
Dec 15, 2020 8:57 AM
The list below is a roundup of the 5-, 4.5- and 4-star reviews that ran in the print edition of DownBeat during 2020.…
Lee Konitz (1927–2020) was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2015.
Dec 10, 2020 8:52 AM
A week after his 90th birthday in October 2017, Lee Konitz—who died at 92 on April 15—recorded his final album, Old…
Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins’ debut album is titled Omega.
Dec 9, 2020 8:56 AM
Immanuel Wilkins’ debut album, Omega (Blue Note), marks the emergence of a talented young instrumentalist, composer…
A four-disc Charles Mingus set is a highlight of our seasonal shopping guide for music fanatics.
Dec 8, 2020 8:46 AM
If you’re shopping for gifts this holiday season, DownBeat has got you covered with our 2020 Holiday Gift Guide.
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Mary Lou Williams’ long, fruitful career is lovingly chronicled by Tammy L. Kernodle in Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, which has been published in paperback for the first time.
Dec 7, 2020 9:00 AM
Mary Lou Williams was an idiosyncratic composer, arranger and pianist whose 60-plus-year career remains ruthlessly hard…
Recordings of Charles Mingus’ 1964 and 1975 performances in Bremen, Germany, represent two very different periods of the bandleader’s career.
Dec 7, 2020 9:00 AM
Charles Mingus—rightly or wrongly—is frequently characterized as a wildly inventive but frustrated composer, caught…
