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…
Kevin Whitehead recently published Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film.
Dec 7, 2020 9:00 AM
In 1991, a panel of jazz musicians faced an audience of fans eager with questions. One fan cited a cluster of movies—…
Warren Wolf gets into the holiday spirit with his album Christmas Vibes.
Dec 7, 2020 9:00 AM
For years, vibraphonist Warren Wolf and 3D Jazz Trio pianist Jackie Warren cared not a whit about Christmas music. But…
Charlie Parker: The Mercury & Clef 10-Inch LP Collection (Verve/UMe) is just one of the releases coinciding with Bird’s centennial.
Dec 7, 2020 9:00 AM
Charlie Parker’s alto saxophone remains one of the most recognizable sounds in the history of recorded jazz, even 65…
Christian McBride was voted Jazz Artist of the Year and topped the Bass category in this year’s DownBeat Readers Poll.
Dec 7, 2020 8:56 AM
Christian McBride has some valuable wisdom to share. He knows how to make jazz more popular with young people and how…
