Aug 8, 2023 12:37 PM
Blindfold Test: Wes Montgomery
Editor’s Note: This classic Blindfold Test by the celebrated jazz journalist Leonard Feather (1914–’94) features…
Montgomery praised guitarist Joe Pass for his tone and phrasing.
Aug 8, 2023 12:37 PM
Editor’s Note: This classic Blindfold Test by the celebrated jazz journalist Leonard Feather (1914–’94) features…
“Bill Stewart has nothing to prove,” Baron says. “I aspire to that ethic.”
Aug 1, 2023 1:22 PM
At 68, Joey Baron has been a lifelong connoisseur of the nuances of groove and melody-oriented drumming. Over his…
“It felt like my people were right there in Harlem,” Jacques Schwarz-Bart said of the muse for his latest recording.
Jul 18, 2023 2:07 PM
Five years ago, Jacques Schwarz-Bart moved away from Harlem, where he had come into his own as a tenor saxophonist,…
Shakti celebrates its 50th anniversary with a new album and tour.
Jul 11, 2023 12:52 PM
There was a moment in 2017, following what was billed as his farewell tour in the States, that guitar avatar John…
Arturo O’Farrill said his latest album “is about all of our legacies. This music is really from Mother Africa.”
Jul 11, 2023 12:45 PM
The cover of Arturo O’Farrill’s new trio album, Legacies (Blue Note), shows a 12-year-old O’Farrill sitting on…
Lewis said that performing live is “an act of vulnerability since playing a show is being in the moment forever.”
Jul 5, 2023 2:55 PM
“I’m constantly searching and pushing,” New York-based saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis says. “I…
“I’ve known these songs all my life, but I saw that there wasn’t enough attention on the older music,” Mahal says.
Jun 27, 2023 1:03 PM
It may come as a surprise to find that the artist known as Taj Mahal — born Henry Fredericks Jr. — has officially…
“We actually had days where we did three songs in one day. It was just pow, pow, pow,” Jones said of the five-day recording session.
Jun 20, 2023 2:42 PM
Rickie Lee Jones has a credo that she’s lived by all her life: shouting her name out while zigzagging through musical…
“The big thing was having multiple sections, ideas that develop slowly over time and don’t stray too far from an initial core idea,” Smith says of Return To Casual.
Jun 13, 2023 12:32 PM
Walter Smith III finds compositional inspiration in unexpected — and amusing — places. As an example, consider the…
“The way I keep myself being original is by not listening to other recorded music,” Pascoal says.
Jun 6, 2023 1:37 PM
Hermeto Pascoal, the Brazilian-born multi-instrumentalist/composer/orchestrator, is one of the world’s most prolific…
