Nov 5, 2024 1:02 AM
From ’Bone to Bari … and Back!
To say that Michael Dease is not resting on his laurels would be an understatement. Long considered one of the jazz…
“Mike’s an amazing talent on trombone, never mind on tenor and baritone sax,” trombonist Steve Davis says of Dease.
Nov 5, 2024 1:02 AM
To say that Michael Dease is not resting on his laurels would be an understatement. Long considered one of the jazz…
“Nobody in jazz school is telling you to learn how to dance,” says bandleader Eyal Vilner (center). But he thinks maybe they should.
Oct 15, 2024 2:00 PM
When he was a music student in New York back in 2007, hanging out at Smalls every night, Eyal Vilner, much like his…
“Just because I’m at the organ doesn’t mean I have to fall into the predictable traditional approach to the instrument,” says Goldings.
Sep 4, 2024 1:44 PM
A funny thing happened to Larry Goldings on his way to pursuing a career as a jazz pianist: He became a jazz organ…
Benny Green gave a breathtaking solo performance at this year’s San Jose Jazz Summer Fest.
Aug 20, 2024 12:12 PM
San Jose Jazz, a nonprofit, has been around since 1986 and produced its first jazz festival 34 years ago in 1990. It…
“I was burning through personnel because it’s a small island, and I wasn’t easy to get along with,” Hoy said of forming a band on Martha’s Vineyard in the late 1970s.
Jul 9, 2024 12:18 PM
It’s a typical Wednesday night in January at The Ritz Café in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles…
Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente began their current U.S. tour with a performance at Boston’s Regattabar.
May 5, 2024 9:46 AM
Luciana Souza is the most justly renowned Brazilian jazz singer working in the United States. Trio Corrente is…
Nicholas Payton, left and Tim Warfield, performing at last year’s Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, demonstrate the event’s dedication to great jazz.
Apr 11, 2024 12:20 PM
When jazz fans think about great American cities for this music, Pittsburgh may not be high on their list. But it…
“Both of us are quite grounded in the craft, the tradition and the harmonic sense,” Rosenwinkel said of his experience playing with Allen. “Yet I felt we shared something mystical as well.”
Mar 12, 2024 3:28 PM
“There are a few musicians you hear where, as somebody once said, the molecules in the room change. Geri was one of…
Larry Goldings’ versatility keeps him in high demand as a leader, collaborator and sideman.
Jun 11, 2024 5:39 PM
Are you having any fun? Larry Goldings certainly is. Consider just two recent examples:
Scene 1: “If anyone had…
“Shiri is my favorite kind of singer (and human, for that matter) — open-minded, creative and honest,” says vocalist Tierney Sutton, who co-produced Zorn’s new recording.
Aug 15, 2023 12:26 PM
As birthday presents for jazz musicians go, it was a good one. Shiri Zorn, an Israeli-born jazz vocalist who lives and…
Samara Joy brought fans to their feet in the middle of her Newport set!
Aug 8, 2023 4:53 PM
“Something for everybody” was the strategy of the Ed Sullivan Show, the most successful variety show in TV history,…
’You can’t simply book a festival with things that you like,” Christian McBride says of the Newport Jazz Festival. “You have a responsibility to present up-and-coming artists who people don’t know yet. And you have to get people in the seats.”
Jul 25, 2023 2:26 PM
This year’s Newport Jazz Festival, scheduled for Aug. 4–6, will continue George Wein’s strategy of presenting a…
“I guess that’s my personality: On the outside I’m very mellow, but, inside, my brain is going 100 miles a minute,” says Scott.
May 23, 2023 1:28 PM
Kendrick Scott loves harmony at least as much as he loves rhythm, possibly more. “To me, one of the most beautiful…
“A lot of trombone players play a lot of notes,” says Delfeayo Marsalis. “I play real laid-back.”
Mar 14, 2023 1:49 PM
The most famous brothers in jazz are scattered. Wynton lives in Manhattan. Branford settled in North Carolina. Jason…
Snarky Puppy is a big band with a difference.
Nov 23, 2022 1:19 PM
If you ask Michael League, founder, chief composer and cat-herder of the 19-member jazz-funk-rock-world juggernaut…
When Allen played standards, she never sounded more like her own unique self.
Jul 26, 2022 2:03 PM
Everybody wanted to play with Geri Allen — Ornette Coleman, Betty Carter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, Charlie Haden…
Mingus occupies an image in the popular imagination, by all accounts well-deserved, as a force of nature, an iconoclastic truth-teller, a volatile, emotional man with a violent streak.
May 24, 2022 2:58 PM
Jazz has seen its share of legendary personalities — Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington,…
May 24, 2022 2:57 PM
Charles Mingus’ centennial year will see a bounty of new recordings — both historical offerings and ambitious new…
The results of Epitaph are alternately lyrical, cacophonous, raucous and elegiac.
May 24, 2022 2:25 PM
Any consideration of Charles Mingus’ corpus must contend with Epitaph, his magnum opus, a monster orchestral work…
Thurman was the first woman to tour and perform full time with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Apr 5, 2022 5:13 PM
Here’s a question: How many tenor saxophonists would feel comfortable stepping into John Coltrane’s shoes to…
Igor Butman played two huge concerts in Russia to celebrate his birthday.
Feb 22, 2022 1:31 PM
Former President Bill Clinton has called him “my favorite living saxophone player.” Wynton Marsalis, a longtime…
Ches Smith (center, seated), with the cross-cultural octet We All Break, explores his fascination with Vodou drumming on Path Of Seven Colors.
Sep 7, 2021 1:04 PM
Drummer/composer Ches Smith got into Vodou drumming almost by accident. As a graduate student studying music at Mills…
Dee Dee Bridgewater returned to live performing in Rome, with a few butterflies and a beautiful set.
Jul 27, 2021 11:30 AM
On a warm July night in central Rome, Dee Dee Bridgewater, wearing a long, floral print dress and broad-rimmed, dark…
A formidable front line in Anzio: Camille Thurman (left), Sylwester Ostrowski, Igor Butman, Freddie Hendrix and Alexander Beets.
Jul 20, 2021 4:15 PM
On a Thursday night in early July, as the sun was beginning to set over the charming fishing port of Anzio on the West…
Janinah Burnett
May 11, 2021 11:34 AM
As a renowned classical soprano, Janinah Burnett’s repertoire includes opera, oratorios, art songs, spirituals and,…
The Vocal Gumbo team: Lauren Kinhan (top left), Janis Siegel (bottom left) and Laurie Green.
Apr 19, 2021 10:35 AM
A pair of claves taps out the classic three-plus-two beat. Two jazz divas, each a member of a legendary jazz vocal…
Pianist Emmet Cohen’s new album, Future Stride, includes five of his compositions.
Jan 19, 2021 8:43 AM
In the summer of 2020, pianist Emmet Cohen asked himself a key question: “What would Louis or Dizzy do in this…
Jazzmeia Horn is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
Oct 26, 2020 2:13 PM
In pre-COVID times, Jazzmeia Horn recalled that her packed touring schedule meant “singing into my recorder while…
Since they first met, pianist Antonio Adolfo has gone on to be one of the foremost bandleaders in Brazilian jazz, and Milton Nascimento became one of Brazil’s most essential and influential singers.
Aug 31, 2020 11:46 AM
Two young musicians in Rio De Janeiro became friends and, briefly, collaborators back in 1967.
Antonio Adolfo, a…
Spike Wilner, proprietor of the New York venue Smalls, recently began hosting shows at his club for the first time since the pandemic hit.
Jun 8, 2020 1:19 PM
Compared to the other casualties of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, it barely registers in media coverage and the…
Becca Stevens features synthesizers and dance grooves on her new album, Wonderbloom.
Apr 13, 2020 9:02 AM
In the July 2016 issue of DownBeat, Becca Stevens was spotlighted in the article titled “25 for the Future.” In the…
Aaron Weinstein’s new album is a trio project titled 3x3.
Dec 20, 2019 1:54 PM
It’s often noted that Jazz musicians and stand-up comedians have certain similarities: a need for split-second…
Erik Charlston plays vibraphone and marimba on a new album centered on works by Brazilian composers.
Dec 12, 2019 1:56 PM
When DownBeat recently caught up with the multitasking master Erik Charlston at Manhattan’s Symphony Space, he was…
Trumpeter Till Brönner (left) performs with saxophonist Igor Butman and his large ensemble, the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, during the third annual Jazz Across Borders conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Dec 4, 2019 2:36 PM
Local musicians met jazz promoters from around the globe and bridges were built at the third annual Jazz Across…
All of Miles Davis’ recordings with his namesake nonet are compiled on The Complete Birth Of The Cool.
Dec 1, 2019 1:39 PM
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the short-lived, but now legendary, Miles Davis Nonet. Its recordings, first…
The members of New York Voices are Kim Nazarian (left), Peter Eldridge, Darmon Meader and Lauren Kinhan.
Oct 9, 2019 9:26 AM
The title track of New York Voices’ new album, Reminiscing In Tempo (Origin), was one of Duke Ellington’s first…
Veronica Swift doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t listening to jazz: “Before I was even born, in utero, Mom was doing concerts.”
Jul 22, 2020 9:12 AM
The new album by self-assured 25-year-old jazz singer Veronica Swift begins with an auspicious announcement of sorts:…
João Gilberto (1931–2019)
Jul 10, 2019 10:24 AM
João Gilberto, whose serene, intimate vocals and gently insistent guitar playing made him the archetypal voice of…
Alfred Lion (left), Dexter Gordon and Francis Wolff
Aug 23, 2019 5:14 PM
As label president Don Was told DownBeat in a recent phone interview from his office in the Capitol Records Building in…
John Patitucci says that his latest outing, Soul Of The Bass, is something of a sequel to his 1991 album Heart Of The Bass.
May 20, 2019 2:16 PM
Jazz pianists and guitarists perform solo all the time. Jazz bassists? Almost never. A program of unaccompanied jazz…
Harry Connick Jr. performs during “The Birth of Jazz: From Bolden to Armstrong,” Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2019 gala concert, April 17 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
Apr 22, 2019 9:58 AM
Jazz at Lincoln Center felt more like jazz at Preservation Hall during the April 17 JALC concert and gala dinner.
…
Bassist Chuck Israels leads his Nextet ensemble during a March 6 show at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Mar 29, 2019 12:36 PM
In 2014, when singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Aaron Diehl played the Biamp PDX Jazz Festival in Portland,…
Dennis Lichtman is an advocate for early styles of jazz.
Nov 15, 2018 11:05 AM
A decade before he became one of the instigators of New York’s traditional jazz revival, Dennis Lichtman was studying…
Eddie Daniels in the studio, working on his album Heart Of Brazil
Oct 2, 2018 9:43 AM
For years, producer and Resonance Records owner George Klabin nurtured an idea for a tribute album to Egberto Gismonti,…
Sarah McKenzie’s new work, San Francisco–Paris Of The West, will have its world premiere at the Bay Area’s Lesher Center for the Arts on Sept. 14.
Aug 29, 2018 1:10 PM
Headlining a Monday night show at New York’s Blue Note, the blond-haired, blue-eyed singer-pianist took the stage…
Manhattan Transfer, from left: Alan Paul, Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel and Trist Curless
Apr 13, 2018 11:08 AM
Acclaimed vocal jazz group Manhattan Transfer is enjoying a new phase in its lengthy career. The band recently released…
The album United We Swing features the Wynton Marsalis Septet and an array of guests, including Willie Nelson (left).
Mar 28, 2018 4:22 PM
The blues is the lingua franca on United We Swing: Best Of The Jazz At Lincoln Center Galas (Blue Engine), a new…
Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen performs at the star-filled tribute to Geri Allen at Winter Jazzfest in New York.
Feb 6, 2018 3:21 PM
On the evening of Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 15, the New York City Winter Jazzfest hosted a splendid and heartfelt…
Antonio Adolfo performs at The Blue Note in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 11.
Nov 29, 2017 5:14 PM
For all its invigorating musical variety, encompassing everything from Malian blues to French jazz to surreal Serbian…
Didier Lockwood performs at Igreja da Candalaria in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 10 as part of the MIMO Festival.
Nov 27, 2017 6:46 PM
An American devotee of Brazilian music attending a music festival in Rio de Janeiro might expect to hear a few familiar…
Sullivan Fortner performs at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York as part of JALC’s Opening Night on Sept. 14.
Sep 21, 2017 9:52 AM
“The Fantastic Mr. Jelly Lord,” the all-Jelly Roll Morton concert that opened the 2017 season of the Jazz at…
Cécile McLorin Salvant performs at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Jul 22, 2018 9:44 AM
This year’s Newport Jazz Festival, held Aug. 4-6 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island, marked the…
Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou and Amy Cervini are Duchess. The vocal trio performed at 55 Bar in NYC on Feb. 22.
Feb 27, 2017 2:07 PM
One of the more delightful aspects of the vintage jazz revival in New York (and elsewhere) in recent years is the…
When Maria Schneider (pictured) testified before Congress about the current U.S. copyright law’s (DMCA) notice and takedown provisions, she urged legislators to make major changes.
Feb 3, 2017 5:53 PM
When Maria Schneider testified before Congress about the current U.S. copyright law’s (DMCA) notice and takedown…
“If everybody gets used to getting their music for free, nobody is going to pay for music anymore,” says bandleader Maria Schneider.
Feb 6, 2017 5:15 PM
Maria Schneider’s latest work, written for her 18-person jazz orchestra, is titled “Data Lords.” It is, by her…
Trio da Paz: Romero Lubambo (left), Nilson Matta and Duduka da Fonseca
Jan 4, 2017 3:45 PM
As they approached their 30th anniversary playing together, the members of Trio da Paz—the Brazilian jazz supergroup…
Jon Batiste
Mar 26, 2020 2:01 PM
For his new Christmas album, Jon Batiste, keyboardist, singer and bandleader of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, has…
Leslie Pintchik performs at Jazz at Kitano in New York on Dec. 1.
Dec 6, 2016 9:07 AM
At the beginning of her trio set last Thursday evening at the Manhattan jazz boîte known as Jazz at Kitano, Leslie…
Becca Stevens incorporated astute, philosophical lyrics into songs in the folk-jazz vein during a compelling performance in Pittsburgh on May 23.
Jul 11, 2016 12:14 PM
Becca Stevens incorporated astute, philosophical lyrics into songs in the folk-jazz vein during a compelling…
Brue Barth demonstrated his distinguished combination of ceaseless imagination and unshakable swing at Mezzrow in New York City on May 7.
Jul 11, 2016 12:31 PM
The small, narrow listening room Mezzrow, with its strangely perfect acoustics, is an unlikely success in a city full…
Caetano Veloso (left) and Gilberto Gil perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York on April 20.
Jul 11, 2016 12:42 PM
When the curtain rose, revealing the two silver-haired gentlemen seated center-stage and already strumming their…
Kenny Washington (left), Bill Charlap and Peter Washington performed a program of Great American Songbook standards at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York on April 9
Jun 20, 2019 2:33 PM
At age 10, Bill Charlap attended an event at the Friars’ Club, a New York show-biz institution. Charlap was the…
Kamasi Washington performs material from his three-CD opus The Epic at Webster Hall in New York on Feb. 24.
Mar 22, 2016 1:19 PM
The Los Angeles-based tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, arguably the hottest musician in jazz as measured by the…
Gary Peacock (left), Lee Konitz, Joey Baron and Bill Frisell
Apr 15, 2020 8:38 PM
“OK, we’re gonna play some ‘terrible’ music,” joked iconic altoist Lee Konitz on Aug. 16, before he and the…
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