Jun 11, 2024 12:49 PM
Blindfold Test: Cécile McLorin Salvant
Italy’s Umbria Jazz Winter is one of those rare annual festivals that not only coincides with a major holiday —…
“She reminds me of my childhood and makes we want to cry,” Cécile McLorin Salvant, pictured here with writer Ashley Kahn, said of Dianne Reeves.
Jun 11, 2024 12:49 PM
Italy’s Umbria Jazz Winter is one of those rare annual festivals that not only coincides with a major holiday —…
“Being president of Blue Note has been one of the coolest things that ever happened to me,” Was said. “It’s a gas to serve as one of the caretakers of that legacy.”
Jun 4, 2024 12:32 PM
Sitting with Don Was is a comfortable and unhurried exercise. He may seem slightly reserved at first, but ideas and…
Albert “Tootie” Heath with friends en route to a live Blindfold Test at New York University in spring of 2018. From left: Ashley Kahn, Russell Hall, Heath, Jimmy Cobb and Emmet Cohen.
Jun 4, 2024 4:14 PM
Editor’s Note: The following was an assignment that writer Ashley Kahn received not for DownBeat, but for another…
The Century Room in downtown Tucson, Arizona, was born in 2021.
May 21, 2024 3:14 PM
Players got to play. It’s long been a part of jazz history: When there’s a venue vacuum, when there are fewer…
Cuscuna played a singular role in the world of jazz as a producer of new jazz, R&B and rock recordings; as co-founder of a leading reissue record label; as a historian, journalist and DJ; and as the man who singlehandedly kept the Blue Note label on life support.
Apr 23, 2024 9:07 PM
It is not easy to bid farewell to a best friend, knowing that it’s a final goodbye. Michael Cuscuna, who succumbed to…
Rome’s Casa del Jazz delivers a tremendous outdoor summer season from one of the city’s beautiful locales.
Apr 11, 2024 12:22 PM
The trees stand majestic and tall, twisting 75 feet into the air — 23 meters by local measure — with leafy canopies…
Henry Threadgill performs with Zooid at Big Ears in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Apr 12, 2024 9:54 AM
Big Ears, the annual four-day music celebration that first took place in 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee, could well be…
Bill Frisell and writer Ashley Kahn at this year’s North Sea Jazz Fest.
Dec 5, 2023 1:50 PM
Fortunate and few are the jazz headliners with options like guitar maestro Bill Frisell, who can choose to lead various…
Endea Owens takes the Blindfold Test with writer Ashley Kahn onstage at this summer’s NorthSea Jazz Festival.
Nov 6, 2023 2:05 PM
At this early stage of her career, the bassist and bandleader Endea Owens — a product of the Detroit music scene…
Christian McBride and writer Ashley Kahn meet for a DownBeat Blindfold Test hosted by New York University’s Jazz Studies program.
Aug 29, 2023 12:17 PM
Christian McBride turned 51 this May 31 and is still pushing far beyond what many might consider conventional career…
