Mar 28, 2023 1:21 PM
Book Lifts Voices of Black Jazz Writers
Writing about jazz, music or the arts more broadly requires a sleight of hand. To write about the overarching culture…
Willard Jenkins’ new book is titled Ain’t But A Few Of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story.
Mar 28, 2023 1:21 PM
Writing about jazz, music or the arts more broadly requires a sleight of hand. To write about the overarching culture…
“I don’t do projects that don’t have a story or motivation,” Benjamin says.
Mar 7, 2023 2:44 PM
When DownBeat caught up with Lakecia Benjamin in November via Zoom, the saxophonist and composer was clad in a cherry…
The all-star collective Dinner Party celebrates backstage at Blue Note Jazz Fest Napa. From left: Terrace Martin, Snoop Dogg, Talib Kweli, Dave Chappell, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Chris Dave and Derrick Hodge.
Aug 16, 2022 2:34 PM
The drive up to the Blue Note Jazz Fest Napa on the last weekend of July, through winding roads and sunbaked hills, was…
Black Lives—From Generation To Generation makes a multi-generational plea for equity and equality with artists like Alicia Hall Moran, left, and E.J. Strickland.
Jun 29, 2022 10:32 AM
In September 2020, in the wake of protests that rocked cities across the United States, DownBeat published a cover…
“I always wanted the elders to be there, so I can make sure that I was moving in the right direction,” Kenny Garrett said of his relationship with legends of jazz.
Jan 18, 2022 12:40 PM
Kenny Garrett’s latest album, Sounds From The Ancestors, is a message to all of the legendary artists who helped…
Ledisi takes on the challenge of singing the music of Nina Simone and making it her own.
Sep 21, 2021 12:53 PM
Thirteen might be an unfortunate number for some, but for multihyphenate vocalist Ledisi, it proved to be verifiably…
Joy’s heroes range from Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jazzmeia Horn and H.E.R., to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
Sep 7, 2021 3:14 PM
Samara Joy is a self-possessed, deeply emotive vocalist, with power that usually takes a lot of living to master. But…
Thandi Ntuli sought for Indaba Is to reflect cosmopolitan elements that pulsate through the scene in South Africa.
Mar 11, 2021 7:35 PM
Indaba Is, a compilation recorded during June and July of 2020, ranks as a compelling document of the electrifying…
Alonzo Demetrius earned two degrees from Berklee College of Music.
Feb 22, 2021 7:49 AM
Trumpeter Alonzo Demetrius’ thirst for social justice is evident on his leader debut, Live From The Prison Nation.…
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 1:13 PM
Mary Lou Williams was an idiosyncratic composer, arranger and pianist whose 60-plus-year career remains ruthlessly hard…
Lakecia Benjamin is among 25 artists DownBeat predicts will help shape the future of jazz.
Oct 26, 2020 11:30 AM
Lakecia Benjamin’s approach to jazz is influenced by the belief that Black music of all genres has a shared…
Multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste is facilitating a series of music-forward protests through his WE ARE organization.
Oct 19, 2020 10:30 AM
Wrapped in brick and converted from its previous life as an industrial space, the Constellation venue’s two separate…
In 1982, Mark Anthony Lee (center) recorded “I’m Just A Boogie Roller.”
Sep 2, 2020 9:03 AM
By 1976, the initial incarnation of Stax Records was gone from the musical landscape, but the dreams of superstardom it…
Vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles performs as a member of the group Ajoyo, as well as releasing music under her own name.
Aug 3, 2020 9:33 AM
Sarah Elizabeth Charles’ heritage manifests itself in her music in ways that both surprise and delight her.
The…
Thundercat is a second-generation product of the Los Angeles jazz scene: Drummer Ronald Bruner Sr., his father, gigged with saxophonist Rickey Washington, father of Kamasi Washington.
Jun 29, 2020 3:18 PM
Across four full-length efforts, Thundercat has pushed jazz into unknown territories. The bassist, though, remains…
Eddie Kendricks (1939–1992)
Feb 11, 2020 11:31 AM
By 1972, Eddie Kendricks, the Temptations singer who led the ensemble through classics like “Just My Imagination,”…
Errol Stubbs’ “Spaced Out On Your Love,” recorded in 1986, is included on a recent dispatch from Chicago’s Numero Group, Visible And Invisible Persons: Distributed In Space.
Oct 7, 2019 9:49 AM
When the songs on Visible And Invisible Persons: Distributed In Space initially were recorded, there was no…
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