Sep 10, 2024 4:08 PM
Herbie Hancock: On Top Where He Belongs
On April 12 of this year, Herbie Hancock turned 84. How many people do you know in their 80s who are still working full…
Sep 10, 2024 4:08 PM
On April 12 of this year, Herbie Hancock turned 84. How many people do you know in their 80s who are still working full…
Aug 13, 2024 12:07 PM
On a warm June night at the annual Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, where nearly 18,000 people packed onto the benches of…
Jul 2, 2024 2:41 PM
It’s 8:30 in the morning, and Kenny Garrett is walking. He does this most mornings, on a track near his home in Glen…
May 29, 2024 12:46 PM
Driving into the San Bernardino National Forest, some 40 miles east of Los Angeles, the two-lane road snakes through…
Apr 23, 2024 12:39 PM
If ever there were an artist who has earned the label “enigma,” it would be saxophonist Jon Irabagon, whose…
Mar 19, 2024 3:57 PM
Cities and towns, large and small, through their geography, culture, cuisine and dialect, possess unique, compelling…
Jan 16, 2024 11:27 AM
The back entrance opens into a cozy, darkened room, leather-cushioned benches snaking around the irregular, rounded…
Dec 5, 2023 1:49 PM
Todd Sickafoose is at his parents’ place in the San Francisco Bay Area. He just returned from camping — fitting,…
Nov 22, 2023 12:47 PM
The moment happened on a cloudy September evening in Los Angeles, in darkness around the neon-lit outline of the…
Oct 10, 2023 3:41 PM
“It just occurred to me just the other day,” said Joshua Redman, a bemused expression forming over his face on the…
Aug 15, 2023 12:42 PM
“I’m not going to be around forever and ever,” Ramsey Lewis told his co-author Aaron Cohen as they were planning…
Aug 15, 2023 12:26 PM
On Jan. 1, 2023, Dan Tepfer recorded a video of himself at the piano, improvising four-voice chords that moved through…
Jun 27, 2023 1:18 PM
Wayne Escoffery sits comfortably in a soft chair in a hotel room in Denver. He is traveling once again with the Mingus…
May 2, 2023 4:10 PM
Sunset Boulevard begins its 21-mile journey at Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles, curving northward as it skirts…
Feb 7, 2023 1:41 PM
Fred Hersch was in good spirits, appearing relaxed on the video screen from his New York City loft. The pianist turned…
Nov 15, 2022 2:56 PM
Luciana Souza gazed out at the large crowd that filled the amphitheater, gestured at the big band behind her and…
Nov 1, 2022 12:47 PM
Of all of the interesting things Connie Han said during a recent interview, this was perhaps the most unexpected: “I…
Oct 4, 2022 1:50 PM
At 80, Wadada Leo Smith seems to be having the time of his life. He maintains a healthy diet, drinking only one cup of…
Sep 20, 2022 2:40 PM
Of all the things Sara Gazarek imagined, hoped or dreamed she would ever do in her life, singing on a stage as an alien…
Aug 30, 2022 3:28 PM
Brian Landrus can remember the exact moment he stopped eating animals. It was during lunch in the sixth grade, and…
Jul 6, 2022 3:23 PM
Altadena, California, is nestled into the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, a companion-community to its…
Jun 14, 2022 3:00 PM
Seeing a colorful press photo of Rudresh Mahanthappa and his bandmates adorned in masks, tights and capes might lead…
May 10, 2022 10:56 AM
It is 2022. The pandemic lingers, yet life is moving forward in unexpected ways.
The necessary move to video…
Mar 8, 2022 2:50 PM
Over the past year, the breadth and fire of jazz artists dipping a toe into the classical world has been staggering —…
Jan 18, 2022 12:47 PM
Last May, guitarist Bruce Forman was driving to a gig when something unusual happened. “On my way there,” he…
Oct 26, 2021 12:42 PM
Entering its 13th year, the Angel City Jazz Festival has become a regular October institution in Los Angeles, a…
Sep 7, 2021 3:19 PM
In a stylish Helsinki apartment with high-vaulted windows that ushered in the sunlight from the auroral Scandinavian…
Aug 30, 2021 2:31 PM
Editor’s Note: This article is from the August 2021 DownBeat Critics Poll issue.
At the time of this writing,…
Oct 11, 2021 2:17 PM
He might not be a household name among casual listeners, but it would be hard to find a single jazz musician who does…
Aug 3, 2021 9:34 AM
The thrice Grammy-nominated trumpeter Tim Hagans apprenticed in the bands of Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Dexter Gordon,…
Jul 7, 2021 3:56 PM
On the opening track of drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.’s new big band album, he plays five sharp rim shots, which catapult…
Mar 1, 2021 2:01 PM
In 2007, DownBeat named Jason Palmer one of “25 Trumpeters for the Future,” and 14 years later, he has done nothing…
Jan 26, 2021 8:44 AM
By the time he topped the category Rising Star–Guitar in the 2013 DownBeat Critics Poll, Rez Abbasi already had…
Nov 22, 2022 3:34 PM
When DownBeat caught up with Karrin Allyson, the five-time Grammy-nominated singer and pianist was weeks away from a…
Jan 11, 2021 10:41 AM
Trombonist Ryan Keberle has cultivated one of the more diverse careers in modern jazz. A fixture of the Grammy-winning…
Nov 30, 2020 10:07 AM
Even before saxophonist Noah Preminger topped the Rising Star–Tenor Saxophone category in the 2017 DownBeat Critics…
Oct 9, 2020 9:04 AM
Pianist Fabian Almazan has a distinct recollection of an incident that took place years ago at the Village Vanguard,…
Oct 12, 2020 3:14 PM
A classically trained musician who can play several instruments—including vibraphone, marimba, piano and drums—…
Sep 16, 2020 11:23 AM
In a rehearsal room at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, the illustrious arts academy across the street…
Aug 31, 2020 11:43 AM
As Joe Dingman lay dying from a rare heart condition at home, his son decided to try and ease his father’s acute…
Dec 14, 2020 1:11 PM
Twenty-six years ago, a new quartet led by a rising star in the jazz world demonstrated how the music could be…
Jul 1, 2020 11:38 AM
Once upon a time, an 11-year-old went to see Buddy Rich and his big band. All of a sudden, she realized what she wanted…
May 29, 2020 10:57 PM
On his latest album, The Humble Warrior, Wayne Escoffery did something rather unusual for a jazz artist: He devoted…
Apr 19, 2020 10:23 PM
Jen Shyu is singing over the phone.
It’s a song based on a middle-school diary entry that describes her heart…
Jan 23, 2020 8:52 PM
Gordon Goodwin gracefully balances the pros and cons of life in Southern California. He recently moved into a gated…
Jan 29, 2020 1:20 PM
Jeff Parker is drinking black coffee on the back patio of a café within walking distance of his house in Altadena,…
Nov 16, 2020 9:39 AM
In December 1964, John Coltrane and his classic quartet headed in to Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey studio to record A…
Nov 6, 2019 7:35 PM
Rocco Somazzi has exceptionally good taste.
At a trendy eatery in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, the…
Jul 18, 2019 9:43 AM
When singer-songwriter Joanna Wallfisch is onstage, one can do nothing but pay attention. During a recent gig at the…
Jun 28, 2019 11:27 AM
Jenny Scheinman admits she’s led a charmed life, as far as her music career goes. The violinist is unlike a number of…
Jun 26, 2019 4:36 PM
Saquarema is a little town two hours outside of Rio De Janeiro, home to 50 miles of pristine coastland, fringed with…
Jun 13, 2019 9:27 AM
It’s a Wednesday night, and a capacity crowd has filled Mr. Musichead, a spacious gallery on The Sunset Strip in…
May 20, 2019 2:33 PM
Ryan Pryor, a jazz keyboardist and co-founder of Zero System Immersive Music, taps a few commands on his computer and…
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