Apr 11, 2024 12:22 PM
Ottawa Jazz Festival Builds for the Future
Forty-five years after a handful of jazz enthusiasts in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Ottawa transformed their…
Crowds pack downtown Ottawa for the festival.
Apr 11, 2024 12:22 PM
Forty-five years after a handful of jazz enthusiasts in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Ottawa transformed their…
Bley told DownBeat in 1984: “I’m just a composer, and I use jazz musicians because they’re smarter, and they can save your ass in a bad situation. … I need all the help I can get.”
Oct 17, 2023 4:04 PM
With her iconic bangs, sharp features and free-flowing sense of the absurd, Carla Bley, who died Oct. 17 of brain…
Herbie Hancock’s closing-night performance reflected the buoyant mood of this year’s Ottawa Jazz Festival.
Aug 8, 2023 12:55 PM
Canada’s capital city was beset by oppressive humidity and smoke from distant forest fires, broken occasionally by…
When John Hollenbeck started releasing music, the streaming economy didn’t exist.
Sep 29, 2020 4:40 PM
By his own admission, John Hollenbeck was a percussion nerd at a young age, obsessed with the idea of becoming a…
Robert “Doc” Morgan (second from right), the newest inductee in the DownBeat Jazz Education Hall of Fame, enjoys a moment with HSPVA alumni Chris Walker (left), Matt Mullenweg and Robert Glasper.
Sep 16, 2020 11:36 AM
In 1976, Robert “Doc” Morgan did something extraordinary. A freshly minted Ph.D. with a tenured position at Sam…
William Paterson University students who study with Mike LeDonne created a YouTube clip with each musician’s part recorded separately. Pictured are Spencer Zweifel, organ; Ryan Hernandez, guitar; Joe McCaffrey, drums; Jonny Gittings, trumpet; and William McKee, alto saxophone.
Aug 17, 2020 12:29 PM
If you’re looking for an American bellwether of the coronavirus pandemic, look no further than the country’s jazz…
The title of Christian Sands’ album Be Water nods to a quote by martial arts star Bruce Lee.
Aug 4, 2020 3:58 PM
When Christian Sands turned 30 in May 2019, he felt an urge to take stock of his life. For some millennials, that…
In his band Big Vicious, Avishai Cohen plays trumpet and synthesizers.
Jun 3, 2020 10:08 AM
As the coronavirus moved across Europe in mid-March, trumpeter Avishai Cohen sat in his Tel Aviv home, contemplating…
Gary Bartz (left), Vincent Herring and Bobby Watson perform at the New York club Smoke, where they recorded Bird At 100, a tribute to saxophonist Charlie Parker.
Jan 23, 2020 9:39 AM
Sixty-five years after his death at the age of 34, saxophonist Charlie Parker continues to bewitch us—with his…
David Jahnke (left) of Hal Leonard and NAMM President/CEO Joe Lamond perform during a NAMM event in Nashville.
Sep 9, 2019 3:52 PM
When you say the phrase “career in music,” many people automatically think of recording and touring artists.…
João Gilberto (1931–2019)
Aug 16, 2019 4:38 PM
To mark the passing of João Gilberto, we’re revisiting the piece below, which originally ran in our March 2016…
George Benson (left) accepts an award from André Ménard in 2010.
Jun 10, 2019 9:26 AM
It’s a frigid mid-winter day in Montreal, but in his eighth-floor office, André Ménard’s mind is focused on the…
Michel Legrand (1932-2019)
Feb 24, 2020 10:15 AM
In the years following World War II, when forward-looking intellectuals in France and the United States were infatuated…
Thelonious Monk (1917-1982)
Nov 14, 2018 11:46 AM
If the 1990s represented the golden age of the CD box set, we might be amid the Age of Found Sound. “Lost”…
Saxophonist Chantal De Villiers has released an album of duets recorded with three different pianists, including her father, Burt De Villiers.
Nov 6, 2018 9:30 AM
Adventurous fans who look beyond the sprawling, 10-day extravaganza of the Montreal International Jazz Festival might…
Francisco Mela contributes Ancestros to the current season of Newvelle releases.
Aug 2, 2018 3:50 PM
As collectible, multimedia art objects, few affordable things surpass the long-playing album. And few labels surpass…
Jun 20, 2018 10:45 AM
Radical changes in musical direction don’t always sit easily with listeners. The shock of the new can be convulsive.…
Nick Fraser says he’d feel incomplete if he only played improvised music.
May 2, 2018 11:04 AM
Nick Fraser probably has performed with as many high-profile musicians as any living drummer in jazz—a remarkable…
Red Wierenga, Matt Moran, John Hollenbeck, Chris Speed and Drew Gress are The Claudia Quintet. The band performed at the Ottawa Jazz Festival June 29.
Jul 20, 2016 12:33 PM
Despite the loss of one of its primary venues—due to renovations and street closures ahead of a visit from U.S.…
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