Apr 15, 2025 3:35 PM
The Zeitgeist of Isaiah Collier
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
“At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”
Apr 15, 2025 3:35 PM
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
Bruce Finkelman (left) and Craig Golden of 16 On Center, an ambitious enterprise that oversees multiple Chicago-area venues.
Jan 9, 2025 1:45 PM
“Do you have the Midas touch?” DownBeat asked Craig Golden, partner with Bruce Finkelman of the remarkably…
Jazz journalist Michael Jackson, left, dispenses a live Blindfold Test to drum master Billy Cobham.
Nov 19, 2024 12:56 PM
Drum king Billy Cobham, who, believe it or not, turned 80 in May, ruled the roost at January’s Panama Jazz Festival.…
Saxophonist Greg Ward, left, gets a lesson in how to wear the blindfold before journalist Michael Jackson administers the test.
Aug 27, 2024 12:26 PM
Alto saxophonist Greg Ward’s win in this year’s Critics Poll Rising Star category, at age 42, was a long time…
With her new crowdfunded release From Here, Allgood is hitting the big leagues.
Jun 25, 2024 1:02 PM
Jazz singers are a rarified breed. Only a handful actually make it and sustain a career with any degree of national or…
“Within our uniquely limited instrumentation, we can get people loud and excited,” Kahil El’Zabar says of his 50-year-old Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
Apr 23, 2024 12:28 PM
The occasion needed some fire. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, percussionist,…
“I really respect people who could learn this vocabulary and find a way to express it in a way that is so unique,” Nduduzo Makhathini said of the late pianist Don Pullen during his live Blindfold Test.
Jan 3, 2024 11:31 AM
Much powerful and resonant music has emanated from South Africa and, in part due to the reprehensible cultural scatter…
Calligram founders Geof Bradfield (left) and Chad McCullough are dedicated to putting out physical product.
Jan 3, 2024 11:23 AM
Texas tenorist Geof Bradfield’s playing possesses a steely grandeur and deep sophistication. He’s grown a…
A great Chicago blues night at SPACE, from left, Mike Wheeler, Roosevelt Purifoy, Cleo Cole, Bob Stroger, Billy Boy Arnold, Dave Specter, Sheryl Youngblood, Tad Robinson, Julia Miller, Larry Williams, Dick Shurman and Elbio Barilari.
Dec 14, 2023 11:32 AM
Chicago-based Delmark Records, founded by Bob Koester in St. Louis in 1953, is the oldest continually operating…
DeJong (right) backstage with Ornette Coleman in 2008.
Nov 6, 2023 2:02 PM
DownBeat considers itself duty-bound to compile obituaries for famous musicians and annually celebrates firmament…
“Johnny O’Neil has such charisma, when he sits at the piano he commands attention,” observed pianist Sullivan Fortner, his duet partner at this year’s Detroit Jazz Fest.
Oct 18, 2023 5:20 PM
A bold move by president/artistic director Chris Collins at the 44th Detroit Jazz Fest — ditching one of the four…
Winners, judges and members of the supporting octet at this year’s Bridges Composition Competition.
Jun 29, 2023 1:09 PM
The Ravinia Steans Music Institute, based in Highland Park, Illinois, has been committed to cross-pollinating the…
“The way I keep myself being original is by not listening to other recorded music,” Pascoal says.
Jun 6, 2023 3:56 PM
Hermeto Pascoal, the Brazilian-born multi-instrumentalist/composer/orchestrator, is one of the world’s most prolific…
“Remember to be a warrior, not a worrier,” Shorter said, 10 days prior to his passing on March 2.
May 9, 2023 12:33 PM
Sadly, the formative giants of jazz are passing the torch and joining the ancestors. But such cliché and dwelling on…
Kenny Garrett and Ron Bruner perform at the 2021 Detroit Jazz Fest. Garrett will be celebrated this summer, too.
Apr 27, 2023 11:30 AM
The Detroit Jazz Festival, the largest free jazz festival in the world, remains resolutely jazz. You’ll not find…
“There was a time I decided I was not a composer, only an improvisor, and I find that very difficult to do with one hand,” Jarrett says. “Jumping off a cliff takes two hands and two feet.”
Mar 21, 2023 11:19 PM
Keith Jarrett can do more with his right hand than most pianists can with two. As he pulls the protective cloth from…
Hijas del Jazz Orchestra performed at this year’s Panama Jazz Festival.
Mar 8, 2023 10:36 AM
The Panama Jazz Festival has developed into one of the most important events of its kind in the world. While other…
Avreeayl Ra (left) with Ed Wilkerson during a recent Elastic Arts’ Homeroom series show in Chicago.
Feb 15, 2023 5:13 PM
Avreeayl Ra Amen, to put it mildly, is a stalwart of the Chicago scene and the creative music stratosphere…
“Often, the vibraphone can create this abstract, mellow mood,” says Marsalis, shown here with journalist Michael Jackson.
Jan 19, 2023 10:29 AM
Drummer/vibraphonist Jason Marsalis, in town with the New Orleans Groovemasters, took time for a listening session and…
The final set of the fest was fronted by trumpeter Russ Johnson, shown here with bassist Ethan Philion.
Jan 19, 2023 10:02 AM
The third annual Catalytic Sound Festival (the second “in person” event, the first was virtual) was exponentially…
The Avishai Cohen Trio, from left: Elchin Shirinov, Cohen and Roni Kaspi.
Oct 28, 2022 11:30 AM
Ronnie Scott’s, at the epicenter of swinging London’s Soho, is one of the world’s legendary music rooms. Sonny…
Few festivals proved as valiant as Detroit through the dark days of the pandemic. Pictured: Chucho Valdés and Emmet Cohen.
Oct 11, 2022 3:22 PM
Few festivals proved as valiant as Detroit through the dark days of the pandemic. In both 2020 and 2021, the world’s…
Ernest Dawkins received a commission from Jazz Road to orchestrate his reflections on his long-lost roots with America’s South.
Aug 23, 2022 4:08 PM
Ernest Khabeer Dawkins, who’ll be 69 in November, has an intrepid personality and an acute gaze. His middle name,…
Edmar Castaneda performs at the eighth-annual Chicago Jazz String Summit.
Jun 9, 2022 2:42 PM
Cellist Tomeka Reid is wildly playful and a ball of energy in person but sober and serious in performance. Her…
Danilo Pérez has turned his music into a family-driven, relentless mission to unite the world.
May 31, 2022 12:35 PM
Large buzzards, called Gallinazos in Spanish, glide between the skyscrapers of downtown Panama City. They hover like…
A Time For Healing band members, from left, Isiah Collier, Justin Dillard, Corey Wilkes and Kahil El’Zabar.
Mar 15, 2022 1:30 PM
The laid-back, metronomic bounce and slap of percussionist Kahil El’Zabar’s earth drum (in tandem with contrapuntal…
Danilo Pérez discusses the upcoming Panama Jazz Festival.
Jan 7, 2022 4:11 PM
The Panama Jazz Festival, brainchild of irrepressible Panamanian pianist and educator Danilo Pérez and his wife,…
Altoizm is Greg Ward, Sharel Cassity and Rajiv Halim.
Jan 4, 2022 12:59 PM
As the track and field Olympics played out in a stadium full of robots in Tokyo, the alto sax olympics convened for a…
Artist-in-resdience Dee Dee Bridgewater performs with pianist Bill Charlap.
Oct 1, 2021 10:47 AM
The heroic Detroit Jazz Festival pivoted again this year, two weeks before a live festival kick-off scheduled for Labor…
Jerry Bergonzi’s new album, The Seven Rays, was partially inspired by his interest in philosophy.
Jul 11, 2019 9:20 AM
The artist’s return was long overdue: When Jerry Bergonzi set foot inside Chicago’s Green Mill on Jan. 4, it marked…
Drummer Billy Martin (left), keyboardist John Medeski and bassist Chris Wood all have recording projects outside of their trio.
Dec 21, 2018 9:40 AM
Medeski Martin & Wood’s new album offers a summation of the group’s purpose three decades into its unconventional…
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah performs Sept. 29 at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago.
Oct 12, 2018 9:29 AM
In its 12th year, Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival presented an almost preposterous amount of quality music on Sept.…
Jason Stein, bass clarinet (clockwise from top of photo); Matt Ulery, bass; Rob Clearfield, piano; Quin Kirchner, drums; Nick Mazzarella, alto sax; Nick Broste, trombone; Russ Johnson, trumpet; Dustin Laurenzi, tenor sax; and Nate Lepine, tenor sax.
Feb 2, 2018 12:32 PM
Quin Kirchner doesn’t look like your average jazz musician. With his long hair, often under a wide-brimmed hat, and…
Bandleader Roy Hargrove recently finished a two-week stint at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase.
Nov 4, 2018 10:25 AM
Roy Hargrove has been ringing in the New Year at Joe and Wayne Segal’s Jazz Showcase for many years.
“About 20…
David Sanborn’s roots are laid deep in the blues—he played with Albert King when he was 14—and he also came up around avant-gardists in his hometown of St Louis.
Nov 8, 2018 1:03 PM
David Sanborn was the most salient alto saxophonist of the ’70s and ’80s, a musician who parlayed his visceral,…
Nick Mazzarella (left) and Tomeka Reid perform at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, which took place Sept. 23–24 in Chicago.
Sep 28, 2017 8:35 AM
The 11th annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival, populating a dozen varied venues amid the picturesque splendor of the…
Gwilym Simcock at Hyatt jam session with Macy Gray, Montreal, 2013.
Aug 2, 2017 3:42 PM
Despite a formidable reputation in the U.K. and Europe and extensive touring with Anglo-American supergroup The…
27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. (left), Alvin Carter-Bey, Larry Wade and Michael Callier
Jul 23, 2017 4:51 PM
There is conjecture that if blues historian Samuel Charters hadn’t absconded with the master tapes to Terry…
Greg Ward (left) with Preston Jackson outside The Whistler in Chicago April 23.
May 18, 2017 3:09 PM
Most jazz up-and-comers have musical mentors, but not so many of those elders serve as life coaches, too. When…
Branford Marsalis (left) and Kurt Elling pose for a photo at the Chicago Symphony Center, where they performed with Marsalis’ quartet on Jan. 27.
Feb 10, 2017 1:54 PM
Chicago Symphony Center patrons responded to the surprise match-up of the Branford Marsalis Quartet and Kurt Elling by…
Dec 2, 2016 3:07 PM
Though Chicago is a landlocked cultural oasis and despite the xenophobia of current times, the city is still a…
Former First Lady Laura Bush (left), President George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama at the Sept. 24 opening ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Oct 17, 2016 2:35 PM
As part of Freedom Sounds, a weekend-long festival in Washington, D.C., that celebrated the opening of the…
Matana Roberts at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago
Oct 17, 2016 10:00 AM
On the afternoon of Sept. 25, mulling over how to open this review as I ambled between the music stages on Midway…
Melissa Aldana poses outside the Jazz Showcase in Chicago during her residency at the club May 5–May 8.
Mar 19, 2019 1:22 PM
“Grandfathered” is a term for pre-existing conditions that are handed down through generations. In Chilean…
Ran Blake
Jul 11, 2016 12:59 PM
Chicago has a remarkably fertile music scene, buoyed in no small part by the 2013 opening of Constellation, a music…
Benny Sharoni performs at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn, Illinois, on April 9.
Apr 27, 2016 12:15 PM
Israeli tenor saxophonist Benny Sharoni wasn’t born in Alabama or the Bronx—he’s from Yemeni/Chilean parentage—but…
Rudresh Mahanthappa (left) with Stefon Harris at the Symphony Center in Chicago on Feb. 26
Mar 22, 2016 2:50 PM
Chicago Symphony Center’s Jazz Series presented an ambitious double billing Feb. 26 with alto saxophonist Rudresh…
John Scofield (left) and Joe Lovano perform material from their album Past Present (Impulse!) at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois, on Feb. 5
Feb 25, 2016 4:55 PM
Guitarist John Scofield is a familiar presence at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois (originally a lofty acronym for Society…
Jul 25, 2018 4:01 PM
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