Nov 26, 2024 2:20 PM
Miguel Zenón’s ‘Golden City’ Resonates Deeply at Miller Theatre
Art and activism have historically met through the medium of jazz. But rarely have those meetings yielded works that…
Golden City mixes instrumental colors, rhythmic schemes and textural elements.
Nov 26, 2024 2:20 PM
Art and activism have historically met through the medium of jazz. But rarely have those meetings yielded works that…
John McLaughlin likened his love for the guitar to the emotion he expressed 71 years ago upon receiving his first one. “It’s the same to this day,” he said.
Nov 12, 2024 12:49 PM
In the aftermath of World War II, the deprivations felt throughout the United Kingdom were particularly acute in John…
Bill Charlap with trio mates Kenny Washington, left, and Peter Washington, right.
Oct 22, 2024 11:20 AM
Hunched over a round table in the Algonquin Hotel — where, a century ago, New York’s reigning wits famously…
“It locked together 20 years of all that I’ve been looking for,” Ryan Truesdell says of his compositional contribution to Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions.
Aug 13, 2024 12:08 PM
For more than a decade, Ryan Truesdell has been winning acclaim by excavating the lesser-known gems of big-band…
Etienne Charles and his Creole Orchestra drew liberally on sources beyond the Trinidad native’s comfort zone.
Jun 25, 2024 1:02 PM
On Oct. 8, 2022, Etienne Charles reopened Lincoln Center’s newly renovated David Geffen Hall with San Juan Hill, a…
“I had total confidence and trust that they were brilliant musicians and would come up with something amazing, which they did,” Harris said of his Blackout band members after their AI-enriched performance at Harlem’s Victoria Theater on Feb. 18.
May 29, 2024 1:03 PM
Seated on steeply inclined risers and packed in like sardines, a community of concertgoers gazes down expectantly, if…
Pops at home in Corona, Queens.
Dec 27, 2023 1:00 PM
On July 6, the hottest day in recorded history, a new institution devoted to the man who gave the world “hot” jazz…
“This is not an album for dancing,” Fonseca says about his new recording, La Gran Diversión. “But if you want to move, to dance, you’re welcome.”
Nov 28, 2023 12:40 PM
Ever the trouper, Roberto Fonseca was gamely persevering amid the frequent breakdowns on a late-summer Zoom call from…
Sumi Tonooka (left) and Jen Shyu perform at the Jazz Gallery on Nov. 5.
Nov 14, 2023 11:35 AM
When Jen Shyu, Sumi Tonooka and Val Jeanty got together in February for a freely improvised set at the Stone, they…
Bennett had a wealth of material to draw upon, and he had a direct association with much of it.
Oct 31, 2023 2:10 PM
Perhaps no interpreter of American popular song had as long and distinguished a career as Tony Bennett. Yet in his…
Parks has battled and triumphantly come back from bouts of manic behavior that left him “getting pretty abstract,” he said, to the point that he had to cancel a tour and seek help.
Dec 12, 2023 9:52 AM
On a steamy midsummer night in New York, Aaron Parks cut a solitary figure as he lingered in the cool semi-darkness of…
“At this point in my life I’m still looking for the note,” Lloyd says. “But I’m a little nearer.”
Jul 27, 2023 2:33 PM
If, as Charles Lloyd likes to say, “creativity is going to burst at its seams,” then it’s no surprise that the…
Henry Threadgill set a high bar for collective creation in the service of an individual identity
May 16, 2023 3:38 PM
Seated front-row center, Henry Threadgill was visibly grooving to Very Very Circus — an eminently reasonable response…
Wayne Shorter: 1933–2023
May 9, 2023 12:43 PM
By the time the so-called riots of 1967 engulfed Wayne Shorter’s native Newark, New Jersey, the saxophonist had…
Chambers’ latest recording features some serendipitous, international flair.
Mar 21, 2023 12:38 PM
Joe Chambers came to New York this month to record his new Blue Note album. The session yielded nine tracks that, on…
“We try to tell the story of where we come from as a way of navigating where we’re going next,” Charles said.
Feb 28, 2023 1:46 PM
Nearly half an hour into the Oct. 8 premiere of Etienne Charles’ epic suite San Juan Hill, the members of the New…
Linda May Han Oh (left) and Jen Shyu perform at the Asia Society in New York on Jan. 12.
Feb 10, 2023 11:40 AM
Defining “jazz” may be a fool’s errand, but the people at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation are not fools.…
Calvin Johnson appealed to listeners suffering from dementia during his Lincoln Center Moments program in December.
Dec 20, 2022 11:51 AM
On a chilly Dec. 9 in New York, the charismatic reed player Calvin Johnson gazed out upon the 70 or so people assembled…
Charlap crafted an object lesson in how to mine memory to elicit emotion, marry it to intellect and temper it with humor to yield a potent experience.
Nov 29, 2022 10:22 PM
Bill Charlap is a singularly vital figure on the New York scene, widely respected as an exponent of the trio format…
Nils Winther says he has recorded more than 1,000 albums for his Denmark-based SteepleChase label.
Nov 29, 2022 2:05 PM
In August of 1972, Nils Winther was an enterprising young man with a taste for jazz and a talent for taping that he…
For someone named Guitarist of the Year in the 2022 DownBeat Readers Poll, Pat Metheny has a complicated relationship with his instrument.
Nov 23, 2022 1:19 PM
For someone named Guitarist of the Year in the 2022 DownBeat Readers Poll, Pat Metheny has a complicated relationship…
“We’re the hip-hop generation, so you’re going to hear those influences,” says Corey Fonville of Butcher Brown.
Oct 25, 2022 1:30 PM
Horn player and rapper Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney is emphatic that the latest Butcher Brown album came up “from the…
Idolatry has become a fact of life for the saxophonist, flutist, NEA Jazz Master and self-described dreamer.
Oct 18, 2022 2:15 PM
Flying on an early summer night in a season of tricky air travel, Charles Lloyd’s plane from Ottawa, Canada, touched…
Gunther Schuller, founder of NEC’s Third Stream department, now known as Contemporary Musical Arts.
Sep 29, 2022 1:35 PM
Gunther Schuller coined the term Third Stream in a lecture at Brandeis University in 1957, by which time he had long…
The Marvels, from left: Bill Frisell, Eric Harland, Charles Lloyd, Reuben Rogers and Greg Leisz.
Aug 3, 2022 2:27 PM
Leading a secluded life in the expansive hill country above Montecito, California, Charles Lloyd has plenty of time and…
“I value musicians who really appreciate not playing and listening and waiting for the right moment to make their entrance,” Schneider said.
Aug 3, 2022 2:25 PM
A year ago, Maria Schneider was, like many people, stuck in a pandemic holding pattern. With live gigs for The Maria…
Aldana has acquired a reputation for intense commitment to her instrument.
Aug 3, 2022 2:26 PM
To those who have followed saxophonist Melissa Aldana’s career, her victory as Rising Star Artist of the Year in the…
“I don’t want people on my bandstand counting measures,” Malinverni said.
Jun 21, 2022 11:49 AM
As Pete Malinverni worked his way through a set on a January night at The Django, a Manhattan night club, the pianist…
“I always have this feeling of emptiness after I play a concert,” Aldana said. “This has been for years. Sometimes I can easily cry, and there’s nothing wrong.”
May 17, 2022 4:02 PM
Melissa Aldana’s musical journey has been sprinkled with stardust, from 1990s TV appearances as a saxophone prodigy…
Jaap van Zweden said, “The open minds of the orchestra members are amazing. The soul of the city comes out of these people. It feels very natural.”
Apr 26, 2022 3:28 PM
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the gleaming cultural complex on Manhattan’s West Side, was built on land…
John Zorn leads a game of COBRA at a benefit for Ukraine held April 1 at Roulette in New York.
Apr 19, 2022 10:33 AM
When Fred Hersch introduces a “pop tune” or “show tune” during his set, the pianist often makes clear that it…
“In many ways, truth has been stranger than fiction, and that is what I have been feeling,” Gordon says.
Mar 29, 2022 2:20 PM
As a young boy living amid poverty and dysfunction in a home on Staten Island, Jon Gordon clung to the thought that the…
Henry Cole has released the sprawling new album Buscando La Vida.
Mar 22, 2022 12:48 PM
When drummer Henry Cole recruited rapper Negro González to appear on “De Frente,” an outcry of an offering on…
Vadim Neselovskyi performs in Lviv, Ukraine, in 2017.
Mar 15, 2022 2:33 PM
In June 2017, Vadim Neselovskyi played a concert at the Soviet-era Palace of Culture Mettalurgov in Mariupol, Ukraine,…
The Fred Hersch Trio playing at the Jazz Forum in New York.
Feb 8, 2022 4:47 PM
Vulnerability is part and parcel of Fred Hersch’s pianism. But on the night of Jan. 28, with a potentially hazardous…
Kurt Elling’s SuperBlue sends the artist in a new direction.
Jan 18, 2022 12:59 PM
Still feeling the effects of a fiery, four-night run at Ronnie Scott’s in London, Kurt Elling — DownBeat’s Male…
Jon Irabagon plays in the Falling Rock Canyon of South Dakota.
Dec 7, 2021 2:36 PM
In the pantheon of performers on unaccompanied saxophone, Jon Irabagon has a powerful claim to membership — one based…
The great jazz shrine of The Village Vanguard in New York reopened in September.
Oct 5, 2021 4:51 PM
The tables were slightly fewer in number. The air filtration system was new. But when the Village Vanguard reopened in…
Ravi Coltrane says that Orrin Evans, above, “can reach that spirit.”
Sep 21, 2021 1:38 PM
On an early summer night in newly vaccinated New York, the Blue Note was packed with cheering clubgoers. And pianist…
Maria Schneider’s Data Lords was the critics’ pick for Album of the Year.
Aug 24, 2021 2:36 PM
Editor’s Note: This article was written to commemorate Maria Schneider’s CD Data Lords being named Album of the…
Melissa Aldana and Sean Jones work with the NYO Jazz youth orchestra on recording the group’s first full-length album.
Aug 17, 2021 3:03 PM
By her very presence, baritone saxophonist Noa Zebley ― a 17-year-old woman of unassuming personality and modest…
Squint is Julian Lage’s debut on Blue Note Records.
Aug 3, 2021 3:52 PM
Clasping his hands to his chest, then raising them to the heavens, Julian Lage evoked echoes of the exuberant child he…
Vijay Iyer
Jul 13, 2021 4:21 PM
By his own account, the Vijay Iyer of a decade ago was made to feel like a “token weirdo” when moving among the…
Hafez Modirzadeh
Apr 26, 2021 5:50 PM
Like generations of saxophonists, the teenage Hafez Modirzadeh first modeled himself on Charlie Parker. Now 58,…
Educator Fernando Jones has taught young musicians in both virtual and in-person settings.
Mar 14, 2021 11:38 PM
Unlike jazz camps, camps that focus on the blues are a rarity. In 2010, when Fernando Jones decided to start one at…
Instructor Omar Abdulkarim (far right) works with students at the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mar 8, 2021 10:42 AM
Amid the local protests following George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police last year, Jerome Treadwell—a…
Christian McBride (left), Corea and Jack DeJohnette recording McBride’s Number 2 Express in 1995.
Mar 8, 2021 10:23 AM
Chick Corea’s passing reverberated through the jazz world with a multigenerational outpouring for an artist seen as…
Percussionist Joe Chambers, 78, had returned to New York to record a Blue Note leader date—but then the pandemic hit the city.
Feb 17, 2021 12:52 PM
Mallet master and composer Joe Chambers found his footing in 1963, when he moved to New York and built a reputation as…
Sarah Elizabeth Charles and Jarrett Cherner, who are married, collaborated on a new album titled Tone.
Feb 3, 2021 8:59 AM
As an aspiring jazz singer, the teenage Sarah Elizabeth Charles wanted to be Sarah Vaughan. But after writing a lot of…
George Benson’s latest album was recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s in London.
Dec 11, 2020 8:49 AM
As an 8-year-old busker, George Benson boasted a big voice and a broken-down ukulele that he wielded with prodigious…
Camila Meza is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
Nov 3, 2020 2:51 PM
Singer and guitarist Camila Meza was slightly anxious when, as a 19-year-old jazz novice, she took the stage for her…
Joel Ross is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
Nov 13, 2020 8:56 AM
Four years after moving to New York to study music, Joel Ross—already a veteran sideman—released his leader…
Melissa Aldana (left), Pablo Menares and Kush Abadey perform Oct. 3 in Central Park as a part of the Walk With The Wind performance series.
Oct 19, 2020 10:48 AM
Still in the throes of the pandemic, the world’s been starved for jazz in 3D, something to distract us from the…
Terri Lyne Carrington, seen here in New York at Power Station at BerkleeNYC, is the first female instrumentalist to top the Jazz Artist category in the DownBeat Critics Poll.
Aug 31, 2020 11:39 AM
The global protests following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis might yet herald important social…
During the past 18 years, Norah Jones has collaborated with musicians from a range of different genres.
Jun 19, 2020 9:09 AM
“I’m not going to explain my lyrics.”
With those words, coolly conveyed on a brilliant March afternoon at the…
“I express my emotions better musically than socially most of the time,” Marcus Printup said.
Jun 17, 2020 11:42 AM
Marcus Printup swung around New York’s Columbus Circle behind the wheel of his black Cadillac SUV, stopping briefly…
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member Chris Crenshaw conducts during a performance of Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown And Beige.
May 11, 2020 11:10 AM
Since it was founded in 2015, Blue Engine Records has been documenting the work of the Jazz at Lincoln Center…
Saxophonist Ada Rovatti composed all of the songs on a recent album that features her husband, trumpeter Randy Brecker.
Mar 6, 2020 8:02 AM
When saxophonist Michael Brecker died from a rare blood disorder in early 2007, trumpeter Randy Brecker lost both a…
Bria Skonberg adventures beyond her trad-jazz roots on Nothing Never Happens.
Feb 27, 2020 9:15 AM
Peering out the window of her practice room high above the East River in New York, Bria Skonberg felt the spirit move…
Trombonist and educator Nick Finzer runs the media company Outside in Music.
Feb 20, 2020 4:50 PM
Trombonist Nick Finzer, 31, has a thriving career as a leader, accompanist and acclaimed educator at the University of…
Claudio Roditi (1946–2020)
Mar 17, 2020 8:57 AM
Claudio Roditi played trumpet like he was riding the waves that endlessly lapped Ipanema Beach—gliding effortlessly…
Hiromi’s diverse discography includes collaborations with pianist Chick Corea and harpist Edmar Castaneda.
Dec 5, 2019 9:24 AM
“Kaleidoscope,” the opening track on Hiromi Uehara’s new solo album, Spectrum, features the dazzling displays of…
NYU Steinhardt has numerous bands of various sizes.
Oct 28, 2019 2:43 PM
If jazz has an epicenter, New York is it. And in New York, Greenwich Village—longtime home of iconic clubs like the…
Joe Lovano’s new ensemble, Universal Jazz Ensemble, premiered in the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Oct. 18.
Oct 22, 2019 3:39 PM
On hearing about Joe Lovano’s new septet, Universal Jazz Ensemble, his legion of longtime fans were struck by a sense…
Harold Mabern (1936–2019)
Feb 24, 2020 10:16 AM
In July 1975, 39-year-old Harold Mabern took the stage at Carnegie Hall during a solo piano night at the New York City…
Caroline Davis initially developed the music on Alula with drummer Greg Saunier during Brooklyn performances.
Apr 2, 2020 10:34 AM
Caroline Davis’ latest trio album, Alula (New Amsterdam), mines the anatomical world—the title referring to an…
Playing with European guitarists indebted to Django Reinhardt stuck with saxophonist James Carter.
Aug 30, 2019 9:17 AM
On a temperate night in April 2017, James Carter was veering dangerously close to the intemperate. Jamming with other…
Pianist Fred Hersch and bassist John Hébert perform Aug. 25 during the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Manhattan.
Aug 28, 2019 1:16 PM
In the early 1950s, bebop pioneer Charlie Parker lived in a townhouse on Manhattan’s Avenue B, bordering Tompkins…
Sullivan Fortner draws on the history of pianism—from Chopin to Tatum and beyond—while still retaining his own unique voice.
Jul 26, 2019 9:15 AM
In the waning days of June 2017, Sullivan Fortner found himself holed up in Sear Sound, the Manhattan studio, facing…
Anat Cohen’s long musical relationship with Oded Lev-Ari has resulted in “Triple Helix: Concerto For Clarinet And Ensemble,” which premiered in January at Carnegie Hall.
Jun 21, 2019 9:25 AM
Poised at the kitchen counter in her Brooklyn apartment, Anat Cohen assumed the role of solicitous host. Tall, with…
For Wynton Marsalis, developing a strategy to translate mythology into music for the film Bolden required some self-analysis, if not soul-searching.
May 3, 2019 11:13 PM
Shrouded in mystery, Buddy Bolden’s life has proved more than a match for most of its would-be chroniclers.…
Lewis Porter, whose new album is titled Solo Piano, is in a prolific phase of his career.
Apr 4, 2019 9:36 AM
After flirting with a career in psychology, Lewis Porter, the jazz educator and pianist, turned to music full time…
Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez perform at New York’s SubCulture during Winter Jazzfest in January.
Mar 28, 2019 9:30 AM
On Jan. 5—four days after the 60th anniversary of the revolution in Cuba—two sons of that island nation, Alfredo…
Ben Sidran’s latest release is a compilation of live recordings made between 1975 and 2015.
Feb 22, 2019 9:35 AM
When Ben Sidran first met McCoy Tyner at the New York club Slugs’ during the late 1960s, Sidran was in awe—and he…
On his new album, In The Moment, organist Pat Bianchi collaborates with numerous jazz heavyweights, including guitarist Pat Martino and vibraphonist Joe Locke.
Feb 20, 2019 9:47 AM
At age 16, Pat Bianchi received a prized Christmas present: organist Joey DeFrancesco’s 1993 album Live At The Five…
Guitarist-composer Oscar Peñas (left) pianist Marta Sánchez and drummer Richie Barshay perform Feb. 8 at Aaron Davis Hall at the City College Center for the Arts in Harlem.
Feb 12, 2019 10:42 AM
Oscar Peñas is a poet. Having tasked himself with writing a suite dedicated to the centuries-old practice of…
Marquis Hill benefited from time spent at the Velvet Lounge, a jazz room on the South Side of Chicago run by saxophonist Fred Anderson (1929–2010).
Feb 8, 2019 9:52 AM
Sipping tea in the Harlem hangout Common Good, Marquis Hill wore a serene smile. The expression was hardly one…
Recordings that make up Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions sat in a Long Island home, untouched, for decades.
Dec 17, 2018 9:39 AM
Whether he was wielding his alto saxophone, flute or bass clarinet, Eric Dolphy was a godsend to the cadre of musicians…
Aubrey Logan performs at Birdland during a celebration of Resonance Records’ 10-year anniversary.
Nov 1, 2018 1:47 PM
Los Angeles-based Resonance Records has built an enviable reputation unearthing and artfully packaging gems by iconic…
Stefon Harris’ latest album, Sonic Creed, includes a number of original compositions, as well as “Now,” a track written by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.
Oct 23, 2018 9:46 AM
Quick of mind and compact of body, Stefon Harris moved easily from the vibraphone to the computer to the electric…
Love Is Here To Stay (Verve/Columbia) is the first album-length, one-on-one collaboration that Tony Bennett has recorded with his good friend Diana Krall.
Oct 1, 2018 9:34 AM
Breezing into his art studio on New York’s Central Park South, Tony Bennett hardly seemed fazed by the July heat.…
Pete Shand (left), Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Brian J and Ivan Neville collaborated on the new album Cool Down.
Aug 31, 2018 9:15 AM
Forget Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Herbie Hancock and the multitude of other artists with whom Bernard “Pretty”…
Nicole Johänntgen recorded her album Henry in New Orleans, while Henry II was recorded in Zurich, Switzerland.
Aug 20, 2018 9:39 AM
When Nicole Johänntgen was growing up in Fischbach, Germany, she routinely was awakened by her father’s New…
Buster Williams’ new album is titled Audacity.
Oct 24, 2020 7:06 PM
On hiatus from his long-running gig with singer Nancy Wilson, bassist Buster Williams, then 25, suddenly got an offer…
Julian Lage’s trio album Modern Lore puts a postmodern twist on Americana.
Jun 21, 2018 2:20 PM
Julian Lage cut a lean and lithe figure, swinging and swaying to the artfully organized tangle of tones—some bent…
Eddie Henderson frequently eschews original compositions on his albums, opting instead for interpretations to create a “collective portrait.”
Jun 12, 2018 9:04 AM
In 1970, When Eddie Henderson joined Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band as a substitute trumpeter, he was the least…
Cécile McLorin Salvant and Aaron Diehl perform June 14, 2017, at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Jun 26, 2018 10:21 AM
The packed house at New York’s 92nd Street Y was no pushover. A skeptical lot accustomed to hearing the cream of…
Mayu Saeki, who has a new leader project, previously played in Chico Hamilton’s band.
Jun 4, 2018 2:55 PM
Mayu Saeki moved from her native Japan to New York in 2009, carrying little but her flutes and the fervent hope of…
Sherrie Maricle (middle row, wearing pink T-shirt) poses for a portrait with the members of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.
Jun 1, 2018 9:45 AM
Buddy Rich used to bill himself as the World’s Greatest Drummer. Sherrie Maricle would not disagree. Chatting in a…
Vibraphonist Roy Ayers performs last year in Pittsburgh.
May 11, 2018 12:06 PM
Pittsburgh’s contributions to the jazz firmament stretch from seminal figures like Roy Eldridge, Kenny Clarke and…
Renee Rosnes (far left) leads her Woman to Woman ensemble during its March 2 New York debut at the 92nd Street Y.
Mar 27, 2018 5:00 PM
Renee Rosnes—the pianist and musical director of the all-female, all-star septet Woman to Woman—consistently has…
At its recent Carnegie Hall show in New York, Snarky Puppy welcomed a number of guests to the stage, including mandolinist Chris Thile (from left), singer Laura Mvula, ’60s icon David Crosby, singer Fatoumata Diawara and singer Michelle Willis.
Feb 6, 2018 3:19 PM
Theme concerts sometimes can lack authenticity. So, a bit of skepticism emerged in some quarters when Carnegie Hall…
The original lineup of The Bad Plus—Reid Anderson (from left), David King and Ethan Iverson—played its final show on Dec. 31 at New York’s Village Vanguard.
Jan 3, 2018 1:04 PM
New Year’s Eve was an end for many things; and so it was for The Bad Plus.
After 17 years, pianist Ethan Iverson was…
The new album by pianist Martial Solal (left) and saxophonist Dave Liebman is Masters In Bordeaux.
Mar 18, 2019 4:42 PM
By the time Dave Liebman first made his mark in the early 1970s, as the saxophonist and flutist in Miles Davis’…
Indo-Pak Coalition band members Rez Abbasi (left) Dan Weiss and Rudresh Mahanthappa perform at the Litchfield Jazz Festival on Aug. 6.
Aug 11, 2017 4:57 PM
A dozen years ago, Rudresh Mahanthappa seemed intent on establishing the kind of musical connection to his Indian…
David Hazeltine (left), Todd Coolman, Eric Wyatt, Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, James Carter, James Brandon Lewis, (not seen, Victor Lewis on drums).
May 5, 2017 10:04 AM
The cutting contest has a long and honorable tradition in jazz. So when six improbably gifted tenor saxophonists…
Kevin Eubanks released the album East West Time Line (Mack Avenue) on April 7.
Apr 19, 2017 2:11 PM
Kevin Eubanks’ brand of celebrity is a rare commodity in the jazz world. Rooted in the peculiar familiarity bred by a…
Apr 5, 2016 11:43 AM
Sarah Vaughan is still packing them in—based, at least, on the crowd drawn to Newark Symphony Hall, where, on March 29…
