Dec 27, 2022 11:52 AM
Claudia Acuña: El Arte del Duo
Singer-songwriter Claudia Acuña had thought about doing a duets album for a long time. The emotional exposure of the…
“With this album, I want to give a little glimpse of what’s coming, in my compositions, my melodies,” Acuña said.
Dec 27, 2022 11:52 AM
Singer-songwriter Claudia Acuña had thought about doing a duets album for a long time. The emotional exposure of the…
Christian McBride never strays too far from his bass.
Nov 23, 2022 1:18 PM
Christian McBride never strays too far from his bass, not even when he’s offstage. Not when he’s producing an…
“I decided from that experience that I wanted to get back to the stage in a way that made me feel closer to the people,” Wright said.
Oct 11, 2022 2:41 PM
During the pandemic, Lizz Wright delved more deeply into her love of the culinary arts. With her performing on pause,…
Batiste performing his hit “Freedom” at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Jul 26, 2022 1:43 PM
On the surface of things, it seems counterintuitive that DownBeat critics would name the same musician both Jazz Artist…
“The idea of dancing with a ghost, or a memory — I connect with that idea so much,” Salvant says.
Apr 12, 2022 12:48 PM
During the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cécile McLorin Salvant spent about 200 hours devouring Marcel…
“We used all vintage gear to add even more authenticity to the sonic picture,” Haynes said of his new blues album.
Mar 22, 2022 12:47 PM
Warren Haynes: ‘The First Sound That Moved Me’
At last, Warren Haynes is carrying the banner of the blues. For the…
Vocalist Jay Clayton boasts three new albums.
Jan 11, 2022 2:12 PM
Back in the 1960s, when singer Jay Clayton was just in her 20s, she landed a regular jazz gig at Pookie’s Pub, a dive…
Side-Eye is Pat Metheny (left), Joe Dyson and James Francies.
Dec 7, 2021 1:44 PM
In mid-March 2020, Pat Metheny and his band flew into South America from the Asia-Pacific, just days after his latest…
Nate Wooley
Dec 8, 2021 3:28 PM
Jazzfest Berlin returned to in-person concerts Nov. 4–7 with the 58th edition of the acclaimed arts organization’s…
Norah Jones performs live, for the first time since COVID-19, during the JFA Gala on June 30.
Aug 24, 2021 2:10 PM
Midway through the 2021 Jazz Foundation of America Gala on June 30, singer Norah Jones took her seat at the piano, the…
Carla Bley, the 2021 critics’ choice for the DownBeat Hall of Fame
Aug 17, 2021 12:42 PM
Given the tenor of the times, Carla Bley’s extraordinary career shouldn’t have happened. What were the chances…
From left, Demian Cabaud, Ariel Bringuez, Jorge Rossy and Miguel Zenón interpret the music of the Ornette Coleman Quartet on Law Years.
Jun 29, 2021 2:25 PM
Once, when alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón was working as Charlie Haden’s sideman, Ornette Coleman joined his former…
Jennifer Wharton
May 25, 2021 12:14 PM
The trombone’s warm, reverberating sound often goes unappreciated, contends Jennifer Wharton. Look to jazz history…
For her new album, Yelena Eckemoff composed the music, wrote a narrative poem and created the album cover art.
Mar 22, 2021 11:00 AM
With Adventures Of The Wildflower, Yelena Eckemoff’s new release on her label L&H Production, the composer adds…
On Flor (Edition), vocalist Gretchen Parlato speaks to the personal transformation that inspired her career hiatus.
Feb 15, 2021 8:41 AM
In 2014, Gretchen Parlato’s album Live In NYC earned her a Grammy nomination—a crowning glory to a decade of career…
During the pandemic, prolific saxophonist Ivo Perelman moved from Brooklyn to Brazil.
Feb 9, 2021 9:02 AM
In 2020, soon after the pandemic reached Brooklyn, Ivo Perelman’s base of operation for decades, the tenor…
John Coltrane’s Blue World takes its name from a contrafact of Harold Arlen’s “Out Of This World.”
Jan 18, 2021 11:17 AM
In late June of 1964, in between Impulse Records studio dates for Crescent and A Love Supreme, saxophonist John…
Dayna Stephens released two career-expanding albums this year: the studio effort Liberty and Right Now! Live At The Village Vanguard.
Jan 15, 2021 3:38 PM
Saxophonist Dayna Stephens’ worldview differs from that of most people.
As the survivor of a rare kidney disease,…
Veronica Swift is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
Nov 9, 2020 2:28 PM
Singer Veronica Swift returned home from a gig in Italy just in time to celebrate the birthday of her mother, acclaimed…
Lakecia Benjamin performs Nov. 6 at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn as a part of Jazzfest Berlin, which this year included livestreamed performances from both sides of the Atlantic.
Nov 30, 2020 6:27 PM
In curating Jazzfest Berlin, Artistic Director Nadin Deventer always looks for a unifying narrative. For this year’s…
The members of Artemis are drummer Allison Miller (left), pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, bassist Noriko Ueda, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, clarinetist Anat Cohen and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana.
Sep 30, 2020 9:00 AM
Last fall, Blue Note Records made history by signing pianist Renee Rosnes’ adventurous septet, Artemis, to its…
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington performs during the 2019 Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.
Sep 8, 2020 11:34 AM
Fort Adams State Park—traditionally home to the Newport Jazz Festival—was uncharacteristically quiet the first week…
A portion of the proceeds from Somi’s latest album, Holy Room: Live At Alte Oper With Frankfurt Radio Big Band, go to benefit the Black Art Futures Fund.
Aug 31, 2020 8:57 AM
New York-based vocalist Somi thought that her May 2019 date with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in Germany was just a…
Joey DeFrancesco, widely celebrated as an organist, also sings and plays trumpet and tenor saxophone.
Aug 19, 2020 9:01 AM
With touring on hold due to the pandemic, multi-instrumentalist and jazz organ icon Joey DeFrancesco has been staying…
Andy Milne is fascinated by the connections among medical science, music and healing.
May 29, 2020 8:58 AM
Pianist Andy Milne uses building metaphors to talk about music. Construction is “about how you bind two things…
On a series of recent and upcoming projects, keyboardist John Medeski explores musical relationships that, in some cases, stretch back decades.
Jun 1, 2020 2:31 PM
When the progressive trio Medeski Martin & Wood first got together, they all agreed to keep the ensemble going only as…
Aruán Ortiz (left), Andrew Cyrille and Mauricio Herrera perform together on Inside Rhythmic Falls (Intakt).
May 8, 2020 9:06 AM
Pianist Aruán Ortiz recalls the cacophony of ritmas that pervaded his childhood in Santiago de Cuba on Inside Rhythmic…
Lakecia Benjamin’s latest album features compositions by Alice Coltrane and John Coltrane.
Apr 2, 2020 8:46 AM
When saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin finished the fourth song of her set, “Pursuance,” at Le Poisson Rouge in…
Hal Galper didn’t recognize his own playing when he first heard the recording of The Zone: Live At The Yardbird Suite.
Mar 24, 2020 8:23 AM
In 1997, Seattle musicians Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop birthed Origin Records, an independent label “run by…
Over the course of his career, Pat Metheny has edged closer to the orchestral vision reflected on his latest release, From This Place.
Nov 16, 2020 9:40 AM
During the first day of recording for From This Place, guitarist Pat Metheny’s new album on Nonesuch, the 20-time…
Despite pianist Fred Hersch’s onstage composure, when he plays, there’s always something intensely personal stirring just below the surface.
Mar 12, 2020 5:13 PM
The box set The Fred Hersch Trio: 10 Years/6 Discs captures a landmark ensemble in the studio, on the road and at its…
Vocalist Nona Hendryx performs Feb. 29 during Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple, an event celebrating the bandleader and keyboardist, which was held in the Sackler Wing of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mar 12, 2020 12:08 PM
Vocal doyen Nona Hendryx commanded the stage at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Feb. 29, bedecked in a…
Kurt Elling’s latest recording finds the vocalist collaborating with pianist Danilo Pérez. Secrets Are The Best Stories (Edition) is set for release April 3.
Mar 2, 2020 5:11 PM
Kurt Elling’s work as a vocalist and poet-cum-lyricist always has exerted depth; vocal frippery isn’t his style.…
Ted Nash conducts the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra during a presentation of Transformation with Glenn Close and Ted Nash.
Feb 17, 2020 11:47 AM
A few years ago, actress Glenn Close and saxophonist Ted Nash started to toss around ideas for a new collaborative…
Clarinetist Oran Etkin teaches children about instruments and songs from around the world.
Jan 21, 2020 9:29 AM
In a video from the 2015 International Jazz Day, filmed in Paris, clarinetist Oran Etkin and keyboardist Herbie Hancock…
Pianist Carmen Staaf leads a trio on Woodland, an album that’s included as part of Newvelle Records’ fifth season of high-end LP releases.
Jan 11, 2020 6:15 PM
Clear vinyl. Artful designs. A shiny, luxe collector’s box. No question, albums from the Newvelle imprint are…
Saxophonists Samuel Blais (left), Donny McCaslin, David Binney and Dave Liebman make up the Four Visions Saxophone Quartet, a group that can trace its lineage back to jazz and the work of classical saxophonist Marcel Mule.
Apr 24, 2020 4:23 PM
Wind ensembles that work without a rhythm section are tricky.
Horn quartets flout accepted rhythmic and harmonic…
Pianists Chick Corea (left) and Chucho Valdés (foreground) perform during their first duo concert on Nov. 15 in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
Nov 26, 2019 2:23 PM
Chucho Valdés and Chick Corea had never played together before they squared off across two grand pianos in the Rose…
Egberto Gismonti flew to New York from his home in Brazil for ECM Records at 50, a Nov. 1 and 2 celebration of the imprint at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
Nov 8, 2019 1:50 PM
The curation for ECM Records at 50, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s tribute to the famed record label on Nov. 1 and 2 in New…
French violinist Théo Ceccaldi performs with his ensemble, Freaks, during the Belgrade Jazz Festival, which ran Oct. 21-28 in the Serbian capital.
Nov 8, 2019 1:41 PM
On the penultimate evening of the 35th annual Belgrade Jazz Festival, which ran Oct. 21-28 in the Serbian capital,…
Adam Rudolph conducts the Go: Organic Orchestra at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art.
Oct 14, 2019 9:21 AM
Bandleader and percussionist Adam Rudolph sees himself as an inventor, rather than a composer. Composers typically…
Terence Blanchard performs at the Belgrade Jazz Festival in 2009.
Oct 14, 2019 9:21 AM
Vojislav Pantić, the artistic director of the Belgrade Jazz Festival, can recount all sorts of stories about the jazz…
Céline Rudolph, shown here with collaborator Lionel Loueke, says her upbringing readied her to embrace a global vision of music.
Sep 30, 2019 9:29 AM
Berlin-based singer-songwriter Céline Rudolph grew up immersed in multiculturalism, surrounded by different languages,…
Kenny Barron will release a three-disc set of duets with the late Mulgrew Miller on Oct. 18. The 76-year-old pianist and bandleader also has a trio project in the works with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Johnathan Blake.
Sep 30, 2019 2:52 PM
Last year, Blue Note released Kenny Barron’s leader debut for the label: Concentric Circles, a tour de force for…
Jazzmeia Horn’s begun writing a follow-up to her recently released album Love And Liberation and also started work on a book of poetry.
Aug 27, 2019 8:32 AM
On the third night of her June run at Jazz Standard in New York, Jazzmeia Horn leapt into her opener, the Betty Carter…
Sara Gazarek delves into self-reflection for Thirsty Ghost.
Aug 28, 2019 1:32 PM
Pain might not be pretty, but honesty is riveting.
Thirsty Ghost is an unabashed exploration of loss, heartache and,…
Bassist Michael Janisch helms Whirlwind Records and is set to release his latest leader date, Worlds Collide.
Aug 14, 2019 9:24 AM
First and foremost, Michael Janisch is a bassist. He’s about to drop his third solo album after having worked as a…
Mark Walker’s new leader album is titled You Get What You Give.
Aug 12, 2019 9:21 AM
One reason that reedist Paquito D’Rivera likes playing with Mark Walker is that the Grammy-winning drummer…
Sam Rivers (1923–2011)
Aug 9, 2019 9:28 AM
There’s a photo of Sam Rivers at the White House, most likely from the so-called “White House Jazz Festival” on…
Vocalist Sara Serpa’s work has explored how past events influence current human behavior.
Jul 24, 2019 10:44 AM
Violence. Brutality. Segregation. Exploitation. These are the words that singer/composer Sara Serpa uses when she talks…
James Francies arranged a version of Rufus’ “Ain’t Nobody” for his debut album, which was met with approval from the song’s original singer, Chaka Khan.
Apr 13, 2020 1:26 PM
Jazz pianism today stands at an apex.
There have been other moments in the music’s history when innovation rushed…
Drummer Andrew Cyrille (left), dancer Beatrice Capote and cellist Tomeka Reid perform June 11 during the 2019 Vision Festival at Brooklyn venue Roulette.
Jun 28, 2019 11:42 AM
Free-jazz percussionist Andrew Cyrille introduced tenor player Edward “Kidd” Jordan from behind the kit at…
Bassist and bandleader Linda May Han Oh calls Aventurine her most ambitious compositional work to date.
May 31, 2019 9:18 AM
Linda May Han Oh has gotten used to carrying her double bass up the four flights of stairs to the Harlem walk-up she…
Antonio Sánchez opens his latest album, Lines In The Sand, with a disturbing ontage of sirens and voices.
May 22, 2019 1:39 PM
In May 2018, drummer Antonio Sánchez was performing with pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill at the Fandango…
Guitarist and composer Hedvig Mollestad debuts a commission at the Vossa Jazz Festival, in Voss, Norway, on April 13.
Apr 26, 2019 2:29 PM
The day before guitarist/composer Hedvig Mollestad and her six-person band headlined the 46th annual Vossa Jazz…
Following a fire in her Rio de Janeiro home, improvising vocalist Claudia Villela has found a renewed interest in releasing music.
Apr 15, 2019 9:30 AM
Claudia Villela was all set to catch a December 2017 return flight to California from her native Brazil when a fire…
Saxophonist Charles McPherson performs with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Rose Theater in New York on April 5 during “McCoy Tyner and Charles McPherson at 80,” a tribute to the two jazz luminaries.
Mar 7, 2020 11:24 AM
In his intro to “McCoy Tyner and Charles McPherson at 80,” a tribute concert honoring the two jazz giants at Jazz…
At age 14, drummer Allison Miller performed at Blues Alley in Washington D.C. with guitarist Charlie Byrd.
Feb 28, 2019 10:01 AM
Much of drummer Allison Miller’s life is about juxtapositions. She’s the creative force behind two related but…
Ingrid Jensen stands for a solo during a Feb. 15 performance of the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, during the second Oscar Peterson International Jazz Festival.
Mar 1, 2019 10:53 AM
On the final afternoon of the second Oscar Peterson International Jazz Festival, a quintet led by pianist Kenny Barron…
“There are plenty of guys who would vote for a woman president before hiring a woman in their band,” Terri Lyne Carrington said.
Jan 25, 2019 10:52 AM
What would jazz without patriarchy sound like? It’s a provocative question—and one that drummer Terri Lyne…
The Bowman Trio
Oct 14, 2019 3:06 PM
Scandinavian jazz is its own thing. Affective, free-spirited and daringly improvisational. Finnish jazz, a vibrant…
Hawk Eyes serves as a chronicle of Sanah Kadoura’s recuperation from traumatic brain injury.
Nov 15, 2018 10:53 AM
In January 2017, drummer Sanah Kadoura fell in her New York apartment and hit her head on the corner of a windowsill.…
Camille Thurman’s latest release, Waiting For The Sunrise (Chesky), was issued in August.
Oct 30, 2018 9:49 AM
Saxophonist Camille Thurman kept her singing under wraps all throughout her time at the famed LaGuardia High School for…
French native Stéphane Spira is based in New York City.
Oct 25, 2018 9:30 AM
Even as an expatriate engineer in Saudi Arabia, French-born saxophonist Stéphane Spira found opportunities to play. As…
JFA Executive Director Wendy Oxenhorn and actor Rosie Perez
Oct 19, 2018 9:54 AM
The Jazz Foundation of America’s Annual Jazz Loft Party, now in its 27th year, is a one-night-only mini music…
Bassist Adi Meyerson’s leader debut is titled Where We Stand.
Oct 16, 2018 9:35 AM
Adi Meyerson not only hears music, she also sees it. “I have this thing called synesthesia,” the bassist said…
Walter Gwardyak is the music director and pianist for the New England Jazz Ensemble.
Sep 18, 2018 9:46 AM
In 1936, the Moscow Children’s Music Theater commissioned composer Sergei Prokofiev to write a symphonic fairy tale…
Bassist Corcoran Holt has worked with such icons as Benny Golson, Steve Turre and Jimmy Cobb.
Aug 21, 2018 9:14 AM
The first instrument that bassist Corcoran Holt ever played was the djembe, a West African rope-bound drum. As a child…
French saxophonist Émile Parisien recently issued Sfumato Live In Marciac on the ACT imprint.
Sep 4, 2018 9:23 AM
To say that French alto and soprano saxophonist Émile Parisien is doing well in Europe would be an understatement. In…
Jure Pukl (left), Melissa Aldana, Joe Sanders and Greg Hutchinson perform on Doubtless.
Aug 3, 2018 10:27 AM
Less than a decade old, London-based Whirlwind Recordings gives modern jazz a fresh, new face. The label’s inspired…
Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra recently issued Without A Trace on Origin.
Jul 31, 2018 10:13 AM
It wasn’t until trombonist/alto flugelhornist Scott Reeves moved to New York City in 1999 that he began to compose…
After taking part in a discussion on gender and jazz, pianist Monika Herzig’s SHEroes ensemble performed April 4 at The New School in New York.
Apr 9, 2018 8:31 PM
“You play good, for a girl.”
Every instrumentalist on the “Jazz and Gender” panel discussion at The New…
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