Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Christian McBride solidifies his role as the champion of the past, present and future of jazz with his Grammy Award-winning big band’s new album in tribute to Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Oliver Nelson. In September of 1966, over the course of three days, organist Smith and …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Over the course of two albums, bandleader/composer/arranger John Beasley has reimagined Thelonious Monk’s iconic compositions through his inventive, versatile MONK’estra—a big band able to deftly navigate the legend’s eccentricities from a variety of perspectives, from boisterous swing to raucous funk to Afro-Cuban explosiveness. The discs garnered Grammy …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify On the heels of his 2018 Grammy-nominated album, “Heart of Brazil: The Music of Egberto Gismonte,” comes jazz clarinet icon Eddie Daniels’ new project paying tribute to the world-renowned Brazilian musician and composer Ivan Lins entitled “Night Kisses.” After Antonio Carlos Jobim, Lins is arguably the most successful …
Hey, Jazz fans!!! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of trumpeter Erskine Hawkins, drummers Charlie Persip, Vernell Fournier and Dafnis Prieto, singers Ellyn Rucker, Nneena Freelon, Karrin Allyson and Kevin Mahogany, guitarists Charlie Christian, Joe Beck, Kenny Burrell and Stanley Jordan and more!!! We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyWhen Benny Golson left Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1958, the drummer turned to a Messenger alumnus, Hank Mobley, to take over the sax chair. Known for his writing as well as his playing, Mobley had worked with both trumpeter Lee Morgan and pianist Bobby Timmons …
We may be limited to one in-person Jazz Under the Stars concert this year on Aug. 27, we’re reserving Thursdays (and Wednesdays!) in August to remember some of our favorite evenings in Noelridge Park and McGrath Amphitheatre. Use the form below to vote for a show you’d like to hear again. Vote as often as …
Hey, jazz fans!!! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of composer of composer Earl Hagen, guitarists Phil Upchurch and Al Di Meola, singer Helen Merrill, trombonist Plas Johnson, pianists Sonny Clark and Al Haig, sax men Bill Perkins. Richie Kamuca and Junior Cook, organist Don Patterson and more!!! We’ll …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and SpotifyQuiet as it’s kept, too many of today’s finest jazz artists are given short shrift by an industry that seems to value product of a fleeting nature over true craft and a reverence for the jazz legacy. This makes it particularly challenging for a talent like Adam Shulman to break …
