-
June 15 marks the centennial of the birth of Worcester-born pianist Jaki Byard.
-
Gunther Schuller died on Sunday, June 21, in Boston. He was 89. Schuller was a Renaissance man of the Space Age. He began playing French horn with the New York Philharmonic when he was 16, became principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony at 17, and for the better part of the next 75 years excelled at more endeavors than virtually anyone else in modern music.
-
Only Bob Dylan can say definitively how much his decision to “go electric” was inspired by the buzz swirling around Paul Butterfield that weekend. But as far as I’m concerned, if Butterfield wasn’t there, Dylan’s electric premiere wouldn’t have happened until a later date.
-
No matter how complex and ambitious his music got, Mingus didn’t stray too far or too long from the vernacular of the blues, the music of the Pentecostal churches of his youth, and the swing that fueled his passion to play music in the first place. This is not apparent in everything he composed, but sooner or later he returns to these first principles, and it gives his subjective vision its universal resonance.
-
I take note of these patronizing attitudes toward Donaldson, not only with respect to the remarkably sustained quality of the music he’s played over the course of his 65 year-long career, but in light of the continual decline in the audience for jazz.
-
Ah, but Pops knew to leave us always wanting a little bit more!
-
Tony Bennett included the trumpeter Ruby Braff in a select group of “pure musicians” who have “a sound that’s as precious as a string of pearls or a rare diamond."
-
Jazz has known its fair share of charismatic personalities, but few as mythical or colorful as Dexter Gordon.
-
new england public media · Charles Lloyd interview by Tom Reney - Jazz à la ModeI spoke with Charles Lloyd on June 19. The great saxophonist and flutist’s…
-
Today marks the centennial of Charlie Parker's birth. Born August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Parker died at…