Bob Brookmeyer (1929 - 2011)
12/17/2011 7:19:22 PM - It’s with great sadness that we share the news that Bob Brookmeyer passed away last night, just three days shy of his 82nd birthday. More...
Jason Moran to be Kennedy Center jazz adviserby Brett Zongker, Associated PressWashington -- The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday tapped 36-year-old pianist and composer Jason Moran to be its artistic adviser for jazz, a post held by acclaimed musician Billy Taylor until his death in December at 89. More...
Paul Motian, Jazz Drummer, Is Dead at 80by Ben RatliffPaul Motian, a drummer, bandleader, composer and one of the most influential jazz musicians of the last 50 years, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 80 and lived in Manhattan. More...
A Love Still Supreme, But a House in Ruins
There is a ranch house out in the middle of Long Island, just south of the expressway in Dix Hills, where the saxophonist John Coltrane lived, started a family and composed “A Love Supreme” in the spare bedroom. More...
Ray Bryant, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 79
By Nate Chinen
Ray Bryant, a jazz pianist whose sensitivity and easy authority made him a busy accompanist and a successful solo artist, beginning in the mid-1950s, died on Thursday. He was 79. More...
Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Culture, Dies at 62By Ben Sisario
Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and recording artist whose syncopated spoken style and mordant critiques of politics, racism and mass media in pieces like "The Revolution Wil Not Be Televised" made him a notable voice of black protest culture in the 1970s and an important early influence on hip-hop, died on Friday at a hospital in Manhattan. More...
Joe Morello
Best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet over a span of more than 12 years, Morello played on 120 albums (60 of them with Brubeck) and went on to become a highly valued teacher of percussion. More...
George Shearing, 'Lullaby of Birdland' Jazz Virtuoso, Dies at 91
By Peter Keepnews
George Shearing, the British piano virtuoso who overcame blindness to become a worldwide jazz star, and whose composition “Lullaby of Birdland” became an enduring jazz standard, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 91. More...
Jazz Grammy Winners Presented in LAStanley Clarke, James Moody, Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater among winnersBy Lee MergnerIn a pre-telecast ceremony held in Los Angeles today, the winners in nearly 100 categories were announced. Included in there were the jazz categories, in which Stanley Clarke, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Billy Childs, Herbie Hancock, Chucho Valdes and the late James Moody were among the winners. More...
Jazz Appreciation
With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service is proud to pay tribute to jazz, America’s musical gift to the world, and to the musicians who play it in studios, clubs, or concert halls, and on festival stages.
Jazz developed originally as an innovative combination of European, American, and African influences. It first flowered near the dawn of the 20th century in New Orleans, LA, where Africans from various places mixed with native-born Americans of diverse ancestry as well as Europeans and people from the islands of the Caribbean. This unique blend of cultures gave rise to a distinctive musical expression—and the blending process has continued, with jazz incorporating further influences from Latin, Asian, and African cultures.
Major jazz figures include composers such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Thelonious Monk; singers such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan; and innovative musicians such as Lester Young, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman — all internationally admired.
Art director Howard Paine designed the stamp to showcase the work of Paul Rogers, an artist living in Pasadena, CA. In creating the art for the stamp, originally using ink on paper and then finishing his work digitally, Rogers explored the way images could become a visual equivalent of jazz music. He was inspired by the cover art from vintage jazz record albums—work that captured the music’s improvisational quality while built on a clear understanding of its underlying structure.
New John Coltrane Tracks Discovered
Three previously unheard and unreleased John Coltrane tracks have been discovered and will be made available in April on First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection (Impulse/Universal), a four-CD set that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Impulse Records. More...
Jazz Grammy Nominees Include Lorber, Clarke, Moody
by Doug Levine
The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards will be held in Los Angeles, California on February 13. Here are this year’s nominees in jazz. More...
Famed Newport Jazz & Folk Festivals Go Non-ProfitNEWPORT, RI, January 25, 2011 - The famed Newport Jazz Festival® and Newport Folk Festival®, held in Newport, RI, since 1954 and 1959 respectively, have returned to their original roots as non-profit events. More...
Library of Congress Gets a Mile of MusicBy Larry RohterThe Library of Congress has begun taking possession of a huge donation of recordings, some 200,000 metal, glass and lacquer master discs from the period 1926 to 1948 that have been languishing in the subterranean vaults of Universal Music Group, the largest music conglomerate in the United States. More...
Death of Jazz Club Underscores a Changing Scene
By Reyhan Hamanci
As another holiday season under a stagnating economy draws to a close, it is hardly surprising that San Francisco would lose that rarely profitable of ventures, a jazz room. More...
Billy Taylor, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 89
By Peter KeepnewsBilly Taylor, a pianist and composer who was also an eloquent spokesman and advocate for jazz as well as a familiar presence for many years on television and radio, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. More...
What a Wonderful House
In Queens, the Louis Armstrong House Museum Trumpets Its Namesake Anew
By Will Friedwald
Louis Armstrong has been gone for nearly 40 years, but there's still little doubt that he is regarded as the single most important figure in jazz, and perhaps all of American music. More...
Jazz Saxophone Giant James Moody Has Died at 85
Acclaimed jazz saxophonist James Moody died this afternoon of pancreatic cancer at a San Diego hospice, the San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting. He was 85 and had lived in the city for more than 20 years. More...
‘In His Own Sweet Way’: Celebrating Dave Brubeck’s 90 Years - on FilmBy Howard Reich
Dave Brubeck will turn 90 next Monday, and of all the tributes sure to flow his way, one of the most endearing will be public: the broadcast of an ambitious documentary film on his remarkably enduring career. More...
Where a Bird Played Sax, Now Others Find Refuge
By Corey Kilgannon
There are two signs in front of 151 Avenue B, a row house in the East Village facing Tompkins Square Park. One is a bronze plaque identifying the building as a former home of the jazz legend Charlie Parker, who lived in the ground-floor apartment from 1950 to 1954. More...