Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans...what was in the air in 1959? The story of the Year of the Masterpiece.
That church dedicated to the saxophonist in San Francisco? Not so weird, when you think about it.
Handy discusses a unique aspect of his sound, the night Mingus made a scene listening to him play, and the frustrations he faced recording his first album.
Ignore the terrrible headline (boy, that’s dignity for ya, after playing certain parts of your southern anatomy off for the past 60 years): Sonny Rollins is back in trio form tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall. The performance will be coupled on CD with Rollins’ debut at Carnegie 50 years ago for a Voice of America concert. In the meantime, a previously…
Reports have been circulating on the Internet for the past several days that bassist Art Davis had passed away–confirmation now from the Los Angeles Times. Some good discussion ongoing over at Organissimo about Davis’ work with Max Roach, John Coltrane…
Jazz documentarian Bret Primack has made a short film about the musical relationship of tenor saxophone greats Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane that includes interviews with Rollins and Jimmy Heath, as well as footage…
The very cool Jazz Icons DVD series has announced the release of seven more titles, including concerts by Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Dave Brubeck, and Charles Mingus.
Slave spirituals were often improvisations upon older hymns that became entirely new songs, and in some ways they foreshadow the birth of American jazz.
John Coltrane's wife was a musician in her own right. What artistic path did she take after her husband passed away in 1967?
Trumpeter Cal Massey was an African-American jazz composer, little-known now and in his lifetime, but whose work was recorded by musicians such as John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Parker, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, and Archie Shepp. In the 1960s Massey made his Brooklyn home into a kind of community center for jazz artists and produced…