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A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump. The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled. The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a...

The president of the Kennedy Center sharply criticized a musician Friday for canceling a Christmas Eve performance at the venue after the White House announced that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the building. Richard Grenell, the center’s president, accused musician Chuck Redd of political intolerance in a letter responding to the sudden withdrawal, which Grenell said came just days before the scheduled concert. The letter, shared with The Associated Press, said the cancellation was explicitly tied to the recent renaming of the facility, which Grenell described as honoring Trump’s efforts to preserve the arts institution.

The Kennedy Center’s free Christmas Eve Jazz Jam did not take place in 2025 for the first time in more than two decades. The long-standing holiday tradition was canceled after the board of trustees voted to rename the venue the “Trump Kennedy Center,” adding President Donald Trump’s name alongside John F. Kennedy’s. Jazz drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, who had hosted the concert since 2006, canceled the performance after seeing the name change appear on the Kennedy Center website and then on the building itself. The decision was announced only days before Christmas, with no replacement programming and no detailed...

A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show’s host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility. As of last Friday, the building’s facade reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. According to the White House, the president’s handpicked board approved the decision, which scholars have said violates the law. Trump had...

Spyro Gyra has long been known to its peers in the contemporary jazz world as a “well oiled road machine” due to its relentless schedule of 48 years of performing. To date, they have logged more than 10,000 shows on six continents and released 35 albums, garnering platinum and gold records along the way. Spyro Gyra rose from humble beginnings in Buffalo, New York in 1974 to their current international prominence in the jazz world. Every year, they continue to exhibit how to remain among a relative handful of artists who will be able to say that they have worked...

>I? Seen as a face-off between the old and new guards in jazz, Duke Ellington’s ‘Money Jungle’ album proved they were on the same continuum. First released in 1962 via the United Artists label, Duke Ellington’s collaboration with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, Money Jungle, was a momentous jazz summit. Though often seen as the moment where the old guard (Ellington) squared up to jazz music’s young lions (Mingus and Roach), the generational differences between its three participants are often exaggerated. Certainly, Ellington was entering his twilight years – he had just turned 63 – but Mingus, then...

Coleman Hawkins’ 1958 Verve Records classic, Coleman Hawkins And Confrères, is set to be reissued on October 24 through Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series. Pre-orders are available now.Hawkins’ tenor saxophone playing is particularly confident and eloquent throughout the set. His group of “confreres” on the session is fortified by the Oscar Peterson Trio along with sit-in guests including Hank Jones (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Roy Eldridge and Buck Clayton (both on trumpet), and others. The album was initially recorded across two sessions, on October 16, 1957 and February 7, 1958. Consisting of both original compositions from Hawkins and covers, highlights include...

Recorded across two sessions, ‘The Sermon!’ finds the Hammond organ master Jimmy Smith at his finest for Blue Note.Jimmy Smith wasn’t the first organist in jazz – Fats Waller, Count Basie, and Wild Bill Davis all preceded him – but he was the first notable practitioner of the Hammond B3 and gave the instrument credibility within a jazz setting thanks to Blue Note albums the likes of 1959’s The Sermon! and 1963’s Back At The Chicken Shack. He was also profoundly influential, his jaw-dropping virtuosity spawning a raft of nimble-fingered acolytes who followed in his wake – among them...

Uptown Ed - Arista All Stars (Featuring Michael Brecker)

Her 1963 debut, ‘Portrait of Sheila,’ remains a staple of the genreSheila Jordan, a celebrated jazz vocalist and staple of the Blue Note roster, has died at the age of 96. The news was shared by Sheila’s daughter Tracey on August 11. She wrote on Instagram: “Dear Jazz Family & Friends, My dearest mum Sheila Jordan passed away peacefully this afternoon, Monday, August 11 at 3:50 pm. Her friend Joan Belgrave was playing her a bebop tune called ‘Bill for Bennie,’ by her late husband Marcus Belgrave…my mom fell asleep listening to the music she loved and helped define.”...

A Portland jazz legend has died at the age of 85. Nancy King was known the world over, praised for her voice and her improvisational skills on stage. Words like “treasure” and “unique talent” are often spoken by those who knew King. Vegetation fire on Hwy 58 prompts ‘Go Now’ evacs “Nancy King, to many, was perhaps the best jazz vocalist to ever live. And she just so happened to live in Portland, Oregon,” said Portland State University Jazz Professor Sherry Alves. Officials pledge support for Army shooting that wounded five soldiers Alves knew King well, having interviewed King many...

John Coltrane gave more to jazz in his 40 years than many who lived a much longer life. We look back at his great legacy.John Coltrane died on July 17, 1967, having given more to jazz in his 40 years than many who live a much longer life. His music has been an inspiration to many rock musicians as well as younger jazz musicians and his album, A Love Supreme, is one of the acknowledged masterpieces in the jazz canon. Born in North Carolina in September 1926, Coltrane’s father was a tailor and amateur musician able to play several...

Before the sounds of the swinging sixties broke into the mainstream, the more individualistic youth of England’s capital city danced all night to the sounds of American jazz and soul music. Dark nightclubs and backstreet jazz bars saw an influx of sharply dressed youngsters, arriving on Italian scooters, hopped up on amphetamines, all hoping to hear the latest sounds emanating from the States. For many of them, it was the music of Jimmy Smith that they were desperate to hear. Smith was instrumental in the development of the mod subculture, with his albums on regular rotation in clubs like The...

Decades after his death, Wes Montgomery’s keen ears and boundless imagination still bowl over jazz aficionados and newbies alike.If jazz seems too impenetrable and intimidating to get into, dig this. Wes Montgomery, arguably its greatest guitarist, couldn’t read music, didn’t know theory, and didn’t understand his instrument’s electronics. He also strummed exclusively with his thumb, an idiosyncrasy that would make any music instructor run faint. But with the possible exception of Jim Hall, any jazz guitarist with an iota of self-awareness genuflects to him as the greatest to ever do it. Decades after his death, his keen ears and boundless...

‘The Moment Of Truth,’ a new recording from the First Lady Of Soul, is coming in February.A new, never-before-heard album is coming from the First Lady Of Soul. The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum, an unearthed live album from Ella Fitzgerald’s performance at the Oakland Coliseum on June 30, 1967, will be released on all formats on February 28, 2025. First single “The Moment Of Truth” is out now with its own new animated music video directed by Sharon Liu. The nine-track album was recently found in the private collection of Verve Records founder Norman Granz, and...

Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack album for ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ has become a seasonal classic, full of magical pieces that stand on their own.The choice of Vince Guaraldi to create the soundtrack for the first A Charlie Brown Christmas Special, which aired on CBS on December 9, 1965, came about by chance – and ended up proving to be an inspirational decision. American television producer Lee Mendelson, the man who produced the show, was looking for someone to do a jazzy soundtrack. He initially tried for Dave Brubeck. “The first call I made was to Dave Brubeck, who was an...

Known as ‘Sweet Poppa Lou,’ Donaldson blended the lyricism of swing-era hornblower Johnny Hodges with the quick-fingered athleticism of bebop architect Charlie Parker.Lou Donaldson, a pioneer of soul jazz, has passed away. Known as “Sweet Poppa Lou” – a reference to the distinctive, honeyed tone he pulled from his alto sax – Donaldson blended the lyricism of swing-era hornblower Johnny Hodges with the quick-fingered athleticism of bebop architect Charlie Parker. More than anything else, though, Donaldson viewed himself as a crowd-pleaser: His music’s deep, bluesy soulfulness and emotional directness allowed him to connect with a wider audience than many of...

The legendary jazz drummer challenged the idea that a percussionist’s primary function was to keep time.Roy Haynes has passed away. He was the last surviving member of a small but elite cadre of drummers who rose to fame in the mid-1940s, introducing conversational elements into jazz’s rhythmic vocabulary and challenging the idea that a percussionist’s primary function was to keep time. Dubbed “Snap Crackle” by bassist Al McKibbon – purportedly in an approximation of his uniquely crisp snare drum sound – Haynes distinguished himself with his innovative use of cymbals, driving the groove while adding rhythmic commentary to what...

This relaxed, sensitive masterpiece is full of lyricism and warmth.On October 16, 1957, one of the great studio sessions of the decade took place in Capitol’s famous studios in Hollywood. The brilliant tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins spent much of the day and evening in the studios recording two separate albums with producer Norman Granz for Verve Records: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins and Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster. The 52-year-old Hawkins was there, working with pianist Oscar Peterson’s regular trio of Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and drummer Alvin Stoller. The musicians recorded twelve songs that were released...

Though he was never a household name, Golson was one of the most accomplished tenor saxophonists and composers of the 1950s hard bop era.Beloved jazz composer and saxophonist Benny Golson passed away on September 21st. Though he was never a household name like his high school friend John Coltrane, Golson was one of the most accomplished tenor saxophonists and composers of the 1950s hard bop era, known for his smoky, muscular tone and for penning tunes like “Whisper Not,” “I Remember Clifford” and “Killer Joe” — songs that married indelible melodies with subtle harmonic sophistication. During his seven-decade career,...