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Originally a Record Store Day Black Friday release only, the title returns as a 4-LP vinyl box set through Verve/Ume on May 19.Charlie Parker’s prolific and historic first three trips to Los Angeles have been collected together as Bird In LA, a 28-track collection of mostly unreleased and incredibly rare recordings, releasing digitally for streaming and download for the very first time, and in a 4-LP black vinyl box set on May 19 via Verve/UMe. This wide release, due to popular demand, follows a limited-edition vinyl release exclusive for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2021, which sold out instantly,...

After eight seasons, four gender-affirming surgeries, and hormone replacement therapy, TLC's I Am Jazz star Jazz Jennings still feels uncomfortable in her own skin. Breitbart reports that Jazz still doesn't feel like herself, suggesting something is missing, even though she had gender-affirming surgery.

Herbie Hancock wrote of Shorter that he could ‘synthesize all the history of jazz into a very special, very alive, musical expression.’Wayne Shorter, the enigmatic jazz saxophonist and composer known as one of the inventors of jazz-rock, or fusion, has died in hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 89. His publicist confirmed his death to the New York Times. Shorter is survived by his third wife, Carolina Dos Santos, and daughter, Miyako. Like John Coltrane before him, Shorter was a key figure in popularizing the soprano saxophone, an instrument equally suited to carrying a melody as it is...

The thread title says it all... If you think I'm wrong, check it out Joe Pass >RIP< Freegards to all.

With his ‘Nigeria’ album, guitarist Grant Green turned in pitch-perfect hard bop performances that risked confusing his growing fanbase.As both a leader and sideman, Grant Green was undoubtedly the most prolific recording artist on Blue Note’s roster between the years 1961 and 1964, having appeared on 50 different sessions for the New York label during a supremely fertile four-year period. In 1962 alone, when he recorded the tracks for what became Nigeria, he led five more studio dates, which would yield the albums Oleo, Born To Be Blue, The Latin Bit, Goin’ West, and Feelin’ The Spirit. The St. Louis-born...

On January 10th, WKCR celebrates the anniversary of the birthday of peerless jazz icon Max Roach, born in 1924. As a drummer, he was an integral part of nearly every jazz movement from bebop onward, accompanying such giants as Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Cecil Taylor. As a bandleader and composer, he created some of the most socially aware records of the tumultuous civil rights movement in the 1960s. As an educator, he gave his time and ear to countless musicians who have since passed on into the contemporary world of the music he helped bring about. Listen in as...

Manhattan Transfer performance in London, 45 years ago. The only MT video I've ever seen that includes Laurel Massé. She was forced to quit the group after a car accident that nearly killed her; she fell asleep at the wheel after a performance in Washington DC. She received injuries that made it very painful for her to stand while performing. She was replaced in the group by Cheryl Bentyne, another exceptionally talented musician. This video has been up on YT only two months, and has (at present) fewer than 10K views.

If you want to let someone hear what Coltrane is all about, then this is as good a place as any to start.On October 8, 1963, John Coltrane, along with pianist McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison on double bass, and drummer Elvin Jones were at Birdland, and a part of their performance was captured on tape by Rudy Van Gelder. Released in 1964, Coltrane Live At Birdland became ‘Trane’s second live album on Impulse!, although only three of the five tracks on the original LP release were actually from the gig at the famous Manhattan club; the other two are from...

The jazz saxophonist worked closely with John Coltrane and was a pioneer of the avant-garde movement.Pharoah Sanders, the jazz saxophonist who worked closely with John Coltrane and was a pioneer of the avant-garde movement, has died. He was 81 years old. No one played the tenor saxophone quite like Pharoah Sanders. When he blew his horn, it was as if he was a dragon breathing fire. He played it so loudly and with such a fierce intensity that what came out of his horn was a startlingly eerie howl, like a hurricane crossed with a flame-thrower; a sound that...

Joey DeFrancesco was 16 years old when he signed an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Records. The following year he released his first record, titled All of Me. His performance on All of Me has been attributed as helping bring back the organ to jazz music during the 1980s. That same year, DeFrancesco joined Miles Davis and his band on a five-week concert tour in Europe. He followed up with playing keyboard on Davis’ album Amandla, which reached No. 1 on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart in 1989

Explore how the Newport Jazz Festival survived riots, rock, and revolution to birth some of jazz’s greatest live albums. In 1954 the smallest state in America started a tradition that changed the live jazz experience forever. Since then, the Newport Jazz Festival has been on board for every evolutionary phase of the music — bop, cool jazz, fusion, free jazz, whatever mode was making waves wound up on its stage. Luckily, the magic that masters like Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cecil Taylor worked at Newport is captured on decades’ worth of live albums that...

The series continues throughout 2022 with titles by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and many more. Published on May 5, 2022By Paul Sexton'Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins artwork - Courtesy: Verve/UMe'Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins' artwork - Courtesy: Verve/UMe Verve/UMe’s all-analog vinyl reissue series Acoustic Sounds has confirmed its next set of audiophile pressings of significant and beloved jazz recordings. On the back of nearly two dozen releases to date, each painstakingly remastered from the original tapes, the series continues with the May 13 appearance of the 1963 Impulse! release Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins. The storied Impulse! label was the...

The story behind the jazz legend’s final hit and, quite simply, one of the most beautiful songs ever written.The legendary New Orleans singer and trumpeter Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong had been making records since 1923, but in February 1968, at the age of 66, he released “What A Wonderful World,” which would become the biggest-selling song of his long and storied career. Though renowned as one of the pioneers of Dixieland-style jazz in the 1920s, Armstrong was no stranger to the pop charts in the 1960s, having topped Billboard’s Hot 100 with the Grammy-winning single, “Hello Dolly,” in 1964. But “What...

The trumpeter has transcended eras and genres throughout his remarkable career.Cuban-American trumpeter Arturo Sandoval may not be a household name to the casual jazz listener – but he ought to be. For over five decades, Sandoval has been fusing together the Afro-Cuban rhythms and beats of his birthplace with modern jazz compositions. With a discography of more than 30 albums, he’s amassed a bevy of accolades: ten Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards, an Emmy Award, a Hispanic Heritage Award, an Honorary Doctorate from The University of Notre Dame, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom – awarded by President Obama...

In an interview for BBC Radio 4 the Police guitarist gave glimpses of late 50s guitar culture and recommended Luis Bonfa and Wes MontgomeryIn the 1980s – probably the most musically fluent decade in pop since rock music arrived in the UK in the late 1950s – many (not enough) noticed the harmonic sophistication of The Police and the (let’s say) “jazzy” chords employed by the trio’s guitarist, Andy Summers. His use of chord extensions and suspensions became a signature of the band, evident in songs such as Roxanne and Message In A Bottle. It’s no surprise then that as...

A popular biography of the legendary jazz pianist, composer and arranger gives a glimpse of how art can serve the pursuit of holiness.Among the popular biographies of notable Catholics in Liturgical Press’ series “People of God” are many household names: Dorothy Day, Flannery O’Connor, Oscar Romero, Thomas Merton, Sister Helen Prejean and, of course, Pope Francis. Its latest subject, Mary Lou Williams, is far lesser known — both as a legendary jazz pianist-composer and a devout Catholic. Williams, who died in 1981, believed jazz was “healing to the soul” and found a welcome home among churchmen and religious sisters who...

The studio version has long been recognized as the jazz saxophonist’s masterwork. But a recently unearthed live recording is nothing short of a revelation.ltrane stood apart for his indifference to the scene. While Miles Davis socialized with Harry Belafonte and Marlon Brando at uptown galas, and the pianist Cecil Taylor and Coleman mingled with bohemian painters and poets on the Lower East Side, Coltrane lived with his family in the middle-class suburb of Dix Hills, Long Island, and kept to himself. He projected selfless dedication, purpose, and—as the alto saxophonist Darius Jones recently put it to me—“service.” Service—or, more precisely,...

The songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist was best known as the bandleader and arranger for the James Brown Orchestra during its most prolific and groundbreaking period. Published on September 24, 2021By Harry Weinger Pee Wee Ellis - Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty ImagesPee Wee Ellis (L) and Maceo Parker perform as part of the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 5, 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images uDiscover Music - Facebook ShareuDiscover Music - Twitter ShareuDiscover Music - Email ShareuDiscover Music - Comments Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis, the songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist best known as the bandleader...

The Jazz Messengers were among the first modern jazz groups to tour Japan, and the adoring audiences were enthralled.On November 5, Blue Note Records will release First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings: a thrilling previously unreleased live recording of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers captured at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo on January 14, 1961 during the band’s first-ever tour of Japan. The Jazz Messengers were among the first modern jazz groups to tour the country, and adoring Japanese audiences were enthralled by one of the band’s all-time great line-ups featuring the legendary drummer with Lee Morgan...

The granddaughter of legendary jazz singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of stealing the family estate and giving it to “white people.” She claims that Harris “bullied” her mother in court to the point of near suicide. “Nina’s granddaughter here,” ReAnna Simone Kelly tweeted on Saturday after someone asked why a Twitter account was created for the late singer. “My family doesn’t run her estate anymore. It was taken away from us [and] given to white people. Our family name was DRAGGED in the media. We get NO royalties, nothing. Wanna hold someone...