Sponsored Content Comedian Alonzo Bodden got his first break as one of the finalists in the popular TV show Last Comic Standing, and since then has developed into a headliner at clubs and festivals throughout North America. He’s a regular guest on the weekly NPR radio show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” which looks at…Read More
Don Braden will never forget an exchange he had with a surgeon a few years ago, because it was the most devastating news he’d ever received. In 2014 Braden noticed a lump in his throat. He went from one specialist to another, but none of them could figure out what it was. Then, finally, one…Read More
Multi-instrumentalist Steve Wilson, best known as an alto and soprano saxophonist, is busier than ever these days. One look at his tour schedule can confirm that fact: a recent U.S. trek with the Maria Schneider Orchestra; a date with Christian McBride’s big band and another alongside the bassist in a one-off Weather Report tribute; duo…Read More
Sponsored Content Keyboardist Robert Glasper, a product of the same Houston high school program (HSVPA) that produced Jason Moran, Helen Sung, Beyoncé, Eric Harland and other luminaries in contemporary music, has been leading his own groups since the beginning of this century. He came to NYC to study music at the New School and worked…Read More
Sponsored content Marcus Miller has been a first-call bassist since the late 70s, when his distinctive jangly rhythmic sound seemed to be on every jazz and funk cut of note—from “Just the Two of Us” with Grover Washington, Jr. and Bill Withers to “Power of Love” with Luther Vandross. A member of Miles Davis’ comeback…Read More
These are all musicians I knew and worked with, and all of them were mentors who were very inspirational to me. I didn’t know who any of them were until I got to New York in 1976. They’re all gone now, but they opened me up and humbled me, and gave me a new perspective…Read More
Sponsored content The singer Dee Dee Bridgewater has been an electric presence on the contemporary jazz scene for decades. The Grammy Award-winning vocalist is a dynamic performer who also crafts conceptual albums, including For Ella (tribute to Ella Fitzgerald), Eleanora Fagan: To Billie With Love From Dee Dee Bridgewater (tribute to Billie Holiday), Red Earth…Read More
Sponsored content Trombonist, composer and occasional vocalist Wycliffe Gordon rose to prominence in the ’90s as a member of Wynton Marsalis’ Septet, alongside Todd Williams, Wess Anderson, Marcus Roberts, Reginald Veal and Herlin Riley. Since then, he’s become one of the foremost players on his instrument and a successful bandleader, and recently he’s been performing…Read More
Marco Benevento is not, at this time, a jazz musician. But he was. On his way to becoming the singing rock pianist he is today, the 39-year-old studied with Brad Mehldau and Joanne Brackeen and broke through playing organ and synths in the Benevento/Russo Duo, a jazz-rock project with drummer Joe Russo that crafted expandable…Read More
Sponsored content The trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was raised in the musically fertile Bay Area along with many other notable jazz players such as Jonathan Finlayson, Dayna Stephens and Justin Brown. Signed to Blue Note Records in 2010, he released his debut album for the label, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, in 2011 and the imagined savior…Read More
