The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019, and to mark the occasion, extra days have been added to the festival’s calendar. Now, both installments of the festival, which usually last from Friday to Sunday, will kick off on a Thursday. It will run April 25-28 and May 2-5. The…Read More
James Jordan, a Texas-born musician who was the longtime director of music programs for the New York State Council on the Arts, died Dec. 4 of an undisclosed cause at age 87. Jordan was a cousin of Ornette Coleman and also served as the late saxophonist’s manager. Jordan’s death was confirmed by Denardo Coleman, Ornette’s…Read More
Two of the most lauded albums by saxophonist/composer John Coltrane, Giant Steps and My Favorite Things—both released on Atlantic Records nearly 60 years ago—have earned gold status per the standards of the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold more than 500,000 units. Gold records are, of course, not an honor often bestowed on jazz…Read More
The 2019 Biamp PDX Jazz Festival in Portland, Ore., which celebrates Black History Month, is scheduled to run Wednesday, Feb. 20 through Sunday, March 3. Now in its 16th year, the event will kick off with a performance by the trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. The saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, an NEA Jazz Master, will play…Read More
On Dec. 29, a Duke Ellington concert film not seen for more than 50 years will receive its first public viewing since its original broadcast in 1966 at the historic Coventry Cathedral in the United Kingdom. Appropriately, the cathedral is where the concert by Ellington and his orchestra originally took place, on Feb. 21, 1966—the…Read More
The nominees for the 2019 Grammy Awards were announced Friday morning, Dec. 7. Pop stars like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Childish Gambino, and Cardi B dominated the list. In the jazz categories, Miguel Zenón, Fred Hersch, Brad Mehldau, and John Daversa each received two nominations—Daversa for Best Improvised Jazz Solo and Best Large Jazz…Read More
If you weren’t able to grab Cannonball Adderley’s Swingin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966-1967) on double vinyl last month—when it was released in a limited edition for Record Store Day Black Friday—fear not. Reel to Real Recordings, the newly formed archival jazz label launched by Resonance Records’ Zev Feldman and saxophonist Cory Weeds, has…Read More
2018 was a remarkable year for the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, held Dec. 2-3 in Washington, D.C. It marked the return of jazz’s most prestigious contest after a two-year hiatus, and a delayed 30th-anniversary celebration for the event, which began in 1987. It was also the last iteration that will bear the name of…Read More
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who passed away at the age of 49 on Nov. 2, will be honored with a musical tribute on Tuesday, Jan. 8, in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall on Broadway at 60th Street, New York, N.Y. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the event will begin promptly at…Read More
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, a documentary about the famed trumpeter and bandleader, will debut at the Sundance Film Festival, which runs Thursday, Jan. 24 through Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019 in Park City, Utah. The movie is directed by the respected documentarian Stanley Nelson, who previously helmed the four-time Emmy-winning Freedom Riders, among many…Read More
