The 65th Newport Jazz Festival has announced a second wave of performers, including Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Romero Lubambo, the Ron Carter Trio, Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Memphis Soulphony, PJ Morton, Ghost-Note, the Billy Hart Quartet, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Aaron Diehl, Hailu Mergia, and Dianne Reeves with Peter Martin. “Making her festival debut at…Read More
Pianist McCoy Tyner turned 80 in December and alto saxophonist Charles McPherson turns 80 in July. To mark both of their birthdays, these renowned musicians will team up on Apr. 5 and 6 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York to celebrate their life and work. Joining Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra,…Read More
North Coast Brewing Company’s Brother Thelonious Belgian-style abbey ale has returned to the market after having halted production last summer. The reason for the interruption was a lawsuit filed by Thelonious Monk’s son, T.S., who accused the beer company of unfairly profiting from his father’s image. North Coast had been donating profits from sales of…Read More
Bucolic Orcas Island, part of the San Juan Islands chain off the northwest coast of Washington state, is hardly a jazz mecca. But for the past couple of decades it was home to Willie Thomas, the trumpeter and educator, who died there on Feb. 16, three days after his 88th birthday. In an article posted…Read More
One off-the-wall musical interlude from Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) in the 2004 comedy movie Anchorman turned the jazz flute into a strange kind of pop-culture punchline. Fifteen years later, the joke still has some resonance. Rapper, singer, and classically trained flautist Lizzo answered a Twitter challenge from Burgundy/Ferrell by releasing a shot-for-shot remake of that scene,…Read More
Ed Bickert, a Canadian guitarist whose genteel, thoughtful personality was reflected in his sensitive playing style, died Feb. 28 in Toronto. He was 86. Bickert’s family announced his death in a press release, which also attributed it to complications from cancer. Bickert was Canadian jazz royalty—all the more so because, unlike such peer countrymen as…Read More
Upon his Feb. 28 passing at his home in Manhattan, 89-year-old André Previn was praised as many things: a well-respected composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, and concert pianist. His musical gifts were such that he was often compared to Leonard Bernstein, 20th-century America’s most famous musical polymath. Previn won four Academy Awards for film scores and 11 Grammys,…Read More
Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, which will take place June 29-30 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has announced its lineup. The festival will feature such acts as George Benson, the Joshua Redman Quartet, the James Carter Organ Trio, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, the Joey DeFrancesco Trio, Allison Miller, and Norah…Read More
SFJAZZ has announced the programming for the 37th San Francisco Jazz Festival, which runs June 11-23. The two-week festival will present 40 shows in four different venues in the Bay Area, featuring such performers as Jazzmeia Horn, José James, Tia Fuller, Fabian Almazán, Linda May Han Oh, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Kenny Garrett. Of the many…Read More
Ira Gitler, one of the most important voices in post-World War II jazz journalism and criticism and a historian who co-authored The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, died Feb. 23 at an assisted living facility in New York. He was 90 years old. His death was confirmed by his son, Fitz Gitler, to radio station WBGO…Read More
