Guitarist/composer Al Di Meola was presented on Monday (July 9) with an honorary Doctor of Music degree during the commencement ceremony for the master’s degree programs at the Berklee College of Music’s campus in Valencia, Spain. Di Meola also performed as a special guest at the commencement concert at the City of Arts and Sciences.…Read More

Marshall University and the Nu Jazz Agency have announced the winners of the inaugural Ellis Marsalis International Jazz Piano Competition, held June 22-23 in Huntington, W.Va. Ben Paterson (Philadelphia, Pa.) won first place; Rina Yamazaki (Saitama, Japan) won second place and the Nu Jazz Agency’s Chico & Lupe O’Farrill Award for Best Original Composition; and…Read More

Bill Watrous, a jazz trombonist acclaimed for his clear, round tone and boundless virtuosity on his instrument, died on Tuesday, July 3, in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 79 years old. Sometimes billed as “the world’s greatest trombonist,” Watrous was universally admired among jazz musicians for the beauty and fluency of his…Read More

Henry Butler, the multifaceted New Orleans pianist and singer whose style encompassed several strains of jazz as well as elements of blues, pop, classical, funk, gospel, R&B, and Caribbean music, died yesterday (July 2) in New York. Butler, who was 68, had been battling end-stage cancer for more than a year. An online fundraising campaign…Read More

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter, and Stefon Harris are the recipients of the 2018 Doris Duke Artist Awards.…Read More

The Keystone Jazz Collective aims to highlight Pennsylvania’s contributions to jazz with a series of summer kickoff concerts.…Read More

The North Carolina birthplace and childhood home of the late singer/songwriter, musician, and activist Nina Simone has been named a National Treasure by the National Trust for Preservation. According to a news release issued yesterday (June 19), the Trust will “develop and find a new use for the house in Tryon where Simone was born…Read More

In Carmen McRae’s suitcase throughout her last year of touring was a tape of Rebecca Parris’ 1990 album, Love Comes and Goes. McRae told Parris that the recording was among her prized selection of “travel music.” Now Parris’ traveling, like McRae’s, is over. “Boston’s First Lady of Jazz,” as she was known, died on June…Read More

Composer Jihye Lee has been awarded the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize and Manny Albam Commission at the 30th Annual BMI Jazz Composers Workshop Showcase Concert, which took place on June 14 at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater in New York City. Serving as judges were Darcy James Argue, Alan Broadbent, and Ed Neumeister.…Read More