Jazz

You’d think Johnny Griffin would have grown tired of references to his diminutive size by the time he played the Bern Jazz Festival in 1998, but he seems to take it all in stride when Gene Harris introduces...

I feel as moved by Johnny Hodges today as I did when I first heard him on record nearly fifty years ago. The album was Duke Ellington’s memorial for Billy Strayhorn, …And His Mother Called...

Johnny Hodges was born on July 25, 1906. A giant of jazz in his own right, Hodges was the most famous of Duke Ellington’s sidemen, and it was long said that Ellington was the envy of bandleaders...

Johnny Mercer; photo by William P. Gottlieb Here’s a terrific clip of the great songwriter Johnny Mercer singing a succession of his tunes as Steve Allen sings other’s songs whose themes conjure Mercer...

Jon Hendricks Today is Jon Hendricks’ 90th birthday. As singers go, Jon embodies the characteristic “sound of surprise” that Whitney Balliett coined to describe jazz. Jon’s comes in two forms, first...

Jon Hendricks Jon Hendricks, who died on Wednesday at 96, was for over seven decades an artist who embodied the characteristic “sound of surprise” that the late New Yorker writer Whitney Balliett coined...

I posted Jonathan Winters’ portrayal of a man who was Frank Sinatra’s bus driver earlier today on Facebook and in no time heard from a few jazz-astute friends.  Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal...

Joseph Jarman Joseph Jarman, who died on Wednesday, January 9, at 81, was an icon of free jazz and best known for his long association with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas,...

James Farm, featuring Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland, will be in concert at the University of Massachusetts on September 24.  The band released its debut recording...

Horace Silver says that his father was “greatly offended” the first time he saw the term “funky” applied to his son in Downbeat. “What do they mean, you’re funky. You take a bath every day.” Horace adds,...