Jazz

Steve Schwartz Friday night, as I was noting Day 30 of a cold virus, my friend Steve Schwartz was admitted to Seasons Hospice in Milton, Mass. Yesterday morning, while driving east for lunch...

Paul Combs dedicates his new biography of Tadd Dameron to four jazz greats who “made [him] promise that [he] would see this project through.”  Combs’s challenge was formidable, and he admits that he “had...

As befitting the legacy of Duke Ellington, who led his renowned orchestra for nearly 50 years and criss-crossed the globe as an unofficial musical ambassador, there are Duke Ellington Society chapters...

Tatumesque (on film) After watching this amazing performance of “Humoresque” by Art Tatum this morning, I looked for a version of the piece as Dvorak composed it and found this clip featuring...

Here’s Sonny Rollins in conversation with Tavis Smiley. The 81-year-old saxophonist says he still practices at least two hours everyday because “there’s no end to music, there’s...

We’ve lost two Massachusetts-born jazzmen in the past ten days. Hal McKusick, the saxophonist and clarinet player who died on April 10, was born in Medford on June 1, 1924.  Vibraphonist Teddy...

Teddy Wilson’s centennial is today.  I’ve put together a trio of performance clips to mark the occasion.  Notwithstanding his stature as one of the most influential pianists in jazz history and...

Thad Jones’s 93rd birthday anniversary was March 28. Born in 1923, he was the middle of the three illustrious Jones brothers of Pontiac, Michigan (pianist Hank was born in 1918; drummer Elvin in 1927),...

Moments after I’d posted this morning’s blog touting Chick Webb as the Battle of the Bands champ at the Savoy Ballroom, I spotted some great footage of the Thad Jones-Mel Orchestra under a banner reading,...

Sonny Rollins in 2012 By now you’ve probably heard about the silly web post that The New Yorker ran last week purportedly quoting Sonny Rollins (In His Own Words) on his career in jazz. I was alerted...