Jazz

Today is Wardell Gray’s 93rd birthday anniversary. The saxophonist was an iconic figure of modern jazz in the 1940’s, but his death in 1955, most likely from a drug overdose, brought to a sudden end...

Today is Wardell Gray’s 96th birthday anniversary. The saxophonist was an iconic figure of modern jazz in the 1940’s, but his death in 1955, most likely from a drug overdose, brought to a sudden...

There’ll be good vibes in the Valley next week. Warren Wolf is this year’s Billy Taylor Artist-in-Residence at the University of Massachusetts. He’ll perform at Bowker Auditorium at UMass on Thursday,...

Here’s Miles Davis on the Steve Allen Show in Hollywood in 1964.  That’s Burt Lancaster sitting with Allen, and it’s Miles’s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. ...

I was a guest lecturer on jazz for two music appreciation classes at a private New England liberal arts college yesterday.  You might say I had my work cut out for me.  None of the 42 students...

When I was attending UMass in the ‘70’s, I spent my junior year as an exchange student at the University of Oregon in Eugene.   It was not a good match.  I’d hardly registered for classes...

Two Men With the Blues on Film Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis made for a simpatico pairing when they began making music together in 2007. The trumpeter welcomed the country music legend to Jazz at...

Howard Jefferson, Al Mueller, Bobby Gould, Bunny Price, circa 1975 Three of the four gentlemen in this photo were guiding lights in my Worcester youth. Howie Jefferson (far left) was a great tenor player...

Mamie Moffitt and Her 5 Jazz Hounds, including John A. Byard, Sr., trombone My small corner of the world has been buzzing with Worcester jazz lore this week, so it feels like a propitious time to introduce...

Today is Wynton Kelly’s 85th birthday anniversary. He’s best known for his work with Miles Davis and as the pianist who played “Freddie Freeloader” on Kind of Blue. Miles loved...