Wednesday, April 29th, was the 110th anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth. The great composer and bandleader died in New York in 1974 at age 75. Mayor Bloomberg declared Wednesday Duke ... Read More

There will be no JVC Jazz Festival in New York this year. JVC, the Japanese electronics company has pulled its sponsorship of jazz events, citing the weakened economy as the ... Read More

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is about to start the second weekend of it's programming. Starting this Thursday, April 30th, some of the big draws will be Nicholas ... Read More

"Dupree Bolton" is a name that is unknown even to many jazz scholars. It's the name of a bebop trumpet player who seemingly arrived out of nowhere in the late ... Read More

Today, April 22nd, is Charles Mingus' birthday. Check out my profile of the ingenious bassist, composer, and bandleader. Related: Bebop Ten Classic Jazz Albums Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement Image Courtesy of Candid ... Read More

While the fate of New York's JVC Jazz Festival is still uncertain, one thing you can count on is the avant-garde Vision Festival. From June 9th through 15th, the Vision ... Read More

Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense is a 4-part documentary that examines modern jazz as an active, evolving art form instead of merely a far-removed extension of jazz' ... Read More

Fly, a jazz trio composed of saxophonist Mark Turner, drummer Jeff Ballard, and bassist Larry Grenadier, performed at the Jazz Standard in New York City to celebrate the release of ... Read More

New York's Jazz Gallery is one of the best clubs in the city for seeing great music at a reasonable price. The Jazz Gallery, a long and narrow upstairs venue ... Read More

Alto saxophonist Bud Shank, who helped define the West Coast jazz sound in the late 1940s and '50s, passed away on Thursday, April 2nd of pulmonary failure at the age ... Read More

Lee Konitz has been headlining at the Village Vanguard this week for the first time since 1983. Read my profile of the prolific saxophonist who in the late 1940s was ... Read More

Diana Krall’s Quiet Nights (Verve) contains laid-back bossa novas and crawling ballads, colored with Claus Ogerman’s delicate orchestral arrangements. Unfortunately, beyond the lush ensemble sound and the creaminess of Krall’s ... Read More