News & Updates — folk

Cherokee folk singer Karen Dalton was a tragic story, a talent underheard and another tale of harsh and damaging substance abuse. Her sad, world-weary voice brings to mind Billie Holiday and her own compositions took a backseat to cover tunes. She came from Oklahoma, ditching a husband & children for who knows why, and came to NYC where she was on the Greenwich Village folk scene along with Bob Dylan, the Holy Modal Rounders and her good friend Fred Neil. She played a twelve-string guitar and banjo and mentioned Bessie Smith as her biggest influence as a singer. She made very...

Happy birthday to one of my very favorites, the soulful saxophonist Dudu Pukwana, an exile from apartheid South Africa and a major contributor to the '70s creative jazz landscape. He started playing professionally in the '50s with Kippie Moeketsi and Nik Moyake. Pukwana and Moyake became members (along with Johnny Dyani, Mongezi Feza and Louis Moholo) of the Blue Notes, a group led nominally by white pianist Chris McGregor, but were essentially a collective. They became a sensation for both the quality of their music as well as the fact that they were a mixed-race band, something that was illegal...

Feliz aniversario to Djalma de Andrade aka "Bola Sete" ("seven ball"), a great Brazilian guitarist. In Brazilian billiards, the seven ball is the only black ball, his name was given due to being the only black guy in his early jazz group. Born in Rio, he studied guitar and had a love of jazz, catching many visiting American big bands in Brazil. In 1945 he won a prestigious guitar competition and formed a jazz combo, also playing samba. He played in Italy for a few years in the mid-'50s and toured with an orchestra through South America before moving to...

There are so many interesting artists born on July 15 that it is impossible in my schedule to write pieces about them. So here are some shorties, along with a video or two for each. --Francis Bebey / July 15, 1929 - May 28, 2001 This unique Cameroonian composer and his interesting DIY synth-pop crossed with traditional music has been justly making new fans in recent years. --James Jacson / July 15, 1932 - Aug 10, 1997 Happy cosmic birthday to James Jacson, one of my favorite characters from Sun Ra's Arkestra. Jacson is the one who was instructed to...

Happy birthday to the great left-handed conguero Louis "Sabu" Martinez, a star who burned out way too quick, much of it due to heroin addiction. NYC-born, he started playing professionally at the age of 11 after learning rhythm by playing tin cans. After a stint in Puerto Rico he was back in NYC, replacing the Cu-bop OG Chano Pozo in the Dizzy Gillespie orchestra in '48 (he got his "Sabu" nickname from Diz) and joining the Benny Goodman band the following year. He worked with Art Blakey off-and-on from 1946-59, appearing on his ground-breaking Afro-percussion records and several Jazz Messengers...