News & Updates — jazz

A pioneer woman of jazz, Anna Mae Winburn directed the all-female, racially integrated International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a top attraction in the '40s. Although often looked at as a novelty act, the reality is that the band included top notch musicians whom were not given a fair respect in the male-dominated jazz world. From Indiana, Winburn came from a musically-inclined African-American family. She learned to sing and play piano & guitar. She worked in Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders, a popular Nebraska-based territory band of the swing era that included Preston Love. She also led an all-male band (including Charlie Christian!) in...

The unsung Jimmy Norman displayed his creativity in many different places during a long career largely underknown to the general public. He was perhaps most identifiable as a lyricist and songwriter, working with Bob Marley, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Nash, Irma Thomas, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Tosh, Shorty Rogers and others. Born in Nashville, he grew up on the West Coast and started singing and recording with local doo-wop group The Chargers, including Jesse Belvin's "Dandilyon". (It was Belvin who spotted them and recommended them to RCA Victor. He did a bunch of touring as a musician in the '50s and wrote...

Happy birthday to the underrated saxophonist/composer/activist/author Fred Wei-han Houn aka Fred Ho. His ambitious operas, ballets and multi-art compositions brought a radical, questioning temperament and a cross-mingling of improvised music and folk art to his fiery and political works. With his many groups (Asian-American Art Ensemble, Green Monster Big Band, Saxophone Liberation Front, Afro Asian Music Ensemble) he created several brilliantly charged records on labels like Innova, Mutable, Asian Improv, Soul Note and others. His concepts were informed by not just radical politics and feminism but also dance, martial arts and literary influence. A Chinese-American who grew up in Western...

Drawing: Steve Kraków aka Plastic Crimewave. If anyone is going to give the late, great Ralph MacDonald a run for his money as "most recorded percussionist of all time" it could very well be "Master" Henry Gibson (or so he claims, anyway). A Chicago native, he honed his chops in the streets and studios of the Windy City. He cut hundreds of sessions, including some early jazz dates with the likes of Sonny Stitt and Ahmad Jamal. He joined Odell Brown & the Organ-izers, recording for the Chess subsidiary Cadet. He was the featured percussionist on Donny Hathaway's hit "The Ghetto"...

Since the release of Big Mean Sound Machine's fourth album Runnin' For The Ghost, released in April on Peace & Rhythm (North & South America) and Blank Slate (Europe & Asia), the band has continued touring relentlessly, winning new fans every time out with their avant-afro-psych-funk. The album has gotten a lot of radio play and excellent support from publications & blogs such as Downbeat, Afropop Worldwide, Okay Player, Global A Go-Go, Afrobeat Blog, Funkish, Grateful Web, Brooklyn Vegan and more. Word on the street is that this is one of critic's favorite albums of the year. We're also pleased...