News & Updates — jazz

Happy birthday to the great Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, the amazing New Orleans jazz trumpeter who's 1920's bands stand among the most important groups in the history of American music. I know he always said he was born on the 4th of July, but we are giving him the birthday nod on his true date of birth, today. So smoke a reefer and listen to the sound bend around.

One of the great percussionists of the jazz-fusion era, Dom Um Romão was most notable as a member of Weather Report but was also a pioneering bossa nova musician. He started playing in Rio in the '40s and in the '50s formed the Copa Trio (with Dom Salvador) and helped launch the bossa explosion with Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. In the '60s he joined Sergio Mendes' band and started cutting his own albums. After a move to the US he replaced fellow Brazilian Airto in Weather Report in '71 and made several great records as a leader. He continued...

I want to give a birthday shout-out to an underknown talent, the jazz tuba player Ray Draper. He career was stunted from drug addiction, as well as the limited opportunities for his cumbersome instrument, but he burst onto the bop scene as a teenage bandleader and cut some records for Prestige. At 16 he made his debut, Tuba Sounds, with Jackie McLean on sax and Mal Waldron on piano. At 18 he cut Ray Draper Quintet Featuring John Coltrane and at 19 released A Tuba Jazz, again with Trane in the band, for the Jubilee label. He cut some sessions...

Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos was a steady figure in the world of experimental/improvised/"ethnic" jazz for decades. His work with Codona, Don Cherry, Egberto Gismonti, Milton Nascimento and others show a great contribution, especially in bringing the berimbau into a progressive jazz context. Born in Recife, he came from a musical family and participated in samba bands as a teenager and started playing in professional groups in his early 20s. Early appearances included recordings and performances with Os Mutantes, Gato Barbieri, Nascimento and Herb Alpert. In the mid-'70s, he made a great trio album with Perry Robinson and Badal Roy (Kundalini)...

The great Cuban bassist and composer Juan Formell is best known for being the leader of Los Van Van, and for being the creator of the songo, a fusion of Afro-Cuban, són, charanga, jazz, salsa, soul, classical and pop. Born into a musical family in Havana, he started his career in the late '50s, eventually playing with Elena Burke. He formed Van Van in 1969 after leading Orchestra Revé (and turning them into Changüí '68) and set about becoming one of the most important figures in the history of Cuban music. Los Van Van were the leading band on the...