News & Updates — jazz

Happy birthday to one of my all time favorites, the radical tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, a man who brought his biting R&B/gospel tone to the intergalactic free jazz world and pushed the music to it's freaky limits. Born in that storied freak-music town of Cleveland OH, he was inspired by the church before joining Little Walter's band in '52. A stint in the military found Stanley Turrentine and Beaver Harris as jam partners. He moved to Sweden in '62 and started making albums, as well as a brief stint with Cecil Taylor. In '64 he found himself in NYC and...

Here's a birthday nod to the Hammond B-3 groovemaster John Patton, a key member of the '60s soul-jazz scene following Jimmy Smith. He said his approach was trying to emulate the style of trumpeters and trombonists on the organ. Out of Kansas City, he was pianist and bandleader with Lloyd Price in the mid to late '50s. After leaving Price in '59 he moved to NYC and started gigging with the Hammond, playing groovy hard bop with the likes of Ike Quebec, Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin and Grant Green. He signed to Blue Note and released several records for the label...

One of the leading lights of the hard bop era, trumpeter Lee Morgan broke onto the scene as a teen prodigy, playing with John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Mobley and Art Blakey in the mid-to-late '50s. His driving style and clear, bold tone contributed all over the hard bop landscape, from funky to bluesy, and from more adventurous modal stuff to delicate standards. Throughout his short but steadily working career he played with Wayne Shorter, Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, Benny Golson, Jackie McLean, Larry Young, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Smith (The Sermon), Bobbi Humphrey and in...

Happy birthday to the Earl of Funk! Detroit native Earl Van Dyke spent a lot of time around the city's jazz cats, folks like Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris, Hank Jones and others. He met James Jamerson while touring with Lloyd Price, who convinced him to take a job with Motown, then an upstart label. He started at Motown in '62. He served as the keyboardist on many classic Motown hits for many of its biggest stars, like Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Four Tops, etc. He would open up Motown concerts with his own instrumental trio, usually playing alternate, instrumental versions...

A major star in his day, Louis Jordan STILL remains one of the most successful chart performers in black music history. R&B, rock & roll and rap can all be traced to this man, as well as what became known as the music video. From the Little Rock area, Jordan played saxophone and displayed a highly entertaining stage presence that mixed comedy, dancing, singing and his jumping band. He came from swing to develop the jump-blues style. He started out with the Chick Webb band in the '30s and became their popular frontman. His Decca sides of the '40s pretty...