News & Updates — jazz

Happy 4/20 birthday shout-out to the iconic Tito Puente! Best known as a Simpsons charact...haha just kidding! Among the Nuyorican musical greats, there has never been a dull moment with El Rey's brand of fiery and entertaining Latin jazz. His first notable pro gig was with Machito during WW2, before serving his own tour. After receiving medals as a "war hero" he started a nonet, The Piccadilly Boys, in '47. He led one of the great orchestras of the classic mambo era, often featuring percussion battles with Tito and top players on the scene. In 1960, his band was just...

One of the heaviest drummers in jazz, William "Beaver" Harris came out of a baseball family in Pittsburgh (in fact, his father was a founder of the Negro Leagues Pittsburgh team and two of Harris' uncles were pro players as well). A teenaged Beaver played professionally at 3B for the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs, New York Black Yankees and Indianapolis Clowns. After playing reed instruments as a child he started playing drums while in the military at 20. While stationed at Fort Knox, he played in a band with Albert Ayler and Stanley Turrentine. After discharge he was playing...

The great jazz vibraphonist & popular bandleader Lionel Hampton came out of Chicago and was a kit drummer before switching to a newly created instrument, the vibraphone, of which Hamp became the instrument's first star, his first gig on it being with Louie Armstrong in 1930. In the late '30s he played in the Benny Goodman Orchestra (one of the few racially integrated ensembles of the time) and Quartet (Hamp, BG, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa) before starting his own orchestra in 1940. That band became one of the most popular bands of the '40s and '50s, playing jazz, R&B and...

Sending a birthday shout-out to one of the fathers of British blues, Alexis Korner. He brought many artists to Britain to perform in the nightclubs from the '50s to the '70s. He also had slots on radio & TV to help bring American blues records and artists to the general public. But perhaps more importantly, he led bands that served as a school for young British blues-rockers. He played guitar, piano and mandolin with several ensembles from the '40s and formed Blues Incorporated in '61. Membership in that collective group included a who's-who of great British soon-to-be rockers (and jazzers),...

The recently-deceased Clyde Stubblefield, along with Jabo Starks, was one of the drummers in the James Brown band from '65-'70, powering "Cold Sweat", "Ain't It Funky Now", "Say It Loud - I'm Black & I'm Proud", "There Was A Time", "Sex Machine", "I Got The Feelin", "Mother Popcorn", "Get Up Get Into It Get Involved", Bobby Byrd's "If You Don't Work, You Can't Eat", Marva Whitney's "It's My Thing", Vicki Anderson's "Message From The Soul Sisters" and many more. "Starks was the Beatles to Clyde's Stones. A clean shuffle drummer to Clyde's free-jazz left hand"--Questlove Of course, it's his drums...