News & Updates — jazz

Happy birthday to vocalist Jeanne Lee! From NYC, she was not only a vocalist but a choreographer for classical, modern and jazz settings. She formed a musical partnership in the early '60s with Ran Blake, but the duo had more success across the pond. In the mid-'60s she was collaborating in avant-garde, sound-art, poetry and Fluxus happenings and in the late '60s/early '70s was contributing to work by Archie Shepp, Marion Brown and Carla Bley (Escalator Over The Hill), as well as with her husband Gunter Hampel (Galaxy Dream Band, etc). She has also appeared with Anthony Braxton, John Cage,...

Steve Reid was an underrated jazz drummer for decades who finally enjoyed some limelight with his late-life collaboration with Kieran "Four Tet" Hebden. He got his start in the Apollo Theater house band working with Quincy Jones. After serving time as a draft-resister, he played in his own ensembles, as well as albums, concerts or sessions with Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix, Horace Silver, Dionne Warwick, Randy Weston and others. He also did jams at John Coltrane's house, played in stage bands and on Motown sessions ("Dancing In The Streets", "Heat Wave"). He worked on...

The Charles Mingus 1968 documentary is now available in full on Youtube. Shot by then-23 year old Thomas Reichman captures Mingus being evicted (actually in '66, when times were tough for the Mingus family), dealing with police (he gets arrested) and his possessions on the sidewalk. Candid moments of Charles and his daughter are here, as well as some concert footage shot in Massachusetts at Lenny's-On-The-Turnpike. Players include Dannie Richmond, Walter Bishop, Charles McPherson. Reichman committed suicide in '75. Check it out while it is up: More info on the flick can be found here.

The recently departed Bobby Hutcherson was one of the great vibraphone (as well as marimba) players in jazz. His music could look forward or look back and he cut some Latin and soul-jazz records as well. He sometimes would use the four-mallet technique, especially when there was no piano. His '60s & early '70s albums remain my favorite material. Bobby grew up in the Los Angeles area, started playing some piano as a child but was inspired to play vibes after hearing a Milt Jackson record. He knew Dexter Gordon and Eric Dolphy from around L.A. He briefly studied with...

The father of the bossa nova, the ever-popular Tom Jobim's breezy, jazzy and poetic music became infectious around the world through songs like "The Girl From Ipanema", "A Felicidade", "Desafinado", "Samba Do Avião", "Corcovado" and more, as interpreted by Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the man himself. He stands as a major innovator in not just Brazilian music but also as a uniquely pioneering jazz composer. Here is a nice version of "A Felicidade", with Gal Costa: