News & Updates — jazz

The original Flying Luttenbacher, Hal Russell was a Chicago icon. A multi-instrumentalist, he played tenor sax, c-melody, soprano, drums, trumpet, vibes, marimba, musette, congas and keyboards. One of the most surreal jazz characters of the second half of the twentieth-century jazz scene, this guy brought humor, theater and playfulness into his artform. Harold Luttenbacher was born in Detroit, played drums in Dixieland and swing bands (Woody Herman, etc) before discovering bebop. Moving with his family to Chi-town as a teenager, he started playing trumpet as a second instrument in college. In 1950 he played drums with Miles Davis and did...

One of my very favorites is the pianist/harpist/composer and cosmic music traveler Alice McLeod, known later as Alice Coltrane. Another great jazz artist from Detroit, she is possibly best known for being the wife and collaborator of John Coltrane, but Alice is an amazing artist in her own right. She brought celestial concepts into the music and fused free jazz, Indian, European classical, new age, bebop and avant-garde into a gorgeously spiritual, intense experience. Her music has gained much more currency in the last twenty years but I have always been a fan. I remember thinking "why are her records...

Sonny Sharrock came around 'bout the same time as Jimi Hendrix and brought a fast & heavy string-shaking style into free jazz, with massive chords and rock energy. His sound & style contained elements of hard rock, doo-wop, funk, bop and soul, and he claims to model his playing after jazz saxophonists and John Coltrane in particular. (He claimed that asthma prevented him from playing a horn and that he thought himself "a horn player with a really fucked up axe".) Warren Sharrock hailed from Westchester County NY and sang doo-wop as a teenager. He got into jazz and made...

Happy birthday to the great and influential tenor saxophonist Lester Young, the President. The original jazz hipster, he was a key link between the swing and bop eras and was a modernist with an emotionally-driven and harmonically-gifted style. He grew up in New Orleans and played in the Young Family Band, touring the carnival circuit. In the '30s he went to Kansas City, becoming a major feature of Count Basie's band. During that decade he also played with Fletcher Henderson, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, King Oliver, Benny Moten and Andy Kirk and in the '40s cut some sessions with Nat...

Happy birthday to the boisterous Clifford Jarvis, stylish drummer of post-bop and free jazz who also worked well with other percussionists. He was from Boston and came from a family of trumpeters. He started playing drums at 10 and studied with Alan Dawson. Early professional experience with Chet Baker and Randy Weston set him up for some gigs with heavy hitters of the '60s & '70s. Operating out of NYC and Chicago, he played or recorded with a host of amazing musicians: Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Big John Patton, Barry Harris, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, Elmo...