Jazz Times

By Thomas Conrad The extraordinary late creative flowering of Wadada Leo Smith carries on. He turned 80 on December 18, 2021, but the outpouring of new albums, including multidisc sets, continues unabated. So do the diverse collaborations, tours, world…

By Mac Randall Remember back in the spring, when we reported on the Roland Corporation’s 50th anniversary and hinted that there would be multiple products launched this year in celebration? Well, that has indeed come to pass, with the debut of history-…

By JazzTimes One Good Turn, producer and Chiaroscuro Records owner Hank O’Neal’s 2002 compilation album supporting the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA)’s Musicians’ Emergency Fund, is being rereleased in a 20th-anniversary edition CD. In addition, a ne…

By Martin Johnson Drummer and composer Makaya McCraven calls himself a “beat scientist,” and he lives up to the title (as do other drummers like Kassa Overall and Karriem Riggins). The Paris-born, Chicago-based McCraven often makes records by recording…

By JazzTimes Blues Alley, the legendary Washington, D.C., jazz club, was damaged by a fire that broke out on its attic on October 25. According to WTOP news, at about 6:30 p.m.—shortly before tenor saxophonist Owen Broder and his band were scheduled to…

By JazzTimes Vince Guaraldi (courtesy of Concord) Sixty years ago, pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976) released the album that would make him a star (and a Grammy Award winner): Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. To celebrate the album’s 60th a…

By JazzTimes Next at the Kennedy Center, a new prime-time TV series that is the product of a collaboration between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and PBS, will premiere tonight (October 14) with an episode titled “Let My Children He…

By JazzTimes Two groundbreaking female improvisers, cellist Tomeka Reid and electronic musician Ikue Mori, were among the 25 people selected this year to receive fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation—known colloquially as “…

By Michael J. West Ronnie Cuber performing at the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival (photo: Ben Johnson) Ronnie Cuber, a baritone saxophonist with a wide and versatile range on his instrument, died October 8 at his studio in New York City. He was 80. His deat…

By Morgan Enos It was bracing to stroll into a brand-new creation for a story about destruction. Sixty years after its opening and 45 years after its last gut renovation, the acoustically troubled David Geffen Hall—once called Philharmonic Hall, then A…