This year's Detroit International Jazz Festival has as its theme "Flame Keepers: Carrying the Torch for Modern Jazz," paying homage to six jazz icons: Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Betty Carter and Gil Evans.

Get ready, Big City. The Detroit Jazz Fest is about to blast off. This annual Labor Day tradition is free, free, free and features top talent in a family-friendly setting. No excuses; this is a must-attend event. Today, I'm honored...

All About Jazz is celebrating Charlie Parker's birthday today! Charlie ParkerThe only child of Charles and Addie Parker, Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940a€(TM)s. When Parker was still a...

West Coast jazz has traditionally been cool to the East Coast's hot. Dave Brubeck is always pictured in white linen slacks playing an open air concert-by-the-sea, while Charlie Parker is shown popping a Saturday night sweat in his sharkskin suit,...

Danilo Perez Quintet, Mulgrew Miller, Branford Marsalis, among the highlights of the 2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival.

McCoy Tyner, J. D. Allen?s trio, Jason Moran?s trio and Revive Da Live were some of the acts taking part in this year?s Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.

The permanent amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem is a void right now. It's being rebuilt, band shell and seating. So the Harlem part of the two-day Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, on Saturday afternoon, was moved to a rented...

The Concord Music Group has done an impressive job of summarizing the early career of John Coltrane with The Definitive John Coltrane On Prestige and Riverside. Twenty-one tunes, dating from 1955 to 1958, fill up two discs. As an introduction...

There is no one around who is better than Frank Morgan on the alto saxophone. What comes out of his horn is soulful, full of fire and timeless -- As I close my eyes and listen to "Summertime," from Frank...

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is at 104, E 126th Street, a few steps from the bridge that carries the Metro North trains to and from Connecticut from the 125th Street station. Situated on the second floor, the museum...

They bow to the Bird because, for all his virtuosity and mind-melding ?40s bebop reinvention, his real gift was accessibility; his melodies reached the ether, but never outmaneuvered the audience. The wonderful ...

We celebrate the birthdays of two of the best jazz sax players, the Louisiana-born Lester Young, adept on clarinet and tenor sax and Charlie Parker, master of the alto sax. Sadly, both players died far too young ...

Broussards influences expanded to include northern pathfinders Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. After four years, he left the Air Force with a collection of 2,000 records (we got em for half ...

The Durham radio station was on a roll, playing one cut after another from arguably the greatest alto sax man of them all. Thus was the stage set for this memorable exchange: Arriving at work that day I ...

Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Haynes, who was there at the birth of bebop in the late 1940s, still lights it up with a lean, quick style thats forever young. Not surprisingly, hes among the most-recorded of all ...

AUGUST 29: CHARLIE PARKERS 90TH Profile America -- Sunday, August 29th. One of the most influential jazz musicians was born on this date 90 years ago in Kansas City -- alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. He gained the ...

from Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk to John Coltrane, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny. The aptly named Fountain of Youth quartet includes players less than half Haynes age -- saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, pianist Martin ...

Morey : Charlie Parker was late to everything. Babette : Charlie Parker had more drugs in him than a Rite-Aid. Forget Charlie Parker. Lorelai : Heh, you know what I just realized? ?Oy? is the funniest word in the ...

HALIFAX - The chief clerk of the Nova Scotia legislature is retiring after 24 years in the job. Rod MacArthur has announced he will step down Oct. 1. Speaker Charlie Parker offered his thanks, lauding MacArthur for ...

In The Whisperers, John Connolly uses his series about the volatile private detective Charlie Parker to show a different side of the stress that soldiers cope with returning from Iraq . Connellys ninth ...

When he was only 25, the word legend was already being used to describe Stanley Clarke. Now, hes a king of the acoustic and electric jazz worlds, having won every major award available to a bass player. Hear an interview...

Whenever he took the stage, audiences were guaranteed a musical spectacle. Half mystic, half visionary, the pianist and bandleader charted a relentlessly adventurous course through the jazz tradition.

From the lighthearted and fancy to the haunting and grotesque, NPR station WDUQ highlights some spooky Halloween music you can listen to all year long. Hear jazz vocalists conjure different ghosts out of classic tunes, while horn players coax the...

The latest CD from New Orleans trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is A Tale of Gods Will, whose subtitle is A Requiem for Katrina. Parts of the recording were heard in Spike Lees HBO documentary When the Levees Broke.

He was a sideman with the early stars of jazz, led one of the most admired bands on the swing era, and catalyzed the careers of musicians like Charles Mingus. All the while, Red Norvo was bringing the mallet instruments...

Reedman Buddy Collette has spent most of his music career on the West Coast, out of the national spotlight. But it would be a mistake to overlook his distinguished career as a jazz educator, activist, composer and, of course, phenomenal...

The legendary jazz pianist and composer is best known for his time in New York City, where he developed his eccentric musical genius. But 90 years ago today, Thelonious Monk was born in the Southern city of Rocky Mount, N.C.

Using dissonant chords, a keen sense of space and knotty, syncopated melodies, Monk created some of the most original and challenging American music of the 20th century. Now, 90 years after his birth, his legacy is as strong as ever.

The 50th Anniversary of the Monterey Jazz Festival proved to be a rousing success. 45,000 fans attended the historic event and all three days were sold out, a festival first. Hear some of the festivals greatest highlights in an audio...

Jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut and Elvis Presley arent a likely pairing: Chestnut is one of the top pianists of a generation born many years after songs like Love Me Tender made Presley the king of rock n roll. Hear an...

Philadelphia native Adam Dorn, a.k.a. Mocean Worker, has assembled a collection of Manhattans most revered underground soul, jazz and funk players to perform blissfully funky jazz rave-ups on his new album, Cinco de MoWo! Hear an interview and in-studio performance.

Few song stylists of any era are as immediately distinctive and arresting as Lady Day. Her rhythmic instinct for melodies brought vocals to the forefront of jazz expression. And her voice itself remains an influential, inimitable and incredible sound.

In Floratones The Passenger, Bill Frisells guitar sits front and center, teasing out references to gritty desert rock, Spaghetti Western soundtracks and even the slinky upstroke strums of dub and reggae. Inventive studio tricks add languid, ethereal atmosphere.

In a mid-50s jazz landscape increasingly dominated by bebops aftermath, the largely forgotten band Les Jazz Modes stood apart. Hoo-Tai finds the groups chops integrating deftly with its orchestral experiments, and the sum is a finely sculpted, acutely appealing jazz...

Queen Latifah has always followed her mothers simple advice: Dont put all your eggs in one basket. Her success in music and film has allowed her to do some less- commercial things she loves, like singing old jazz and RB...

The worlds longest-running jazz festival celebrates its golden anniversary with a specially commissioned piece by Gerald Wilson and performances by many jazz luminaries. Hear NPRs coverage and a selection of concerts recorded by WBGO.

Shanghais hedonistic nightlife and jazz music scene were once renowned throughout Asia -- before the Communist Party took power and punished jazz as a crime. But today, a small group of musicians are re-creating the sounds of the citys golden...

Jazz writer Ashley Kahn offers his observations of the three days of nonstop music that marked the 50th annual Monterey Jazz Festival in California. The giants of jazz came to play at Monterey, which featured performances by Gerald Wilson and...

Players from 17 high schools were chosen for the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. After studying to perform some of the most challenging big-band music available, the high-school all-stars perform alongside Terence Blanchard at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Bay Area disc jockey Jimmy Lyons got Brubeck to play piano for the Monterey City Council more than 50 years ago to convince it to put on a festival. The Monterey Jazz Festival is in its 50th year, and Brubeck...

Three-time Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis makes a rare club appearance at the Dakota Jazz Club to...

ldquo;The PHQ is a true, seasoned ensemble laying down a musical vision with common purpose.rdquo;mdash;Pat CourtemancheTwin Cities jazz fans may...

Kenny Burrell is overall the greatest guitarist in the world and he#39;s my favorite. - B.B. King Dubbed...

ldquo;So often I have heard the complaint from fellow critics and assorted curmudgeons: lsquo;Why canrsquo;t an American city put on...

British pianist Tony Hymas is perhaps best known for his work with Jeff Beck on the Grammy-winning album Guitar...

Dubbed the William Faulkner of Jazz , the legendary composer/pianist/singer Mose Allison can manage to be a Mississippi blues...

The Chicago Jazz Festival will present jazz-filled afternoons at Millennium Park on September 2 and the Chicago Cultural Center on...

ldquo;Marie is in the top tier of living female jazz vocalists and her performances continue to prove that point.rdquo; -...

The 31st edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreacute;al presented the cornucopia of excellent music that fans have...

Abbey deals with the real word. ... Singers like Abbey, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith ... go beyond being jazz singers...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/L/6/-/-/AbbeyLincoln_TadHorshorn.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pa href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://jazz.about.com/od/classicjazzartists/p/Artist-Profile-Jazz-Vocalist-Abbey-Lincoln.htmAbbey Lincoln/a, jazz vocalist and actress, died on Saturday, August 14th, 2010 on Manhattan's...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/K/6/-/-/vijayiyer_solo_ACT.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pPianist Vijay Iyer, whose trio album ema href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://jazz.about.com/od/2009releases/fr/VijayHistoricity.htmHistoricity/a/em made my list of ema href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://jazz.about.com/od/albumreview1/tp/2008_Holiday_Picks.htmFavorite Albums...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/J/6/-/-/David_Binney.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pIf you didn't make it to the 2010 CareFusion Newport Jazz Fest, which happened over...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/I/6/-/-/Steve_Coleman_Harvesting.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pSaxophonist Steve Coleman's Hemarvesting Semblances and Affinities/em, according to Coleman, is the musical realization of...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/H/6/-/-/FredHersch_Whirl.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pPianist Fred Hersch had recently arisen from a two-month coma, and had spent the better...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/G/6/-/-/DawnofMidi.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pDawn of Midi is a trio that plays freely improvised music with a sparse, meticulous...

pOn June 29th, 2010, jazz writer Will Layman wrote an article entitled a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/126714-to-find-the-way-you-must-leave-the-wayJazz Ain't Dead, But Charlie Parker Is...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/x/5/-/-/cliffordbrown.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pToday, June 26th, 2010, is the 54th anniversary of trumpeter Clifford Brown's death./p pBrown was 25...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/E/6/-/-/pete_robbins.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pSaxophonist Pete Robbins and his band siLENT Z encrusted lilting grooves and expansive forms in...

pimg src=http://0.tqn.com/d/jazz/1/0/F/6/-/-/GeorgeWein_CareFusion.jpg alt= hspace=5 align=right //p pListen to a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://jazz.about.com/od/artistprofiles/p/GeorgeWein.htmGeorge Wein/a, the inventor of the jazz festival, a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127932693talk about his...

There's a modification of an old joke that came to mind on Wednesday night. "What does a 70-year-old jazz legend...

Dio Should've Done This: Have Your Ashes Pressed to Vinyl (Really). Death to Vinyl will covert human or animal ashes...

The history of music, it seems, is replete with rocky transitions. Jac Holzman, who founded Elektra Records 60 years ago and...

The official Twitter app for iPad is finally here, and star developer Loren Brichter has polished yet another gem. Twitter...

First I would like to thank all of you who came out for our 10 year anniversary party in August....

Following a successful world premiere in Berlin, m: Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) launches the New York...

Stephen Ranney, Kim Fagan, Eric Towler, Stephanie Cronin and Jeffrey Clark, Congratulations! You're the lucky winners of the Motema Music "Charnett...

Beginning today, public radio's Riverwalk Jazz begins streaming "Zoot and Al: The Brotherhood of Prez." Featured on the program are...

Fifty Miniatures for Improvising Quintet (Skipstone) Will Be Released on September 18, Rounding Out Strong, Eclectic Series of Single, Digital...

A collaborative gig with musicians from up and down the West Coast. This show features SF Bay area guitarist m:...