If you listen closely, you can hear the subtle sounds of sirens in the background of “Small Things 2,” the final track on Nick Hakim and Roy Nathanson’s collaborative album, Small Things. Much of the album was recorded before Covid shut down the music industry, but Hakim and Nathanson weren’t …
Read More »McCoy Tyner, Jazz Pianist Who Anchored John Coltrane's Legendary Quartet, Dead at 81
McCoy Tyner, one of the most distinctive and influential jazz pianists of the past 60 years, who became best known for his work with John Coltrane‘s legendary 1960s quartet, died at age 81. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of jazz legend Alfred ‘McCoy’ Tyner,” his …
Read More »Newport Jazz Festival 2018: 14 Best Things We Saw
For this writer, the quintessential moment of the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival came in transit. A quick stroll on Saturday afternoon took me from the main stage, where Laurie Anderson was wrapping up a set of luminous, exploratory string-trio free improv, to one of the smaller tents, where octogenarian Memphis …
Read More »The New Jazz Torchbearer: Kamasi Washington on His Musical Message
Despite all the hosannas he’s garnered up to this point – being hailed as a primary architect of a West Coast jazz revival, featured in the Whitney Museum’s prestigious Biennial and playing to thousands at Coachella – Kamasi Washington, 37, doesn’t see himself as the guy. Sure, he was an …
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