One afternoon some years back, I found myself looking over a printout of events presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center. This would have been just a routine bit of research, except for the fact that I was standing in the…
Bassekou Kouyate‘s new album “Ba Power” is a highlight of 2015. Here, he talks to Richie Troughton about family, collaboration, the difficult situation in Mali and the ngoni, one of the world’s most ancient instruments. Bassekou Kouyaté’s innovation in expanding…
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented since its founding in 1987. Now, that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings,…
Charles Lloyd led New Orleans Jazz Fest through an hour-long version of his 77-year musical pilgrimage, offering an impassioned, lyrical performance on Saturday (May 2). A native of Memphis, the tenor saxophone legend has the delta blues in his bones.…
The jazz eminence Charles Lloyd has been many things since his rocketlike emergence in the 1960s: a breakout talent, a phenomenon, a recluse, a searcher, a rumor. On April 20 Mr. Lloyd, a tenor saxophonist and flutist, will be inducted…
Long before he became a Latin jazz legend, before he toured alongside the great Cal Tjader, Poncho Sanchez was another kid in Griffith Park carrying a conga drum and looking for someplace to play. The foundations of Sanchez’s sound can…
What’s a kid to do when caught between the world’s of psychedelic rock, surf music, bebop, rhythm and blues, and Cha Cha? If you’re Poncho Sanchez, you combine them in giant soul stew on the way to becoming the leading…
Jazz singing superstar Kurt Elling this week releases his new CD, “Passion World,” and embarks on a world tour for it at Birdland, the New York club. In addition to his regular quintet, Elling also works on the album with guest…
As a boy of 10 living outside Havana, jazz artist Arturo Sandoval picked up a trumpet because it “has a strong personality,” he recalled. “A trumpet can whisper very soft, very tender — and it can create a huge noise.”…
When Catherine Russell sings, heads turn. She approaches singing the way someone behind the wheel of a very fast car might approach driving — by accelerating from zero to 100 mph in just a few seconds. But Russell does not…