JazzTimes1 min read
2023 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert
It was a rousing concert honoring the esteemed recipients of the 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship back in April at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Each year since
JazzTimes7 min read
Wallace Roney
My brother was always ahead of the game, mentally. He was always thinking about the future. As children, we would sit around and say “what if this had that, or that had this”, then we’d experiment together. If we saw something on TV, we tried to repl
JazzTimes1 min read
Old School CLASSIFIEDS
FOR SALE: SAXOPHONE One slightly used saxophone. Comes with a lifetime supply of split reeds. SINGER WANTED Singer who can scat like Ella Fitzgerald and charm the audience like Louis Armstrong must be available for 20 shows a night, 365 nights a year
JazzTimes4 min read
Jazz In The Display Case
A replica of Parliament-Funkadelic’s mid-1970s Mothership tour spacecraft, one of James Brown’s ’70s black wool jumpsuits with the word “sex” in sequined beads around the waist, the lipstick-red ’73 Cadillac Eldorado that Chuck Berry drove in the 198
JazzTimes1 min readLeadership
JazzTimes
Editor-at-large Gregory Charles Royal Senior Editor Dr. Gerri Seay Contributor Dr. Jeff Gardere Managing Editor Toni Eunice Senior Designer Scott Brandsgaard Client Services clientservices@madavor.com Vice President of Marketing Strategy Ryan Gillis
JazzTimes3 min read
Antidote FOR Loneliness
Musings About Mental Health & the Arts from “America’s Psychologist,” Dr. Jeff Gardere JazzTimes’ in-house shrink and “America’s Psychologist,” Dr. Jeff Gardere is a contributor to Good Morning America, FOX network, Today show, MSNBC and CNN. A Board
JazzTimes4 min read
Empowering Women in Jazz
DR. JOAN CARTWRIGHT founded Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. in 2007, after touring as a Jazz and Blues vocalist and songwriter for over 30 years. Cartwright realized that she had worked with only six women musicians out of hundreds of musicians in
JazzTimes1 min read
A Serendipitous Encounter at Sandy’s Jazz Revival
It was the fall of 1974. I was attending college in the small New England town of Bridgewater, Mass. It was there that I found and developed an affection as well as an appreciation for jazz. I met a friend, Whitfield, who had an extensive collection
JazzTimes1 min read
Jazz Quartet
1. Though from a big band, Maynard was a hell of a trumpet player a real 2. Harmony for them is known as 3. These 5ths are normally forbidden 4. Tootie played with them too. 5. Another kind of tet with a Another kind of tet with a trumpet and sax 6.
JazzTimes6 min read
The Curious Case Of The Giant Steps TV Show
HARLEM’S NEW JAZZ SITCOM In the summer of 2016, after the premiere of the jazz film World’s Not for Me at the Harlem International Film Festival at MIST Harlem, Mickey Bass, Louis Hayes, and Gregory Charles Royal did what any musicians would do hangi
JazzTimes5 min read
Harlem (sugar Hill) 2023 presented Without Comment
Out of the ashes often comes hope and a new beginning. We can be proud to have an organization in 2023 that is dedicated to Jazz’s survival—and in the Black Mecca! KEEPING LIVE MUSIC ALIVE! Founded in 2016, Harlem Late Night Jazz is a non-profit 501(
JazzTimes2 min read
Donna Singer, Jazz Artiste Extraordinaire
It was a beautiful evening in July, and I was part of an artist-in-residence program in the Swiss Alps. One evening, we were performing in a small club, and I mean small. I sat on my stool and didn’t budge. The stage area was so tight that people in
JazzTimes3 min read
Now’s the Time, Jazz for Social Justice!
JAZZ MUSIC HAS BEEN ACCEPTED as the world’s and America’s greatest art form. This music and some of its great artists are known for innovation, complexity, improvisation and synchronicity. And why not? Jazz music includes a form of mathematics, rhyth
JazzTimes6 min read
Little Feet Take Giant steps
Laken “Lake” Mosely, a 38-year-old jazz musician from Detroit, sits in the green room of a jazz club. He scats and hums to himself while readying for a performance. He is interrupted by his manager Ivan, who tells him that it is almost time to perfor
JazzTimes2 min read
Tv/film
One of the directions we are embracing in a major way here at JazzTimes are jazz-centric television and film releases. Inspired by the mission of the New York Jazz Film Festival (NYJFF), the robust development and promotion of these works are a must
JazzTimes1 min read
Akua Allrich
I was on my way to perform at Nnenna Freelon’s beautiful venue, North Star Church of the Arts, in Durham, North Carolina. My husband drove me to the airport to rendezvous with my band. We were on time and happy, when we were alerted that the flights
JazzTimes1 min read
JazzTimes
Editor-at-large Gregory Charles Royal Senior Editor Dr. Gerri Seay Contributor Dr. Jeff Gardere Senior Designer Scott Brandsgaard Media Solutions Provider and Content Analyst Toni Eunice Client Services clientservices@madavor.com Marketing Associate
JazzTimes11 min read
Fit To Play
“When I started my career,” Dee Dee Bridgewater says, “thinking about wellness was not a thing.” Don’t get the award-winning vocalist wrong; she has long understood the importance of sleeping properly, drinking plenty of water, eating well and not sm
JazzTimes1 min read
Duke Ellington
1. Duke’s music was as sly as a… 2. He was no lost instrument. 3. A grandson in the PM. 4. He spent his teenage years here. 5. Duke broke it when he wrote for his specific band members. 6. A lead trumpet player and some guys perhaps. 7. Black, Brown
JazzTimes1 min read
JFA’S A Great Night in Harlem Gala
It was a star-studded evening at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre back in March for JFA’s A Great Night in Harlem Gala. The Jazz Foundation of America, an incredible organization that serves as a lifeline to so many of our senior soldiers—musicians—
JazzTimes1 min read
Desiree Roots
A typical day in my life … being a performer would be the last element. My day typically starts with the most important role, that of being a wife and mom! A mom to both human and four-legged children. In our family we have two teenagers, three cats
JazzTimes13 min read
B Sharps, Tallahassee: Our Little Engine That Could
Well, it’s hard to believe in a lot of ways and not too hard to believe in others. But since this pandemic started, we’ve had to close down our club, B Sharps, because we’re so small that we just couldn’t crowd people in and feel comfortable about it
JazzTimes2 min read
Arturo O’Farrill Returns
Arturo O’Farrill returns to his first love – the piano – on his new Blue Note album Legacies out April 28. Renowned as a composer, arranger, and bandleader, here the 8-time GRAMMY- winner puts the emphasis back on his striking pianistic abilities wit
JazzTimes1 min read
Maria Jacobs
On a Saturday night, circa 2002, I was singing with a jazz trio at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Redondo Beach, CA. To my wonderment and surprise, in walked the great Nancy Wilson, one of my jazz idols. She was with a handful of girlfriends and they’d ju
JazzTimes3 min read
The BeBop Channel welcomes JazzTimes
In 2019, we founded The BeBop Channel — a Global City of artists and arts patrons from around the world, from Helsinki to Harlem and from Tehran to Topeka, who exchange ideas, push artistic boundaries, and interact with one another while profiting as
JazzTimes3 min read
JazzTimes’ Direction
I MUST SHARE, in all honesty, that being given the gig of writing a monthly column for the legendary JazzTimes is an honor and quite daunting at the same time. But it is also exciting that I have been included in the new direction of this venerable p
JazzTimes1 min read
Charlie Parker
1. South of 125th where they celebrate Charlie Parker every year. (combined word) 2. So fast it will make you Dizzy. 3. It does include the bridge you know. 4. You have a minor problem if you’re above a C. 5. It was definitely more than 120 of these.
JazzTimes2 min read
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF Billy Harper
However, there are some things that are part of my daily life. I do my fair share of traveling and performing, so maintaining a “daily” routine does pose a challenge. I am often on the road at day, playing at night, some days, I am doing interviews,
JazzTimes3 min read
WHO IS Dr. Gerri Seay?
Well, Hello. I am Dr. Gerri Seay, and I’ll be your Senior Editor for JazzTimes. I’m an academically trained person; I’ve taught most of my life, starting in Public School in Richmond, Virginia. My Undergrad Degree is from Virginia Commonwealth Univer
JazzTimes5 min readCrime & Violence
Rebuttal
I would like to thank the current JazzTimes editor for allowing my voice to be heard. This is being addressed two years after Weiner’s 2021 heavily biased article because Mac Randall (JazzTimes’ former editor) would not allow my story to be told. My
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