It can be frustrating for practicing artists to read philosophies of art, for a reason not always obvious to non-artists. The problem is sub...

From the outset, this highly intricate spiritual operates on multiple poetic levels. Shouting Oh Mary don't you weep! we're imme...

For those of us following Wynton Marsalis's career,  The Majesty of the Blues seemed an abrupt change of direction when it was first re...

Few jazz clarinetists have amassed a comparable resume to that of Barney Bigard, whose career stretched from the 1920s through the 1970s. Bo...

Like 1938, the year of Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall triumph and Artie Shaw's ascendancy to national prominence, the year 1954 ...

I've learned a lot over the years by comparing alternate and rejected 'takes' done by great jazz musicians. One of my favorite s...

On page 86 of the current issue  of DownBeat [April 2013], there is a half page report on a Wynton Marsalis master class held in New Orlean...