Ted Panken

Brooklyn

Journalist at Freelance

Journalist, jazz historian, runs the blog "Today Is The Question."

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Articles

Centennial Concert Celebrates All Things James Moody

5 days ago | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

By Ted Panken I Jun. 3, 2025 In the spring and summer of 2000, while reporting a DownBeat profile framed around James Moody’s 75th birthday concert with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, I asked him to explain how he made the tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, and flute, each sound like his primary instrument. “I need to practice them,” Moody responded crisply. “You play one horn because you like its sound.
Healdsburg Jazz Fest to Present a Cohesive Boutique Pageant

2 weeks ago | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

News, Marcus Shelby, Various Artists By Ted Panken I May. 20, 2025 Before Marcus Shelby added Artistic Director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival to his c.v. in 2021, he’d established a consequential cultural footprint in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he’s functioned as a first-call freelance bassist since he moved there in 1996.
Reconsidering Pops in the ’50s

1 month ago | jazziz.com | Ted Panken

Branford Marsalis and Ricky Riccardi dispel misconceptions about Louis Armstrong during a misunderstood era in his career.
Vocalists on Vocalists

2 months ago | jazziz.com | Ted Panken

Six of today’s finest jazz singers discuss their 1950s favorites. By Ted Panken While the ecosystem of jazz- and jazz-adjacent singing in the 1950s contains too many layers to be unpacked here, six high-level practitioners of the idiom spoke to JAZZIZ about specifically inspirational artists, albums and tracks from that era. Their remarks reveal some... You must be a member to access this content. Already a member? Log in here
Ohad Talmor Dives into Ornette’s World

2 months ago | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

News, From the Magazine, Ohad Talmor By Ted Panken I Mar. 25, 2025 Ohad Talmor’s new album gestated in the spring of 2020, after Lee Konitz — his mentor, friend and musical collaborator for three decades — died of complications from COVID at age 93.
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

Mar 4, 2025 | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

Interview, From the Magazine, Ted Nash, Alexa Tarantino By Ted Panken I Mar. 4, 2025 If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the equator, this would be a newsworthy event, as was this season’s hiring of 25-year-old saxophonist Abdias Armenteros, who’d frequently filled in for Walter Blanding in recent years.
Blindfold Test: Alfredo Rodríguez

Feb 18, 2025 | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

Interview, From the Magazine, Alfredo Rodríguez By Ted Panken I Feb. 18, 2025 “I’ve looked to be global for a long time,” Alfredo Rodríguez told DownBeat in 2020.
Steve Coleman’s Complicated Soul

Jan 28, 2025 | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

Interview, From the Magazine, Steve Coleman By Ted Panken I Jan. 28, 2025 PolyTropos/Of Many Turns — the title for Steve Coleman’s latest recording on Pi and his 33rd album overall — aptly describes the vertiginous erudition of the music contained therein. It documents two concerts, one in Paris, one in Villon, recorded four days apart during a March 2024 tour by the most recent iteration of Five Elements, his primary unit since 1981.
Keith Jarrett Greenlights Release of ‘More Form The Deer Head Inn’

Jan 21, 2025 | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

By Ted Panken I Jan. 21, 2025 Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn. It arrives 30 years after ECM issued At The Deer Head Inn, documenting eight tracks from a memorable 1992 gig at the four-story, mansard-roofed, porch-wrapped mid-19th country hotel that has presented high-level jazz in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, population 666, since 1951.
Blindfold Test: Bruce Forman

Nov 25, 2024 | downbeat.com | Ted Panken

By Ted Panken I Nov. 26, 2024 At this summer’s Healdsburg Jazz Festival, guitarist/racanteur extraordinaire Bruce Forman sat down for a live Blindfold Test following his one-man show called “The Red Guitar.” Extremely insightful and always entertaining, a number of his remarks parallel points he made during performance. This was Forman’s first Blindfold Test, which was published in the November 2024 issue of DownBeat and appears here with some additional cuts included.