DOWN BEAT

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.

5 days ago | downbeat.com | Hannah Edgar

By Hannah Edgar   I  Jun. 3, 2025 The time and labor required to tour is, for many musicians, daunting at best and prohibitive at worst. It’s hardly unusual for musicians to spend more hours on the road than on stage; venue availability dictates tour routes, which too often leads to wasted hours zig-zagging across the country. And did we mention the runaway costs of touring since the pandemic? Kyle Knoke set out to address all that.

1 week ago | downbeat.com | Michael. J. West

By Michael J. West   I  May. 29, 2025 Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28 in New York City. He was 82. His death was announced by his daughter, Kierra Denise Foster Ba, in a post on Facebook. Cause of death was not disclosed. Active in jazz since the mid-1960s, Foster was nonetheless probably best known for his on-and-off collaboration with Miles Davis in the ’70s and ’80s.

1 week ago | downbeat.com | Stephanie Jones

News, From the Magazine, Coleman Mellett, Jeanie Bryson By Stephanie Jones   I  May. 27, 2025 “Spring is coming,” said Jeanie Bryson via FaceTime. The 67-year-old Jersey girl has been a gardener most of her life. Flanked by stalks and leaves, she sat in her greenhouse on an afternoon in February. “I can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt,” she said, looking beyond the plexiglass.

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.