Herbie Hancock

Flying Lotus: "I Wanted To Make a Record That Reminded Me of Madvillain."

Steven Ellison is on his way to another installment of the Red Bull Music Academy. It's early afternoon, and his quiet, grizzly voice sounds like it just awoke from a nap, but his mind is alert. He explains how he's spent the past week in the city, taking meetings and enjoying the sunshine. He talks ... More >>

In Remembrance of Kurt Cobain: The Most Unique Nirvana Covers

Nineteen years ago today fans around the world got news Nirvana's Kurt Cobain had taken his own life in his Seattle home. As the years have passed, fans, peers, and friends of the musician and his pioneering grunge band have paid their respects through covering the band's material. Here now, from P ... More >>

Ten Jazz Albums to Hear Before You Die

By Joseph Lapin Because there are multiple decades of jazz, it's almost impossible to pick the top 10 albums of all time; the hip cats with their canes and cool shades will throw their used saxophone reeds in my direction and call me a young whippersnapper. But so many people out there, young or e ... More >>

Live From Jazzfest: Family Affairs And Holding On To History In A Changing New Orleans

In the grandstand, away from the heat of the Fair Grounds—the horse-racing track that becomes a music stadium for each New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival—stood an exhibit of black-and-white photos that suggested much of the music going on outside. "Faces of Tremé," drawn from 30 years ... More >>

Live From Jazzfest: New Orleans Celebrates Its Gift To The World

Just as Kermit Ruffins sang "Sunny Side of the Street" with trumpet in hand, an early morning sun shone powerfully across North Rampart Street in New Orleans onto Congo Square. Two centuries ago, enslaved Africans and free people of color drummed and danced here each Sunday, exerting their right to ... More >>

Live: Robert Glasper Brings His Glow To The Highline Ballroom

Robert Glasper Experiment Highline Ballroom Tuesday, February 28 Better than: Sitting at home with the radio. "About what time does ?uestlove finish up at the Fallon show? It couldn't have been that long ago, right?" That query, overheard amid the big beats pumping from the Highline Ballroom's s ... More >>

Q&A: Four Tet's Kieran Hebden On Having Music Around Him At All Times, Remixing Opera, And Sticking With Vinyl

​Springy electric-socket hair, dark droopy eyes—Kieran Hebden looks like a man who has spent untold time tinkering in front of a glowing computer screen late into the night. The depth of his production work as Four Tet, however, belies the physical man-hours necessary for such precision. ... More >>

Buster Williams

Andover's Rap Crew Was Not Invited to the Obama Hip-Hop Barbecue

​In case you missed it, President Obama threw a "hip-hop barbecue" yesterday for his birthday, which somehow failed to create jobs. Or so shrieks this headline from Fox Nation, Fox News' aggregation organ. Non-hip-hop artists Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock performed while "Rome burned" (look ... More >>

The 2010 Voice Jazz Critics' Poll: The Results

VIBES VIRTUOSO

Gary Burton commands the bars

Life, Death, and Rebirth at the CareFusion and Vision Jazz Festivals

Your Summer Live-Jazz Cheat Sheet

Options abound for fans of all inclinations and bank accounts

Live: Bernie Worrell, Matthew Shipp, Uri Caine, Dave Douglas, And Graham Haynes Animate The Undead Jazzfest

Bernie Worrell and SociaLybrium doing "Super Stupid" a few days back Undead Jazzfest (Le) Poisson Rouge/Kenny's Castaways/Sullivan Hall Saturday, June 12 Just as the Vision Festival furthers its avant brand with smaller annual productions, the Winter Jazzfest braintrust expanded its reach this pa ... More >>

Dennis Hopper, Soundtrack Savant: The Unacknowledged Music Savvy Behind Easy Rider, Out of the Blue, and Colors

​In the aftermath of Dennis Hopper's death this past Saturday (J. Hoberman's obit is here), tributes to the actor didn't even try to construct an easy narrative out of his chaotic life. How could they? Hopper was many things at once: the actor who pushed the "method" style way past its breakin ... More >>

Live: Marcus Roberts Trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

Marcus Roberts Trio Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola Wednesday, July 22 You should see this place, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, up yonder at Lincoln Center, first of all just to behold the not-too-distant future of venue-naming (five years from now Tiny Masters of Today will be headlining Kurt Cobain Drink Moun ... More >>

LIVING LEGENDS

A documentary looks at contemporary jazz greats

Grammys Fawn over Coldplay and Plant/Krauss, Set Race Relations Back 20 Years

Good for you. As any self-respecting Grammy live blog will have told you by now, the highlight of last night's occasionally lively fiasco was undoubtedly the "Rap Pack" black-and-white "Swagga Like Us" blowout, ostensibly starring Jay-Z/Kanye/Wayne/T.I. but dominated by a stupendously pregnant M ... More >>

EARS WIDE OPEN

So much jazz, so little time

Âme Frank

Fuck a Blog: Once Wins an Oscar

TABLOIDED: The Grammys

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

2007 Jazz Poll Ballots: A-O

New releases, reissues, debuts, and more—each critic's picks

2007 Jazz Poll Ballots: P-Z

New releases, reissues, debuts, and more—each critic's picks

The Year of the Woman

With all the ballots counted, our decidedly un-macho Jazz Poll finally finds its headline

This Year's Grammy Nominations: Fucking Insane

Rookies of the Year

Tyshawn Sorey's provocations lead a pack of notable 2007 debuts

Earning His Spurs

Joshua Redman finds himself in Sonny Rollins's Oklahoma!, OK!

King Britt Presents The Cosmic Lounge, Vol. 1

A stellar compendium of interstellar jazz oddities

Enough Is Enough

At two prominent jazz festivals, bright moments and cloudy forecasts

Possible Herbies

All the Hancock you need in four easy installments

'Herbie Hancock: Possibilities'

Low Rent

The real possibilities open up when it doesn't cost a bundle to pursue your muse

Beyond Clubland—and Repertory

Arts centers, classical-music organizations, and other non-jazz outposts fuel new music

Jazz Summer 2005

Illicit Cherry For Sale on the Dark Side of the Web, We're Not Telling Where

Makossa Man Who Helped Invent Disco Compiled, But His Funk Loses Out

Tombstone Territory

Just in time for Christmas and post-election cheering up, boxes from Miles and Woody

Darn That Dream

Major tie-up on the one-way street from jazz to jam

Ornette and Others

JVC Bounces Back Right on Schedule

Jazz

Purely Piano

Iverson, Iyer, and Moran Go It Alone at the Jazz Standard

Music

Jam On It

Hippies, Jazzbos, and Beat Junkies Build One Nation Under a Mutant Groove

Minnie the Moocher's Revenge

Sing Along With the JVC All-Stars

Kind of Blue

Jazz Competes With Its Past, Settles for the Hard Sell

Music

Prisoners of the Past

Prodigy Present the Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One