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Interviews

‘My country is the whole world:’ Trumpet legend Hugh Masekela reflects on a lifetime of pathbreaking music

Hugh Masekela, perhaps South Africa’s greatest living musical ambassador, has been a prolific musician at the forefront of the world’s music scene for the majority of his 71-year career as a trumpet player. It would be impossible to list all of the milestones from a career as dynamic and extensive as Masekela’s, but here are […]

November 11, 2015 0

News

Portrait of a Stray Thread: For Billy Strayhorn’s 100th birthday, East River Jazz throws light on a giant often left in the shadows

As Samora Pinderhuges gazed up from his piano, he let the final cadence of Billy Strayhorn’s signature arrangement of the jazz standard “Flamingo” reverberate throughout the Kennedy Center’s cathedral-like Grand Atrium. Taking in the packed crowd that had showed up for his ensemble’s free, mid-October performance at Millennium Stage, he addressed the audience with a […]

November 10, 2015 2

Announcing...

At the DC Jazz Loft this Sunday: Free jazz mastery, modern groove and an open jam session!

After a string of exciting Traveling Lofts this summer and fall—August with Marc Cary at Capital Fringe, September with Mary Halvorson and Ches Smith at Paperhaus and October with Igmar Thomas at THEARC—we’re happy to be back home at Union Arts. This Sunday we’re presenting a good old DC Jazz Loft—come grab a seat and […]

November 5, 2015 0

Live reviews

Celebrating a classic album, Ray Angry and Revive Music make the case for jazz’s current generation

Revive Music: Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown Reimagined Kennedy Center Crossroads Club Sat., Oct. 24, 2015 Ray Angry is a mad scientist. A mastermind in every sense of the word. His reach extends further than the tips of his fingers, coloring the world around him. That was on full display on Saturday, Oct. 24, when […]

November 4, 2015 0

Live reviews

Pharoah Sanders at Bohemian Caverns: Musical Meditations from a Disciple and a Master

Imagine the sound and force of a rocket engine blasting off at Kennedy Space Center: raw, sheer, overwhelming. That’s about what it felt like to hear the tamed yet towering eruptions coming from Pharoah Sanders’ tenor saxophone last night, as he launched into the first number of his 10 p.m. set at Bohemian Caverns. (It was […]

October 17, 2015 1

Interviews

Jazz visionary Igmar Thomas: In a world of boundaries, ‘I just want great, creative music’

In an industry seemingly obsessed with labels, trumpeter Igmar Thomas is hardly concerned with conforming to cookie cutter boxes. Thomas has taken his love of the music we know as jazz, and transformed it into an amalgam of golden-era hip-hop rhythms and more traditional swinging jazz flare. The Berklee College of Music alum has more […]

October 9, 2015 0

Announcing...

This Saturday, we’re talking to the amazing alto saxophone experimentalist Darius Jones

Does the idea of sitting in a cushioned seat at a performing arts center while someone plays j-a-z-z make you drowsy? Then get ready to be awoken by Darius Jones and Emilie Lesbros. Based in New York, Jones is among the most distinctive and fiery alto saxophonists the world has heard this side of the […]

September 30, 2015 0

Announcing...

Presenting Igmar Thomas & the Cypher at THEARC—today’s hip-hop and jazz alchemist in a one-of-a-kind show

Summer has ended, but we’re keeping the heat set on high. On October 11th, CapitalBop presents Igmar Thomas & the Cypher, featuring DJ Raydar Ellis and vocalist Chris Turner. Led a young New York-based trumpet titan, the Cypher is one of the most exiting bands around today, with a masterful blend of hip-hop and jazz […]

September 29, 2015 2

Interviews

Béla Fleck’s Jazz Tones: The banjo virtuoso talks about touring with Chick Corea

Dr. Billy Taylor once offered a comprehensive and open definition of the word jazz: It’s both a style and a repertoire. The point of jazz is to expand—its greatest musicians have always been innovators, never resting on any past understanding of what it meant to play this music. So perhaps any musician working in the […]

September 29, 2015 0

News

Rosslyn Jazz Fest celebrates 25 years this Saturday, with Dirty Dozen Brass Band & more

Across the river: a phrase that in D.C. usually refers to the city’s impoverished and institutionally neglected Wards 7 and 8. Ironically enough, across a different river on the other side of town lies Rosslyn, Va., one of the wealthiest areas in the United States. You might not know this, but it’s also home to […]

September 10, 2015 0