Results for "Bud Powell"

Bud Powell

Born: September 27, 1924

Bud Powell is generally considered to be the most importantpianist in the history of jazz. Noted jazz writer and criticGary Giddins, in Visions of Jazz, goes even further, sayingthat "Powell will be recognized as one of the mostformidable creators of piano music in any time or idiom."

His first recordings were made in 1944, when he was a 20year old pianist in the Cootie Williams Band, and his lastrecordings were made in 1964 when he returned fromseveral years in Europe to play at Birdland.

Between those dates Bud Powell played with the greatestjazz musicians of his generation including Charlie Parker,Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon,Charlie Mingus and Max Roach. The recordings he madefor the forerunners of the Verve label and for Blue Note, aswell as many lesser known labels, are among the greatestjazz recordings of all time.

John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective

by Ian Patterson
September 23, 2026

With the advent of his birth centenary, John William Coltrane is on our minds again. But then he nearly always is. His influence on generations of saxophonists is palpable. For countless musicians the term “Coltranesque" can be a badge of honor or a millstone around the neck. With the exception perhaps of Miles Davis--whose centenary also ...

Samara Joy and Christian McBride at Summerstage

by Paul Reynolds
September 7, 2026

Samara Joy and Christian McBride Summerstage Verve's 70th Anniversary Celebration New York NY September 2, 2026 Founded 70 years ago, Verve Records was launched in part to treat female jazz artists with respect, who too often had been shortchanged within a music community that was male-centric to an extreme. It's fitting, ...

Yeon Ji Lee: The End of a Tunnel

by Dan McClenaghan
September 3, 2026

Yeon Ji Lee is at the beginning of her career, so a web search reveals little about her. She is  Korean-born and now New York-based. She graduated from the Aaron Copland School Of Music at Queens College. 2026 sees the release of her debut album, The End of a Tunnel, a piano trio affair with the ...

Charlie Haden: Anatomy of a Jazz Classic

by John Ephland
August 31, 2026

It was a phoner from the suburban Chicago offices of DownBeat to bassist Charlie Haden in L.A. Our talk, which was held on September 15, 1991, was periodically interrupted by his needing to say, “Hold on one second." The occasion? The 30th anniversary of the release of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking LP Free Jazz: A Collective ...

Linda May Han Oh & Melissa Aldana: Beneath Lifted Skies

by Andrew Schinder
August 22, 2026

Bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two modern jazz powerhouses, have recorded one of 2026's most delightful jazz surprises, the duet album Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia Records, 2026). Oh and Aldana are two of the music's strongest contemporary players, potent in both overall skill as well as sound, and that intensity serves them ...

The Joshua Breakstone Quartet: Wonderful!

by Neil Duggan
August 17, 2026

This is a reissue of Joshua Breakstone's debut as leader. The recording, which has been out of print for nearly 40 years, dates back to 1984, when the guitarist was 27 years old. It also marks the first time the recording has been available on CD. While many guitarists of a similar vintage built ...

New York's Hottest New Club Has Arrived

by Mark Robbins
August 14, 2026

Martin Porter's life has revolved around jazz from an early age. Growing up playing jazz piano and listening to the greats, he eventually found himself living out a dream--working at the Jazz Standard, one of the city's premier jazz clubs. The closing of the Standard left a void in New York's jazz community--one that Martin Porter was ...

Rodrigo Amado: Wailers

by Mark Corroto
August 13, 2026

A decade ago, it would have been easy to assume that saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's This Is Our Language (Not Two, 2015) was a singular encounter rather than the beginning of an enduring ensemble. Amado had previously collaborated with bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love on Teatro (European Echoes, 2006), while drummer Chris Corsano would join ...

Moldejazz 2026

by Daniel Mège
August 4, 2026

Located at 62°7 North, Moldejazz (the Molde International Jazz Festival) is the ideal place for a festival in week 29, in early summer. A floral scent drifts through The Town of Roses, a ribbon less than a kilometer wide wedged into a peninsula between fjord and mountains. Even once it has set, the sun is never far ...