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About Sonny Clark

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Musician

Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark was an American jazz pianist who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Contents Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town southeast of {{jny: Pittsburgh}}. At age 12, he moved to Pittsburgh. When visiting an aunt in California at age 20, Clark decided to stay and began working with saxophonist {{m: Wardell Gray = 7187}}. Clark went to {{jny: San Francisco}} with {{m: Oscar Pettiford = 10261}} and after a couple months, was working with clarinetist {{m: Buddy DeFranco = 6196}} in 1953. Clark toured the U.S. and Europe with DeFranco until January 1956, when he joined The Lighthouse All-Stars, led by bassist {{m: Howard Rumsey = 3966}}.

Wishing to return to the east coast, Clark served as accompanist for singer {{m: Dinah Washington = 11174}} in February 1957 in order to relocate to {{jny: New York City}}

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Happy 87th Charles McPherson! Other birthdays recognized include Al Di Meola and Ada Rovatti. Classic jazz from Freddie Hubbard, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and more

by David W. Daniels
July 28, 2026

In addition to three jazz compositions featuring the alto saxophone of Charles McPherson and other musicians named in the show title, this week's Exploration program includes classic jazz from Carmen McRae, Gene Ammons, Clark Terry, and others. New music is featured from Gregory Hutchinson, Joey Alexander, Jalen Baker, and others. In addition to Mr. McPherson's birthday ...

Article: Interview

The Art of Swing: A Conversation with Champian Fulton

by Mark Robbins
July 19, 2026

There are some musicians who seem completely at home in the language of jazz, and Champian Fulton is certainly one of them. As both a pianist and vocalist, she's built a career on bringing the Great American Songbook to life with elegance, swing, and an unmistakable sense of joy. Her performances feel rooted in the tradition, ...

Article: Cool Vic Files

Case Files: 2026-04

by Cool Vic, The Music Dick
April 27, 2026

Editor's Note: Long before this Jazz Detective, there was another. His name was Vic... “Cool" Vic, to be exact. Back in 1998--1999, Vic was a music dick--chasing down lost artifacts, missing recordings, and cold cases from the shadowy alleys of jazz history. Then he disappeared. Retired. Vamoosed. Now he's back. For how long? That's anyone's guess. ...

Article: Interview

Fred Hersch: The Touch of Genius

by Ken Dryden
April 17, 2026

The sound of Fred Hersch at the piano is so distinctive, a couple of bars is usually enough to identify him. The mainly self-taught Cincinnati native excelled early, playing jazz in his home town before leaving to study with pianist Jaki Byard at the New England Conservatory of Music. From there, Fred moved to New York ...

Article: The Jazz Files

Songs for Nica: How Jazz Fell in Love with a Baroness

by Hank Hehmsoth
November 14, 2025

For decades, the name Nica has surfaced quietly but persistently in jazz titles and liner notes. Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter--the Rothschild-born patron and confidant of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and dozens of others--left a mark far deeper than her reputation as jazz's “Baroness." Her name became part of the music itself, traveling across generations ...

Article: Club Profile

Dug and Jazz Spot Intro in Tokyo

by Sanford Josephson
August 2, 2025

I owe my love of jazz to the time I spent in Japan in the mid-1960s when I was working as a writer in the public information office of the American Red Cross' Far Eastern Area headquarters, located on a U.S. Army base about 45 minutes from Tokyo. While there, I saw Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, ...

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Joanie Pallato & Bradley Parker Sparrow, Peter Johnstone, Fareed Haque

by Cheryl K.
July 19, 2025

During this week's two-hour program of Jazz and improvised music, we start off with pianist Sonny Clark (July 21, 1931--January 13, 1963). Then onto selections from new releases by the trio Transcendence, vocalist/composer Joanie Pallatto and pianist/composer Bradley Parker-Sparrow, reed player Dave Liebman, percussionist Adam Rudolph, and drummer Billy Hart, keyboardist Peter Johnstone, guitarist Fareed Hague, ...

Article: History of Jazz

Gravity and Resurgence: The Many Dimensions of Dexter Gordon

by Arthur R George
February 6, 2025

Long Tall Dexter; swinger, bebopper, saxophone balladeer; acting the dissipated genius expatriate who was not unlike himself in the movie Round Midnight; his dressed-up persona “Society Red;" the laconic elder statesman of his later years. Dexter Gordon is all those things, but more than a kaleidoscope of caricatures. Those who trace their lineages through ...

Article: Album Review

Strictly Smokin' Big Band: Strictly Smokin' & Friends

Read "Strictly Smokin' & Friends" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
May 22, 2024

They can be stuffy and old-fashioned. That is the view that many, especially the younger demographic, have about big bands. Making serious headway into changing those perceptions is Michael Lamb. He is the main composer, arranger and trumpeter for the Strictly Smokin' Big Band. He set up the band in 2003 and they have steadily developed ...