Howard Johnson, veteran jazz musician, tuba innovator and founding member of the Saturday Night Live band, died at home in New York on Jan. 11, 2021, following a long illness, according to his longtime partner, Nancy Olewine. 

Please join us on Friday November 20th at 6 PM PST for a special virtual fundraising concert featuring Jackson Browne, John Mayer, Michael McDonald, and Sy Smith, backed by the Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center Student Jazz Band.  Enjoy these amazing artists singing some of the best hits and help support the next generation of student performers. 

Keyboardist and composer Lao Tizer will lead his band that features GRAMMY Award winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal and the mesmerizing world music violinist Karen Briggs in a concert to benefit the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival’s Student Instrument Contest.  Winners of the 2020 contest will be honored during the broadcast.

Just Coolin’, a never-before-released studio album by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers that was recorded on March 8, 1959 in Rudy Van Gelder's living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. The session featured a short-lived line-up of The Jazz Messengers with drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt.

Thelonious Monk in Palo Alto, 1968 - a never-before-released recording! In a year of great political turmoil, a rising junior at Palo Alto High School had a a dream to bring Thelonious Monk to his school to perform and bring his community together through music. This legendary recording is now available for the first time! 

(In The Store & Online)

Commencing at midnight August 27th and concluding at midnight September 4th, WKCR-FM (89.9 FM, wkcr.org) will dedicate all programming to celebrations of the legacies and influences of two of jazz’s central figures: Charlie Parker (b. 8/29/20, d. 3/12/55) and Lester Young (b. 8/27/09, d. 3/15/59). For more than four decades, the station has noted their birthday anniversaries with a three-day marathon broadcast.

The ninth annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, also known as the “SASSY Awards,” gives outstanding jazz singers a chance to perform in front of celebrity judges for cash prizes and a platform for embarking on a career in the music business!
 

The Mahwah Museum is pleased to present an online concert June 6-9 to celebrate Les Paul’s 105th birthday with Lou Pallo (& guests), Muriel Anderson and Thom Bresh.

This Fundraiser for Arts for Art and the Sun Ra Arkestra is a celebration of these groundbreaking musical legends around their birthdays.

Highlights in Jazz producer Jack Kleinsinger offers condolences to the Pizzarelli family,  and joins the music community at large in mourning the death of the legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, on April 1, at age 94.