GRAVITY is about to change all of your preconceptions about the tuba. GRAVITY is indeed a jazz presentation, which is- to use a Duke Ellington phrase-’beyond category’. Howard Johnson remains the leading jazz tuba player, according to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. He is also the leading arranger in the field. Apart from his pioneering work burnishing bands of tubas, Howard Johnson has had an impressively diversified career as a player. Read the rest of this entry »

Jelly Roll Morton once said that all good jazz had to have a “Latin tinge”– a rhythmic twist that added a visceral edge to the straight ahead jazz groove. Hilton Ruiz, a pianist/composer with impeccable jazz credentials, has managed to find room in his music for a vigorous “Latin tinge” without sacrificing its rhythmic and improvisational urgency. His debut RCA/Novus recording, Something Grand, manages to succesfully blend both influences.
Born in New York City on May 29, 1952, Ruiz Read the rest of this entry »

Harry “Sweets” Edison is one of the “all time greats” of the only truly American art form, Jazz.He is best known for his poetic trumpet and his irresistible personal eloquence. After he herard Louis Armstrong for the first time, his mother bought him a trumpet for 50 cents down and a dollar a month. He played his way out of Columbus, Ohio with Alphonso Trent, into New York City with Lucky Millinder and he couldn’t believe his luck to be hired by Count Basie for $6 a night. In recognition of his extraordinary contribution to Read the rest of this entry »

Charles McPherson was born in Joplin, Missouri on July 24, 1939 and moved to Detroit. He studied with renown pianist Barry Harris, and started playing professionally at age 19. He left Detroit for New York in 1959 and performed with Charles Mingus from 1960 to 1972. While performing with Mingus, McPherson frequently collaborated with Harris, a union that continues to the present. McPherson has performed at concerts and festivals with his own orchestra as special guest in the United States, Canada, Read the rest of this entry »

In the city of Paris was inaugurated the exhibition We want Miles, a tribute to legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. This event marks the sixtieth anniversary of the first presentation of the artist in Paris, and the 50th anniversary of the launch of its most successful production, Kind of Blue.  Read the rest of this entry »