Trumpeter Johnny Coles, born in Trenton, NJ in 1926, was an in-demand sideman from the 1950s to the 1970s. Though he got his start in R&B, he made a smooth transition to jazz, working with James Moody,...
As a work of pure music, Donald Byrd's A New Perspective is immaculate, one of the 1960s' most direct expressions of jazz as a connection to the spiritual plane next to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme....
Blue Note was having a banner year in 1967. The sounds of hard bop emanated from Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey as the label’s stable of artists churned out records...
When saxophonist Ike Quebec died in 1963, Alfred Lion, one of the two founders of Blue Note, was in a tight spot. Quebec had recorded many fine singles and albums for the label and, perhaps more importantly,...
