For decades, the Houston folklorist labored over his biography of the legendary bluesman. Seven years after McCormick’s death, the book is finally out—and so are the secrets long kept by its troubled author.
Built in 1939, the nightclub once hosted Duke Ellington and Ray Charles. After a $9.7 million renovation, it’ll welcome a new generation of music lovers.
The jazz vocalist pays tribute to the Dallas icon in ways that make her work feel fresher than ever.
Plus: swing by an Austin jazz festival, then listen to a record dedicated to a SpongeBob SquarePants character on your way home.
Texas Monthly talks with Pletzinger about his biography of Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki and how jazz helped make Nowitzki great.
As one of the genre’s most prolific players, the West Texas-based musician brings an experimental approach to his work.
Starring Jamie Foxx and Phylicia Rashad, and cowritten by Mike Jones, ‘Soul’ meditates on what it means to live a fulfilled life.
After being evicted from its former location, one of the state’s premier jazz venues is set to reopen in the heart of the theater district.
The Dallas native’s jazz statement ‘Love and Liberation’ is a call to action.
The Plainview-raised jazz musician leaves behind a legacy beyond his contributions to musical education.
On her debut album, an electrifying young singer from Dallas draws on the past, but refuses to be its prisoner.
When Robert Glasper won a Grammy for Best R&B Album, no one was more surprised than the Houston-born jazz pianist himself.
Talking with the Houston-born and -raised musician Josh Mease about his new record—and his new alias.
Ornette Coleman's radical theory of harmolodics helped redefine jazz. His relationship with the music business has always been troubled, however, and today the Fort Worth native suffers from benign neglect. But his tenor sax still packs an emotional wallop.
A new album by the Cookers.
A new album by Kat Edmonson.
A new album by Robert Glasper.
A self-titled three-CD compilation.
Too many jazz pianists have surrendered to the unyielding bulk of the instrument, relying on standards with flourished chording, tranquilly delivered. They fashion themselves heirs to greats like Bill Evans but sometimes end up closer to Liberace. It takes real gumption to push that hunk of wood and wire around.
The best music has always been made by those who defy easy categorization, as exemplified by not one but two posthumous releases from Texas jazz giants. Fort Worth’s Dewey Redman was a glass-half-empty kind of guy who saw his career accomplishments as merely wins in a long battle—so the
Like the blues, jazz is steeped in such tradition that players can spend decades finding their own voice. Many never do. Which makes what JASON MORAN has accomplished in just over five years of recording even more remarkable. Same Mother (Blue Note) is simply the latest in a series of—there’s
Although Texans from Scott Joplin to Jack Teagarden have made noteworthy contributions to the history of jazz, a music form that may be our country's greatest artistic achievement, they are all but forgotten now. It's high time Texas did something about that.
Is there a place in the genre for hip-hop influences? Houston pianist Jason Moran thinks so.
He jammed with Miles Davis, enlivened Saturday morning children’s TV, and signed his first major-label record deal at 73. Meet jazz giant Bob Dorough.
Hot CDs and Hot Books
Can yet another independent label survive in today’s rough- and-tumble music business? The young founders of Dallas’ Leaning House Records sure hope so.
I’ve danced all my life, and I really thought that I would eventually open a ballet school. It’s a wonderful discipline and a wonderful release. I started dancing when I was three because I loved the pink tutu and the ballet shoes. I got myself involved—it wasn’t anything that my
After years in New York’s jazz trenches, trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe has come home to Smithville in search of the simple life.
Hot CDsThe real pleasure in Toni Price’s Sol Power (Antone’s/Discovery/Sire) is trying to peg her as country, blues, or folk. Whether she’s singing something silly and simple, such as “Cats and Dogs,” or taking the sultry and sublime route, as when she covers Allen Toussaint’s “Funky,” the Austinite offers an
Dallas sax player Marchel Ivery has impressed jazz greats like Red Garland and Art Blakey. So why isn’t he more famous? For one thing, he won’t blow his own horn.
Hot CDsIn the sixties, Mayo Thompson’s The Red Krayola was a Houston psychedelic band with a writer—Frederick Barthelme—for a drummer. Thirty years later, the amorphous experimental outfit has a new lineup that makes music with the help of such guests as Minutemen alumnus George Hurley, but time has not tarnished
My parents were jazzers. In 1954 my father was appointed chairman of the music department at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville; my mother sang live on the radio. My first memory of any sound at all was of Miles Davis’ muted trumpet; I came out in my pajamas
Mexico’s Ballet Folklórico steps lively (Dallas, Galveston, and San Antonio). Plus: the richness of Catalonian art (San Antonio); the brew-haha that is Oktoberfest (Fredericksburg); the keys to jazz piano (Austin, Houston, and San Antonio); and singing the praises of Gabriel García Márquez (Houston). Edited by Quita McMath, Erin Gromen, and
Oak Cliff native Roy Hargrove may not have the depth and seasoning of Wynton Marsalis, but the 26-year-old prodigy could still be one of the great jazz trumpeters of our day.
Nearly everyone agrees that the nation’s best college jazz program is in Denton, but critics wonder if it isn’t mired in the past.
When in New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, do as the locals do: Search out the neighborhood restaurants and clubs.
North Texas bands face a tough choice: living to make music or making music for a living.
Onstage, all happy lounge acts are alike; offstage, all unhappy lounge acts are unhappy in their own ways.
The only way Red Garland could make us mad would be to quit playing piano.
Building a classical, rock, country, and jazz library on a budget.
