The grandson of a jazz trumpeter who grew up hearing music from a wide variety of artists, Sam Skelton began playing saxophone in the fifth grade when a friend asked him to join the school band at Honey Creek Elementary in Conyers. “I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and, by seventh grade, it had become an…
Wherever Karla Harris decides to settle in, she becomes a major figure on the local jazz scene — and a contributor to the music education of the local community. Initially it was her hometown, St. Louis, in combos with the city’s leading jazz musicians, including internationally acclaimed bassist Tom Kennedy as they began what would…
In a word, ebullient: that’s Joe Alterman and his playing in a nutshell. And it bursts at you in his new album, Joe Alterman Plays Les McCann: Big Mo & little joe, a tribute to the epochal composer, pianist, vocalist and Alterman’s mentor and best friend. Alterman will debut the new album Thursday night with…
Oh to be young and a whiz – Like Joshua Williams, 23 and preparing to spend the summer in the Swiss Alps as one of a handful of musicians selected to participate this month in the Academy of the Verbier Festival. Admission to the vaunted summer program represents the height of recognition for an emerging…
An article about a piece of music or a musician is a bit like a television program about a travel destination. It’s just an introduction, an observation. Many people have called Russell Gunn’s work on a trumpet masterful, brilliant, pulsating, fierce yet melodic, diverse. But you have to listen to Gunn to understand how he…
It wouldn’t be spring in Atlanta without our jazz festival. Every year since 1978 (aside from the 2020 festival that was canceled due to the pandemic), the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs has staged one of the nation’s largest and most star-studded — and free – jazz festivals. The Atlanta Jazz Festival 2023, scheduled for…
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jerry Hou will perform four works by emerging composers Wednesday afternoon as the culmination of its participation in the 2023 Earshot Readings. The concert is free to the public. EarShot, which has been finding and featuring the works of new composers for a quarter century, was created by the…
Joe Gransden has been a key part of annual Johnny Mercer tributes since 2010. But Saturday’s Mercer concert at the Rialto Center for the Arts is special; “I’ll be singing Johnny Mercer songs no one else has ever performed,” says the Atlanta trumpeter and singer. Gransden is directing the show. He and vocalist Robin Latimore…
In the 1940s, he played in the big bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton and in Charlie Parker’s quintet. In the ‘50s, he cofounded The Jazz Messengers quintet, played in the Max Roach quintet and composed film scores. In the ‘60s, he led groups with Joe Henderson and Hank Mobley, and when declining…
It’s obvious from the get-go. From the first measure, the foundation is there, solid and steady. And that’s a freedom dance for the other players, whether that’s a pianist in a corner of a downtown Decatur restaurant, the rotation of players on a Wednesday night Red Light Café jazz jam, or Joe Gransden’s big band…
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