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5 Takeaways From the Latest Iowa Poll
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is starting to stand out in Iowa, as Friday’s New York Times/Siena College poll shows. But she isn’t standing alone — at least not yet.
Pete Buttigieg Is Running Strong in Iowa. Does He Have Room to Grow?
(Poll Watch)
As Debate Nears, Where Do Democratic Voters Stand on the Issues?
When they tune into Tuesday night’s CNN/New York Times Debate, what will Democratic voters be hoping to see? And what can opinion polls tell us about where the primary electorate stands on the issues?
Democrats Will Hope for a 'Bump' at Next Week's Debate. What's It Worth?
(Poll Watch)
Impeachment Polls Show a Steady Rise in Support
Support for removing President Donald Trump from office has leapt since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry against him, but his Republican backers appear to represent an increasingly loyal minority, according to polls released this week.
Support for Impeachment Is Rising, Polls Show
Support for removing President Donald Trump from office has leapt since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry against him, but his Republican backers appear to represent an increasingly loyal minority, according to polls released this week.
Visionary Musicians Seek Truths for the Future in a Spiritual Past
(Critic’s Notebook)
Abdullah Ibrahim: A Lifetime of Dreams and Resistance at the Piano
WASHINGTON — Receiving a Jazz Master accolade from the National Endowment for the Arts this spring at the Kennedy Center, Abdullah Ibrahim delivered his acceptance speech in under two minutes. The South African pianist thanked his mother and grandmother, then his fellow musicians and fans. All of them had fed his quest, he said, “to strive for perfection.”
Herbie Hancock Is Still Breaking Rules
If jazz for you means tradition and inheritance, maybe Herbie Hancock can change your mind. At the very least, he’d like to make you think twice about what “tradition” means. The pianist and composer has never been interested in upholding any stylistic conventions — “I like to break things,” he said when we spoke last week — but he does insist on a few trusty ideals. For him, jazz will always mean cross-pollination, adventurism and faith in what’s ahead.
Blue Note Records at 80: Can a Symbol of Jazz's Past Help Shape Its Future?
The name Blue Note Records calls to mind a once-regnant sound in jazz: the hard-bop of the 1950s and ’60s, with its springy four-beat swing rhythm, its spare-but-lush horn harmonies, its flinty, percussive piano playing. Imagine a smoky room with a horn player blowing fiercely over a strolling standup bass, and you’re hearing the Blue Note sound. Think of a modernist, cobalt-hued album cover, with blocky title text and a photo of a studious young musician hunkered over an instrument, and you’...
Blue Note Records at 80: A History in 15 Albums
<em xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The most storied label in jazz turns 80 this year. This is some of the music that shaped its legacy.</em>Nat King Cole's Early Years Are Getting the Archival Treatment
Nat King Cole made some of the most ubiquitous recordings in American history as a star for Capitol Records in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. But the vast trove of music he recorded in the years before joining Capitol has always remained something of a mystery.For Etienne Charles, Jazz and Caribbean Music Are One and the Same
(The New Vanguard)
J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Pre-eminent Scholar of African Music, Dies at 97
J.H. Kwabena Nketia, a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer who became the world’s leading scholar on African musical traditions, died March 13 in Legon, a suburb of the Accra, the capital of Ghana. He was 97.Dorothy Masuka, South African Singer and Activist, Dies at 83
Dorothy Masuka, a vocalist and songwriter who blazed a trail for female pop stars in South Africa and became a dogged advocate of the struggle against apartheid, died Saturday at her home in Johannesburg. She was 83.
Ethel Ennis, Singer Who Walked Away From Fame, Is Dead at 86
Ethel Ennis was in bed one night in the mid-1950s when Billie Holiday called.Kiyoshi Koyama, Prominent Japanese Jazz Journalist, Dies at 82
Kiyoshi Koyama, widely regarded as Japan’s pre-eminent jazz journalist, who covered the music’s development throughout the 1960s and ‘70s before becoming a producer of archival albums, died Feb. 3 in Kashiwa, Japan. He was 82.Oliver Mtukudzi, Renowned Zimbabwean Musician, Is Dead at 66
Oliver Mtukudzi, whose singing and guitar playing harnessed influences from across Southern Africa to create the most popular musical style in Zimbabwe, died Jan. 23 in Harare, the nation’s capital. He was 66.Jazz at Lincoln Center to Program Its First International Festival
NEW YORK — Jazz at Lincoln Center will program and produce the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival in May, the first time that this New York-based nonprofit organization has taken the creative reins at a festival abroad.Clydie King, Top-Tier Backup Singer, Is Dead at 75
Clydie King, whose peppery but plain-spoken backing vocals helped define hits like the Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice,” Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” and — despite her reservations about it — Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” died Jan. 7 in Monrovia, California. She was 75.
