A.D. Amorosi

In 1978, I witnessed what may still be my favorite-ever concert: Tom Waits with Leon Redbone at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. Playing to a sold-out … Read More "Tom Waits’s Jazz: At the Corners of Heartattack and Vine, Massive Attack and Kathleen Brennan"

There is no drummer like jazz drummer Stix Hooper. Like Clyde Stubblefield without the grime, Hooper all but invented the soulful jazz-funk, in-the-pocket groove at … Read More "Stix Hooper Cordially Invites Listeners to Give the Drummer Some"

The Sound of Philadelphia got a little quieter this week as Dexter Wansel, the jazz fusion keyboardist, singer and composer behind the hit album Life … Read More "Dexter Wansel, Jazz Fusion Keyboardist and Philadelphia International Records Producer, Dies at 75"

Donna and Mark Isham are long-respected artists, outstanding in their fields. Yet while Donna is acclaimed as a Hollywood costume designer and stylist-turned-painter and sculptor, … Read More "Artist-Sculptor Donna Isham, Trumpeter-Composer Mark Isham: Immersive Art with a Soundtrack"

Before we move too far from the calendar of the Miles Davis centennial and related events, it’s important to make his personal style a part … Read More "Miles Styles: Talking Avant-Garde Fashion with Artist Mikel Elam, Stylist and PA to Davis in His Final Years"

When it comes to jazz, the drum and its compositional largesse, Phil Haynes has forever been an exploratory presence, a rhythmatist moving freely — often … Read More "Drummer-Composer Phil Haynes’s Earthen Improvisational Journey"

T wo important new jazz-adjacent works of biographical media dropped this week: Oscar-winning director Questlove’s new HBO documentary Earth Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial … Read More "Earth, Wind & Fire’s Ramsey Lewis Roots, Robert Margouleff’s Jazzy Weather Report and More"

F rom its recent Grammy nominations for music past (Lights on a Satellite) and present (Swirling), to its place in the 2026 PBS American Masters … Read More "Always Sun Ra in Philadelphia: The Arkestra Honored with Magnificent Wall-Sized Mural"

S ince the twin tribute to John and Alice Coltrane that was Pursuance: The Coltranes (Ropeadope, 2020), New York–based alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader Lakecia … Read More "Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin’s Dream: Better and Bolder Than Our Reality"

T he sound of South African pianist-composer-sangoma Nduduzo Makhathini goes far beyond any music in any single moment. It is eternal, part of a continuum, … Read More "Pianist Nduduzo Makhathini on Sons, Fathers, the Power of Myth and a New Blue Note Album"