Willard Jenkins has been connecting jazz with listeners for more than 50 years. Now, he’s an N.E.A. Jazz Master.
Willard Jenkins wasn’t a jazz fan first. Growing up in 1960s Cleveland, naturally he loved the sounds of Motown...
Category: Features
The 14th Washington Women in Jazz Festival packs music, community and celebration into one overflowing weekend
Jazz has always tended to be an unfortunately dude-centric vocation. Although women often appeared prominently as instrumentalists in New...
What do Duke and Dilla have in common? The Kennedy Center’s Hip Hop & … Festival offers its own answers
The Kennedy Center’s Hip Hop & … Festival arrives this week with a series of remarkable sessions and concerts...
Remembering Carl Grubbs, who passed Coltrane’s torch to future generations
Saxophonist Carl Grubbs was just 13 when he met the musician who would become a guiding light, not only...
Twenty years in, JoJo is the last classic jazz spot standing on U Street — and it’s thriving
On an early Wednesday evening this summer, drummer Lenny Robinson was deftly steering a remarkable trio, consisting of vibraphonist...
‘Change is the most constant thing we got’: D.C. artists reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they’ve recovered
In early 2020, the COVID-19 virus began to spread worldwide, quickly transforming the lives of billions across the globe....
Jazz and cocktails: Shanklin Hall and Moonlight keep the groove going in Adams Morgan
Talk to any jazz musician on the East Coast, and you may hear stories of Columbia Station. For 22...
DCPS walked back its plan to take over Duke Ellington School of the Arts. But what does the future hold for the legendary school?
I remember in 2004 when I came to audition for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Growing up,...
Archival LPs revisit the lasting legacy of the Left Bank Jazz Society
For nearly 40 years, The Left Bank Jazz Society (LBJS) presented regular Sunday jazz shows in Baltimore, and turned...
Braxton Cook brings his experiences, inspirations and love of family to ‘Who Are You When No One Is Watching?’
There’s something to be said for an artist that doesn’t just make music with the objective of creating hits....