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Features

After 37 Years On and 2 Years Off, ‘Hot Jazz Saturday Night’ is back on the airwaves at WAMU

The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the jazz community in every outpost, and D.C. is no exception. Venues have permanently closed; some musicians have moved away, while those who have stayed are hard-pressed to find work. If audiences haven’t undergone quite the same level of turmoil, they’ve nonetheless been deprived of a great source of joy, […]

January 11, 2021 0

News

D.C. pianist James Fernando is a semi-finalist in a worldwide jazz competition

James Fernando, a rising jazz pianist and composer, is representing the District as one of 50 semi-finalists in the 7 Virtual Jazz Club Global Competition. Fernando was selected as a semi-finalist after submitting his video to a panel of judges; advancement to the finals will be partly determined by the number of “likes” the video […]

January 5, 2021 0

Album reviews

Best D.C. Jazz Albums of 2020

Over the past 10 years on the D.C. jazz scene, we’ve seen venues come and go. We’ve seen elders pass on, as well as a steady influx of fresh young voices and ideas. All the while the music continues to grow and change, right along with the ever-gentrifying landscape of Washington, D.C. But the coronavirus […]

December 22, 2020 0

Features

Remembering Andrew White, saxophonist, scholar, impresario and D.C. music royalty of the highest order

The accomplishments of Andrew White — multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, entrepreneur and performer, who made his home in Northeast D.C. for half a century — are as impressive as they are varied. Recognized throughout the city’s jazz community and well beyond for his prodigious talents on alto saxophone, as well as for his proud, outspoken and […]

November 25, 2020 0

Album reviews

Hear these four just-released D.C. jazz albums

Fall 2020: We’re rounding the seventh month of a generation-defining pandemic; U.S. social and political tensions are coming to a head; and artists, like always, are seeking new ways to inspire, persevere, and resist. Sometimes, that’s through direct political action — catch D.C.’s artists on the streets calling on Mayor Bowser to save D.C. venues — and […]

October 30, 2020 0

Features

The legend of Yahya Abdul-Majid

Yahya Abdul-Majid was a musician with an intense air of mystery about him. I had often heard stories of his influence around the scene in D.C., especially from those interested in more adventurous approaches to jazz. From what I could gather, Yahya was a saxophonist who represented a meeting between the mysticisms of Trane and […]

October 21, 2020 0

Interviews

A chat with Sunny Sumter, DC Jazz Festival executive director and ‘Jazz Hero’

As the longtime executive director of the DC Jazz Festival, Sunny Sumter has guided the festival through over a decade of growth, turning it into one of the country’s leading music festivals. That was already a hefty task. But this year, her job got even more complicated when the coronavirus pandemic struck. Since March, Sumter […]

September 24, 2020 0

News

The DC JazzFest returns this weekend in digital form

In a normal year, the DC Jazz Festival hosts hundreds of talented artists in performances at venues around the District for over a week in June. The pandemic prevented the festival from taking place as usual this year, but its organizers have put together a five-day virtual version that will begin on Thursday and run […]

September 23, 2020 0

News

Live jazz, socially distanced? Ghostline DC, a new ‘restaurant collective,’ thinks it can be done

A newly opened space in Glover Park is trying out an innovative model for restaurants operating amid the coronavirus pandemic. In the process, it might open up a path forward for live jazz at a time when the future of the music is threatened in D.C. and around the country. Ghostline DC, a so-called restaurant […]

September 16, 2020 0

Features

With government aid tied up, struggling jazz venue owners ponder their options

In early spring, when the coronavirus pandemic’s drastic impacts were still sinking in, many on the D.C. jazz scene held onto the faint hope that our city’s musicians might return to the stages of Twins, Sotto and the Kennedy Center by the end of the year. Six months later, nearly 200,000 Americans have died from […]

September 11, 2020 0