The awarding of the 2005 NEA Jazz Masters Awards to a distinguished class of musicians provided some of the highlights of the 32nd annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) held in Long Beach. This years honorees included Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Smith, Slide Hampton, Paquito D'Rivera, Artie Shaw, Shirley Horn and, as Jazz Advocate, George Wein. Additionally, the NEA used the occasion to announce an ambitious new curriculum integrating the study of jazz into Americ …

Julie Lynn Burrell was born in Houston, Texas on July 16, 1963. She died April 25, 2006. Julie is survived by her parents, Thomas G. "Gil" and Kathryn "Katy" Burrell; her brother, John and wife, Joyce Burrell, and niece Mandy, of Manor, Texas; her uncle, Ed Grimm and wife, Ellen Park of Sinton, Texas; special friends, Teresa Pegarari of Covina, California, Steve Craddock of Austin, and numerous other friends and musicians. She attended Pilgrim Lutheran School in Houston; Redeemer Lutheran Sch …

It has been more than a decade since James Carter burst on to the jazz scene, literally blowing away fans, critics and musicians alike with his powerful saxophone. Carter's ninth CD as bandleader is the brand new Live At Baker's Keyboard Lounge. The album was recorded at the famous jazz club in Detroit--by reputation, the oldest existing jazz club in the world--and features a stellar lineup of guests including fellow saxophone greats David Murray, Johnny Griffin and Franz Jackson. The …

A Love Song is the fine new CD from legendary bassist PercyHeath on Daddy Jazz Records and, shockingly, the octogenarian’s band leading debut. Brother to saxophonist Jimmy and drummer Albert"Tootie" Heath, it is no hyperbole to say that Percy has worked with the most important jazz artists of the last sixty years--there's simply no more accurate way to describe a career that includes dates with the likes of Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Miles, Trane and Ornette alongside his long tenures with both t …

Poncho Sanchez’s latest Concord Picante release Out of Sight is one of the year's most fun CDs to listen to. Poncho is almost certainly the hardest working man in Latin Jazz, so it is only appropriate that the new album finds him paying tribute to James Brown, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business--and to classic R&B more generally. Helping him on this date is a number of true soul legends like Ray Charles, Billy Preston, Sam Moore and former James Brown horn men Fred Wesley and Pee We …