“I love doing ballads,” Mike Stern says. “It’s just a part of me, some part of emotionally how I feel sometimes.”
(Photo: Sandrine Lee)Dec 3, 2024 12:52 PM
Stories of major shifts and rebirths among musicians during the past five years are common, from weathering the pandemic to dealing with various sea changes in the ways the music…
“If you never suffered, you can’t play the blues,” says Lou Donaldson.
(Photo: Michael Jackson)Nov 12, 2024 12:15 PM
When it comes to a soulful jazz groove, it just doesn’t get much groovier than Lou Donaldson, whose blues-drenched alto saxophone has been a distinctive voice in jazz for more than six decades. Charlie Parker was a major influence on Donaldson’s sound, as he, in turn, was on generations of saxophonists who followed him. Donaldson’s early recordings with organist Jimmy Smith in the late 1950s led to the widespread popularity of groove-filled jazz in the ’60s and ’70s.An important moment in Donaldson’s long career was when Alfred Lion,…
