Four years after the death of Alice Coltrane's husband, John Coltrane, the harpist, pianist, composer and ensemble leader performed with a sizable group at New York's Carnegie Hall. Married in 1965 to John Coltrane after his divorce from Juanita Naima Coltrane—a woman he had been married to since 1953—Alice had a journey of her own following her husband's passing in 1967 of liver disease at age 40. Alice and John knew each other as musicians since 1962. What started out as a friendship soon became more. They had four children, and Alice became the pianist in John's quartet, recording with th ..read more

Sun Ra was outrageous and out there, but his brand of jazz was special. The composer, bandleader, pianist and synthesizer player was both philosophical and comical. He also was cosmic and down to earth. Jazz fans knew Sun Ra meant business, despite all of his mysticism and eclecticism. The spelling of his band, The Arkestra, says it all. [Photo above of album cover for Inside the Light World: Sun Ra Meets the OVC] But an in-depth listen to Sun Ra's music places him in a metaphysical space built by Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Sun Ra not only was avant-garde but al ..read more

Lee Morgan is still not fully appreciated for all of the music he left behind and how he changed the sound of the trumpet starting in the late 1950s. The glorious way he bent notes and tore into solos with economy and fervor became a singular sound and personality. He first stood out as a purposeful hard-bop player in Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and then recorded a long string of superb albums as a leader for Blue Note. [Photo above of Lee Morgan by Francis Wolff (c)Mosaic Images] In 2016, Kasper Collin, a Swedish documentary film writer and director, released I Called Him Morgan. T ..read more

In tribute to Micheal Cuscuna, the great jazz-reissue record producer and Mosaic co-founder who died April 19, I thought I'd feature one of my favorite Hank Mobley albums today as a Backgrounder. Michael found Poppin' in the Blue Note vaults when he was there and released the album for the first time in 1980. If not for Michael, we wouldn't have many of the previously shelved Blue Note albums that we have today that were released under his stewardship. Michael operated assertively partly out of outrage that these albums weren't already in the marketplace and partly out of a love for jazz li ..read more

In tribute to Micheal Cuscuna, the great jazz-reissue record producer and Mosaic co-founder who died April 19, I thought I'd feature one of my favorite Hank Mobley albums today as a Backgrounder. Michael found Poppin' in the Blue Note vaults when he was there and released the album for the first time in 1980. If not for Michael, we wouldn't have many of the Blue Note albums that we have today that were released under his stewardship. Michael operated assertively partly out of outrage that these albums weren't already in the marketplace and partly out of a love for jazz listeners who deserve ..read more

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actor Theo James for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Theo currently stars in Netflix's The Gentlemen, and he previously co-starred in the second season of HBO's The White Lotus. [Photo above of Theo James in The Gentlemen, courtesy of Netflix] Here's Theo in the trailer for The Gentlemen... And here's Theo in the trailer for Season 2 of The White Lotus... What I'm watching. Last week... WPC 56—(2013-2015). In the English Midlands of the 1950s, a woman becomes the first female police constable and has to navigate ..read more

Nearly all of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's concerts must have been memorable events for those lucky enough to attend them. Her gospel energy, robust blues and jumping swing all combined to set audiences' knees fanning. One of Tharpe's most compelling concerts captured on film was her May 7, 1964 performance held on the platform of the former Wilbraham Road Station in Manchester, England. The station had closed six years earlier, but for the concert, it was temporarily re-named Chorltonville and made up to look like a backwater station in the American South. The audience arrived by train from cent ..read more

Sister Rosetta Tharpe began recording on the electric guitar in 1941 at her first studio session for Decca with Lucky Millinder's band. She was one of the first true fusion artists, combining multiple styles of music in her delivery. At this point in time, hundreds of thousands of black Americans were on the move. Many were leaving the rural farms of the South and Southwest for better-paying manufacturing jobs near cities up North and out West, where their lives weren't at the same level of risk. By the late 1930s, war was raging in Europe and Asia with the rise of global fascism. In early 1 ..read more

As I've posted in the past, Art Tatum in many ways is the father of the post-war jazz piano. His spectacular speed, love for jazzing up the American songbook and torrents of improvised ideas all would inspire pianists and other instrumentalists who followed. Today, we tend to think of Tatum exclusively as an artist from the 1930s and '40s. And while the pianist certainly became a force during this period, he also made superb recordings in the early 1950s, leading up to his death in 1956 at age 47. During these later years, Tatum worked with a trio—guitarist Everett Barksdale and bassist Slam ..read more

Not all West Coast jazz of the 1950s was shaded by the relaxed influences of the Los Angeles suburbs and the Pacific Ocean. Black jazz artists brought their own artistic perspectives to the studios and clubs, forged through migration from the South and Southwest, living in the Watts and South Central sections, and trying to stand out as musicians in a city with heightened segregation and racism. Among the finest black jazz musicians in Los Angeles in the 1950s was tenor saxophonist Harold Land. Born in Houston, his family moved to San Diego, Ca., when he was a child. His first recording as ..read more