Almost no other instrument seems so synonymous with jazz as the sax. Listen to some classic alto playing from Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt and more greats.

Piano and saxophone duets are jazz distilled to its bare essentials: one linear melodic voice interacting with a chordal and rhythmic partner, also capable of leading the line. What these two European ...

There comes a time in every great artist’s life when all the lessons they’ve learned go out the window and everything starts flowing on raw emotion. For Wayne Shorter, one such moment occurred during ...

Tony Bennett loves to sketch. It’s something he’s done since the age of 5, when he would do chalk drawings on the sidewalk in Queens, where he grew up. During one recording session for “Cheek to Cheek ...

While I was playing “Careless Whisper” on piano, a guy with a saxophone joined in — and what followed was an unexpected but amazing live duet. The smooth sax, the nostalgic melody, and the spontaneous ...

Freedom. Free-dom. What is it? And how do you get it? In music the word denotes something specific. At least in jazz. It means in part starting out a musical performance with the idea that what is ...

Student musicians from the region recently participated in the Western State Solo and Ensemble Festival in Missoula. The festival held May 5-6 featured students who received superior ratings at the ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. When semi-free-jazz London drum-and-sax duo Binker and Moses won Best Jazz Act at the Mobo awards last year, ...

Pharoah Sanders’ 1977 release Izipho Zam (My Gifts) on the Strata-East label is a fascinating listen. Widely regarded as a landmark in the evolution of free jazz, it continues to grow on me—and that, ...

Street musicians often can be a nuisance to New York City subway riders. But these two saxophonists put on a welcome show that passengers would not soon forget. Determined not to just let one musician ...

American saxophonist Dave Koz has elaborated the “beautiful thing about the saxophone”.“It can peacefully co-exist with just about anything — whether it’s hip-hop, rap, rock, pop, R&B or jazz, there’s ...