Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
The Jazz At Lincoln Center was to have a benefit concert yesterday for Irwin to help raise money for health care costs. The concert's focus shifted to a tribute concert for the bassist. Tony Bennett, Mose Allison, John Scofield, Joe Lovano and others played for Irwin. Money raised from the concert will go toward covering Irwin's health expenses and the Jazz Foundation Of America, which helps provide uninsured musicians with healthcare costs.
He was born on Nov. 28, 1951, in Birmingham, Ala, but was raised in Atlanta. Irwin attended North Texas State University studying classical music and playing clarinet in the orchestra. Drummer John Riley and bassist Marc Johnson helped expose Irwin to jazz and the upright bass.
Guitarist John Scofield brought Joe Lovano, Bill Drewes and Steve Slagle to Irwin’s loft in New York in 1976. The group stayed close after that summer.
Irwin went on to play with Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Johnny Griffin and Horace Silver. He was the bassist of choice for vocalists Jackie Paris, Betty Carter and Mose Allison,
Irwin is the father of trumpeter/bassist Michael Irwin.
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
Sep 22, 2026 1:39 PM
Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.
Oct 6, 2026 1:33 PM
As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of Saint…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
Sep 8, 2026 11:52 AM
It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a school…
