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…
Originally released in 1975 on Fantasy, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, the first meeting of the vocalist and pianist, featured the pair performing standards, as well as a moving rendition of the pianist's classic tune, "Waltz for Debby" (with lyrics written by Gene Lees). Other standards include "But Beautiful," "The Days of Wine and Roses," "Young and Foolish" and "The Touch of Your Lips."
Bennett recalls that the pair didn't even discuss song choices before the session: "I would name a tune, and Bill would say, 'That's good, let's do that.' We'd find a key and then the two of us would work it out. For about 45 minutes, we'd work out the arrangement, he'd say, 'Do you wanna modulate here? How many choruses do you want?' And then we would play it through and work out all the changes and all that. We spent three days doing that, until we had nine songs in the can."
In 1976, Bennett and Evans returned to the studio for Together Again for Improv Records (and later reissued on Concord Records). It's another low-lights, high-improv date of standards that opens with an Evans solo rendition of "The Bad and the Beautiful" and continues with such moving renditions of "Lucky to Be Me," "You're Nearer," "You Don't Know What Love Is," "Lonely Girl," "You Must Believe in Spring" and another Evans' original, "The Two Lonely People" (with lyrics by Carol Hall).
Both sessions--recorded together, not in isolation booths--yielded several fine alternate takes that are included on The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, as well as two bonus tracks from the second date, with a superb version of Cole Porter's "Dream Dancing."
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…
