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 U.S. Olympic Skateboard Team’s shirts feature an image of a flying eagle playing a saxophnone.
(Photo: Courtesy Nike)Checking out the Olympics? Be sure to notice the U.S. Olympic Skateboard Team’s uniforms. They include an image of a flying eagle, of course, playing a saxophone. What?
Sounds crazy, but the team uniforms were designed, according to Nike SB, to combine “iconic American symbols — the rose, the eagle, red and white stripes.” But the saxophone-playing eagle is meant to capture the “almost jazz-like nature of skateboarding.”
“Unlike other ‘sports,’ the culture of skateboarding has overlapped with music and art from the very beginning,” according to Nike SB’s website. “So much of skateboarding is about being ‘in and of the moment.’ It is pure frenzy, energy — a response to every surface, texture and minute crack in the city. The flashes of blue coming from the saxophone out across the blaze of fire symbolize this creative, ‘in the moment,’ energy so particular to skateboarding.”
Keep improvising, skateboarders, and good luck! DB
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.
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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…
