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…
A widely popular and acclaimed musician, Ferguson had recently returned to his California home from New York where he performed at the Blue Note club. While on the East Coast, Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau band recorded a new album in New Jersey.
Born in Verdun, Canada, Ferguson studied at Montreal's French Conservatory. He worked with such bandleaders as Charlie Barnet in the late 1940s, and then received greater attention as a sideman for Stan Kenton in the early 1950s. Ferguson's facility for his unique style of hitting high notes made him highly valued when he set out on his own in 1953. In 1957, the trumpeter began leading his own big band and maintained that format, although economic circurmstances occasionally caused him to scale back to smaller combos.
During the 1970s, Ferguson received popular success for his theme song from the film Rocky . Yet he never coasted on such rewards, as he expanded his proficiency to the french horn, trombone, euphonium, and his own hybrid trumpet invention. Sometimes Ferguson would play them all during a single set.
Ferguson's recordings include Message From Newport (Roulette, 1958), Maynard Ferguson's Horn (Columbia, 1970), Live From San Francisco (Palo Alto, 1983) and Brass Attitude (Concord, 1998).
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…
