Producer Arif Mardin Dies

  I   Producer Arif Mardin, who worked with a host of musical legends, died of pancreatic cancer on June 25. He was 74.

Born in Istanbul, the lifelong jazz fan, he attended Berklee College of Music as the first recipient of the Quincy Jones Scholarship. After graduating in 1961, he taught at the school for a year before moving to New York where he worked as an assistant to Neshui Ertegun at Atlantic Records. Mardin served at the label until 2001 where he produced the Modern Jazz Quartet, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Norah Jones, and many others.

During those 40 years, Mardin collected more than 40 gold and platinum albums and 12 Grammy Awards.



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    A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.

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    “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.”

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    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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    Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.

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