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…
Trained in classical music at a young age, Morgan shifted toward jazz in her teen years, due in part to her grandmother’s extensive collection of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson LPs. At SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, she studied with artists like Yolanda Bavan, Jon Faddis and Roseanna Vitro. Morgan gigged around the New York club scene after college and was named a semi-finalist in the 2004 Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition in Washington, DC. Last year, she appeared with the Next Generation of Jazz All-Stars at the Concord Fujitsu Jazz Festival in Japan.
“How amazing it was to listen to Melissa’s recording for the first time,” said Telarc President Robert Woods. “I found myself asking, ‘Where did this wonderful young jazz singer come from?’ She is the real deal. And when I saw her for the first time I was stunned by how grounded, collected and natural she is at delivering the music and the emotion. At a time when we wonder where the next good jazz musician may come from, Melissa is a real treat.”
Of Until I Met You, Morgan said, “I wanted it to be soulful and emotional, and I wanted it to run the gamut of happy and sad and everything in between, with lyrics that are very potent. I also wanted it to be like those classic recordings of the ‘50s and ‘60s, where there are a lot of musicians on it and there’s a real family sense to it. That’s exactly what this record has turned out to be.”
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…
