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…
Pianist Thandi Ntuli recently released Exiled (Inpartmaint), her second full-length album.
(Photo: Tseliso Monaheng)
Pianist Thandi Ntuli recently released Exiled (Inpartmaint), her second full-length album.
(Photo: Tseliso Monaheng)Do you feel affirmed as an artist in some way because Exiled is being released in Japan?
“Affirmed” is not the word. I think it’s different to have your music exist digitally in a country and to have it distributed physically—knowing that there’s a record label that really loves your stuff, that thinks it’s gonna work in the territory and that actively wants to help in the marketing of it. I think that’s a very different space to be in. It just means that there’s someone who’s identified something that they think would work in that market. And [Japan’s] always been a place I’d wanted to visit, for years. It just makes it seem closer in reach.
How has performing been, given your higher profile? I mean, you sold out two nights at the Market Theatre.
That blew my mind. I have seen gigs that I’ve done in smaller venues that pack up, but I never knew that there were so many people that would be interested in the gig. And the thing I loved is that I didn’t see many familiar faces. So, it just said to me that there are other people that I’m not reaching, because of the spaces that I always play at. The rising profile thing is a bit ... it’s like, everything moved so fast. I’m always having this thing of trying to balance the demands of that—more people wanting to profile you, speak to you, interview—and also still being able to put the time into my craft. I don’t want to become an artist that has a profile without the goods to show. 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.
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…
