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 native of Houston, Calvin "The Maestro" Owens' recording credits included work as an artist and producer for Memphis' Kiondict recording company, A&R director/studio musician for Peacock and as an arranger for A&M recording studios in Los Angeles.
Named after the area where he grew up near Sumpter, Texas, the Sawdust Alley Preservation Foundation, founded by Owens, was a non-profit organization dedicated to blues preservation.
Owens was a fixture at SugarHill Studios, beginning in the late 1940s with blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins and in the early 1960s with singer Joe Hinton.
He returned to the studios in 1994 after more than a decade in Belgium to record parts of True Blue. Owens would record and mix another eight blues albums, two Spanish-language albums and one hip-hop album with chief engineer and friend, Andy Bradley.
Owens arranged two tracks and played on three tracks of the forthcoming Johnny Bush album, Young at Heart, featuring Willie Nelson and Ray Price.
Owens was heralded by many and worked with musicians spanning a myriad of genres. Among his recordings are tracks featuring Shelly Carrol, Otis Clay, Archie Bell, Arnett Cobb, B.B. King, Conrad Johnson, David "Fathead" Newman, Marvin Sparks, Keith Vivens, Barbara Lynn, Pete Mayes and Rue Davis.
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…
