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…
Laurie Frink (Photo: Takashi Yashima)
(Photo: )Known for her accurate lead trumpet work in large ensemble settings, Frink played with historic groups such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra, the Mel Lewis Orchestra and Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band. In more recent times, she played with Maria Schneider, Darcy James Argue, John Hollenbeck, Bob Mintzer, Kenny Wheeler, Andrew Hill, Dave Liebman and Ryan Truesdell. Her diverse performance career also included Broadway shows, radio and television jingles and movie soundtracks.
Frink was a highly effective brass teacher at the private level and for prominent educational institutions. An authority on the renown brass instructor Carmine Caruso’s method, she was on the faculties of New England Conservatory (NEC), New York University, the Manhattan School of Music and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Frink specialized in helping to solve embouchure problems and other technical troubles that professional brass players experience. The long list of trumpeters who studied with her includes Dave Douglas, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jon Crowley and Nadje Noordhuis.
“One of the leading brass pedagogues of our time, Laurie Frink will be sorely missed, as a teacher, as a player and as a friend,” said Ken Schaphorst, chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department. “I noticed immediate improvement in the playing of every NEC student who worked with her. She was also one of the most accurate and musical lead trumpet players I’ve ever heard.”
On July 14, Noordhuis posted an essay about Frink on her blog. Here is an excerpt: “I haven't picked up the trumpet since hearing the news, and I know that moment is going to be really tough. But after I do, I will play every note as beautifully as I can, channel the grief into my ballads, help my students to better express themselves, and in true Laurie fashion, continue to do exactly as I please.”
Frink and fellow NEC faculty member John McNeil, also a trumpeter, coauthored the book Flexus: Trumpet Calisthenics for the Modern Improviser (Gazong Press).
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…
