Happy Birthday Billy Harper!

Celebrating the birthday of saxophonist/composer Billy Harper with an interview along with a few stellar performances. 

Watch Billy Harper in action at Jazz Forum in Tarrytown

Celebrating the birthday of tenor titan Billy Harper with a performance alongside Ben Young and Aaron Scott from May 13, 2023. 

Happy 80th Birthday Billy Harper!

Celebrating saxophonist Billy Harper's 80th birthday with a couple of jazz fest performances at Molde and more. 

Happy Birthday Lee Morgan!

Remembering trumpet titan Lee Morgan on his birthday with a stellar PBS performance alongside Billy Harper from 1972. 

The Cookers feat. Eddie Henderson preview new Look Out! album

Trumpeter Eddie Henderson and saxophonist Donald Harrison are featured on The Cookers' hard-bop swinger "Traveling Lady" 

Here's the scoop from Gearbox Records...

Look Out! is the triumphant sixth album return of jazz supergroup The Cookers, due out on September 24th on double vinyl, CD, and digital. Recorded at the iconic Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs and cut using a Van Gelder-era '67 Haeco Sculley lathe at Gearbox Records, the seven-song release comprises original, fresh pieces written by Cecil McBee, Billy Harper, and George Cables which channel the heady, aggressive post-bop era of the mid-60s.

Whereas the majority of the jazz tradition’s elder statesmen head their own groups, this is one of the few jazz bands to contain legacy musicians of this calibre functioning as an equitable, long-standing ensemble. Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, George Cables, Eddie Henderson, and Billy Hart all came up in the heady era of the mid ‘60s: Hart and Henderson were members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi group; Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s great ’60s quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette; Billy Harper was part of Lee Morgan’s last group, as well as being a member of Max Roach’s Quartet and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; while George Cables held down the piano chair in numerous bands including groups led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper. 

David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, having gained experience performing with Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Roy Haynes and Herbie Hancock.

After 14 years together, again the incredibly high level of musicianship has only increased with the revisiting of their fresh, challenging, boundary-pushing music from these legendary, revered, veteran improvisers.

Pre-order a copy of The Cookers' new Look Out! album directly from Gearbox right here. Listen to "Traveling Lady" following the track listing and credits. 

The Cookers – Look Out! (Gearbox Records)

1. The Mystery of Monifa Brown

2. Destiny Is Yours

3. Cat's Out The Bag

4. Somalia

5. AKA Reggie

6. Traveling Lady

7. Mutima

The Cookers:

Billy Harper: tenor sax

Eddie Henderson: trumpet

David Weiss: trumpet

Donald Harrison: alto sax

George Cables: piano

Cecil McBee: bass

Billy Hart: drums

Produced by David Weiss

Executive Producer: Darrel Sheinman 

Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio by Maureen Sickler

Mixed by Katherine Miller

Mastered and cut at Gearbox Studio by Caspar Sutton-Jones and Darrel Sheinman

Mastered using all-valve Decca equalisation and Telefunken limiters. Lacquer discs cut on a Haeco Scully lathe with Westrex RA1700 series amps, Westrex 3DIIA cutting head. Monitored on Audio Note equipment

Happy Birthday Kirk Lightsey!

Raising a glass to jazz piano great Kirk Lightsey with a performance at Smalls and another with The Cookers in Viersen, Germany. 

Shabaka & The Ancestors release We Are Sent Here By History

Check out three songs from Shabaka & The Ancestors' powerful new album on Impulse! followed by a spiritual jazz mix assembled by Shabaka Hutchings.

Shabaka Hutchings' Astro Black Mix track listing:

Feelin' Good - John Coltrane
Astral Travelling - Pharoah Sanders
Contemplation - McCoy Tyner
Om Shanti - Alice Coltrane
Believe, For It’s True - Billy Harper
Kubi - Zim Ngqawana
Fanfare - Bokani Dyer
Because You Knew - Mandisi Dyantyis
The Rain - Eddie Gale

Happy Birthday Reggie Workman!

Celebrating Reggie's birthday with footage from Newport in 1967 and with Max Roach in Norway 1977.

Happy Birthday Thad Jones!

Remembering the late great bandleader with a 1974 Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Big Band performance in Norway.

Happy 75th Birthday Billy Harper!

Celebrating Billy Harper's milestone birthday with a performance of "Somalia" from 2016. 

Rare footage of Max Roach w/ Billy Harper live in Norway

Billy and Max were joined by Cecil Bridgewater and Reggie Workman for this 1977 performance in Molde. 

Happy Birthday Billy Harper!

Midweek Mixdown: The Jazz Kid

Enjoy this dope "Deep & Spiritual Jazz" mix put together by The Jazz Kid

Deep & Spiritual Jazz Vol. 3 (March 2014) by The Jazz Kid on Mixcloud

Track listing: 
1.The Time Of This World Is At Hand by Billy Gault 
2.Black Land Of The Nile by Masequa Myers 
3.John Coltrane (Live) by the Clifford Jordan Quartet 
4.Afro Blue by Dee Dee Bridgewater 
5.Creole Girl by Noah Howard 
6.Love And Hate by Jackie McLean 
7.Moon Child by Doug Carn 
8.My Africa by The Pyramids 
9.Capra Black by Billy Harper