Latest saxophonist Stories

By JON W. POSES It hasn't been a good few days for jazz's health. On July 25, saxophonist icon Johnny Griffin, 80, passed away, as did the gifted, versatile guitarist Hiram Bullock, who was only 52. The loss of Griffin reminds us of those stories that are timed annually to Memorial Day and/or Veterans Day. I speak of the "features" that we read each late May and mid-November covering the rapid death rate of those who served during World War I and World War II. At this point, there is next...

By Dan Ouellette NEW YORK (Billboard) - Though it is deemed a national treasure for its innately American legacy, jazz is plagued with an identity crisis. While the genre has spread the world over, fueled by its freedom fire of improvisation, jazz at home has been marginalized as a music that has veered from the mainstream and settled into either a mature museum-like relic or a sorry state of abstruse elitism. A perpetual sales underachiever, jazz in 2004 and 2005 garnered a minuscule...