Rob Shepherd

Taking the Journey: Rich Ruth Previews his 2025 Newport Jazz Festival Performance

The journeys in life can be just as important - if not more so - than the destinations. Music, inherently…

5 months ago

Feeling the Spirit: A Conversation with Tim Carman, Jimmy James, and Adam Scone on Parlor Greens at Newport

Before setting anchor at a fortress by the sea. Before fencing the sprawling field beneath a problematic hill. Before cramming…

5 months ago

Odyssey: Nubya Garcia Previews her 2025 Newport Jazz Festival Performance

In 1963, Gunther Schuller coined the term Third Stream to identify what he saw as "a new genre of music…

5 months ago

Always Listening: A Conversation with Deborah Ross, Executive Director of the Joyce and George Wein Foundation

In the history of improvised music, few figures have brought the music to new audiences as much as George Wein.…

5 months ago

Migration of Knowledge: A Conversation with Gaia Wilmer and Ra Kalam Bob Moses

Zoösemiotics, the study of how animals use signals - including sounds - to convey information is an underappreciated field. Its…

5 months ago

For Those Who Need to Hear It: A Conversation with Chris Weller on Hanging Hearts

The great Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango once sagely noted that “Although music is business, [] you don't start thinking about…

6 months ago

Trusting Fate: A Conversation with Brandee Younger

Across cultures and ages, the harp has long been associated with peace and tranquility. Its light tones are painted as…

6 months ago

Letting the Spirit In: A Conversation with Amina Claudine Myers on ‘Solace of the Mind’

In a music so heavily built around collective communication, there is something inherently special about a solo performance. Far too…

6 months ago

Past, Present, and Future: Day One of the 2024 Newport Jazz Festival

One criticism occasionally levied against the more recent editions of the iconic Newport Jazz Festival is that it somehow abandoned…

6 months ago

Giving Up Control: A Conversation with Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp on ‘Armageddon Flower’ (Part Two)

We continue our conversation with Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp on ‘Armageddon Flower’ (TAO Forms, 2025). You can read Part…

6 months ago