Invented in the early 1840s, the saxophone was a relative latecomer to music—and to jazz. But starting in the mid-1920s, with the rise of the big bands, the instrument slowly but steadily evolved from ...

Jazz, blues, classical, funk, pop, soul, bossa nova, gospel, rock, Afrobeat, disco and country. These are just some of the styles of music that tenor saxophone great Houston Person has performed in ...

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in ...

Famed Chicago tenor saxophonist Earle Lavon “Von” Freeman, once told Tony Sarabia that he was never meant to be a teacher. Saxophonist Frank Catalano and percussionist Kahil El’Zabar strongly disagree ...

These two albums give us snapshots of violinist and vocalist Stuff Smith at the apex and finale of his career in jazz. That career started in the '20s - when he, like all musicians of his era, was ...

LOS ANGELES — Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a century of American music, has ...

“What a stroke of luck,” says Vuckovich, who remembers with a laugh how Long Tall Dexter used to say “Let’s get bent” when he wanted a drink. He loved Gordon’s records and had heard him play at San ...

It may be impossible to fully measure saxophonist Fred Anderson’s impact on music in Chicago–and around the world. As tenor saxophonist, he invented a rugged, craggy musical language that influenced ...