National

President Obama will speak with Evan Smith, CEO & Editor in Chief of The Texas Tribune, to discuss the state of civic engagement in this day and age. They will focus on how technology can help overcome global issues. At a separate SXSW event, FLOTUS will talk about her Let Girls Learn initiative.

For jazz and instrumental music lovers, nine-time Grammy Award winner Wynton Marsalis’ releases “The Spiritual Side of Wynton Marsalis” a compilation of his spiritually inspired works recorded from 1988 to 2002. The 15-song set features a collection of blues, jazz and worship tracks including  “If I Hold On,”  “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” and “Oh […]

By Tom Hanchett Today J.H. Gunn is barely remembered as the long-ago principal of J.H. Gunn School off Albemarle Road on Charlotte’s east side. But 80 years ago this African American leader was known throughout the eastern U.S. as a recording and touring musician at the helm of Jimmie Gunn and His Orchestra. J. H. […]

Thelonious Monk is considered one of the giants in American music. He is the second most recorded jazz composer and regarded as the founder of bebop, style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. John Coltrane is one of the best American jazz saxophonist and composers. He helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz, a style not defined by traditional jazz techniques. What do the two have in common besides their love for jazz and notable accomplishments as it relates to the music?

Remember road trips with your parents? In my family, we battled to control the radio. If the trip was longer than 10 miles, my parents won. Dad inevitably popped in a cassette. Often he played contemporary jazz. I heard the Crusader’s “Street Life” so many times, I dreamed living the type of life Randy Crawford […]