Mark Dresser News

Next Jazz Legacy has announced its 2025 cohort's showcase performance at the iconic Jazz Gallery in New York City in May. Learn more about the upcoming performance here!

Next Jazz Legacy will present its 2025 cohort's showcase performance at the iconic Jazz Gallery in New York City in May. Learn more about the upcoming performance and see how to attend!

Next Jazz Legacy has revealed the eight emerging improvisers in jazz that make up its 2025 cohort. Learn more about the color and about Next Jazz Legacy!

Japanese pianist/composer Satoko Fujii and her Tokyo Trio stop in Massachusetts for three concerts as part of a spring tour of North America celebrating the March release of Dream a Dream, the ensemble's first studio recording.

Lux Quartet, co-led by pianist Myra Melford and drummer Allison Miller, is proud to present its eponymous debut: a glowing musical encounter with Dayna Stephens (saxophones) and Scott Colley (bass). The program features original compositions by all four band members, exploring philosophical and spiritual themes through the language of jazz. The name Lux Quartet was inspired by the role of light in the diversity of life on Earth.

Diamanda’s “La Llorona”is the legend of a mestizo woman who has been abandoned by her Spanish lover, who deserted her for a 'purebred' woman. Faced with the threat of having her children stolen by their father, she takes the children to the river and kills them to destroy her faithless lover’s bloodline. She lives on, a haunted and disdained outcast who walks each night by the river, gathering weeds and hoping to find her children again. Listen to the single!

In the midst of reflecting on his long and varied career for his acclaimed memoir Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modern Drumming Artist, drummer/composer Phil Haynes lingered on revisiting the music he’d made with his audacious quintet 4 Horns & What? during the early 1990s

Hear the Light Singing is “a sequel of sorts to [Melford's] 2022 release, For The Love Of Fire And Water, featuring a nearly identical all-star cast and the same set of Cy Twombly drawings from which the first album drew its name as inspiration. Discover the latest release from this talented pianist and composer.

Released on May 26, 2023, brutalovechamp features Seabrook's stunning and malleable octet Epic Proportions, which includes percussionist and vocalist Nava Dunkelman, cellist Marika Hughes, bassists Eivind Opsvik and Henry Fraser, electronic musician and vocalist Chuck Bettis, John McCowen on clarinets and recorders, and Sam Ospovat on drums, vibraphone and percussion.

With The Rite of Spring – Spectre d’un songe, two of contemporary music’s most vital and innovative pianists – Sylvie Courvoisier and Cory Smythe – interpret and converse with one of the 20th century’s landmark compositions. On this breathtaking new recording, released May 19, 2023 from Pyroclastic Records, Courvoisier and Smythe perform Igor Stravinsky’s striking two-piano rendition of his iconic Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), followed by a bold new Courvoisier composition that draws inspiration from Stravinsky as a launchpad for investigatory improvisation.

The Rite of Spring – Spectre d'un songe, due out May 19, 2023 via Pyroclastic Records,

Jazz at Princeton University, helmed by acclaimed saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa, presents the annual Princeton University Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 15. The festival features Artemis, Jazz at Princeton's chair Rudresh Mahanthappa and his Bird Calls ensemble, jazz greats playing with Princeton's exceptional student groups, and the legendary Rufus Reid with the Creative Large Ensemble.

Jazz at Princeton University, helmed by acclaimed saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa, presents the annual Princeton University Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 15. The festival features Artemis, Jazz at Princeton's chair Rudresh Mahanthappa and his Bird Calls ensemble, jazz greats playing with Princeton's exceptional student groups, and the legendary Rufus Reid with the Creative Large Ensemble. 

Angel City Arts will present the 14th Annual Angel City Jazz Festival October 1 - 15 with performances from Highland Park to Brentwood at REDCAT, 2220 Arts & Archives (formerly the Bootleg), LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the Lodge Room, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, and the Ahmanson Ballroom at the Skirball Center.

Making its triumphant return to live performance and art, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, is proud to announce its Fall 2021 season. Through live and streaming performances, screenings, and exhibitions, REDCAT will once again welcome in-person audiences—while also reaching online audiences around the world—September through December 2021. 

Deep Tones For Peace presents “Change has Come.' The event will be presented on January 21st, the day after the Presidential Inauguration.

A small group of family and friends gathered Monday at the historic Minton's Playhouse in Harlem to celebrate the life of Stanley Crouch, the 74-year old author, journalist, critic, playwright, poet and NEA Jazz Master who died in New York September 16 following a long illness.

The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (LAEF) is deeply saddened by the passing of Stanley Crouch, who served as President of LAEF from 2010 – 2020. The 74-year old author, journalist, critic, playwright, poet and NEA Jazz Master died Wednesday, September 16, in the Bronx, New York, following a long illness. A private family service will be held October 26, followed by a public celebration of life at a later date.

With the election so close, the division so fractious and potentially explosive, we feel a special event is needed for the public on Election Day.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has shuttered many performing arts organizations around the world, Long Beach Opera (LBO) has been industriously devising live innovative performance opportunities for both its artists and audiences.