He is revered by many, if not most, baritone saxophone players as the “godfather” of the instrument. He could blow and hold notes on his saxophone like few other players then or since. He was a ...

Political conscience occupies a special place in the quintessence of modern jazz, fueling, in its most heated moments, the stuff of blunt insurrection. It remains to be seen whether Political Blues, ...

Call it stereotyping, but the truth is occasionally we’ll see a pairing of musician and instrument we don’t expect. We’d be surprised, for example, to find a burly, hulking guy playing a piccolo. We’d ...

Leo Parker was the proud owner of a big, beefy baritone sax tone and a fluent technique that struck a great match between the gritty, down-home feeling of R&B and the advanced harmonies of bebop. At ...

Dimming one’s light in the face of haters is not something Lidia Rodriguez knows how to do. Whenever she gets comments from guys about her size or gender, the baritone player is quick to clap back ...

She was celebrated for both her playing and her love of the jazz community. “My life in music,” she said recently, “is the smartest thing I’ve done.” By Giovanni Russonello Claire Daly, who was ...

For more than four decades, Hamiet Bluiett found a way to combine the avant-garde with traditional jazz. Along the way, he redefined the role of the baritone saxophone, and co-founded one of the most ...