Dan Emerson

Donny McCaslin plays in many different jazz clubs and other venues all over the world. But Kuumbwa Jazz Center...is the place that inspired him...

Spontaneity is Key By DAN EMERSON Calling Cecile McLorin Salvant a jazz singer is kind of like calling Donald Trump a realtor. It's a woefully incomplete...

ator for a jazz musician, it might look a lot like the Santa Cruz scene Donny McCaslin grew up in, circa 1980s. There was a percolating, local jazz marketplace in those days, with steady gigs for musicians...

It was a half-century ago, but 70-year old trumpeter Michael Ray still vividly recalls his first encounter with the Sun Ra  Arkestra, as a teenager attending an outdoor music festival in suburban Philadelphia. “The first thing I noticed was all the musicians had suitcases filled with sheet music.”