Howard Reich

A lone musician stepped to the front of the room, brought his traditional Japanese flute to his lips and began crafting mystical sounds. Pitches bent flat and sharp, notes wafted...

What happens when two great orchestras — one jazz, one classical — share a stage and a score? Previously unencountered sounds can occur, as they did in abundance Friday night...

We've known for a long time that the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra stands as an ensemble of virtuosos. But that term generally refers to the level at which musicians...

Nearly a decade ago, when the Great Recession was gathering force, the brilliant Chicago jazz guitarist John Moulder hit on a bold idea: Why not create a jazz festival in...

Chicago does not lack for engaging jazz trumpeters, vocalists, pianists, bandleaders, songwriters and arrangers — but how many can do it all? Jeannie Tanner happens to be one. If you've...

Kids are talking, laughing, blowing into their horns, pounding their drums and otherwise cranking sound when Jason Moran steps into the band room. Suddenly the place falls nearly silent. Everyone...

Long before Chicago, Montreal and San Francisco began staging jazz festivals that would attract audiences from around the world, a small college in the west suburbs showed how it's done....

Regardless of whether you believe that Jelly Roll Morton invented jazz, as he famously and grandiosely claimed, he surely established the intellectual framework by which we understand jazz as an...

Pianist Fred Hersch whispers where others shout and reaches for subtlety where others overplay. The sense of balance and proportion in his work often suggests the musical values of a...