News & Updates — Hamid Drake

On his birthday today we miss our NYC jazz scene trumpeter/composer hero Roy Campbell Jr. I have witnessed his excellence on many, many occasions and his bright tone and world music-influenced free-jazz are greatly missed. He was most definitely one of the greats of progressive jazz trumpet, in lineage with Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown, Booker Little and Don Cherry. A native of the Big Apple, he started playing trumpet at 15 and studied with Morgan and Kenny Dorham. As a teen he played in big bands and as he turned 20 he aligned himself with the avant-garde with his group...

Tenor player Fred Anderson may have been an underknown saxophonist but there is no denying his amazing, flowing playing and his commitment to nurturing the local scene in Chicago. In fact, it was desire to stay home and run the Velvet Lounge that kept him from a larger international profile. Born in Louisiana, he came to Chicago in the '40s and worked doing carpet installation before opening nightclubs. In the '60's he was a founding member of the AACM and played on a couple of fantastic Joseph Jarman albums. Indeed, those fine albums are where I first heard him, especially...