Nate Chinen
Stories
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Arts & Life
Louis Armstrong's dazzling archive has a new home — his
Across the street from the jazz icon's home in Queens, a site of pilgrimage for fans from around the world, sits the new Louis Armstrong Center, which brings his 60,000-item archive back to the block.
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Music
A new film depicts the jazz pioneer's multifaceted Black American experience
A new documentary explores Armstrong's experience as a Black American musician coming of age right along with the 20th century.
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Music
Charles Mingus contained multitudes, but his native language was protest
The jazz icon's 100th birthday is a chance to appreciate an enduring throughline of his career, which often teetered between exquisite composure and raging chaos.
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Music
Shemekia Copeland, Modern Guardian Of The Blues
Watch Shemekia Copeland play the 2021 Exit Zero Jazz Festival and, on our radio episode, get inside her eclectic sound and topical lyrics, connecting her to blues icons from Ruth Brown to Ma Rainey.
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Music
Chick Corea, Jazz Fusion Pioneer, Has Died Of Cancer At 79
The wide-ranging keyboardist, composer and bandleader died on Feb. 9 of cancer. One of the fathers of jazz fusion, his work spanned from acoustic jazz to his own interpretations of Mozart.
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Jazz Musicians Discover New Possibilities Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Jazz musicians often rely on the energy they take from a live audience. So when live performances were shut down because of the pandemic, they had to find ways to adapt.