Invented in the early 1840s, the saxophone was a relative latecomer to music—and to jazz. But starting in the mid-1920s, with the rise of the big bands, the instrument slowly but steadily evolved from ...

Coleman Hawkins, known as "The Hawk" or "Bean," basically invented tenor sax as we know it, all the way down to Bill Clinton playing his way to office. After making many recordings with various groups ...

In the beginning, there was Coleman Hawkins. Coleman Hawkins begat Ben Webster. And Ben Webster begat Lester Young, and Lester Young begat Charlie Parker. And Charlie Parker begat Dexter Gordon, and ...

Saxophonists Lou Donaldson and organist Jack McDuff, both born in 1926, championed memorable melodies and grooves rooted in ...

When the magic of jazz first touched me in the late 1960s, many pathfinding early creators of the music, including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, were still playing. Now, hardly any living links ...

Seventy years ago, jazz great Charlie Parker played a plastic saxophone at what many call the greatest jazz concert ever. A new deluxe reissue of that recording is out now. More than 70 years ago, ...

It's considered by many to be music's sexiest instrument. Its versatile sound, so like a great singer's voice — sweetly seductive one moment, growling and blustery the next — has become virtually ...

Anthony Ortega did almost everything imaginable in a music career that stretched over 70 years that included leading a weekly Sunday jam session — into his mid-90s — until his health began to fail in ...

You don't have to be a jazz expert to love this iconic tune.

David Sanborn, the six time Grammy-winning alto saxophonist who played at Woodstock, composed music for the Lethal Weapon movies, played in the SNL and Late Night with David Letterman bands and worked ...