Montrealers are hard-core music lovers. Not even a heavy snowstorm kept them from packing the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts on a frigid winter night to see vocalist Malika Tirolien perform with the National Jazz Orchestra of Montreal (ONJ).

If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the equator, this would be a newsworthy event, as was this season’s hiring of 25-year-old saxophonist Abdias Armenteros, who’d frequently filled in for Walter Blanding in recent years. But the announcement stood out for a much more consequential reason: Tarantino, 32, is the first woman to become a permanent orchestra member since it became an official department of Lincoln Center in 1991.

On the back cover of his latest album, organist Brian Charette is pictured crouching in a kung fu fighting stance. Charette looks fierce but serene, which also evokes his approach to the Hammond B-3.

Contemporary jazz icons Bob James and Dave Koz will be touring the U.S. together this spring as a piano-and-saxophone duo under the billing “Just Us–An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories.”

Pedal steel guitarist and composer Susan Alcorn died Jan. 31 in Baltimore, Maryland, due to natural causes.

In 2023, bandleader, composer and arranger Chris Walden brought to fruition — and to the stage — an ambitious idea whose time had come. Seven-time Grammy-gifted Walden, who has become an in-demand musician in Hollywood since moving from his native Germany, launched the multitiered Pacific Jazz Orchestra, a unique hybridized concoction mixing a traditional big band setting with strings, and adding that crowd-appeal factor of vocalists in the mix.

The Mellon Foundation has started a multifaceted $35 million initiative aimed at supporting the cultural preservation of jazz, championing the legacy of the artists who have played a pivotal role in its formation and strengthening the broader jazz ecosystem.

“I’ve looked to be global for a long time,” Alfredo Rodríguez told DownBeat in 2020. “I like to explore music from every part of the world.”

The jazz and blues community may not have been center stage for the majority of the 67th annual Grammy Award presentations on the evening of Feb. 2, but plenty of artists in the improvised music and blues worlds were recognized for their achievements — earlier in the day, as they say — and a tribute to Quincy Jones served as a focal point and showcase for jazz

Christian McBride has opened booking for guests to join his newest production, Christian McBride’s World at Sea, scheduled for early next year.