Wynton Marsalis

American Academy of Arts and Letters expands, diversifies

By HILLEL ITALIEMarch 5, 2021 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the country's oldest cultural instititutions, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is undergoing some of its biggest changes in more than a century...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Oct. 18-24

By The Associated PressOctober 12, 2020 GMT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Oct. 18-24:

Oct. 18: Actor Dawn Wells (“Gilligan’s Island”) is 82...

Stanley Crouch, contentious man of letters, dead at 74

By HILLEL ITALIESeptember 17, 2020 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stanley Crouch, a contentious and influential critic, columnist and self-taught Renaissance man who in fiction and nonfiction was inspired by his knowledge and love of blues and jazz and his impulse to step over the line, died Wednesday at age 74...

Harry Connick Jr. honors workers during pandemic road trip

By KRISTIN M. HALLJune 19, 2020 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr. has spent a lot of his life on tour buses and traveling from city to city, but even when the pandemic shut down the country, he couldn’t sit still...

Jazz competition for high school students goes virtual

By The Associated PressMay 22, 2020 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has altered the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, but it will still go on, giving students the chance to show their talents virtually...

Louis Armstrong org starts COVID-19 fund for jazz musicians

By The Associated PressApril 16, 2020 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation has launched a $1 million emergency fund to support freelance New York City-area jazz musicians during the coronavirus pandemic...

Years in the making, film about jazz pioneer Bolden to open

By CHEVEL JOHNSONMay 2, 2019 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — More than two decades after the seed was planted in Dan Pritzker's mind to make a movie about jazz cornetist Charles "Buddy" Bolden, the world is finally getting to see the story he's been trying to tell...