TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Today, our jazz historian, Kevin Whitehead, looks back at seven jazz notables who died this year. He earlier paid tribute to band leader Jack DeJohnette and to my late husband, the jazz critic Francis Davis. Kevin's RIP list starts with singer Sheila Jordan.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHELIA'S BLUES")
SHELIA JORDAN: (Singing) So she sent me to live with my grandparents near a small coal mining town. Pennsylvania stayed. Grew up with the coal miners. Singing in the beer garden every Saturday. We used to sit around, and they'd drink. And they'd sing their songs. You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. You make me happy. But rarely did they ever find...
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Sheila Jordan, who grew up partly in Western Pennsylvania, as she tells us on "Sheila's Blues" from 1984. Jordan, who died in 2025 at 96, started singing as a kid and never stopped, building on Charlie Parker's "Be-Bop" to find her own confident voice in all sorts of musical settings. She also taught and inspired countless other vocalists. When Sheila sang, you could hear the joy she found in jazz, which kept her eternally young. Other veteran singers who passed this year include Cleo Laine, Nancy King and Lillian Boutte. Also, the buttery smooth, bartone Andy Bey, who lingered over slow ballads. But Andy Bey also had a way with rhythm tunes like this 1970 Duke Pearson number.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT")
ANDY BEY: (Singing) When I look at you, it thrills me through and through. And I don't care who knows. Baby, I'm yours.
WHITEHEAD: Musicians from the jazz rhythm section who died in 2025 include guitarist George Freeman, pianists Hal Galper, Mike Wofford and Mike Ratledge, drummers Al Foster, Greg Bandy and Louis Moholo-Moholo, tuba players Joe Daley and Jim Self, and one of the great bass players of our time, whose appointment book was always full - Ray Drummond. Bass violin is a big instrument, and Drummond was a big man who handled it with effortless grace.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WHITEHEAD: Another influential teacher who passed this year was alto saxophonist Bunky Green, who taught in Jacksonville for a couple of decades after a long spell in Chicago. He didn't record so very much and not always in ideal settings, though even his '70s funk records have their moments. Back then, his slippery phrasing and side-slipping harmony pointed the way for future alto stars Steve Coleman, Greg Osby and Rudresh Mahanthappa. Here's Bunky Green on "Tension & Release" in 1979.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUNKY GREEN'S "TENSION & RELEASE")
WHITEHEAD: Another much better known horn player passed in 2025. Let's listen a bit, then I'll tell you who it is.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE JAZZ MESSENGERS' "SECRET LOVE")
WHITEHEAD: The Jazz Messengers' 1966 on "Secret Love" with trumpet hot shot Chuck Mangione. A few years later, Mangione would turn his attention to pop jazz, hitting it big in 1978 with "Feels So Good," a terminally mellow tune that set him up for life. Chuck Mangione was a good sport about his flugelhorn-cuddling public image, spoofing himself on TV's "King Of The Hill." But give the man his due. His younger self could really play.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE JAZZ MESSENGERS' "SECRET LOVE")
WHITEHEAD: Chuck Mangione. A few other players who worked at the edges of jazz passed in 2025, including vibraphonist Roy Ayers, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, much missed pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and the great Bronx-born Latin band leader Eddie Palmieri. As a pianist, Palmieri showed off some fresh moves within the Afro Cuban tradition. Soloing on his "Dime" from 2005, every time he slams out a chord, it's like he's switching channels to another rhythmic profile. It's a montuno gone postmodern.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE PALMIERI'S "DIME")
WHITEHEAD: Besides Eddie Palmieri, another formidable arranger for big bands died this year, pianist Jim McNeely, who played with New York's Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for years. He also wrote for several European radio bands who loved how good his sleekly handsome charts made them sound. Let's go out with a slice of Jim McNeely's suite, "Rituals," which riffed on themes and rhythms from Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring." McNeely looking forward and back, as the jazz greats do. The stuff masters like these dreamed up is now part of the collective wisdom shared by all of us they leave behind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FRANKFURT RADIO BIGBAND & JIM MCNEELY'S "RITUALS: SACRIFICE I")
GROSS: Kevin Whitehead is the author of "New Dutch Swing," "Why Jazz?" and "Play The Way You Feel." Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll continue our retrospective of some favorite interviews from 2025 with Jeff Hiller. This year, he won an Emmy for his performance in the HBO series "Somebody Somewhere" as Joel, the main character's best friend, who runs a secret nighttime cabaret at his church for his LGBTQ friends. Jeff Hiller originally felt called to be a pastor, but being gay was a pretty major obstacle. I hope you can join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUKE ELLINGTON'S "AULD LANG SYNE")
GROSS: FFRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with engineering today from Charlie Kyer (ph). Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Anne Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Anna Bauman, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross. All of us at FRESH AIR wish you a happy, healthy and fulfilling New Year.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUKE ELLINGTON'S "AULD LANG SYNE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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