The idea for Laughing Barrel, the title of trumpeter Ron Miles' latest CD, comes from the writings of Ralph Ellison, the great African-American author. According to Ellison, an enslaved man, when he ...

For a trumpeter so fluent in the language of pure jazz, Ron Miles seems to gravitate toward the places where the genre fades into other things. This quality, along with his aptitude for striking ...

The concept of jazz has seemingly always been an urban phenomenon. From Louis Armstrong’s move to Chicago to the post-war Charlie Parker revolution—and more recently, Wynton Marsalis’ uptown vs.