Bret Saunders

Plus: More jazz music news, notes and concerts.

Purnell Steen, a joyous Colorado jazz pianist-bandleader and tireless civil rights advocate, died on Nov. 18. He was 84.

Patricia Brennan is one of the most imaginative composers in the music industry right now.

Few in music are as successfully eclectic as Don Was, a bassist, producer, bandleader and record label president.

Plus: Live jazz this month in Denver

He took the stage at Dazzle on the final Friday of almost every month for more than 20 years

April is the best month of the year (so far) for jazz aficionados on the Front Range, with the Denver Jazz Fest and Record Store Day returning.

There’s a lineup to stylistically satisfy just about anyone, and there’s nothing quite like listening to this joyous music as it reverberates off various peaks at altitude.

The first thing you’ll hear on the new album from Columbia Icefield, “A Silence Opens” (Out of Your Head Records), is the mournful whistling of leader Nate Wooley.

Hot days and cool tunes permeate Denver Botanic Gardens, City Park and Telluride