According to Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, the French horn in jazz dates back to 1921. By the 1930s, the instrument was popping up on recordings by Bing Crosby and Woody Herman. In the 1940s, Artie ...

At its best, jazz is hand-tailored music that can be shaped to fit just about any setting. For French-horn master Tom Varner, a concert in the intimate, resonant Chapel Performance Space at the Good ...

For nearly two decades, Varner has argued passionately--through his recordings and performances--for the role of the French horn in jazz. With “Second Communion,” he achieves a breakthrough, moving ...

Jeffrey Snedeker, Minor Returns (JS). Snedeker is a rarity, a first-chair symphony French horn artist who understands jazz time, phrasing and feeling. In settings from quartet through big band to ...

Julius Watkins, jazz’s first major French horn player, would have been 100 years old this weekend. It naturally fell to D.C.’s only major jazz French horn player — 27-year-old Abe Mamet — to mark the ...

He was a man of startling, multi-faceted musical talents, who could perform a treacherous French horn solo, compose an anthem for 700 handbell ringers, conduct a symphony, score a number for a ...

A master of the French horn, Mr. Northern was adept at both classical music and jazz. As a bandleader, he was devoted to what he called “sound awareness.” By Giovanni Russonello Robert Northern, a ...