All About Jazz: Building the Future of Jazz, Together

When I founded All About Jazz in 1995, I envisioned a place where people who loved jazz could share their knowledge, discover new music, and connect with others who shared their passion.

Thirty-one years later, that vision has grown into an internationally respected institution serving musicians, writers, photographers, venues, record labels, presenters, educators, broadcasters, and listeners around the world.

Today, All About Jazz encompasses an independent publication, Jazz Near You, an extensive musician database, a historical archive, a growing network of jazz radio shows and podcasts, music discovery services, and an expanding collection of community-powered tools.

Together, they form something larger than any individual website or service: an interconnected platform designed to support the people, businesses, and organizations that make jazz possible.

We're building cultural infrastructure for jazz.

And after three decades of continuous development, we're finding new ways to make that infrastructure more valuable, accessible, and useful than ever before.

Powered by People, Built on Participation

The foundation of All About Jazz has always been its contributors.

Our writers, photographers, editors, and other volunteers bring an extraordinary range of experience and perspectives to the platform. Some are established professional journalists. Others are emerging writers, musicians, educators, broadcasters, photographers, and knowledgeable listeners with stories worth telling.

All share a commitment to documenting, celebrating, and advancing jazz.

Our volunteer model emerged from the economic realities of independent jazz publishing and has enabled us to welcome voices from around the world while maintaining an extensive and continuously growing body of editorial work.

Professionalism at All About Jazz is reflected in the quality of our journalism, the integrity of our editorial process, and the dedication of the people who contribute.

Over the years, we've watched contributors develop professionally, moving into paid journalism, commissioned liner notes, artist biographies, publicity assignments, and book publishing.

Others have brought established careers to AAJ, contributing their expertise and strengthening our international reputation. Many have remained involved for years or decades.

All About Jazz provides professional visibility, editorial guidance, an international readership, enduring portfolios, and opportunities to establish relationships throughout the music industry.

We're proud of the role we've played in the professional development of so many contributors, just as we're proud of the work they continue to produce for us.

Their accomplishments are part of our institutional history, and their contributions continue to shape its future.

From Innovation to Institution

When All About Jazz launched in 1995, digital publishing was in its infancy.

The internet offered an extraordinary opportunity to make jazz journalism more accessible, timely, interactive, and connected. We embraced those possibilities early and continued developing them as the technology evolved.

Over the years, many features once considered innovative have become familiar parts of digital publishing. What has distinguished AAJ is the way we've continued building upon them.

A publication became a platform. A collection of articles became a searchable historical archive. Individual musician profiles became part of a relational database. Concert listings evolved into Jazz Near You, a dedicated live-music discovery service.

Each development created new possibilities for the next.

Today, our platform connects journalism, musicians, recordings, performances, venues, broadcasters, and audiences through an increasingly sophisticated network of information and services.

An album review can lead readers to a musician's biography, related recordings, musical influences, interviews, audio tracks, and upcoming performances.

A musician can maintain a professional profile, document career milestones, and connect with listeners.

A venue can promote concerts through Jazz Near You, reaching people actively looking for live music.

A listener can discover an unfamiliar artist, follow a favorite writer, explore decades of coverage, hear a radio program, or find a performance nearby.

Each experience creates opportunities for further discovery.

What began as an innovation has become an institution. And that institution continues to evolve.

One Platform, Many Ways to Participate

All About Jazz is best understood as an interconnected ecosystem of services, each supporting a different aspect of jazz.

Our editorial publication documents the music through reviews, interviews, features, commentary, photography, and historical perspectives.

Our musician database brings together biographies, recordings, career information, and musical relationships, helping listeners explore artists and the connections between them.

Jazz Near You connects live-music audiences with venues, festivals, presenters, and performances in cities around the world.

Our Radio & Podcasts network connects independent broadcasters and program hosts with listeners seeking knowledgeable, engaging jazz programming.

Our music discovery features introduce listeners to recordings, artists, videos, and performances they might otherwise never encounter.

Our member pages and community tools allow participants to establish identities, share expertise, follow contributors, and help maintain the information that makes the platform useful.

And our archive preserves more than three decades of jazz journalism, keeping that work accessible and relevant to future generations.

These services reinforce one another.

A musician discovered through an article may lead a listener to a recording. That recording may inspire further exploration of related artists. A radio program may introduce a new musical direction. A concert listing may turn that interest into an evening of live music.

The listener benefits. The musician gains exposure. The broadcaster reaches a new audience. The venue gains a potential customer. And the broader jazz community becomes more connected.

We don't simply provide information about jazz. We create pathways for people to engage with it.

Bringing Jazz Directly to Listeners

Our commitment to music discovery extends well beyond the written word.

In 2018, we introduced Radio & Podcasts, creating a home for jazz programs and the hosts who bring the music to audiences around the world.

What began as a relatively modest initiative has grown steadily into a network of shows featuring knowledgeable hosts, distinctive programming, and an extraordinary range of musical perspectives.

These hosts are more than program providers. They're curators, educators, storytellers, and passionate advocates for jazz. They introduce listeners to unfamiliar artists, explore the music's history, celebrate new recordings, and help build communities around the listening experience.

Over the years, we've continued improving how their programs are presented, discovered, and shared through All About Jazz.

In October 2026, we reached another milestone with the launch of our dedicated Radio & Podcast Shows newsletter, delivered every Tuesday. It joins our Thursday All About Jazz and Friday Jazz Near You newsletters, giving the network its own weekly showcase and connecting listeners directly with the latest programs.

The response from hosts and listeners has been enthusiastic. In the two days following the newsletter's debut, new member registrations doubled compared with the preceding period—an encouraging early sign of growing engagement.

The excitement is understandable. We're creating opportunities for independent radio hosts and podcasters to reach new audiences while giving listeners a convenient way to explore an expanding world of jazz programming.

And we're continuing to develop the technology, relationships, and promotional tools that will help this network grow.

We do more than write about jazz. We help people hear it, discover it, experience it, and share it.

Radio & Podcasts illustrates something fundamental about All About Jazz: an initiative launched years ago can continue gaining momentum as the platform evolves, reaching new audiences and creating opportunities that weren't possible when it began.

Technology That Serves the Music

One of the most important developments in AAJ's history has been our increasing ability to build and improve technology that serves the entire platform.

In recent years, we've accelerated development across nearly every aspect of All About Jazz and Jazz Near You.

We've introduced new discovery features, improved member pages, expanded musician relationships, modernized newsletter systems, enhanced event submission tools, and created new ways for contributors to participate.

Features such as Hidden Gems bring overlooked archival stories back into circulation. Musician Orbit helps listeners explore artistic influences and relationships. The Jazz Scroll offers a continuous stream of articles, music, videos, and other discoveries.

We're also developing new approaches to community conversations, contributor recognition, editorial assistance, and mobile access.

These improvements reflect a broader philosophy: technology should make participation easier, information more useful, and discovery more rewarding.

An important part of that work happens behind the scenes.

Database improvements, security enhancements, faster publishing tools, more efficient newsletters, and better integrations may not attract the attention of a new feature, but they make the entire platform stronger.

Every improvement creates opportunities to build upon what came before.

And because our services are interconnected, an enhancement in one area can benefit many others.

Our development is increasingly cumulative. Each new capability strengthens the foundation for the next.

That's what makes the years ahead especially exciting.

An Archive That Continues to Grow in Value

After more than three decades, All About Jazz has accumulated an extensive archive of reviews, interviews, features, photographs, and historical perspectives.

That archive represents an extraordinary collective effort by contributors from around the world.

But its value extends beyond preservation.

Through Hidden Gems, musician profiles, related content, and music discovery tools, we're continually finding new ways to connect yesterday's journalism with today's audiences.

An interview published twenty years ago can introduce a new listener to an artist today. An album review can become part of a musician's enduring historical record. A photograph can document a performance that might otherwise fade from public memory.

As our database grows more interconnected, these materials become easier to discover and more useful in context.

The archive is an active part of the platform, contributing to the experiences we create today and the services we'll develop tomorrow.

And as new generations of musicians, writers, researchers, and listeners engage with it, its cultural significance continues to grow.

We're preserving jazz history while making it part of an ongoing conversation.

The Economic Value of a Connected Jazz Community

Jazz is both an art form and an economy.

Musicians need audiences. Venues need ticket buyers. Record labels need listeners. Festivals need attendees. Educators need students. Journalists need readers. Broadcasters need listeners and opportunities to reach them.

All About Jazz and Jazz Near You help connect these interests through services dedicated entirely to the music.

Every musician profile, album review, concert listing, interview, radio program, and discovery feature contributes to an environment where jazz can be heard, explored, discussed, and supported.

These connections create economic opportunities.

A listener who discovers an artist may purchase a recording or attend a concert. A venue that reaches new audiences may sell additional tickets. A musician whose work is documented and discoverable gains visibility that can lead to future opportunities. A radio host who reaches new listeners can expand a show's audience and influence.

Our services also provide promotional value to businesses and organizations throughout the jazz industry.

Venues can list events. Musicians can maintain profiles. Record labels can submit music for editorial consideration. Festivals can reach prospective attendees. Radio hosts can introduce their programs to new listeners.

Much of this infrastructure is available at no charge.

And the value compounds as more people participate.

A concert listing may serve an immediate purpose, but the venue's presence within Jazz Near You can support future discovery. A musician profile can remain relevant throughout an artist's career. An interview can continue reaching readers years after publication. A radio program can introduce listeners to artists whose work they continue exploring long after the broadcast.

These enduring connections distinguish cultural infrastructure from short-lived promotional activity.

The more useful and connected the platform becomes, the greater its potential to generate value throughout the jazz ecosystem.

Investing in the Infrastructure That Supports Jazz

The jazz industry invests considerable resources in promotion and audience development.

Venues, record labels, festivals, and other businesses advertise through traditional media, social platforms, and a variety of digital channels.

Each serves a purpose.

All About Jazz offers an additional opportunity: reaching an audience already interested in jazz while investing in a platform dedicated to supporting the music and the people behind it.

Our work helps musicians become discoverable, venues connect with audiences, recordings find listeners, broadcasters reach new audiences, and journalism remain accessible.

These services create value throughout the industry, including for businesses that have never purchased advertising from us.

Maintaining and expanding them requires ongoing investment.

Our volunteer contributors make an extraordinary amount of editorial and community activity possible. Alongside their work is a substantial technological operation involving software development, hosting, security, database management, editorial systems, and continuous improvement.

Advertising, partnerships, memberships, and other forms of financial support help sustain that operation.

And increased support allows us to do more.

We can develop better discovery tools, expand Jazz Near You into additional communities, improve musician services, strengthen editorial capabilities, grow our Radio & Podcasts network, and create new opportunities for participation.

The benefits extend beyond All About Jazz itself.

Investing in AAJ is an investment in the infrastructure that helps jazz reach audiences, develop relationships, preserve its history, and create economic opportunities.

For businesses and organizations whose success depends on a healthy jazz ecosystem, that is a meaningful proposition.

Our goal is to develop partnerships that deliver measurable value while helping sustain services that benefit the wider community.

The stronger our financial foundation becomes, the more ambitious we can be in what we build.

The Next Thirty Years

The first three decades of All About Jazz were devoted to establishing a publication, developing a global community, and building the technological foundation that connects them.

The next chapter is about realizing more of that foundation's potential.

We envision a platform where discovering an artist, exploring their influences, hearing their music, finding a performance, and connecting with the people who support their work become increasingly seamless experiences.

We envision more opportunities for musicians to participate directly in documenting their careers, for venues to reach new audiences, for broadcasters to expand their communities, and for knowledgeable listeners to contribute to the historical record.

We envision a more connected international jazz community, supported by tools that make information easier to find, share, and maintain.

And we envision an institution with the financial and organizational strength to continue serving jazz for generations.

None of this happens through technology alone.

It happens because writers contribute their knowledge, musicians share their stories, broadcasters introduce listeners to new music, venues list their events, businesses invest in the platform, and listeners participate in the community.

Each contribution strengthens what we've built together.

All About Jazz has always been powered by curiosity, participation, and the belief that jazz deserves a resource equal to its creativity, history, and cultural significance.

Thirty-one years later, that belief is stronger than ever.