Jazz in Long Form

All About Jazz is home to a diverse and wide variety of authors who write about jazz from multifaceted and numerous different perspectives. From recording and concert reviews that help promote jazz musicians and jazz venues across the world, to in-depth articles that cover the richness of jazz in all its historical, sociological, theoretical, and cultural contexts, AAJ has provided a worldwide online promotional and educational resource for jazz musicians and jazz enthusiasts for nearly 30 years. To broaden our offerings even further, AAJ is pleased to announce an opportunity for authors who would like a more robust and formal reviewing process. We invite authors who are writing about jazz history, sociology, theory, and jazz culture, to consider submitting their articles to our new channel "Jazz in Long Form,” where articles are peer-reviewed by our editors in a double-blind process.

A Minor Bait with a Major Switch—Disembodied Chords and the “Social Construction” of Major and Minor

by Kurt Ellenberger
October 28, 2026

PreambleI have written two articles on how we process and perceive music. The first is entitled Music and Evolution: Hearing Math, Seeing Sound, and other Unanswered Questions. It shows how our brains process sound by recognizing symmetry (consonance) in sound waves and how it supplies a “solution" to complex waveforms (dissonance) by projecting the closest symmetrical waveform as the resolution. This article led to many invitations to discuss the phenomenon on various podcasts. It also resulted in a related question--"Why ...

Enrico Pieranunzi, Right Now

by Todd M. Carlsen
October 12, 2026

Enrico Pieranunzi turned seventy-six in December 2025. Skip the tribute. He's busy--delivering four masterclass releases across 2026. The solo piano session Ennio Morricone--The Piano Sessions by Enrico Pieranunzi (CAM Sugar, 2026). A mostly-duo album with guitar, Evanscape (Bonsaï Music, 2026). A jazz-classical record with an orchestra, Improclassica (Abeat, 2025). A quartet with tenor saxophone, Perspectives (Red Records, 2026). He is not coasting on a name. He remains a powerhouse of European jazz. For American listeners unfamiliar with Pieranunzi, ...

The Myth of the Holy Trinity—It's Actually the Big Four

by Todd M. Carlsen
May 29, 2026

There is a received wisdom in jazz that goes unchallenged. The greatest female jazz vocalists are a fixed trio: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. Critics repeat it. Jazz education enshrines it. This is one of the great misreadings in American music history. Peggy Lee is the third seat. She also holds a case for number one. She did not write just a few tunes, nor was she a bombshell girl singer who simply got ...

He Blinded Me With Jazz: The Surprising Jazz DNA in the Music of Thomas Dolby

by Kurt Ellenberger
March 30, 2026

I. Introduction Thomas Dolby is one of the most prominent and recognizable synth pop artists of the '80s. His carefully crafted brand as the bookish, bespeckled “mad synthesizer scientist" was perfect for the time period when MTV emerged as a dominant force in the music industry. MTV made the music video an essential part of an artist's success and the primary marketing and branding tool for both the music and the artist. Dolby, like his hero ...

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Andy Wasserman, George Russell, and the Living Lineage of the Lydian Chromatic Concept

by Patrick Doyle
March 4, 2026

Few theoretical works have altered the course of modern jazz as profoundly as George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Fewer still have had their legacy preserved with the depth of care, fidelity, and lived musicianship that Andy Wasserman has devoted to it for more than four decades. For over 40 years, Wasserman has been one of the Concept's foremost teachers and practitioners. In an era when “jazz theory" is often reduced to a toolkit of scales ...

Make Him an Offer He Can't Refuse: Tony Bennett and Mafia Films

by Peter Wogan
February 22, 2026

Tony Bennett's song “I Wanna Be Around" (1962) pulls the listener in interesting directions. It contains Ralph Sharon's playful piano notes, the cheerful C major key, and Tony Bennett's silky smooth voice--yet the lyrics are all about vengeance and deriving joy from another person's suffering. As Bennett sings, “And that's when I'll discover that revenge is sweet/As I sit there applauding from a front-row seat/When somebody breaks your heart like you, like you broke mine." Studies show that ...

Have A Holly, Jazzy Christmas

by Kurt Ellenberger
December 21, 2025

In my music history classes, particularly in November and December, students have often asked me about the relationship between jazz and Christmas: “Why are so many popular Christmas songs so jazzy?" It is a good question--indeed, many of the most popular secular Christmas music does have a jazz flavor, while a few are actually jazz. There is a direct connection between jazz and Christmas music, but to see what that connection is, we will first look at the history of ...

The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 3

by Kurt Ellenberger
July 10, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey Why Minor Chords and Minor Keys are Sad: Meet the Sonic Phantoms in the EtherTo begin our investigation into the hidden cause of our peculiar perception of minor chords and keys, we will listen to a trombone quartet playing a C minor chord. We might describe the sound as “rich" or “full" or some other adjective, but what exactly is it rich with or full of? ...

The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 2

by Kurt Ellenberger
July 9, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey IV. The Power of the Minor Chord and Minor Keys in Classical and JazzTo begin our discussion on what it is that makes minor chords sad, we will first listen to some examples of the use of minor chords and minor keys that demonstrate breathtaking power to convey deep emotional content. Here is “Siegfried's Funeral March" from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the fourth and final opera ...

The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 1

by Kurt Ellenberger
July 8, 2025

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey PreambleDaniel Levitin, in his popular bestseller entitled This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession from 2006, characterizes the perception of the minor chord, which lowers the third of a major chord by a half-step, as follows: All of us, even without musical training, can tell the difference between these two [referring to a major and minor chord ...