Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

Radio & Podcasts

Tyshawn Sorey, Ola Tunji, Fred Pasqua, Your Brother's Keeper, Gary Bartz

by Ludovico Granvassu
June 20, 2026

From intimate reflection to expansive improvisation, here is a string of new albums connecting Jobim to Bartz, Olatunjii to Roach, Paris to London, through artists who balance compositional craft, exploratory spirit, and a commitment to jazz as a living art form. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Pierre de Bethmann Trio “Amparo" Essais, Volume 6 (Alea) 0:16 Host talks 7:36 Fred Pasqua “Ronces" Ronces (Hanji) 9:04 ...

Album Review

Rich Willey: Laid Back Vol. 1, featuring John Swana

Read "Laid Back Vol. 1, featuring John Swana" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 20, 2026

Chicago-based trumpeter and composer Rich Willey oversees an impressive 11-piece ensemble on Laid Back, Vol. 1, which embodies seven of his melodically enticing and rhythmically strong compositions, all neatly arranged by Wally Minko. The one drawback in this otherwise pleasing session is a disconcerting funk/Latin beat, which lends an aura of sameness to every number that serves to weaken its purpose and impede efforts to separate it from the herd. That is countered to some extent by the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Billy Polo: Audio Engineer As Archaeologist

by Lawrence Peryer
June 20, 2026

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Billy Polo, in-house audio and mastering engineer, at iconic Jamaican music label VP Records. Billy has spent years restoring and remastering some of the most important recordings in reggae and dancehall history. Works from Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, King Jammy, Sly and Robbie, and dozens more. Billy works with the original analog tapes, often in rough shape, and brings them back for today's and tomorrow's listeners. We talk about ...

Album Review

What You May Call It: Da Qi

by Glenn Astarita
June 20, 2026

Emerging from New York's experimental underground, What You May Call It treats the avant-garde less as a destination than as a starting point. Da Qi (Chinese for atmosphere or elegant) pushes that logic hard enough to test even seasoned listeners. This is not a record interested in easing anybody into the experience. The band rarely signals where anything is headed, forcing listeners to either commit fully or wander off in search of safer weather. The album opens with ...

Album Review

Jun Iida: Bellflower

Read "Bellflower" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
June 19, 2026

Jun Iida is a stylish trumpeter who has moved around a bit, in the process taking interpretive fragments of the jazz culture in each city he has inhabited. From his native Pittsburgh, to stops in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City, he has remained connected to each through personal relationships with the local jazz communities he has embraced. An aerospace engineer who set his career aside to pursue his craft as a jazz trumpeter, Iida has along the way ...

Album Review

Miles Davis: Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings

Read "Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 19, 2026

Let us imagine for the moment that it is a day or two after the Big Spirit Beyond Wonder has separated the wheat from the chafe. The terrible, unwanted wars have ceased. Global climate change is no longer a threat. Autocracy is in the dustbin of history where it rightfully belongs. Illness has passed. The world, as it was in the beginning, is free of the subterfuge and manipulations of humankind. Now the Big Spirit turns their attention ...

In Pictures

Christian McBride and Ursa Major at Garcia's Chicago

by Sandra Kozintseva
June 19, 2026

Christian McBride and Ursa Major performed at Garcia's Chicago on June 6, 2026 delivering an engaging set to a packed Chicago audience. Joining McBride were Nicole Glover on saxophone, Ely Perlman on guitar, Mike King on piano, and Savannah Harris on drums. Much of the evening featured material from the group's upcoming debut album, Points of Light, expected to be released in August. One of the highlights of the night came when Ely Perlman stepped into the role of vocalist ...

Album Review

Lucy Yeghiazaryan: Hey Love!

Read "Hey Love!" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
June 19, 2026

The excellent New York-based singer Lucy Yeghiazaryan and her stellar band may have you thinking back to Carmen McRae in the 1950s as you listen to Hey Love!--groups with Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke, and other hard bop-era musicians. On her 2026 release, Yeghiazaryan has the ubiquitous Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums, with Tardo Hammer at the piano, Grant Stewart on tenor saxophone, and Bruce Harris on trumpet. Johnny O'Neal sings with her at the piano on ...

Radio & Podcasts

Max Schlenk Quintet

by Daniel Peck
June 19, 2026

Northeast Ohio has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to jazz musicians, no doubt because of the plethora of jazz and classical educational programs.Many students come for a time and move on to other pastures but some, like Max Schlenk, kick the tires on larger markets but choose to make their way back, and we're better for it when they do.The last time saxophonist Max Schlenk was featured on this program he was a student ...

Album Review

Leigh Pilzer: Keep Holding On

Read "Keep Holding On" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 19, 2026

There are times when the friends you make can make a world of difference. That is certainly true of baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer's recording, Keep Holding On, whose trio format--admirable in its own way--is considerably enriched by a quartet of friends and colleagues whose expertise helps brighten even further five of the album's 11 already-impressive numbers. The first of those guests is trombonist Jen Krupa, like Pilzer a former member of the marvelous all- female DIVA Jazz Orchestra, ...