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.
Sign in to customize your My Articles page —or— Filter Article Results
Możdżer & Szymanowski at Love Polish Jazz Festival 2025
by Marek J. Śmietański
A collection of photos from the Możdżer & Szymanowski concert at Ice Arena in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (Poland) on September 19, 2025 featuring Leszek Mozdzer and Karol Szymanowski. The duo paid homage to the legend of Polish jazz--saxophonist Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski (who passed away in May 2024)--by reinterpreting his compositions. ...
Continue ReadingDavid Sneider: Introducing David Sneider
by Jack Bowers
What better way to introduce young trumpeter David Sneider than with one of his half-dozen buoyant new compositions, “Marvelous-Lee," the opening number on Sneider's congenial debut recording. That delightful salute to fellow trumpeter Lee Morgan also introduces one of Sneider's two front-line partners, tenor saxophonist Jacob Chung, and the ensemble's able rhythm section: pianist Tyler Henderson, bassist Joey Ranieri and drummer Willie Bowman. Sneider, who placed first in the 2021 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, is ...
Continue ReadingImprovising the Classics: Roll Over Beethoven
by Larry Slater
Beethoven was a musical revolutionary. He transformed every musical form he used to create his body of music.The pianist and composer Jon Batiste said “Beethoven's work taps into a universal connective, magnetic truth in music." Beethoven was a master of motivic development, taking small musical ideas and expanding them into long and varied ideas, just like the art of improvisation.In 1998, Elvin Jones, the legendary drummer who anchored John Coltrane's quartet, was a guest artist at ...
Continue ReadingAnat Cohen’s Musical Evolution & 50th Birthday Celebration
by Steven Roby
In this episode of Backstage Bay Area, Steven Roby sits down with Grammy-nominated clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen. Known for her expressive virtuosity and infectious charisma, Anat is bringing a massive milestone celebration to San Francisco.We discuss her intimate “Quartetinho" ensemble and her expansive 10-piece “Tentet." Anat opens up about growing up in a musical household in Tel Aviv, her “student for life" philosophy while pursuing a master's degree in Rio de Janeiro, and the creative visualization behind ...
Continue ReadingMakaya McCraven, Sam Ospovat, Johnathan Blake
by Ludovico Granvassu
Here is a playlist that gives the drummers some, actually more than some as it focuses exclusively on records released by remarkable modern drummers and composers/bandleaders like Makaya McCraven, Sam Ospovat, and Johnathan Blake.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Johnathan Blake “Last Breath" My Life Matters (Blue Note) 0:16 Host talks 7:12 Makaya McCraven “Venice" Off the Record: PopUp Shop (Nonesuch/International Anthem) 9:25 Makaya McCraven “News Feed" Off ...
Continue ReadingNigel Price Organ Trio At Magy's Farm
by Ian Patterson
Nigel Price Organ Trio Magy's Farm Dromara, N. IrelandNovember 29, 2025 You probably have to go back to the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the '50s to find a harder-touring jazz outfit than the Nigel Price Organ Trio. Between the beginning of April and the end of June 1950 Ellington led his musicians through 74 gigs in 77 days on a European tour. Talk about logistical headaches. Ellington might have smiled wryly at the notion of a ...
Continue ReadingStefon Harris & Blackout / Theo Croker at Miner Auditorium
by Steven Roby
Stefon Harris & Blackout/Theo Croker Miner Auditorium Terence Blanchard's UpSwing Series San Francisco, CA November 29, 2025 The UpSwing series, curated by Terence Blanchard at SFJAZZ, acts as a key indicator of the health of American improvised music. It is more than just a showcase; it functions as a laboratory. By bringing together established masters and emerging talent innovators in the expansive Miner Auditorium, the series fosters a dialogue essential for the genre's future. ...
Continue ReadingUbunye: Tell Me The Truth Or Don't Tell Me Anything
by Andy Crowther
Ubunye's sophomore album on 33 Jazz Records is the provocatively titled “Tell Me The Truth Or Don't Tell Me Anything". In the words of band leader Dave Evans keyboards, “Our second album explores connection, to ourselves and to others, of going beyond the ego." It is an evolution of their refreshing and uplifting fusion of soul, jazz, and dance with the voice and rhythms of South Africa. Evans is joined once again by singers Xolani Mbatha and Nokuthula ...
Continue ReadingThe Scott Silbert Quartet: Dream Dancing
by Jack Bowers
The year 2025 marks the centenary of the birth of John Haley Sims, known around the world by his singular nickname, Zoot, a colossus of the saxophone who left this world far too soon in March 1985. Yet even though Zoot's physical presence is absent, his insuperable spirit lives on via Dream Dancing, a marvelous tribute by saxophonist and Sims enthusiast Scott Silbert and his masterful quartet.While there is no debating that there was only one Zoot Sims, ...
Continue ReadingConcerto for Cootie. The Life and Times of Cootie Williams
by Richard J Salvucci
Cootie. The Life and Times of Cootie Williams Steven C. Bowie 443 Pages ISBN: #9781496859440 University Press of Mississippi 2025 Benny Goodman, who had employed Harry James and Ziggy Elman in his nonpareil 1937 trumpet section, preferred trumpeter Cootie Williams to them, admiring his “unlimited power." Williams had come up with Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson. When he left Duke Ellington to join Goodman, it was big news, both for Ellington and for ...
Continue Reading
