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, Benoit Delbecq, Enten Eller & James Wengrow

by Maurice Hogue
June 15, 2026

Drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey's new Members... Don't is a contender for recording of the year. He reimagines fellow drummer Max Roach's Members Don't Git Weary from 1968 and reminds us that the original's political and social exhortations remain as evident and concerning today. Sorey's music is extremely powerful. Guitarist James Wengrow is an Aussie with big notes and big ideas. Check out his debut, Emissary, for a full intro to this new gunslinger's music. French pianist Benoit Delbecq is part of ...

Album Review

Sean McDonald: Have Mercy!

by Ron Kalb
June 15, 2026

Have Mercy!--Sean McDonald's 2025 debut album on the Little Village Foundation label--introduces a young artist whose greatest strength may be his ability to absorb blues, soul and early rock 'n' roll traditions without sounding bound by them. The 24-year-old singer, guitarist and songwriter understands these forms deeply enough to make them his own. The album's influences are often easy to spot. “My Soul" carries the buoyant feel of Elvis Presley's “All Shook Up," complete with “uh-ah-huh" harmony ...

Radio & Podcasts

Five new releases from the Helen Sung Big Band, Michael Dease Big Band, Brad Goode, Robyn Spangler and the Django Festival All-Stars

by George Graham
June 15, 2026

George Graham spotlights five new jazz releases from Helen Sung Big Band, Michael Dease, Brad Goode, Robyn Spangler, and the Django Festival All-StarsPlaylist Helen Sung Big Band “Convergence" from Oracles (Sunnyside) 4:59 Helen Sung Big Band “Wayne's World" from Oracles (Sunnyside) 6:25 Michael Dease Big Band “You Know I Love You" from Return Trajectory (Origin) 5:55 Michael Dease Big Band “Shoreline" from Return Trajectory (Origin) 6:47 Brad Goode Quintet “Half Moon" from Live Your Dreams (Origin) 11:12 Brad ...

Meet the Staff

Meet John Chacona

by John Chacona
June 14, 2026

I currently live in: Lakewood, Ohio, an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, USA that some have described as having “a San Francisco vibe." Don't laugh. That's pretty accurate. I joined All About Jazz in: I dunno, maybe 2020 or 2021. Maybe 1999. I don't remember. Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? Honestly, because a music industry figure whom I respect greatly told me that the site is, by some measures, the most ...

Play This!

Virginia MacDonald: Last Call at Dimitri's

by Ludovico Granvassu
June 14, 2026

It is rare for a debut album to emerge as a contender for “year-end best-of" listicles. An exception to the rule may well be In Search Of..., the superb debut release by clarinetist Virginia MacDonald. A debut as a leader, that is: before stepping into the spotlight herself, MacDonald had already appeared on some twenty recordings as a collaborator. If a leader's debut is often the sum of a musician's experiences up to that point, In Search Of... ...

Album Review

Thelonious Monk: Live In Paris 1967 Volume One

Read "Live In Paris 1967 Volume One" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
June 14, 2026

The discography of Thelonious Monk, bebop architect, composer of enduring standards and idiosyncratically influential pianist, is vast. In addition to Monk's genre-defining studio recordings, several live sets were released during his lifetime, including a notable series put out by Columbia Records during Monk's time on that most major of major labels, from 1962 to 1968. Live In Paris 1967 (Volume One) is a notable addition for several reasons: it is the first official release of material by the Monk Estate ...

Album Review

Kenny Barron: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon

Read "So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 14, 2026

Kenny Barron has always had the rare ability to make sophistication feel conversational. Even at his most technically dazzling, there is an intimacy in the way he shapes a phrase. That quality permeates So Many Lovely Things: Live At Brecon, a previously unissued 1995 concert recording from Wales featuring Barron with bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Ben Riley. Released by Elemental Music on June 12, 2026 as a limited 2-LP set, a 2-CD edition, and a digital release, the 105-minute ...

Album Review

Quinsin Nachoff: Patterns from Nature

Read "Patterns from Nature" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 14, 2026

Quinsin Nachoff, a Canadian-born saxophonist and composer now based in New York, has long pursued deep connections between music, science, and visual form. Patterns from Nature grew from an extended collaboration with physicist Dr. Stephen Morris of the University of Toronto, drawing on concepts of emergent order in natural systems. The project spread itself across several formats--a recorded suite, a film with contributions from four filmmakers, and live multimedia performances--and assembles an exceptional cast: pianist Matt Mitchell, clarinetist François Houle, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ben Patterson, Robyn Spangler, Michael Dease, Jun Iida & Helen Sung

by Joe Dimino
June 14, 2026

The 962nd Episode of Neon Jazz launches with the brilliant pianist Helen Sung at the helm of her dynamic big band, opening the hour with music from her inspiring 2026 release, --a powerful tribute to the artists and visionaries who helped shape her musical path. From there, we journey deep into the vibrant pulse of modern jazz, spotlighting some of the most accomplished veterans and creative forces defining the genre in 2026. Along the way, we occasionally step away from ...

Album Review

Richard Baratta: Another Kind of Bird

Read "Another Kind of Bird" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 14, 2026

Even today, more than seventy years after his death at the young age of thirty-four, the legendary alto saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird" Parker remains incomparable, as a player and composer who almost singlehandedly changed the vocabulary of jazz, introducing revisions and concepts that have never worn thin or gone out of style. Simply put, no one had ever heard jazz played the way that Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and a handful of others approached it in the early ...