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.

Take Five With...

Take Five with Clarinetist Davide Sgarra

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2026

Meet Davide SgarraDavide Sgarra is an Italian jazz clarinetist and saxophonist based in Brooklyn, New York. Born and raised near Varese in northern Italy, he went on to earn his Bachelor of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands and his Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music in New York City. A specialist in the New Orleans clarinet tradition, Davide performs regularly across the New York jazz scene and has played in venues including ...

Album Review

Kenny Barron: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon

Read "So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 1, 2026

Pianist Kenny Barron (b. 1943) has paid his dues, working in the bands of Yusef Lateef and Dizzy Gillespie as well as a three-year stint in trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's band. His work as a leader has also soared. His first album under his own name was titled You Had Better Listen (Atlantic, 1967). That title offered good advice.As with most top-tier jazz artists who boast 50-plus-year careers, he has played thousands of concerts, and many of these have ...

Album Review

Ambrose Akinmusire / Mary Halvorson: Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings

Read "Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 1, 2026

In a true meeting of great minds, shared aesthetic, and Nonesuch label mates, trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson play intently with their new Halvorson and hand-me-down Akinmusire Line 6 DL4 MkII Delay Modeler, and break the dark silence with the spectral movement of Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings. More laid back and ambient than either of the influencers' past works--Halvorson's 2022 Nonesuch debut Amaryllis and Belladonna; Code Girl (Nonesuch, 2024); or Akinmusire's Grammy-nominated On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment (Blue Note, 2020) and Origami ...

Album Review

Ali Ryerson: The Ali Ryerson Quartet

Read "The Ali Ryerson Quartet" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
June 1, 2026

Accomplished flutist Ali Ryerson is one of the most exciting proponents of the instrument in jazz. Over the course of a long career, both performing and teaching, she has honed a unique style. It is rooted in the Western classical tradition. Yet it has a boppish and soulful spontaneity. Her 17th release as a leader, simply titled The Ali Ryerson Quartet, showcases her masterful command of the instrument and signature sound. The energetic “Chuck's Tune" is a perfect ...

Radio & Podcasts

Rachelle Garniez, Virginia MacDonald, Jeff Lederer, Matt White's Dolly Parton Tribute, Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 1, 2026

This broadcast includes new music from Rachelle Garniez, Virginia MacDonald, Jeff Lederer, Matt White and Julia Keefe, with birthday shoutouts to Jackie Cain, Ken Peplowski, Fats Waller, Rosemary Clooney, Jan Leder, Yoko Miwa, Cynthia Sayer, Sheryl Bailey, Carmen Souza, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is in the Groove. Many thanks for tuning in.

Album Review

Louise Alexandra: Crazy World of Love

Read "Crazy World of Love" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 1, 2026

The release of Crazy World of Love marks a new chapter for Louise Alexandra, a jazz vocalist whose artistry is as deep as her background is unconventional. Splitting her time between the vanguard of medical science and the timeless traditions of jazz, Alexandra is a Dutch-American vocalist, songwriter, and active cancer research scientist. For over 15 years, she built a formidable reputation within Boston's highly competitive biotech and jazz circuits before returning to the Netherlands, where she continues to develop ...

Play This!

Benjamin Herman: NRFS

by Ludovico Granvassu
May 31, 2026

On Tokyo Sessions (Dox Records), Dutch saxophonist Benjamin Herman captures the restless energy of a series of Tokyo musical encounters he develed into alongside drummer and producer Jimmi Jo Hueting and bassist Thomas Pol--an industrious and vivid encounter between the Dutch and Japanese scenes. Rather than the polished Tokyo familiar to jazz tourists, the album plunges into the city's adventurous underground scene, home to distinctive artists such as guitarist and composer Otomo Yoshihide and tenor saxophonist Tomoaki Baba. ...

Album Review

Rahul Mukerji: Mridhangit

Read "Mridhangit" reviewed by Maciej Stasiowski

by Maciej Stasiowski
May 31, 2026

Mridhangit is a portmanteau of the instrument mridangam, employed extensively on the new record by Rahul Mukerji, and the Hindi word for song or music (git/geet). First ignited on the artist's 2017 release Ma De Re Sha (Self Produced, 2017), the project has solidified into a recognisable signature: guitar-led instrumentals anchored in Indian percussive rhythms, shaped through tablas (both programmed and live) and the mridangam, with occasional accents of clarinet and duduk. The compositions are concise, introducing their ...

Radio & Podcasts

Roy Hargrove, Monika Herzig, Sharon Minemoto & Emilio Solla

by Joe Dimino
May 31, 2026

As Neon Jazz reaches the landmark 960th Episode, we open the hour with the unmistakable brilliance of celebrated Latin jazz master Emilio Solla and music from his vibrant 2026 release Handmade. From there, the journey unfolds through a rich landscape of fresh jazz sounds featuring acclaimed artists Sharon Minemoto, Jim Robitaille, Virginia MacDonald, and Ryan Keberle, each bringing their own unique flavor and fire to the mix. Along the way, we pull back the curtain on the creative spirit behind ...

Album Review

The Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestra: Chronography

Read "Chronography" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 31, 2026

On Chronography, Boston-based trumpeter and composer Greg Hopkins and his 16-member Jazz Orchestra revitalize ten of the leader's never-before-recorded compositions and arrangements, most of them well-known standards from the Great American Songbook, that span more than half a century of astute and perceptive songwriting. The earliest, Willard Robison's “Old Folks," was arranged for the Buddy Rich band in 1972; the most recent, Duke Ellington's “In a Sentimental Mood," for his own orchestra in 2018. Between those dates rest ...