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

Paulo Almeida, Roy Hargrove, Gegè Telesforo, Jazztropicante, Beto Paciello

by Ludovico Granvassu
May 30, 2026

Paris--Bogotá; New York--Rome; São Paulo--Basel; Bern--New York; New York--São Paulo... this playlist feels like a masterclass in transatlantic cross-pollination, where ideas, rhythms, and musical identities travel as freely as the artists themselves.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Jazztropicante “La Llave Maestra" Combo Efectivo (Casa Maguey) 0:16 Host talks 4:46 Paulo Almeida “Lembranças Do Boi" Love in Motion (Dox) 5:50 Host talks 11:10 Beto Paciello “Sunset Skies" The Stoic ...

Album Review

Angela Verbrugge with Ray Gallon: In The Wonder of the Night

Read "In The Wonder of the Night" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 30, 2026

Canadian jazz vocalist and songwriter Angela Verbrugge understands something that too many contemporary singers miss. Intimacy in jazz is not about shrinking the music but about drawing the audience in. On In The Wonder of the Night, her duet recording with acclaimed New York pianist Ray Gallon she works within the voice-and-piano format with uncommon confidence, keeping the music in constant motion. The album may carry a nocturnal and lunar thread across its eleven tracks and twelve songs, but beneath ...

Jazz in Long Form

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 ...

Play This!

Bill Evans: Nardis

by Sue Yang
May 29, 2026

Bill Evans turns “Nardis" into something far more tense and combustible on At The Montreux Jazz Festival (Verve Records, 1968). Anyone coming to this performance looking only for the lyrical, introspective Evans will hear a trio working closer to the edge. Jack DeJohnette keeps the music in restless motion, Eddie Gomez pushes the bass into a fully melodic role, and Evans shapes the piece with dark modal suspense, sudden flares and beautifully judged pauses. What makes this version so memorable ...

Album Review

Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream

Read "We Dream" reviewed by Andrew Schinder

by Andrew Schinder
May 29, 2026

In a genre full of peaceniks, Lakecia Benjamin is a killer. Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, has exploded over the course of the 2020's--both figuratively and musically. Her sound is brash and resonant, yet delicately composed and precisely structured. Benjamin is a focused musician, with all of her artistic choices brimming with intent, and the results are positively thrilling. She has become one of contemporary jazz's most popular and revered alto saxophonists, and she is just ...

Album Review

Russ Lorenson: A Little Travelin' Music

Read "A Little Travelin' Music" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 29, 2026

If a singer is going to run with the Frank Sinatras and Tony Bennetts of the world, it takes determination, not to say savoir-faire. Sinatra in particular had it all: swagger, technique and, in his prime, a legato style that was the envy of musicians everywhere. Russ Lorenson may not quite equal the ranks of his models, but he is a capable, talented and experienced crooner. Dedicated to his art and intent on perfecting it, here he brings a return ...

Album Review

Steve Kovalcheck: Buckshot Blues

Read "Buckshot Blues" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 29, 2026

If a guitarist, pianist or anyone else who planned to record a trio could have a wish list, chances are good that one name at the top would be that of drummer Jeff Hamilton. On his 2026 album, Buckshot Blues, Colorado-based guitarist Steve Kovalcheck's wish has come true. Jon Hamar, a superb bassist, shares the rhythmic assignment with none other than the peerless Hamilton himself who can make any trio--including his own--seem several grades better than advertised. Why? ...

Radio & Podcasts

Miles on Miles: Collaborations with Gil Evans & The 2nd Great Quintet

by Larry Slater
May 29, 2026

In the third and final hour of “Miles on Miles," you'll hear Miles Davis discuss his recordings with Gil Evans, and the creation of his second great quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Ron Carter.Miles narration is from his autobiography “Miles: The Autobiography," which was published in 1989. Levar Burton read the audiobook version of the autobiography and it's his voice you'll hear as Miles.Miles Davis collaborations with Gil Evans in the late ...

Album Review

Robert Jospe Quartet: The Night Sky

Read "The Night Sky" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 29, 2026

Virginia-based drummer Robert Jospe leads an able quartet on The Night Sky, the ninth recording under his name. The music, much of which was written or co-written by Jospe, is for the most part robust and rhythm-heavy with Jospe's assertive drum kit and Daniel Clarke's busy keyboards front and center. The mood changes abruptly--delightfully so--on Track 8, wherein bassist Paul Langosch takes the lead on Leonard Bernstein's wistful “Some Other Time" (from the 1944 Broadway musical On the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Dida Pelled, Carla Bley, Harry Skoler, Joachim Kühn, Ben Flocks, Joe Webb

by Ludovico Granvassu
May 29, 2026

Jump into a time-traveling playlist that brings a spectacular 1984 recording by Carla Bley back to the future, at the end of a generations-bridging ride where emerging artists modernize tradition and elder statesmen pay homage to their heroes, or join forces with younger voices.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Harry Skoler “Everything's Cool, Everything's Cool! (for Rahsaan Roland Kirk)" Echoes (Red Brick Hill) 0:16 Host talks 3:48 Joachim ...