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.

Album Review

Emmet Cohen: Universal Truth

Read "Universal Truth" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
May 21, 2026

There is an old-world saying that some folks are just born with an old soul. Pianist and social media conqueror Emmet Cohen--his pandemic- founded livestream, Live From Emmet's Place, has been viewed by millions across the globe--proves, positively, that the old wisdom still stands and forever will. For within the heart and soul of every jazzman and jazzwoman, the warm essence of the music's ever-painful, resilient, triumphal past resides. A compatriot who does not mind growing up alongside ...

Play This!

Dave Douglas: Energy Fields

by Ludovico Granvassu
May 21, 2026

Here is a gem by Dave Douglas featuring the latest all-star incarnation of his Gifts band, now expanded with cellist Tomeka Reid and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, joining original members Rafiq Bhatia (guitar) and Ian Chang (drums).Two years after the eponymous album honoring Billy Strayhorn, Douglas continues his exploration of foundational jazz composers. On this new chapter--Transcend (Greenleaf Music)--he turns to Duke Ellington, drawing in particular from Ellington's Sacred Concerts, performed between 1965 and 1973.Alongside inventive ...

Album Review

Miho Hazama: Frames

by Neil Duggan
May 21, 2026

The Frames project, led by Grammy-nominated Japanese composer and conductor Miho Hazama, features the Danish Radio Big Band. It is inspired by the band's lineage of previous musical directors, who have included Thad Jones, Palle Mikkelborg, Bob Brookmeyer and the late Jim McNeely, under whom Hazama studied upon her move to New York. The album carries a dedication to his memory. Hazama, a prolific composer with a substantial body of work for numerous international orchestras, explains the background ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ben Wolfe, Chris Hazelton, David Janeway, Will Lyle and more

by Benjamin Boddie
May 21, 2026

Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by Ted Chubb, Chris Hazelton, Will Lyle, Judith Owens, Ben Wolfe, Klaus Weinerroither, Mike Caudill, Isabella Isherwood, John Sweenie, Taylor Roberts, Phillip Golub, David Janeway, Barry Greene, Catherine Russell, Bria Skonberg, Audrey Ochoa, Jared Hall, Stacey Kent, Blue Moods, Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra, Irreversible Entanglements, Jazzlab Orchestra, Bobby Broom, Daphne Roubini & Black Gardenia, April Varner, Chick Corea, Jenny Klukken, The Sistering, Shunzo Ohno, Arvind Ramdas, Sharon Minemoto, Julian Davis Reid, Sam Yahel, Mark Winkler, ...

Album Review

Nolatet: Somethin' To Relax With

Read "Somethin' To Relax With" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 21, 2026

Nolatet unites four veteran voices from the New Orleans jazz scene. Bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich have formed one of the city's most durable and inventive rhythm sections since the late 1970s, anchoring Astral Project and backing everyone from Professor Longhair to Dizzy Gillespie. Vibraphonist Mike Dillon brings his trademark guerrilla energy and percussive mischief from Garage a Trois, while pianist Brian Haas--a longtime architect of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey--contributes rangy, classically informed harmonies and fearless improvisation. The ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Helen Sung, Nolatet, Yoram Rosilio And More

by Bob Osborne
May 21, 2026

This week an exploration of jazz that spans the spectrum from the vibrant energy of big band arrangements to the avant-garde edges of the contemporary scene. This selection bridges the gap between legendary icons and the modern innovators pushing the genre into new territories. Throughout the playlist, you will find a dialogue between structure and spontaneity. Whether it is the soulful precision of Roy Hargrove and Buster Williams, the boundary-breaking collaborations of Mary Halvorson and Ambrose Akinmusire, or the deep, ...

Album Review

Liudas Mockūnas / Samuel Blaser / Marc Ducret: Twisted Summer

Read "Twisted Summer" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 21, 2026

All of modern jazz and improvised music owes a debt to Jimmy Giuffre (1921--2008). A quiet revolutionary, Giuffre helped reshape the language of jazz in ways that many musicians now take for granted. His solo recordings anticipated those of Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, while his early experiments without a rhythm section, common practice today, were once considered radical. Even his approach to free jazz set him apart. Where contemporaries like John Coltrane and Albert Ayler explored the music's most ...

Radio & Podcasts

Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, Jake Baxendale, Fie Schouten, Samuel Torres

by Cheryl K.
May 21, 2026

During this week's two-hour program of jazz and improvised music--selections from new releases by trumpeter Brian Lynch; Greenhouse Ensemble; vocalist Julia Keefe and her Indigenous Big Band; pianist Elan Mehler; saxophonist Jake Baxendale; Emie R Roussel Trio; clarinetist Fie Schouten; WaSaBi Trio; and percussionist Samuel Torres.Playlist Frank Carlberg “International Man of Mystery" from Monk Dreams, Hallucinations, and Nightmares (Red Piano) 6:48 Brian Lynch “But Beautiful" from Torch Bearers (Hollistic MusicWorks) 10:50 Greenhouse Ensemble “Diomede" from Mezzanine (Greenhouse Ensemble) ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mal Wadron, Sam Rivers, Nick Fraser, Meredith Bates, and much more

by Lawrence Peryer
May 21, 2026

An hour of creative music where archival recordings and new releases share equal footing. Irreversible Entanglements and a newly surfaced 1984 Mal Waldron-Sam Rivers improvisation open the show; Alabaster DePlume, a Daunik Lazro-Joëlle Léandre-Paul Lovens trio, Work Money Death, and Nick Fraser carry the middle sets; and Vancouver composer Meredith Bates closes it out with music from her new album The Observer Effect. Playlist Irreversible Entanglements “Juntos Vencemos" from Future Present Past (Impulse!) 00:00 Mal Waldron & Sam ...

Live Review

John Beasley Sextet at Presidio Theatre

by Steven Roby
May 20, 2026

John Beasley Sextet Presidio Theatre Miles Davis at 100 San Francisco, CA May 14, 2026 Spanning a 90-minute set from Birth of the Cool to Amandla, John Beasley's sextet anchors the centennial with Miles's most influential band--the 1965--68 quintet featuring Wayne Shorter. Last September at San Francisco's Presidio Theatre, percussionist and former Miles Davis collaborator Mino Cinelu marked the trumpeter's centennial by lighting 100 candles across the stage and performing four Davis ...