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

Dwayne Dolphin: Let the Music Play

Read "Let the Music Play" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 3, 2026

Bassist Dwayne Dolphin, less than happy with the jazz he was hearing in person or on the radio, set out to simply Let the Music Play on an album whose happy vibe, he hoped, would rekindle “the spirit of jazz" that he remembered growing up with in his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While “happy" is an intuitive concept that rests in the ears of the beholder, there is no doubt that nearly every theme on Dolphin's latest album swings.

Album Review

George Garzone: Themes For Good Friends

Read "Themes For Good Friends" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 3, 2026

Tenor saxophonist George Garzone's album Themes For Good Friends is especially satisfying because the musicians involved seem to be simply enjoying the music, with nothing to prove. In the beautifully recorded session at Van Gelder Studios, Garzone has surrounded himself with fellow masters, including trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Jeff Tain Watts, each of whom sounds like an old friend, listening closely and taking chances. The album opens quietly with Fred Lacey's ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jonny Mansfield, Nisha Ramayya, Jonathan Crossley, And More

by Colin Muirhead
October 3, 2026

Featuring new improvised music, with tracks by Jonny Mansfield, the Pete Roth Trio, Nisha Ramayya, Sia Ahmed & Raymond MacDonald, Jonathan Crossley, and more. Playlist John Pope Quintet “Rain for the Moment" from The Changing Sky (New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings) 0:00 Pete Roth Trio “Improvisation on the Largo from Dvořák's Symphony #9" from Group Chat (New Soil) 7:32 Sarah Gail Brand, Cath Roberts, Andy Champion, Emil Karlsen “Improvisation 3" from Improvisations (New Jazz and Improvised Music ...

In Pictures

Joshua Redman at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in Chicago

by Sandra Kozintseva
October 3, 2026

Under the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral, 1,500 people listen with bated breath. No mic. No speakers. No band. Just Joshua Redman and a saxophone filling the enormous space with a century of jazz. A fitting late-night performance for the 20th anniversary edition of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and a powerful reminder of just how much one musician can say with a single instrument. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mark Isham: Analog Machines And A Jazzman's Breath

by Lawrence Peryer
October 3, 2026

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter, composer, and synthesist Mark Isham. He's out now with At The Carousel Club, his first solo album in fifteen years, built around vintage analog synthesizers and a band that includes Nels Cline, Vinnie Colaiuta, and a string quartet. We talk about where the album's title comes from, his history with David Sylvian, and what it was like hearing the finished record on vinyl after sixteen hours of ...

Book Review

The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound

by Karl Ackermann
October 2, 2026

The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound Howard Reich 288 Pages ISBN: #978-0-226-84644-6 University of Chicago Press 2026 Jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but it came of age in Chicago. In The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound (The University of Chicago Press, 2026), Howard Reich demonstrates why Chicago became one of jazz's great creative laboratories through twenty-five portraits that ...

Album Review

Ross Margitza: Discovery

Read "Discovery" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 2, 2026

Discovery is a well-polished and smooth-running vehicle for pianist and composer Ross Margitza's able trio, further enhanced on the opening track by the uncommon talents of its special guest, soprano saxophonist Joel Frahm, and on four by the Soha Quartet's shimmering strings. Truth be told, the album would be impressive even if it were comprised of the trio alone--as is the case on three of the last four numbers--as Margitza is an admirable soloist who oversees a stalwart ...

Album Review

Dave Bass: Trio Nuevo, Vol 3

Read "Trio Nuevo, Vol 3" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 2, 2026

The most enjoyable part of a listenable piano trio is the sense that no one is trying to prove anything. The music unfolds because the three musicians trust each other enough to leave room for surprise. A pianist has to know when to take charge and when to get out of the way, when a bass line needs encouragement and when the drums need space. On Trio Nuevo, Vol 3, pianist Dave Bass, bassist Tyler Miles and drummer Steve Helfand ...

The Blue Note Portal

Future Perfect—Afro Chill

by Blue Note Portal
October 2, 2026

The summer of 1969 was the kind of summer that made you question every decision that had led you to that particular sidewalk at that particular hour. Cannonball Adderley stepped out of a yellow cab at 207 East 30th Street and immediately felt his shirt collar dampen. He carried his Selmer Mark VI alto case by the leather handle the way a man carries something he's carried ten thousand times before--without thinking, the way you carry your own arm.

Album Review

Confusion Project: IDENTITY

Read "IDENTITY" reviewed by Acacia Grace

by Acacia Grace
October 2, 2026

What does it sound like when a jazz trio looks to its own cultural roots to define where it is going next? For Polish trio Confusion Project, the answer is Identity-an expansive, cinematic project that brings contemporary jazz together with fusion, progressive elements, and the rhythmic character of the Polish mazurka. The trio consists of Michal Ciesielski on piano, Piotr Gierszewski on bass, and Adam Golicki on drums. They have spent more than a decade developing their musical language, and with ...