Jazz Articles
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Sullivan Fortner: The Music Tells You Where to Go
by Leo Sidran
It is hard to overstate the exuberance and awe expressed by other musicians when talking about Sullivan Fortner. At under 40 years old, he is one of a small handful of pianists who have moved the instrument and its potential forward. And by doing so, he's demonstrated that innovation can happen from within the tradition of what came before rather than reinventing it outright. To those who know, he is both a living reality and, as a jazz ...
Continue ReadingBranford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves, Ekep Nkwelle, Somi, George Garzone, Caroline Davis and Azar Lawrence
by Hobart Taylor
Mick Goodrick and Fred Hersch 1988 recordings unearthed at ECM, Music from Sweden's Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra with Amanda Werne, and France's LeBeque sisters interpret Bill Evans.Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Caleb Wheeler Curtis /Jason Moran “ That Which Cannot Be Replaced" from Incantation (Imani) 00:07 Caroline Davis/Grey Mcmurray/Qasim Naqvi “Out of the Way of It" from Trappings of Sleep (Red Hook) 05:04 Host Speaks 09:05 George Garzone “Ripty-Boom" fromThemes for Good Friends(Jojo) 10:02 Nicki Adams/Michael Eaton/ Francisco Mela ...
Continue ReadingDetroit Jazz Festival 2026: A Gathering in a Great Jazz City
by Paul Rauch
Detroit Jazz Festival 2026 Hart Plaza Detroit, MI September 4-7, 2026 Thursday evening is when artists, media and event staffers begin to file into the Detroit Marriott, arriving from points around the globe. The common purpose is the 47th annual Detroit Jazz Festival, an annual tradition on Labor Day weekend. The largest free jazz festival in the world is four days of music, fellowship, celebration and counting one's blessings. In 2026, Mother Nature decided to ...
Continue ReadingTwo Views Of A Masterpiece
by John Chacona
As a jazz composer is it better to be a hedgehog or a fox, to write music that is so irreducibly singular that there is only one way to perform it or do be so embracingly universal that one's genius spreads like pollinator bees? Arguably Wayne Shorter, fairly unanimously embraced as the greatest jazz composer of the immediate past, has been seen as a hedgehog, the composer of brilliantly idiosyncratic music that has failed to escape the shadow of his ...
Continue ReadingCassandra Wilson Tribute (RIP); New Music from Joey DeFrancesco, Doug Webb, and Others
by David W. Daniels
Additional music in the show includes new music from Sullivan Fortner, Stella Cole, and More. Recognizing this week's jazz musician birthdays with music from Sonny Rollins, Brian Lynch, Hiram Bullock, and others.Playlist Cassandra Wilson} “Autumn Nocturne" from <em> Blue Skies </em> (JMT) 00:00 </li> <li> {{m: Steve Coleman “Soul Melange" from Sine Die (Pangaea) 12:09 Greg Osby “Season Of Renewal" from Season Of Renewal (JMT) 15:56 Cassandra Wilson “Last Train To Clarksville" from New Moon Daughter (Blue Note) ...
Continue ReadingSkinny Hightower, Ralph Alessi, Neves E Silva, Buster Williams, Jon Madof, Rob Dixon
by Ludovico Granvassu
Lineage and traditions as springboards for new ideas, in this playlist of recent releases. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Neves E Silva “Das Neves" Ladeiras De Santa Teresa (Far Out) 0:16 Host talks 3:28 Skinny Hightower “Chain Reaction" Feels Like Destiny (CastOver) 5:16 Rob Dixon “I Want You" Naptown Soul (Strikezone) 13:22 Host talks 18:50 Jon Madof Trio “Invisible Alchemy" Netzach (Tzadik) 20:16 Ralph Alessi ...
Continue ReadingCassandra Wilson: Iconic Memories - Part 2
by Ludovico Granvassu
On one record, Cassandra Wilson could sound like the deepest Mississippi blues singer; on another, she could be immersed in the most advanced rhythmic ideas of M-Base; and then she could walk into an R&B session with Luther Vandross or The Roots and sound completely at home. This playlist only scratches the surface of that extraordinary artistic versatility.Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Cassandra Wilson “Go to Mexico" Thunderbird (Blue Note) ...
Continue ReadingUrsa Major at Miner Auditorium
by Steven Roby
Christian McBride's Ursa Major Miner Auditorium San Francisco, CA September 13, 2026 Christian McBride stood toward the rear of the Miner Auditorium stage Sunday night, directing traffic from behind Nicole Glover and Ely Perlman. Even when he switched from upright to electric bass and began one of his fleet, muscular solos, he remained there. The placement suited Ursa Major. McBride may have assembled the quintet, but its final concert of SFJAZZ's season-opening residency drew its force ...
Continue ReadingKevin Sun: Kevin Sun, I.
by Dan McClenaghan
New York-based saxophonist Kevin Sun went deep into the concept of memory in his The Sustain of Memory (2020) and The Depths of Memory (2023), both on his Endectopmorph Records. The first half of his 2026 project, Kevin Sun, I goes deep into...Kevin Sun? Sun takes his inspiration from seemingly everywhere: video games, sitting on hold waiting for service from the IRS phone system (track 6, “Hold Music"), John Coltrane ( track 1, “Go In"), Ryuichi Sakamoto, heavy ...
Continue ReadingTommy Muellner: Solitary Moon
by Mark Corroto
Today's hipster jazz musicians do not play standards. Perhaps “poseur" is a better description for artists who deliberately eschew classic compositions. Yet standards and familiar songs serve an important purpose in jazz: they provide a shared musical language, a lingua franca through which musicians communicate and listeners can measure the quality of an interpretation. Maybe, just maybe, the poseurs avoid standards because they don't want to be found out. Chicago pianist Tommy Muellner is no poseur. In fact, ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Showcase
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