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

Confusion Project, SongAh Chae Trio, Bignami Veltri Jazz Ensemble & More

by Marek J. Śmietański
September 30, 2026

The 130th episode surveys July 2026 releases and two summer catch-ups--as usual--arranged into six sets. The programme opens with personal tributes and hard bop rooted in mentorship, moves through a Polish bloc spanning contemporary folk-inflected jazz, archived jazz-rock and international improvisation, then pushes into veteran free jazz and cosmic funk. Furthermore, there is a nu-jazz set built on electronics and loops, melody-first chamber playing, and the programme closes with three deeply contemplative albums. This time, artists from the US, Poland, ...

Interview

Without a Net, and with Love, Uncle Miles

by Emily Steinhilber
September 29, 2026

When I called Vince Wilburn Jr. to talk about Miles Davis at 100 (read our own tribute), he answered from the Chicago house where he grew up--the same house where Davis used to telephone his mother and ask her to lower the receiver toward the basement so he could listen to his teenage nephew rehearse. More than forty years later, that telephone became the spine of our conversation about family memory, musical inheritance, grief, and Davis' insistence that the musicians ...

Album Review

Ayumi Tanaka, Thomas Morgan, Thomas Strønen: Windflower

Read "Windflower" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
September 29, 2026

Ayumi Tanaka plays with precision and spare motifs. There are no wasted notes, and her work owes much to the balance between her country of birth and the country of residence. She has a virtuosic restraint. Rhythmic structures are often flexible, non-metrical, or thin, closely mirroring the organic movements of nature. In an interview she said, “I really think that what I do is trying to learn from nature. The way we play with space is not quantifiable. I want ...

Album Review

Chad Fowler / Eri Yamamoto: Polkadots & Moonbeams

Read "Polkadots & Moonbeams" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 29, 2026

Some of the finest duo recordings give the listener the sensation of eavesdropping on an intimate encounter. The recordings of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans come to mind, as does the music of Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Polkadots & Moonbeams, by pianist Eri Yamamoto and saxophonist Chad Fowler, creates that same feeling. Although recorded in a studio, the performance sounds as though it might have been captured for the musicians themselves, an unguarded conversation between two artists listening closely ...

Radio & Podcasts

Happy 100th Birthday John Coltrane! His Music, Performed by Him and by Sonny Fortune, Bobby Watson, Stanley Turrentine, and Others

by David W. Daniels
September 29, 2026

Honoring the music and legacy of John Coltrane the day after his 100th birthday. In addition to the artists named in the title interpreting his music, we've included music about Coltrane ("Lady Day and John Coltrane," Giacomo Gates) and music not written by him but associated strongly with him ("Afro Blue" and “Bemsha Swing").Playlist John Coltrane “Blue Train" from Blue Train (Blue Note) 00:00 David Murray “Giant Steps" from Octet Plays Trane (Justin Time) 18:00 John Coltrane and ...

Album Review

Trevor Watts / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez: The First Touch

Read "The First Touch" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
September 29, 2026

Trevor Watts and Barry Guy's near 60-year musical acquaintance yields an immediacy that continues undiminished on The First Touch. Recorded live in Poland in 2025 with drummer Ramon Lopez, a frequent cohort of the bassist, the seven tracks capture a trio whose empathy is matched by its appetite for risk. Although Watts' saxophones and Guy's bass naturally define the conversation, Lopez exerts a similarly decisive influence, propelling the performance through abrupt shifts of density, register and momentum. In ...

Radio & Podcasts

Combustible Mix of Post Bop From the Last Century As Well As New Releases

by Jon Greenbaum
September 29, 2026

Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, World Sax, Chico Freeman and The Art Ensemble along with a bunch of exciting new releases.Playlist Carmen Quill “Plaza" from Harmless (Ruination Record Co.) 00:00 Henry Threadgill / Vijay Iyer / Dafnis Prieto “I Wanted A Map" from Fifteen (Nonesuch Records) 00:05:26 Art Ensemble of Chicago “Proverbes (I-II-III)" from Les Stances A Sophie (Pathé Marconi) 00:10:02 Angles 4 “Every woman is a tree" from Angles 4 (Relative Pitch Records) 00:15:58 Slow Tiger “Slow Tiger" ...

Radio & Podcasts

Joshua Smith Quartet, Set 1

by Daniel Peck
September 29, 2026

Over the past 20 years, Keigo Hirakawa has transformed himself from a student of the jazz masters to an artist with vision and unique sense of expressions. His jazz piano trio is well-known throughout the Midwest for their willingness to be musically spontaneous on stage, exploring original compositions and redefining jazz standards to make it their own.Cleveland native Joshua Smith is a saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist who has been playing for the past 25 years with a Who's Who of creative ...

In Pictures

Umbria Jazz 2026: Part 1

by Andrea Rotili
September 29, 2026

Part 1 | Part 2A collection of photos from the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, from July 3 to July 12, 2026, featuring Paolo Fresu, Tony Levin, and many others. ...

Jazz Fiction

Sketches Of Spain Or Somethin' Else

by Mike Raggett
September 29, 2026

The Morning After It's the 1970s, the days before satnav, cell phones and Google Maps. I'm an Englishman working in Spain. I'm a training supervisor for a major motor manufacturer, so I have to travel around a lot, visiting garages--I don't think we called them dealerships in those days--to talk to sales staff about dealing with people and technical staff about dealing with machines. Just occasionally, I reverse the advice for fun. It doesn't change much whichever way it goes. ...