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.

Live Review

Clara Wedel Quartet at Jazzclub Hürth

by Matty Bannond
August 23, 2026

Clara Wedel, Simon Pesch, Gabriel Spindler, Jiaxiang Jack Wang Jazzclub Hürth Hürth, Germany August 14, 2026 Vegetation had yellowed in the farmland and meadows huddled around Hürth, with greenery blanched to a sandy color by successive summer heatwaves. Shady forests were off-limits after local politicians urged the public to cut the wildfire risk by staying out of the tinder-dry woods. A basement jazz club offered a cool place to shelter on another blistering day. It ...

Play This!

Angélique Kidjo: Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

by Ian Patterson
August 23, 2026

Hollywood has come late to the party. Pretty much the whole world knew that Angélique Kidjo is a major star, decades before the Beninese singer was honored with a place on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in August 2026. At least Kidjo got to enjoy the hoopla while still alive and kicking. Jimi Hendrix only got his star on the Walk of Fame more than two decades after his death. Kidjo has long expressed her admiration for Hendrix, describing ...

Album Review

Bret Higgins: Scoring The Unseen

Read "Scoring The Unseen" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 23, 2026

Bret Higgins has built a career as a bassist among adventurous improvisers, but on Scoring the Unseen he steps fully into the role of film composer, minus the inconvenience of an actual film. The concept, soundtracks for movies that exist only in imagination, could easily be read as a gimmick on paper. On wax, it plays like a genuine calling. Higgins handles double bass, piano, synthesizers, clavinet, vibraphone, ocarina, and charango himself, an instrumental range that borders on showing off, ...

Album Review

The Joshua Breakstone Quartet: Wonderful!

Read "Wonderful!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 23, 2026

Joshua Breakstone's Wonderful! arrives on CD nearly four decades after its original release. It is a reminder that truly good jazz never worries about expiration dates. Although the original recording came early in his career, Breakstone hardly sounds like a guitarist searching for his voice. The ideas are already in place. Thoughtful, swinging, and melodic, the music is delivered with the quiet confidence of someone who understands that understatement can be as compelling as fireworks. The company Breakstone ...

Radio & Podcasts

Herbie Hancock, Christian Dillingham, Miki Yamanaka & Jeremy Monteiro

by Joe Dimino
August 23, 2026

From the Kansas City-based French hornist and composer Loren Broaddus, we launch the 972nd Episode of Neon Jazz with new music from his 2026 album Blackout!--a fitting spark to ignite this hour. From there, we turn our ears toward the legendary Herbie Hancock, spinning music from his landmark 2007 album River: The Joni Letters in celebration of his visit to Kansas City on August 8, 2026. Then we get inside the creative minds of Jeff Cosgrove and Christian Dilliagham, weaving ...

Album Review

Anni Piper: Men Are Like Potato Chips

Read "Men Are Like Potato Chips" reviewed by Ron Kalb

by Ron Kalb
August 23, 2026

Anni Piper's June 2026 release Men Are Like Potato Chips, on Sugar Daddy Records, carries a camp, risqué swagger and a sultry persona that may initially register as pure provocation. Yet, as author-activist Angela Davis noted in her study of early blues women, sexual candor has long served as a means for performers to assert narrative control and define their own musical agency. Sophie Tucker's Red Hot Mama act offers a parallel lineage in which bawdy humor ...

Interview

Petr Studený: Listening as a Creative Act

by Nenad Georgievski
August 22, 2026

For Petr Studený, music has never been a passive background hum. Since 1979, he has operated under the self-assigned title of “active listener"--a designation that treats the intake of sound as a foundational creative act. Based in Prague, a city whose “magical" atmosphere he credits as a silent collaborator, Studený has spent decades navigating the intersections of industrial noise, minimalism, and the historical avant-garde. He has emerged as a vital bridge between the radical traditions of the 20th century and the ...

Album Review

Linda May Han Oh & Melissa Aldana: Beneath Lifted Skies

Read "Beneath Lifted Skies" reviewed by Andrew Schinder

by Andrew Schinder
August 22, 2026

Bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two modern jazz powerhouses, have recorded one of 2026's most delightful jazz surprises, the duet album Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia Records, 2026). Oh and Aldana are two of the music's strongest contemporary players, potent in both overall skill as well as sound, and that intensity serves them well on the album. The atmosphere is robust without the forcefulness overwhelming the form. The album consists mostly of standards that span ...

Album Review

Jeff Colella Putter Smith: Between Friends

Read "Between Friends" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 22, 2026

Jeff Colella and Putter Smith are like peas in a pod, having made music together long enough to know that trust is more valuable than show. Between Friends is built on that trust from the opening notes, and neither musician ever seems to be trying to impress the other. Instead, they listen with uncommon patience, letting ideas emerge naturally. Their improvisations rarely fall back on familiar jazz vocabulary or well-rehearsed exchanges. Every phrase elicits a fresh response, giving the music ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Vampires, Fairfield Ethio-Jazz Project, Al Doum & The Faryds, People in Orbit & More

by Ludovico Granvassu
August 22, 2026

From spiritual and ethio-jazz to a fireside jazz conversation among friends, here's a cosmopolitan tasting menu of recent releases featuring bands keen to build bridges and break down walls.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Al Doum & The Faryds “Borracho" Ipnagogico (La Tempesta) 0:16 Host talks 4:51 Fairfield Ethio-Jazz Project “Nètsanèt" Bath Ketema (Kelston Records/Severn Songs) 6:12 Host talks 11:15 Atlantis Jazz Ensemble “Spirits Unseen" Mystic Suite (Marlow) ...