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.

So You Don't Like Jazz

Jimi Hendrix: Showman and Sculptor

by Alan Bryson
August 12, 2026

When you think of Jimi Hendrix, chances are something flamboyant or incendiary comes to mind. His Stratocaster in flames at Monterey, or kneeling before a wall of amps at Woodstock. Those are in my memory bank too, but I'm one of a small group of people alive today who actually experienced The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The spectacle I witnessed was a vastly different, and it took place at a most unlikely venue: the International Ballroom of the Washington Hilton, yes, ...

Live Review

Charles Lloyd at the Umbria Summer Jazz Festival 2026

by Rhonda Wagner
August 12, 2026

Charles Lloyd Quartet Arena Santa Giuliana Umbria Jazz Festival Perugia, Italy July 6, 2026 It was a night to remember in Perugia, Italy. During a brutal heat wave sweeping across southern Europe, the legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd performed at the Umbria Jazz Festival in the open-air Arena Santa Giuliana, at the top of this medieval walled city. The cool night air was filled with jazz lovers grateful for the 9pm performance start.

Album Review

Rino Sivathas: Speak Volumes

Read "Speak Volumes" reviewed by Daniel Mège

by Daniel Mège
August 12, 2026

Which country has the highest proportion of outstanding drummers relative to its total population? A difficult exam question, but by rough estimate, the number of drummers in Norway (really a lot of them), relative to its population (really a small one), makes it an obvious contender. Those who follow the scene have heard of Veslemøy Narvesen, and perhaps Øyvind Leite, Hans Hulbækmo and August Glãnnestrand, to stop at a square whose corners are arranged in reverse alphabetical order. But ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Way Out Northwest

Read "Way Out Northwest" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 12, 2026

Alto saxophonist and composer Mike DiRubbo, an acclaimed artist on the New York City jazz scene for more than three decades, traveled all the way to Vancouver, British Columbia, in October 2025 to record Way Out Northwest with a hand-picked all-Canadian rhythm section: pianist Tilden Webb, bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Jesse Cahill. The result of their collaboration is a sturdy, swinging slice of contemporary jazz embracing half a dozen of DiRubbo's eloquent original compositions and others by ...

Album Review

1984: The Forward Process

Read "The Forward Process" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
August 12, 2026

Straight from the first notes, reality blurs and form becomes fluid. On The Forward Process Belgian guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe turns a literary notion of time into a working musical system. He sets his guitar alongside French saxophonist Sakina Abdou and English turntablist Mariam Rezaei on cycles that rarely resolve in the conventional sense. Under the moniker 1984--named after the birth year of the three protagonists, but with Orwellian echoes--the three traverse five pieces by Van Cauwenberghe intercut with three ...

Radio & Podcasts

Marshall Allen at 102! Black Musics: From the Crunchy Edge to the Chewy Center...

by Hobart Taylor
August 12, 2026

New releases from Saul Williams, Danielle Ponder, Zaccai Curtis and Faye Carol Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Danielle Ponder “Power" from Everything Has Changed (Dead Oceans) 00:09 Marshall Allen “Slingshot Effect" from101: An Audio Odyssey(Ropeadope) 02:25 Host Speaks 10:14 Faye Carol “Black Night" from Faye Sings The Blues (Getdown) 11:21 Bruce Williams “Ora Dee" from Solid Perspective (WJ3) 19:38 Vanisha Gould “Strollin' (Nostalgia In Times Square)" from What An Interesting Girl (Cellar) 23:49 Host Speaks 31:01 Saul Williams “Mazahua ...

Radio & Podcasts

Caesar Frazier, Goldings Bernstein Stewart, Somi, Mike Clark and more

by Benjamin Boddie
August 12, 2026

Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by Caesar Frazier, Clark Sommers, Goldings Bernstein Stewart, Somi, Adrian Younge, Mike Clark, Arman Sangalang, John Clayton, Haruna Fukazawa, Jae Sinnett, Carlos Henriquez, Malcolm Strachan, Reid Hoyson Project, Sarah Sharp, Suzanne Pittson, Bevan Manson, Michael Dease Big Band, Conrad Herwig, Lisa Rich, Andrew Kim, Nicolas Payton, Zaccai Curtis, Emmet Cohen, Nduduzo Makhathini, Eve Cornelious, Amanda Tosoff, Bruce Williams, Joey Alexander, Helen Sung Big Band, Cindy Blackman Santana, Ben Patterson, Paul Carlon, Jun Iida, Tristan Cappel, ...

Book Review

Cool Cat Blues: The Life and Times of Georgie Fame, as told to and adapted by Ben Sidran

by Mark McKergow
August 11, 2026

Cool Cat Blues: The Life and Times of Georgie Fame Ben Sidran 160 Pages ISBN: 9781800509283 Equinox Publishing 2026 British singer and keyboardist Georgie Fame's long career reaches back to the pre-Beatles “swinging London" of the early '60s. After decades with small groups and big bands as well as steady sideman work, this book presents his story as told to senior jazz historian and longtime colleague Ben Sidran. Born Clive Powell ...

Album Review

Tony Williams Lifetime: Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! Reference: With John McLaughlin & Larry Young

Read "Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! Reference: With John McLaughlin & Larry Young" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 11, 2026

Tony Williams was barely twenty-three when he put the Lifetime trio together in 1969, only five years past his stint as the engine of the Miles Davis Quintet. Emergency!, the group's sprawling doublealbum debut, paired Williams with organist Larry Young and a littleknown British guitarist named John McLaughlin, and the record still stands as one of the founding documents of jazzrock fusion--loud, unruly, ahead of where the rest of the music was standing. The original Polydor LP, mixed by Gene ...

The Jazz Life

"My Feelings Are Wings / That Can Never Be Clipped"—The Jazz Poetry Of Adele Sebastian

by Gabriel Polley
August 11, 2026

In a kinder world, August 2026 would be a month of birthday tributes for a doyenne of the Los Angeles jazz scene. Born on August 14, 1956, flautist and singer Adele Sebastian would be celebrating her seventieth birthday surrounded by generations of younger musicians she had inspired. Perhaps they could look back on a sizeable repertoire of solo and ensemble albums, recorded from the late 1970s to the present, featuring Adele's soulful vocals and sparkling flute improvisation. In a kinder ...