Featured Jazz Articles
Köln 75
by Paul Reynolds
Köln 75One Two Films / Extreme Emotions / Gretchenfilm / MMC Studios Köln GmbHDIrector: Ido Fluk2025 November, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of The Köln Concert (ECM Records, 1975), the live recording by Keith Jarrett that stands as the biggest-selling solo album--and piano album--in jazz history. To mark the occasion cinematically, Köln 75 hit select U.S. movie screens in October, 2025. The film defies expectations and takes risks, almost as much as ...
Continue ReadingEuropean Jazz Conference 2025: Italian Showcases
by Ian Patterson
Italian Jazz Showcase Various venues European Jazz Conference Bari, Italy September 26-27, 2025 Jazz rang out in Bari for four days during the Europe Jazz Network's annual European Jazz Conference. It rang out in Bari's streets, piazzas and theatres, and in ancient church and castle too. It may have been an event of note in Bari's cultural calendar, but in a sense this wonderful celebration of jazz was just business as usual for the ...
Continue ReadingThe Audiophile: Adrian Butts
by B.D. Lenz
Speak with any recording engineer, and they will express to you the frustration they have with modern music listening habits. Think about the money invested in top-notch gear to maximize the sonic quality of their productions, the effort put into having great sounds on a recording, the care poured into getting just the right mix, and all of the considerations taken when finally mastering their work. And for all of that, most people only listen to it through their phone ...
Continue Reading50 Years Later: 10 Jazz Albums from 1975 That Deserve Another Spin
by Kyle Simpler
1975 was a landmark year for music, marked by several outstanding album releases. Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (Columbia), Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti (Swan Song), Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (Harvest), Frank Zappa's One Size Fits All (DiscReet) and Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow (Epic) were just a few of the titles that have since become classic albums. The year, however, was not entirely dominated by rock albums. 1975 was also an essential year for jazz. ...
Continue ReadingThe Black Entrepreneurs of Early Jazz
by Karl Ackermann
Preamble: In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map of events and the chronology of jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories dives deeper into people ...
Continue ReadingChildren of the Light: Forging New Footprints
by Jiaowei Hu
"The trio is a real laboratory for colours, voices, and ways of playing interactions," says the Panamanian-born jazz pianist Danilo Pérez. With bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, Pérez has forged a bond over two decades in Wayne Shorter's last and yet groundbreaking Footprints Quartet. After Shorter withdrew from the public eye, the three sidemen continued to explore cosmic and existential themes. They nod to Shorter's mentorship and named their trio as “Children of the Light"--a twist on Shorter's ...
Continue ReadingReykjavik Jazz Festival 2025
by Nenad Georgievski
Reykjavik Jazz Festival Harpa Concert Hall Reykjavik, IcelandAugust 26-31, 2025 Jazz festivals are rarely just stages and instruments. They are living, breathing ecosystems, a careful weaving together of artists, ideas, and audiences. Each performer brings a unique expression, and each set is curated with an ear for the festival's identity. Financial constraints may exist, but thoughtful curation is what gives a festival its soul. The Reykjavik Jazz Festival is no exception: it's a mosaic of ...
Continue ReadingGary Bartz Is Nobody's Jazz Musician
by Bridget A. Arnwine
Gary Bartz is nobody's jazz musician. What he has built and created as an artist with a career that spans six decades defies labels, especially ones that have storied racist connotations and otherwise derogatory origins like the word jazz. He is a composer of the finest order and as gifted as the most revered names in classical music. Defining his work as improvised music is too simple a term to fully capture the essence of what Bartz and “jazz" musicians ...
Continue Reading2025 Detroit Jazz Festival: All Free, All Jazz
by Paul Rauch
2025 Detroit Jazz Festival Hart Plaza & Cadillac Square Detroit, MI August 28-September 1, 2025 There is a story Detroit Jazz Festival President and Artistic Director Chris Collins loves to tell about an intimate conversation he had with Gretchen Valade. Valade had rescued the festival from the brink of financial demise with a generous endowment, and wanted to be very clear with Collins about her intent and wishes for the event well into the future. ...
Continue ReadingRemembering Hermeto Pascoal: The Sorcerer's Spell
by Ian Patterson
Hermeto Pascoal, the one-of-a-kind Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and composer, has gone to the great gig in the sky. Known affectionately as Bruxo (Sorcerer), Pascoal passed away on September 13, 2025. He was 89. Few musicians have traversed as many styles of Brazilian music as Pascoal. His first commercial recording, in 1956, was with Clóvis Pereira--the renowned composer of folkloric, choral and orchestral works; Pascoal plays sanfona (button accordion) on two tracks. Over the next 65 years, Pascoal contributed to ...
Continue Reading
