Featured Jazz Articles
Deconstructing Free Jazz
by Robert J. Lewis
In the continuously evolving history of artistic expression, certain movements emerge that challenge the very foundations of our aesthetic sensibilities. In the early and mid-20th century, Expressionism and free jazz were two audacious musics that not only broke all the rules but broke the spirit of many well-intentioned listeners. If the terms are not quite interchangeable, Expressionism and free jazz share a common genesis that goes back to the early 20th century with the introduction of the 12-tone ...
Continue ReadingJamie Baum: These Are Her Times
by Dean Nardi
Jamie Baum is a world-class composer as well as flutist, who smoothly balances woodwinds with horns, guitar, bass, piano and drums so that they are equals. Her compositions can remind you of a Gil Evans arrangement with several decades of development added to create a thoroughly modern milieu. She mixes high-energy with ballads and Western foundations with South Asian colors; the music so charged it practically has a visible aura around the score. You can hear it on Bridges (Sunnyside, ...
Continue ReadingAAJ @ 30
by Jeff Fitzgerald, Genius
You already know the story. Back in 1990, in some quaint American backwater called Philadelphia somewhere in the Quaker-infested wilds of Pennsylvania, young Michael Ricci dreamt of combining art and technology to create a uniquely American art form and transmit it electronically to every corner of the world except those places where they eat rotting shark meat because dude, seriously. After five years of constant experimentation, at one point even involving a banjo and a KitchenAid mixer connected ...
Continue ReadingThe Evolving Sound of Learning: Western Music Education in India
by Karan Khosla
In this final article of the series on India's evolving jazz landscape, we examine the growing role of contemporary Western music education in shaping new generations of musicians. For generations, Indian music was handed down through the immersive guru-shishya tradition: students living with, or close to, their teachers, learning by ear, imitation and hours spent in the intensity of live, informal apprenticeship. Broadly, in post-independence India, this personalized relationship gave way to imported pedagogical frameworks dominated by the ...
Continue ReadingSunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
by Thomas Cole
Ed Sullivan, at one time was the most renowned name in US television. Most of us hear that name and think of Elvis Presley and his electrifying game-changing performance in 1956. Few of us will ever forget the hip-shaking gyrations that captivated a nation. Nothing like it had ever been seen on national television. Or so the myth goes, as Elvis premiered on the Milton Berle Show a few months earlier. Or we think of and remember his introduction of ...
Continue ReadingThe Unlikely Story of Cannonball Adderley's Rise to the Top
by Alan Bryson
For me, the most gripping music stories are the tales of “overnight sensations." In the jazz sphere, we have our share. There is the story of an eighteen-year-old Billie Holiday, discovered by producer John Hammond while she was a hostess in a Harlem club. There is the tale of a seventeen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald, whose triumphant debut at an Apollo talent contest soon landed her a spot as the vocalist for Chick Webb's orchestra. Even more remarkable is the sheer chance ...
Continue ReadingWhy Is Japan a Jazz Paradise? Part 2—From Sake to Soul: Jazz Musicians and Their Love for Japan
by Atzko Kohashi
Part 1 | Part 2 In May 2025 Japan welcomed an estimated 3.693 million visitors, marking a surge in global fascination with the country--up 125% (more than double!) compared to a decade ago. Many come for the exquisite Japanese cuisine, the tranquil atmosphere of temples and shrines, the ultra-modern buzz of Tokyo, or the soothing beauty of rural landscapes. But long before this boom, our proud jazz legends--the predecessors with finely tuned ears and sensitive souls--had ...
Continue ReadingJulian Shore: Sharing Secrets Under The Rose
by Dean Nardi
Piano trios walk the thin line between exhibitionism and intimacy, and you can look no further than Bill Evans whose tones vibrated ever so slightly with the distant thrill of zeal. Despite insistent attempts to overlook its worthiness in contemporary jazz, the piano trio is alive and well, in good hands with pianists such as Kris Davis, whose Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic Records, 2024) with Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake sends shivers up and down the spine. The Sunna Gunnlaug ...
Continue ReadingJanel Leppin: Her Own Space
by Don Ball
The first thing you learn about musician/composer Janel Leppin is that labels don't fit her music very easily. From structured compositions to free-wheeling improvisations, Leppin does it all. She has made chamber jazz recordings, worked with punk groups, and created lush solo vocal works, all in an effort to tell her own stories and create her own space in music. All About Jazz talked with Leppin in June 2025 about her new group, Skullcap, and their new album, ...
Continue ReadingOrnette Coleman's and Horace Silver's "Lonely Woman" — A Disambiguation
by Artur Moral
Reality is filled with confusion and misunderstandings; some are suggestive or creative, while others are disappointing or, worse, malicious. The jazz world is no stranger to the first type: specific compositions are often confused or misidentified as if they were the same. Usually, this happens because of similar melodies or titles that are sometimes identical. This last case applies to the two themes discussed here, which are homonymous but musically quite different. The first, desolate and raw, is by Ornette ...
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