The Jazz Life

The Jazz Life is a monthly column that aims to be a different take on how we write and read about jazz–stories of individual experiences, funny, sad, maddening and profound. A community talking to itself about what’s really important, or at least interesting to its members.

"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 ...

15 Minutes with MacKenzie Scott

by John March
July 29, 2026

Let me be clear about the title: I have never met MacKenzie Scott, and a 15-minute conversation has not happened--at least not yet. Yes, the headline is intended to get your attention. I can live with that. Artists have been asked to promote themselves in far less honest ways. But the invitation is genuine, and this article is my case for why the conversation is worth having. We are living through a difficult and contradictory moment for the ...

James Rivers: A Retrospective

by Thomas Cole
July 18, 2026

James Rivers was part of the backbone of the New Orleans sound, from the earliest days in the '50s until July 5, 2026 when he passed away at the age of 89. A regular at Jazz Fest, he performed there only two months earlier, his final public appearance. He's played with everyone in New Orleans and will be greatly missed. What follows, in his words alone, was most probably his final statement to a journalist. I went to ...

The Scent of Swing: Jazz, Fragrance, and the Invisible Aura of Cool

by Patrick Doyle
May 15, 2026

Please visit the Scent Veteran website at https://ScentVeteran.comAtmosphere as Art: Where Jazz Meets Scent Jazz has never belonged solely to the ear. It lives in the atmosphere--in the way light hits a lacquered piano, in the hush between notes, in the glide of a well-cut suit across a crowded room. It is configuration, timing, presence. It is the ineffable quality we call “cool," a sensibility that resists definition precisely because it exists beyond language. Fragrance occupies that same elusive ...

Les McCann and Me: Laughter, love, and the friendship that changed my life

by Joe Alterman
May 12, 2026

It was barely a month before Les McCann died that I was sitting in the dressing room at Birdland FaceTiming with him just before hitting the stage to celebrate my recent release, which was a tribute to Les and his beautiful original compositions. Two hours earlier, we'd been chatting by FaceTime in my hotel room when I told Les that I had to go because it was time for me to take a shower so that I could ...

May Yu and the Evolving Voice of the Jazz Violin

by Kyle Simpler
May 7, 2026

On April 19, 2026, violinist May (Tianyang) Yu performed at NYU Skirball as part of To the Stars and Night, a gala event that included a string quartet piece commissioned by China's Ministry of Culture and developed by the Central Conservatory of Music. The production brought together institutional Chinese arts programming, conservatory-level training, and a contemporary New York performance venue. Within that setting, Yu stood out for her command of both classical performance and jazz improvisation. ...

Bob Graf: A St. Louis Tenor Voice the World Almost Missed

by Melodi Graf McCraine
April 14, 2026

There is a particular kind of musician who never quite makes it into the history books despite spending a career in the company of greatness. Bob Graf was that kind of musician--a St. Louis tenor saxophonist who played alongside Count Basie, Woody Herman, Chet Baker, Grant Green, and Gerry Mulligan, recorded albums that still sell today, and spent five decades keeping jazz alive in the city that shaped him. He died in 1981 at 54. His story deserves to be ...

A House Full of History with Leslie Blackshear Smith in New Orleans

by Thomas Cole
March 28, 2026

On the recommendation of more than one person, I sought an audience with another of the born and raised New Orleanians who have been indispensable to an education in the town's traditional music. Living a stone's throw from the river and the shadows of an imposing abandoned factory, I knocked on the peeling paint of a wooden door to her fenced in garden enclosure, but the texted response was hardly hopeful--on a facetime call and can't talk. Departing to drive ...

A Farewell to Madrid's Café Central

by Artur Moral
September 24, 2025

It happened to Chicago with The London House and The Velvet Lounge; it happened to San Francisco with the Black Hawk Club and the Keystone Corner; and, of course, it happened to New York City with Cafe Society, Sweet Basil, Village Gate and Jazz Standard. It has also happened in many other places and cities around the world. Now, it is happening in Madrid: the emblematic Café Central of the Spanish capital closes its doors on October 12, 2025, and ...

The Joy of Kissa

by Peter Jones
June 4, 2024

Just before a recent visit to Japan, essential reading arrived at home in the form of Philip Arneill's book Tokyo Jazz Joints (reviewed by Ian Patterson). Well, we all know that jazz is big in Japan, right? Certainly, jazz is a common backdrop to many everyday experiences in that country. You hear it in elevators, hotel lobbies, and department stores everywhere. And for the most part it isn't faux-jazz, smooth jazz, or easy listening: as you stroll across ...