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Resonant Access
In this jazz fiction piece, Resonant Access, music is more than expression--it's a form of inquiry. Elliot Mercer, a modern jazz alto saxophonist and theoretical physicist, discovers that sustained tones and careful listening can destabilize the very systems meant to observe and control the world around him. Blending improvisation, science, and quiet resistance, the story explores jazz as a discipline of resonance, choice, and freedom--one that exists only in the moment it is played. Elliot Mercer discovered it ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Charlie Parker, Harry "Father" White, and Sweet Lucy
While it is undeniably true that formal education is generally a benefit both to the student and to society as a whole, it is equally indisputable that many jazz greats got their best education outside a classroom. Johnny Hodges claimed he got the nickname “Rabbit" from his ability to outrun truant officers. Charlie Parker said of his four years at Kansas City's Lincoln High School that he “Went in a freshman, and came out a freshman." ...
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Karen Stachel Norbert Stachel & Lehcats Join Forces With Giovanni Hidalgo On 'Live At The Breakroom,' A 2-CD Set To Be Released March 20
Omnivorous jazz fusion combo LehCats channels the awesome percussive power and ingenuity of conguero Giovanni Hidalgo with Live at the Breakroom, set for a March 20 release by Purple Room Productions. Captured on a night at the titular San Jose venue when Hidalgo was featured with the New York–based band led by husband-and-wife Karen (flutes, vocals) and Norbert Stachel (saxophones, flutes), the double-disc album is a superlative example of what can happen when spontaneity, unforced chemistry, and an energetic and ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Live At The Bop Stop Announces Season 20 Lineup
Live at the Bop Stop kicks off its sixth year and twentieth season of the program this month with performances from Bill Ransom and Keynote artist Troy Roberts. Live at the Bop Stop features jazz performances recorded live to air from the stage of the BOP STOP in Cleveland, Ohio, airs on 82 affiliates in 8 countries, and is offered at no cost and without a sponsor to educational, community and jazz formatted over air and online stations. Season Twenty ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Sol Roots Trio Performs At The Listening Booth
The Sol Roots trio performs an award-winning blend of New Orleans influenced funk, deep blues, heartfelt soul, and energetic rock at The Listening Booth, located on Delaware's scenic coast. On Saturday, January 17 world class guitarist and vocalist Sol Roots brings his trio to perform at intimate concert hall The Listening Booth, which is located on Delaware’s scenic coast. Sol Roots performs an award-winning blend of New Orleans influenced funk, deep blues, heartfelt soul, and energetic rock. Known for his ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
North Sea Jazz Festival 2025
Various ArtistsNorth Sea Jazz FestivalRotterdam, The NetherlandsJuly 11-13, 2025 North Sea Jazz Festival is not just one of the many music festivals around the world; to thousands of people, it is The Festival. Unlike most music festivals, it is not built around hype, trends, or spectacle. It is built around attentive listening, deep legacy--dating back to 1976--and passionate, emotional musical conversation. Its uniqueness comes from how it treats music, musicians, and audiences. At ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Joel Ross and Others at the 2026 Winter Jazzfest's Brooklyn Marathon
Manhattan Marathon | Brooklyn Marathon Joel Ross and Others Winter Jazzfest Brooklyn MarathonNew York, NY January 10, 2026 New York's Winter JazzFest--to its credit--does not present stars of pop and other non-jazz genres to expand its audience and fill the festival coffers. But the January jazz mainstay is not averse to programming jazz-adjacent musicians or jazz artists who are dabbling in crossover projects that are shaded with non-jazz influences. Both kinds ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Roger Glenn: A Lifelong Latin Heart
The photograph shows the hero of this tale, Roger Glenn, sometime in the late 1940s when he was five or six, learning to play the marimba with his father, Tyree. An alumnus of the Swing Era, Tyree Glenn played trombone with Cab Calloway during the orchestra's “Hi-De-Ho" prime between 1939 and 1946 and with the small-group-within-a-group, the Cab Jivers. He was even implicated in the notorious “spitball" incident that led to a young disruptive Dizzy Gillespie getting his marching orders. ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Thailand International Jazz Conference 2026 To Celebrate John Coltrane Centennial With Grand Orchestral Tribute
The College of Music, Mahidol University, will write a new chapter in Thailand’s jazz history with the 17th Thailand International Jazz Conference (TIJC) 2026, scheduled for January 23-25, 2026, at the College of Music, Salaya Campus. Dozens of world-class jazz artists from around the globe will gather to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary John Coltrane. Artistic Director Darin Pantoomkomol affirmed that the 2026 edition of TIJC marks a defining milestone for the global jazz community. ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Igor Willcox: Have Drums, Will Travel
Brazilian drummer Igor Willcox is fast becoming one of the most interesting young artists in jazz. A string of superb releases with his jazz fusion quartet, which currently includes saxophonist Wagner Barbosa, electric bassist Ricardinho Paraiso, and pianist Erik Escobar, culminated in the 2025 album Time Traveller (Room73 Records, 2025). Music is in Willcox's blood, as Igor descends from several generations of successful musicians. “My mother, Sônia (Rocha) Willcox, is a celebrated Brazilian singer, and my father, Paulo César Willcox, ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Stacey Kent At Birdland
Stacey Kent Birdland New York, NYDecember 17, 2025 Coolly attired in sedate, simple black trousers and matching jacket, Stacey Kent warmed up a sold-out crowd with an eclectic set on a frigid Wednesday at New York City's celebrated jazz bôite, Birdland. Backed by longtime pianist Art Hirahara on the Yamaha grand, Tim Hubbard on bass and reedman (and Kent's husband of 34 years) Jim Tomlinson, Kent offered up a cool recital of her much-lauded, award-winning jazz ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Super Nova In The Great White North: Explosive Jazz 2025
It's a long list of inspiring artists this year on the Canadian Best Of 2025 roster. Jazz spirit is in the air. An 11th release from the kaleidoscopic-robed, comedic powerhouse ensemble, saxophone groove favorites the Shuffle Demons, enhanced the year with their beyond-fab 2025 writing. Funky sax lines interspersed with laughs, fun, and hipster-king attitude make them a Canadian treasure. Impressive Canada-US-Japan female-led supergroup Artemis' creative virtuosic music adventures kept us captive. And raved-about glowing artistry came from ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Nels Cline and Others At 2026 Winter Jazzfest's Manhattan Marathon
Manhattan Marathon | Brooklyn MarathonNels Cline and More Winter Jazzfest's Manhattan Marathon New York, NY January 9, 2026 Like New York's winters on the whole, the long nights of the city's Winter JazzFest demand hardiness. Moveable feasts that sprawl onto multiple stages in a neighborhood, the Jazzfest's celebrated marathons require braving New York's cold to trudge, for up to a mile, between clubs. And when you arrive at one, you may have to ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Marek Śmietański's Favorite Jazz Albums Of 2025
Here's a list of albums released in 2025 that left more than just a mark on my memory. For many years now, I've stopped ranking albums as “the best." Such lists usually end up being either personal favorites or, in the case of vote-based rankings, simply the most popular ones--which aren't necessarily the best. I also don't feel any need to arrange them in any particular order or according to any specific criterion. Quick note: I rarely include live albums ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Unity Jazz Festival 2026 at Jazz At Lincoln Center
Unity Jazz FestivalOpening NightJazz at Lincoln CentreNew York, NY January 8, 2026 It does not rain--or snow--jazz in New York in the first week of January, it pours--or blizzards--the music. Winter JazzFest, the longtime colossus that takes over clubs in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, has been joined in the past three years by the Unity Jazz Festival, which runs two marathon nights within the multiple spaces of the Jazz at Lincoln Center headquarters just north of ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Kurt Elling: Manifesting the Music
Kurt Elling first appeared on The Third Story podcast in 2016--nearly ten years ago now. In some ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. Back then, he had moved from his native Chicago to New York and was living in Manhattan. The first Trump presidency, the pandemic, and the cascade of upheaval that would follow were not yet realities. Even then, Elling was already one of the most celebrated singers alive. This is what I wrote about him ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Pierre Giroux's Favorite Jazz Albums of 2025
The story of my selection of the top jazz albums of 2025, is, fittingly a conversation between past and present. New recordings by working bands and veteran leaders proved that the language of swing, blues and modern harmony is still being spoken with conviction, while carefully curated reissues reminded us just how deep the tradition runs. Equally compelling were the previously unheard sessions finally brought to light, offering a fresh glimpse of great artists caught in unguarded, inspired moments.Together these ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Deborah Henson-Conant Live: A Powerful, Spellbinding Night Of Electric Harp
Grammy-nominated harpist, composer, and international performer Deborah Henson-Conant announces her return to The Center for Arts in Natick, MA (TCAN) with a solo live performance on Saturday, January 31, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. The evening promises an intimate, dynamic concert featuring electric harp, voice, storytelling, and DHC’s signature humor—hallmarks of a career that has reshaped perceptions of the harp worldwide. Tickets are available via the TCAN website. Widely recognized as the artist who changed the way the world sees the ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Breath Without End: The Trumpeter Who Found Faith and Never Died
For most of his life, Samuel Calder believed in only two things: breath and brass. Faith, eternity, and the unseen were abstractions best left to philosophers and preachers. What mattered was the pressure of air through the lungs, the resistance of metal against the lips, and the fleeting perfection of a note played exactly right. Samuel Calder was a trumpet player. He had been a good one, too--never famous, never forgotten. For four decades he played ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Glenn Astarita's Best Jazz Albums Of 2025
Another year, another reminder that jazz refuses to stay in its lane. The ten albums that grabbed me most in 2025 don't follow any neat narrative or trend--they're just the records I kept coming back to, the ones that made me hit repeat or sit up and pay closer attention. Some are from veterans who still have plenty to say, others from artists I'm just discovering. A few feel like natural progressions, while others surprised me in ways I'm still ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz