Thirty Years Later, the Vision Remains; plus Dorota Piotrowska, Art Pepper, Adele Sebastian, Jimi Hendrix; Jazz Fiction and More

Looks like we hit it out of the park with Musician Orbit, as responses ranged from "very cool" to "f***ing incredible!" And we're just getting started with a feature that will help shape how readers discover and engage with All About Jazz. There's still more work to do, from making Musician Orbit accessible throughout the site to helping musicians establish their own orbits. We should have detailed instructions for you next week.

It seems like just yesterday that AAJ celebrated its 30th anniversary, yet here we are, just two days away from year 31. 2025 was an extraordinarily productive and impactful year that set the stage for 2026, which may go down as one of the most consequential years in our history. We are rebuilding our foundation, making serious course corrections to adapt to the times, and positioning All About Jazz for the future.

Our focus will remain on music discovery, professional tools, and member engagement, with much more in store between now and the end of the year.

And speaking of looking forward while looking back, I was recently interviewed by B.D. Lenz for his Chats with Cats column, which we'll publish shortly. You can also read my article, "Thirty Years Later, the Vision Remains," which we published today (see below).

Album Reviews

The album reviews below represent our most popular from the past week. View more recent reviews.

Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra & Avin Omar Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra	Mother of the Blues, The Complete Paramount Recordings, 1923-1928 Ma Rainey	Leave That In There Sullivan Fortner	A Supreme Blue Nicholas Payton / Butcher Brown
Voo Voo Runs the Voodoo Down Voo Voo	Rendezvous Rodeo Tu-Ner	I Still Rise Lisa Rich	Balaios Antonio Adolfo

Looking for an album review?

If you're a musician, publicist, or record label seeking album review coverage on All About Jazz, please read our review submission guide, then complete the coverage request form here. When submitting your request, include up to five AAJ album reviewers who best align with your music.

Thirty Years Later, the Vision Remains

When people ask me how All About Jazz began, they often assume it started with a website. It didn't. The idea predates AAJ by two years. Before All About Jazz launched in August 1995, I was fascinated by the possibilities of organizing album information in ways that made it more useful, more connected and more enjoyable to explore. At the time, I was working on a CD-ROM project devoted to jazz discographies, inspired in part by Tom Lord's The Jazz Discography. My goal wasn't simply to digitize information. I wanted to transform it into something relational and interactive—a system where albums, tracks, personnel and other data could be connected and explored in new ways. Continue reading...

Dorota Piotrowska: Jazz With International Voices

As a child in Poland, Dorota Piotrowska was musical. She played piano and listened to records of music from America that her father was fond of, like The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Queen. At age seven her piano studies centered on classical music, as is the case with most kids taking up the instrument. But in high school, she had a friend who played in a band of his peers. She was invited to attend a rehearsal. There was no drummer. "They gave me sticks, you know," Piotrowska says recently from central Poland where she lives. "It was more of a joke for me. But then it turned out that I had so much fun. I wanted to keep playing. I started searching for a professor there in a small town. Continue reading...

The Golden Era of Art Pepper on Contemporary Records (1957-1960)

The arc of alto saxophonist Art Pepper's early career is one of the most dramatic narratives in jazz history—a relentless tug-of-war between transcendent musical genius and the devastating grip of heroin addiction. Between 1957 and 1960, Pepper recorded a sequence of five albums for Lester Koenig's Contemporary Records that redefined the jazz capabilities of the alto saxophone and the genre "West Coast Jazz." Operating within the sunny confines of Los Angeles, Pepper was fighting a dark, private war against narcotics, institutionalization, and deep-seated artistic anxieties. Decades later, Craft Recordings recognized these five specific albums as the definitive pillar of the West Coast jazz canon. For their 70th anniversary Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series, Craft made the deliberate decision to feature this material as a premier showcase of mid-century jazz excellence. Continue reading...

The Jazz Poetry Of Adele Sebastian

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 world. In this one, Adele Sebastian tragically died on September 29, 1983, after a decade-long struggle with the kidney disease lupus. She left behind a small but exquisite body of music: one solo album, Desert Fairy Princess (Nimbus West, 1981). Continue reading...

Jimi Hendrix: Showman and Sculptor

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, the very same Ballroom that for decades has hosted the White House Correspondents' Dinner. On a cool March 10th afternoon in 1968, my teenage buddies and I were among the 4000 ticket holders at the sold-out early show of the The Jimi Hendrix Experience. (There is actually a bootleg recording out there of the evening show.) It was a particularly tumultuous moment in time. Continue reading...

Songs of the Week

Saxophonist Loren Stillman delivers an emotionally stirring collaboration with pianist Craig Taborn and bassist Thomas Morgan. We also return to Jackson Plays Dylan for an encore track. Enjoy them both.

Top Songs

The songs below represent the most heard in the past four weeks. View the Song of the Day archive.

IT's Gotta B U! From the album It's Gotta B U! By Tony Adamo	Ethics Unimposed From the album Ethics Unimposed By Andrei Marian	Four Seas From the album Mridhangit By Rahul Mukerji	Secrets That We Keep From the album Soul Journey By Chris McNulty
Just When You Think You Know From the album Just When You Think You Know By Brian Landrus	Goose Dance From the album Live Your Dream By Brad Goode	Marco the Phoenix From the album Bellflower By Jun Iida	What Hope We Had From the album New Places, Old Faces By Luciano Soriano

Choice Content

Fillmore Dreams, Part 1 (read); Fillmore Dreams, Part 2 (read); Fillmore Dreams, Part 3 (read); Tony Miceli and Chuck Redd At Chris' Jazz Cafe (read); Jimi Hendrix: Showman and Sculptor (read); Charles Lloyd at the Umbria Summer Jazz Festival 2026 (read); Cool Cat Blues: The Life and Times of Georgie Fame, as told to and adapted by Ben Sidran (read); Black Lives at Warsaw Summer Jazz Days (view photos); New York Voices at Ladies' Jazz Festival 2026 (view photos); Dust Bunny at The 19th Summer Jazz Academy (view photos); Bill Frisell and Ambrose Akinmusire at NoMad Jazz Festival (read); Yilian Canizares Trio Plays SFJAZZ (view photos); Reimagining Panama's Musical And Cultural Narratives Of Jazz (read); The 2nd Vis Jazz Festival (view photos); Stanford Jazz Festival 2026 (view photos).

Radio & Podcasts

Tune into our extensive collection of quality programs every week.

Allston Boylston: Marshall Allen at 102! Black Musics: From the Crunchy Edge to the Chewy Center... (listen); Ben Boddie On Jazz: Caesar Frazier, Goldings Bernstein Stewart, Somi, Mike Clark and more (listen); Exploration: Happy Birthday Marcus Roberts! Also Tony Bennett, Allan Holdsworth, and more (listen); One Man's Jazz: A Celebration of Clean Feed Records (listen); Backstage Bay Area: Spreading Love for 40 Years: Claude McKnight of Take 6 (listen); The Stereo Image: Joe Alterman on Mentors, the Blue Note, and Keeping Jazz Joyful (listen); A Broad Spectrum: John Pizzarelli, Shuteen Erdenebaatar & Nils Kugelmann, Nicola Miller, Ayn Inserto, Jazz Sinfonico Mexicano, Stella Cole & More (listen); North Star Sounds: 2026 New Releases, Part 2 (listen); Neon Jazz: Jerry Bergonzi, Joel Puckett, Ted Chubb and Matt Otto (listen); Strictly Jazz Sounds: Joe Lovano: Still on the Rise (listen); Rotations: Akusmi, Nelson Patton, arc rae, hackedepicciotto, Grateful Dead and more (listen); Jazz Connections: The John Coltrane Centennial, part 1: Coltrane's early years with Miles and Monk (listen); The Jazz Disturbance: K Trio, Dorota Piotrowska & Sound Circle, Yoron Israel, Zaccai Curtis (listen); Live At The Bop Stop: Ben Tweedt Trio, Set 1 (listen); Ben Boddie On Jazz: Elias Haslanger, Andrew Kim, Cindy Blackman Santana, Nicolas Payton and more (listen); World of Jazz: New Music From Skúli Sverrisson With Bill Frisell And More (listen); The Jazz Disturbance: Raymond Scott, JabFung, Josh Warren, Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown (listen).

News Announcements

Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, special events and more. View all recent announcements.

JazzWeek Radio Chart: August 10, 2026 (read); Registration Now Open For Newark's Jazz For Teens 2026-27 Classes (read); Now Available: 'Rhombus' On Smoke Sessions Records By Today's Leading Jazz Organ Trio: Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein And Bill Stewart (read); Victor Wooten And The Wooten Brothers To Teach The Language Of Music For The Interactive Masterclass At The 15th John Coltrane International Jazz And Blues Festival (read).

Got news? Share it in our newsletter and on our website. Learn how, here.

---

Posted to All About Jazz Newsletter IN THE All About Jazz GROUP
Read more posts by Michael Ricci