LATEST JAZZ ALBUM

In 2014, pianist Jeff Lorber, guitarist Chuck Loeb and drummer Everette Harp formed the supergroup Jazz Funk Soul after logging many hours on the road and onstage together with one another. That year, they released their eponymously titled debut album, which was followed by More Serious Business in 2016. Loeb ... read more

Looking for some Monday motivation? We’ve got you covered. From the new single by one of today’s most influential instrumental-music ensembles to an expressive experiment mixing free jazz with European queer club music, here are five new jazz songs that you can listen to right now to start your week ... read more

Miles Davis, “Jeru,” from Birth of the Cool Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool set the mold for the genre that would come to be known as cool jazz. The trailblazing trumpeter and his musical partner, the imaginative conductor-arranger Gil Evans, began recording the album on this day — January 21 — in 1949. ... read more

JAZZIZ Time Capsule playlists dial back the years to a specific point on the jazz timeline. Today’s destination: the 1970s, a decade of bell bottoms, big hair and even bigger bands. In jazz, fusion was all the rage, but just below that frequency, big bands were having themselves a renaissance. ... read more

Diane Hoffman, “Do I Love You,” from Do I Love You Vocalist Diane Hoffman recently released her third album, Do I Love You, featuring drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. and a formidable ensemble that includes pianist Billy Test, guitarist Jacob Kelberman,  bassists Yasushi Nakamura and Yoshi Waki, saxophonist Daniel Dickinson, trumpeter Vitaly ... read more

Three-time Grammy-winning, genre-defying collective Snarky Puppy will release their new album, Immigrance, on March 15 via GroundUP Music. The album is produced by bassist-composer Michael League, who founded Snarky Puppy in 2003 and has helmed it into one of the most popular and influential bands of the current jazz and ... read more

The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz world. It’s a one-stop destination for the music news you need to know. Let’s take it from the top. Jazz School: Education News New Chapter for Nicole Mitchell: Flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell has been appointed ... read more

Pianist Cedar Walton was born on this day in Dallas, Texas, in 1934. A member of Art Blakey’s sextet in the 1960s, Walton was a leading voice in the development of hard-bop piano, possessed of a style that welded meticulous technical execution to an exuberant sense of swing. He was ... read more

At the Pershing: But Not For Me was a landmark album for Ahmad Jamal, a pianist with a refreshingly minimalist style and an exceptional feel for dynamics. To this day, the album — featuring trio mates Israel Crosby on bass and Vernel Fournier on drums — remains one of his most respected ... read more

Joe Lovano may be best known for his outstanding tenure at Blue Note Records, which he’s called home since 1991. But he’s also been a vital presence on the German label ECM, founded by renowned producer Manfred Eicher. It’s a relationship that stems back to 1981, when Lovano first appeared on drummer ... read more

In the mid-’60s, a young American singer named LaDonna Adrian Gaines landed a role in a touring production of the iconic musical Hair. The production traveled to Munich, Germany, and she decided to move there. She married Austrian actor Helmut Sommer in 1973 and changed her name to Donna Sommer – ... read more

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has released the musical lineup for this year’s 50th-anniversary edition, which will take place over two consecutive weekends, on April 25–April 28 and on May 2–5. Watch their official talent announcement video via the player below: The Rolling Stones are among the ... read more

Sixty years ago today, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan wrapped the recording session for What Is There To Say?, his last “pianoless” quartet album of the 1950s. The album featured Art Farmer on trumpet, Bill Crow on bass and Dave Bailey on drums, and was praised for its intimate yet incendiary energy. The ... read more

In the world of contemporary jazz vibraphone, few names ring louder than Joe Locke’s. Endowed with impeccable technique and a gift for melodic storytelling, Locke launched his career in the early ‘90s as a sideman for jazz stalwarts like George Cables, Eddie Henderson and Freddy Cole, but his improvisational ingenuity ... read more

Grady Tate, a hard-swinging drummer who would launch a second career as a vocalist later in life, was born on this day in Durham, North Carolina, in 1932. Tate’s drumming was a guiding force in the development of soul-jazz, and his sideman credits include stints with leaders of the genre ... read more