Jazz is complex music that even some professional musicians have difficulty playing. Yet somehow, jazz-band teachers create new jazz musicians out of youngsters who just a few years earlier knew ...

I just got back from my second trip to the Katy Jazz festival, run by a school district just West of Houston. It was time for a jazz fix. You see, I am a jazz fan, and though not compulsive, I do need ...

What is jazz? Beacon of the oppressed; music of New Orleans bordellos; popular dance music; revolutionary music; high-art music with an established cannon; progressive music that absorbs and grows; ...

And it seems that in 2025 there was not only an abundance of new jazz releases, but the quality bar was raised again, with ...

Duke Ellington rejected it, Charles Mingus was ambivalent about it, and Wynton Marsalis is okay with it. For many African American musicians the word “jazz” is a double-edged term, sometimes ...

The country has a rich, original relationship to jazz, with American techniques layered into regional traditions and rhythms. Explore 50 years of recordings picked by musicians, poets and writers. By ...

The international jazz festival Jazz Bishkek Spring takes place in the capital of Kyrgyzstan every year in April, spanning two or three nights across multiple venues. This vibrant event offers a ...

The NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest got nearly 7,000 entries this year. Here are some of the notable jazz entries. One of the great joys of the NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest is listening to the nearly 7,000 ...