T he legendary comedian and actor Jackie Gleason often listed “musician,” “composer” and “conductor” as a part of his ...

J ust because we’re deep in autumn’s serenade for John Coltrane’s 100th birthday doesn’t mean we can’t break off some love ...

n Labor Day weekend, downtown Detroit’s Hart Plaza overflowed with jazz fans eager to hear local and national musicians at the 47th annual Detroit Jazz Festival (September 4–7). One of the few major ...

hen writing about this year’s centenary celebrations of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, it’s been fascinating to see how their respective work has been revisited and redefined for the 21st century. One ...

arly on in this memoir-of-sorts from Al Schackman (via A.G. Dunewood Publishing Co.), the venerable guitarist (93 this October) mentions that he has perfect pitch and a photographic memory. Both serve ...

rom 1969 through the late ’90s, listeners to jazz radio in England, Germany, Denmark, Holland and other European countries heard one of the most seductive sounds ever to come out of their speakers: ...

That’s what Ravi Coltrane told me around the time of the 2021 reissue of Giant Steps, the 60th anniversary package. Having previously interviewed Ravi about his own solo work over the years, it’s been ...

Making information around-and-about jazz readily available is as crucial as pushing the music itself, across age, race and educational divides. To that end, the Jazz Generations Initiative — designed ...

In my recent Bright Moments discussion with the great Steve Swallow, you’d better believe the subject of the classic Jimmy Giuffre Trio of the early ’60s came up. That drummer-less unit, with Swallow ...

In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles, Volume One, Bob Dylan writes about his early days in New York’s Greenwich Village, when the 21-year-old would eagerly seek out musicians, writers and artists, anyone ...

Honora, the new solo album from Flea, feels like a thinker relearning how to speak. Not metaphorically — literally. Breath becomes language. And what Flea offers here is not fluency, but vulnerability ...

Perhaps you’ve read my commentary on Pat Metheny’s new Side-Eye album. But there’s more guitar this season. As a start, here are four releases from the first quarter of 2026 that set the bar high and ...