News

The Latest Jazz News from Around the World

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• Meshell Ndegeocello (feat. Brandee Younger & Julius Rodriguez), 'Virgo'

  Wed, 22 Mar 2023 11:01:01 GMT

  Ndegeocello doesn't conform to anybody else's idea of the celestial plane. When she sings of supernovas, she sounds like a witness.

• For pianist Dan Tepfer, improvisation is the mother of Bach's Inventions

  Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:15:00 GMT

  Two musical worlds collide as jazz pianist Dan Tepfer finds inspiration, and room for improvisation, in J.S. Bach's Two-Part Inventions.

• Tianna Esperanza's uphill climb to conquering 'Terror'

  Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:11:00 GMT

  Raised in lily-white Cape Cod, Mass. while one of the few persons of color around, Esperanza found their voice the old-fashioned way: by searching for it.

• Exploring the many orbits of jazz legend Wayne Shorter

  Thu, 09 Mar 2023 17:14:28 GMT

  Jazz Night takes a moment to commemorate Wayne Shorter and his eternal body of work – with concert performances, unaired interviews and music picks from our host Christian McBride.

• The lessons of Wayne Shorter, engine of imagination

  Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:00:19 GMT

  Shorter's biographer, Michelle Mercer, recalls the many "isms" and lessons she learned from her time working with the legendary composer and saxophonist on his biography, Footprints.

• Natural Information Society, 'Stigmergy'

  Thu, 02 Mar 2023 18:54:19 GMT

  Joshua Abrams and band don't improvise as much as they coalesce, calibrating the 13-minute piece through an ongoing, call-and-response of tasteful solos and shimmering drones.

• Antonio Sánchez & Bad Hombre: Tiny Desk Concert

  Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:00:37 GMT

  Sánchez observes the world with a drummer's sensibilities. Here, he and his pals in Bad Hombre explore the rhythm of language in a set of tracks from Sánchez's latest album.

• Brandee Younger, 'You're a Girl for One Man Only'

  Thu, 23 Feb 2023 14:00:59 GMT

  Rooted in the lineage of Black music, Younger interprets a tune by Dorothy Ashby, a pioneer of genre-bending harp.

• Musicians in New Orleans and Cuba explore their shared heritage and similar sounds

  Mon, 20 Feb 2023 22:57:00 GMT

  Artists in New Orleans and Cuba are exploring their shared heritage and similar sounds, and bringing high school musicians from both places together in a funky cultural exchange.

• Theo Croker: Tiny Desk Concert

  Fri, 17 Feb 2023 10:01:12 GMT

  The trumpeter brings his unmistakably chill attitude and determination to expand the sound of jazz to this stripped-down Tiny Desk set.

• Violinist's album honors the underground effort to keep jazz alive after Stalin's ban

  Mon, 13 Feb 2023 10:03:00 GMT

  Russian-born violinist Nataly Merezhuk explores the history of jazz in the former Soviet Union in her new album: Jazz on Bones.

• An artist's 'Healing Project,' focused on incarceration and violence, wins $1 million

  Fri, 10 Feb 2023 10:01:20 GMT

  Multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has explored mass incarceration for the last eight years. With this sizeable grant, he hopes to sustain "The Healing Project" for decades to come.

• Samara Joy's polyphonic stardom

  Sat, 04 Feb 2023 10:00:37 GMT

  Don't be shocked by the 23-year-old jazz singer's breakneck rise from precocious college student to best new artist Grammy nominee. In those few years, she's been building three careers at once.

• Lara Downes' season 3 of 'Amplify' launches with a theme of renaissance

  Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:11:00 GMT

  NPR's Leila Fadel talks to pianist Lara Downes about her interview series Amplify, which examines how Black artists today might find themselves in a new cultural renaissance.

• Jazz singer Samara Joy embraces the past while making music for the future

  Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:00:42 GMT

  Watch Lara Downes' conversation with the 23-year-old, Grammy-nominated sensation about balancing the demands of a surging career and the women artists who paved the way.