Features

The Fusion Moment: A Conversation with Chick Corea

Celebrated keyboardist-composer Chick Corea has had his hand in many styles of music: bebop, post-bop,…

When Worlds Collided: A Brief History of “Fusion”

Legend has it that when Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival,…

10 Essential Jazz Fusion Albums

While the blending of jazz and rock aesthetics had started years before, the 1970s was…

Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit: How South African Pianist Nduduzo Makhathini Won Over Wynton Marsalis and the World

Against a background of full-throated endorsement by Wynton Marsalis and more compliments from the rest…

The Sound and the Vision: A Conversation with Bob James

The following interview is derived from a conversation between Bob James and JAZZIZ Editor and…

New Music Monday: Bob James, Kandace Springs, Nate Wood and more

The Ultimate Bob James Playlist

Bob James is best known as a progenitor of smooth jazz. A two-time GRAMMY Award-winner,…

A Greene New Deal: Saxophonist Jimmy Greene Finds Musical Refuge in Troubled Times

Although Jimmy Greene recorded his new album, While Looking Up (Mack Avenue), well before the…

Q&A with Thundercat: New Album ‘It Is What It Is’ Helps Us Embrace the Change

Thundercat has climbed up the ranks of jazz-adjacent music over the past decade, growing from…

Bird Is the Word: Quotes By and About Charlie Parker

“I can play all I know in eight bars.” —Charlie Parker “You could look…

Does Charlie Parker Still Matter?

There’s no shortage of commentary proclaiming the significance of the meteoric genius Charlie Parker. Born…

Bobby Watson, Gary Bartz and Vincent Herring: Chairmen of the Bird

Vincent Herring’s concept for the live recording Bird at 100 (Smoke Sessions) was simple: gather…

10 Essential Charlie Parker Recordings

Apart from a trove of bootlegged live performances, Parker made virtually all of his recordings…

Six Artists Influenced By Charlie Parker

From 1941, when Charlie Parker’s first commercially recorded solos (“Hootie Blues” and “Jumpin’ the Blues,”…

Forward Vision: Artists to Watch in 2020

By Jared Proudfoot & Samuel Ngahane Jazz had another bumper year in 2019 with the…

Get Back To Where You Once Belonged: Al Di Meola Pays The Beatles A Second Visit

Al Di Meola was just nine years old when the Beatles performed on the Ed…

Jazz Travelogue: Exploring Identity at Jazzfest Berlin

Identity and jazz, for me, go hand in hand. Much of my own discovery of this music was shaped by racial and familial-like ties to its artists, many of whom became the mothers and fathers I never had. But the connection goes far deeper than I had imagined.