Hear & Now Playlist: Los Angeles

JAZZIZ Hear & Now playlists shine a spotlight on jazz scenes around the world, bringing you new music from local artists who rep their cities proudly. Think of it as your sonic passport to a global jazz destination. Step into a jazz club or turn on the jazz station in your new city, and this is the music you’d be hearing now.

We launch the series with a journey to the West Coast. If you’ve been following jazz media at all recently, you know that Los Angeles is a hotbed of jazz innovation, home to pioneering artists like Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin and Miles Mosley who are transforming the jazz landscape by introducing elements like hip-hop, neo-soul, G-funk and psychedelic rock into the standard jazz repertoire. It’s a unique brand of jazz that sounds unlike anything else in the world, and it has attracted waves of new listeners to jazz’s shores. Whether you’re a L.A. newbie or a longtime local, we hope you take this playlist for a spin. It’s all the fun of a trip to L.A. without all that traffic.