Pharoah Sanders’ 1977 release Izipho Zam (My Gifts) on the Strata-East label is a fascinating listen. Widely regarded as a landmark in the evolution of free jazz, it continues to grow on me—and that, ...

Unlike the structured precision of a piano-driven quartet, saxophone-guitar albums thrive on spontaneity. Imagine a smoky jazz club where the deep, soulful wail of a saxophone weaves effortlessly with ...

Coleman Hawkins, known as "The Hawk" or "Bean," basically invented tenor sax as we know it, all the way down to Bill Clinton playing his way to office. After making many recordings with various groups ...

Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz innovator whose lyrical, complex jazz compositions and pioneering saxophone playing sounded through more than half a century of American music, has died. He was 89.

It may be coincidence, or just a reflection of my own state of mind, that this dreadful year’s list of favorite jazz albums leans toward the meditative, the balladic, the Romantic, sometimes the Zen, ...

Like the alleged corpse vociferously protesting in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail,” the compact-disc format refuses to accede to its seemingly imminent demise. Even as CD sales continue to plunge, ...