Blog - Jazz Spectrum

The Underappreciated Miles Davis

May 28, 2026

‘Tis the season to celebrate Miles Davis’s massive contributions to jazz. He is our Picasso, reimagining himself and what the music could be time after time. For many of us, he was our introduction to jazz, providing so many pathways to explore. He defined repertoire, how ensembles should work together, how the trumpet sounds, and what cool is. Since most of these essays for his 100th birthday are discussing favorite moments in the music, let me instead confess some of what I have missed so far in his canon. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 2: Miles and Friends

May 27, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

In yesterday's post, I noted something striking about Miles Davis at nineteen: even while playing in Charlie Parker's quintet, alongside the most revered innovator in jazz, and while still absorbing the methods and challenge of bebop, Miles was already forging his own aesthetic in his own sound, his own relationship with silence, his own sense of where a melody wanted to go. The point warrants a second look because it illuminates something that would define Miles's entire career. Even in his apprenticeship, Miles treated Bird as a collaborator. Not as a superior. Read More

Miles Davis at 100 – Part 1: The Six Revolutions of Miles

May 26, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Today is the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis. Born in 1926, he passed in 1991 at the age of 65. He made his first important recordings when he was about twenty. By many sane reckonings, he made his last radical records when he was about fifty. So, thirty years of transcendent art. Let me give you one more number – he changed music six times. I don’t mean he changed his music six times; or that he constantly grew and evolved, burnishing his sound and expanding the range of his tastes. Most important jazz musicians have done that, and more. Read More

Roscoe Mitchell in Performance

April 15, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Roscoe Mitchell with K. Curtis Lyle, Damon Scott and Shuggie
Dissonant Works, St. Louis Read More

Music Was Breath and Blood for Hannah

February 20, 2026

Jazz Spectrum

Music was breath and blood for Hannah Lammie, a gifted singer, inspired librarian, humanitarian, and devoted wife, mother, sister, and daughter. Even before she was born in Connecticut, on Feb. 19, 1973, she absorbed the sounds and vibrations of great orchestral music, church classics, and flute lessons, as her mother Sally pursued her own musical career. With her sisters, Emily and Sarah, Hannah listened to folk music by such performers as Pete Seeger, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan. Read More

The Best of 2025

December 31, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz Byers

What a difference a year makes . . .

I can’t bear to assay all the things about the world that look and feel different from how they looked and felt a year, or a little more than a year, ago. If you can keep track of which side likes Russian autocracy and which side misses the good old FBI, you’re better at cultural ping-pong than I. (Speaking of which, after watching Marty Supreme my family has launched a movement to replace the dining-room table with a ping-pong table. That’s the kind of change I can believe in.)
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My Year in Jazz: 2025

December 31, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

Kim Kleinman, Contributing Writer

I don’t have the responsibility that Fritz has in providing us with the 12 hours of top-notch jazz programming each week. That is a daunting task I can only begin to imagine. There is so much wonderful music to listen to and he must have jazz playing every waking moment. Daunting sure, but it doesn’t sound all that bad to me.
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A Few of My Favorite Things

December 31, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By Rob Michaels
Contributing Writer

My favorite recordings acquired in 2025

Jazz - New

Patricia Brennan - Of the Near and Far (Pyroclastic)
Chicago Underground Duo - Hyperglyph (International Anthem)
Cosmic Ear - Traces (We Jazz)
Cosmic Tones Research Trio - s/t (Mississippi)
Sullivan Fortner - Southern Nights (Artwork)
Sinsuke Fujieta Group - Fukushima (SoFa)
Gustafson, Vandermark, Reid, Taylor - PIVOT (Silkheart) Read More

Remembering Jack DeJohnette

November 6, 2025

Jazz Spectrum

By Kim Kleinman Read More

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