The New Jazz Archive

We delve into the shared history of jazz and spirituality with the spiritual side of sax titan John Coltrane, the gospel roots of jazz, and the sacred music of jazz icon Duke Ellington.

Jazz and R&B both have a long history of protest songs and artists who were also potent political activists not only in the USA, but across the globe.

A look at the shared frontiers of jazz and literature from the many ways jazz shaped the world of poetry and vice versa, and hear how jazz critics have shaped our understanding of the music for the last hundred years.

We continue our tour of America’s great jazz cities with the long-lost jazz and blues traditions of St. Louis, from the turn-of-the-century Mississippi River riverboat economy to St. Louis’ favorite son Miles Davis growing up in the Gateway City.

We celebrate Halloween by exploring jazz’s spooky side with plenty of the best scary music and mysterious legends surrounding some unlucky jazzers.

From 1930s dance culture sparking the big band revolution, through the politics of race shaping the music, it’s the rise, fall, and legacy of the big bands.

Stories and sounds from jazz’s history overseas from the U.S. State Department using jazz as a weapon in the Cold War, the music’s extensive history in other countries, and learn how Israel is producing some of the best modern jazz musicians.

When the two separate paths of jazz and country cross, we get some of the most fascinating fusions in American music, from Hank Garland jazzing up the early Nashville country scene, to the development of Western Swing, and contemporary jazz takes on country classics.

Believe it or not, harmonica, accordion, flute, banjo, and even the bagpipes have all made their impact on the jazz tradition thanks to the tireless efforts of pioneers of the music making these “weird instruments” a little more mainstream.

We continue our tour of America’s great jazz cities with Kansas City and the storied and sordid roots of the famed Kansas City sound, as well as a look at adopted hometown hero Count Basie and one of jazz’s most underappreciated legends: Mary Lou Williams.

We continue our tour of America’s great jazz cities with the sites and sounds of New Orleans jazz and its origins in the early twentieth century, the parade tradition known as Second Line, and explore how Hurricane Katrina has reshaped the New Orleans jazz scene.

A lot of people probably don’t think of jazz as something that’s all that funny, but there’s more than one way to get a laugh out of all things jazz that’s guaranteed to make you chuckle.

We start our tour of America’s great jazz cities with the sites and sounds of Chicago by tracing the arrival of jazz and how it established the city’s reign as America’s jazz capital during the 1920s, leading it to grow into one of the country’s richest avant garde jazz scenes.