by George Varga / April 19, 2018, 6:05 AM

Miles Davis and John Coltrane's 'Final Tour'

live box set a fascinating musical clash of the titans. A literal storm was brewing when Miles Davis performed a pair of remarkable San Diego shows on the same night at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in April 1985.

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Jazz Today:

A great art form should invite brilliance from every corner of a culture. Excluding half the population for no good reason would choke half the creativity from literature or painting or music, would it not? But jazz hasn’t been particularly welcoming to half of the population for the great bulk of its history, as events in 2017 started to expose. Women are speaking up (again) about the ways, explicit and otherwise, they have been excluded, abused, or discouraged. The historic stories of brilliant musicians like Melba Liston

Musicians From Here Playing Music From There

For this New Sounds, hear music that comes from here, but looks over there. It could be Arab music, Indonesian music, Moroccan music, Balkan music, or Ethiopian music, but it’s all music by Americans recreating sounds from elsewhere.

Listen to music by the Anbessa Orchestra, who are Israeli musicians based in Brooklyn (and now L.A.) who are fans of the “golden age” of Ethiopian music. From their most recent record, Negestat, which means Kings in Amharic, hear the Ethio-groove laden title track.

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FEATURED EVENTS

Canary Wharf Jazz Festival

No we don’t mean that it’s scary free jazz, but rather that going along costs nothing, nada, zero, zilch. Friday’s first act is on at 7pm, while the Saturday and Sunday programmes start from 1.30pm and continue through till late evening.

EFG London Jazz Festival

Fancy some free jazz? The EFG London Jazz Festival returns from November 13-22 2015 with over 300 gigs across the city. Don’t let a lack of funds hold you back: there are plenty of free shows at LJF to get you grooving for gratis. Here’s our pick of the best.

Get Ready

concert GALLERY

History

Since the 1920s Jazz Age, jazz has become recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation

Jazz Piano

Thelonious Monk in 1947.
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities.

Artists

In 1924, Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson dance band for a year, as featured soloist. The original New Orleans style was polyphonic, with theme variation and simultaneous collective improvisation. Armstrong was a master of his hometown style, but by the time he joined Henderson's band