Breaking Jazz

About The Program

Matt SilverHost:
Matt Silver

Dizzy Gillespie once said: “As a musician, you have to keep one foot in the past and have one foot forward, into the future.”

Matt Silver here to let you know that musicians making new jazz records today — whether they’re conscious of it or not — continue to heed Dizzy’s words. This music we love is so inextricably bound to its history, to legendary musicians long passed, that, as an audience, we can lose sight of the fact that it’s constantly evolving, its idiomatic language constantly expanding, like the universe — or the argot of adolescence.

On my new show, “Breaking Jazz” — showcasing the recently released music I like best right now — you’ll hear from the instrumentalists and vocalists generating the most buzz in the contemporary jazz ecosystem. You’ll also hear from those who’ve got the chops but not yet the name recognition. Hence, breaking jazz — like breaking news.

But the name of the show implies something beyond that. And that is the prospect of discovering not just new songs and the new names playing them, but new sounds — sounds distinctly rooted in the capital-T tradition but also unencumbered by any prescriptive notion of what jazz is or must be.

On “Breaking Jazz,” we’ll champion music qua music; that is, music for its own sake, as a mood and perspective altering substance that makes life, if not a little better, than at least a little richer and more acutely felt, its texture more perceptible. I will never play an album simply because its promotional materials declare it to stand for one anodyne, focus-group-tested political position or another. To be sure, music amplifies the melody, harmony, and rhythm of the time in which it’s made, and the times in which we live are, indeed, hyper-political. But, to me, if something’s gonna make the air, it’s because it’s made a statement musically, not in a press release.

I’m not looking for fresh new faces to sell jazz to the masses — or to save it or transcend it or redraw its borders; I’m going to play for you the stuff I compulsively share with those closest to me because I want them — I NEED them — to be as excited about it as I am.

I’ve learned that when you thoughtfully share music with others, you can reveal those parts of your innermost self that conventional language will never completely do justice. Each week, for 90 minutes, I’ll share those parts of myself with you.

THIS is Breaking Jazz.

Join me. Every Sunday night at 6:30 pm Pacific. On KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM in San Diego; all around the world at jazz88.org and the KSDS mobile app.

Latest Blog by Matt Silver

Tues., May 13: Vibraphonist Chuck Redd to Pay Musical Tribute to the Terry Gibbs Dream Band

If you’re talking about the greatest jazz big bands ever assembled, the conversation is neither fully credible nor complete without including The Terry Gibbs Dream Band. 

Killer charts by some of the greatest arrangers ever: Bill Holman, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Shorty Rogers, Lennie Neihaus, and Marty Paich. Drum-tight ensemble playing. Solos like smart bombs: devastatingly explosive and precisely controlled. And a propulsive yet economical rhythm section. Nothing superfluous. Burning hot, yet ALWAYS cool.

Continue reading…

Here's what Matt Silver is talking about:

Latest 5 blog articles...

On-Demand Audio Content

Please wait, loading...

Previously broadcasted programs. Click on the program description in the table to hear the audio…

Here are a few CD selections featured most recently:


Here are the 30 most recent tracks played on this show:

April 13th at 7 PM Hour
7:56 PM aron! “cozy you” — cozy you (and other nice songs) BUY
7:46 PM Yotam Silberstein “Love the Neighbor” — Standards Vol. 2 BUY
7:40 PM Kneebody “Glimmer” — Reach BUY
7:33 PM Camila Meza “The Nurturer” — Portal BUY
7:30 PM Triology Feat. Scott Hamilton “Hi-Fly” — The Slow Road BUY
7:30 PM Gerald Clayton “For Peace” — Ones and Twos BUY
7:20 PM Leon Anderson “The Bruz of AD2” — Live at Snug Harbor BUY
7:14 PM Rodney Jordan “The Storm Will Pass” — Memphis Blue BUY
7:08 PM The Brothers Feat. Mark Whitfield “From New York to Rio” — Keeping the Music Alive BUY
April 13th at 6 PM Hour
6:59 PM Jose Luiz Martins “Yatra-Ta” — Odyssey Mixtape BUY
6:55 PM Mark Lettieri “Palisade” — Can I Tell You Something BUY
6:45 PM WDR Big Band “Borealis” — Bluegrass BUY
6:41 PM Tyreek McDole “The Sun Song (Precious Energy)” — Open Up Your Senses BUY
6:31 PM Igmar Thomas' Revive Big Band “Fortress of Hope” — Like a Tree it Grows BUY
April 6th at 7 PM Hour
7:53 PM Chicago Jazz Orchestra Feat. Bobby Broom “Road Song” — More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery BUY
7:40 PM Dan Wilson “James” — Vessels of Wood and Earth BUY
7:30 PM Chris Cheek “On a Clear Day” — Keepers of the Eastern Door BUY
7:27 PM Pasquale Grasso “Little Willie Leaps” — Fervency BUY
7:23 PM Julian Lage “Two and One” — Speak To Me BUY
7:21 PM Brad Mehldau “Ditty For Dewey” — Solid Jackson BUY
7:11 PM MTB “Ditty for Dewey” — Solid Jackson BUY
7:09 PM Lucy Yeghiazaryan Feat. Peter Bernstein “The Best Things in Life Are Free” — Beside the Golden Door BUY
7:00 PM Brian Levy Quartet Feat. Willie Jones III “KC Bop” — N/A BUY
April 6th at 6 PM Hour
6:55 PM Rick Hollander Quartet Feat. Brian Levy “Blame it on Sonny” — Live at Birdland (Hamburg, Germany) BUY
6:43 PM Peter Bernstein “No Problem” — Better Angels BUY
6:39 PM Richard Cortez “Gloomy Sunday” — Nightbird BUY
6:30 PM WDR Big Band “Green Lawn” — Bluegrass BUY
March 30th at 7 PM Hour
7:57 PM Catherine Russell and Sean Mason “You Can Depend on Me” — My Ideal BUY
7:49 PM Vanisha Gould and Chris McCarthy “No Moon at All” — Life's a Gig BUY
7:41 PM Danielle Wertz “I Have Dreamed/Dreamsville” — Other Side BUY

RSS feed of the 30 most recent tracks of the show.