Breaking Jazz
About The Program
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.
Here's what Matt Silver is talking about:
- Jun 30, 2025 - Some Thoughts on Music and the Human Condition
- Jun 25, 2025 - A Brief Review of Seth McFarlane's New Recording of LOST Sinatra Arrangements
- Jun 23, 2025 - Major Programming Alert: Seth McFarlane to Join Will Friedwald on Sing! Sing! Sing! THIS Saturday, June 28, at 10 a.m. PT
- Jun 3, 2025 - A One-Time Jazz Messenger, Terence Blanchard has Arguably Been Most Impactful Delivering Jazz through Film
- Apr 28, 2025 - April 30 is International Jazz Day, a Time to Celebrate Jazz as it Exists Today
On-Demand Audio Content
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Here are a few CD selections featured most recently:
Here are the 30 most recent tracks played on this show:
| June 29th at 7 PM Hour | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:57 PM | Pasquale Grasso | “Time Waits” — Solo Be-Bop! | BUY | |
| 7:52 PM | Paloma Chesky | “Green” — Memory | BUY | |
| 7:45 PM | Fred Hersch | “Plainsong” — The Surrounding Green | BUY | |
| 7:37 PM | Entre Amigos | “Potato” — Magpie: The Music of Joe Clark | BUY | |
| 7:28 PM | Lafayette Gilchrist and New Volcanoes | “Move with Love” — Move with Love | BUY | |
| 7:18 PM | Lakecia Benjamin Feat. Immanuel Wilkins | “Noble Rise” — Noble Rise | BUY | |
| 7:15 PM | Amina Claudine Myers | “African Blues” — Solace of the Mind | BUY | |
| 7:09 PM | Joshua Redman | “Icarus” — Words Fall Short | BUY | |
| 7:00 PM | Bela Fleck, Edmar Castaneda, and Antonio Sanchez | “Touch and Go” — BEATrio | BUY | |
| June 29th at 6 PM Hour | ||||
| 6:56 PM | Brandee Younger | “Gadabout Season” — Gadabout Season | BUY | |
| 6:52 PM | Jody Redhage Ferber, Alan Ferber, and Mark Ferber | “Contemplation” — Confluence | BUY | |
| 6:45 PM | The Westerlies | “Weeping Mary” — Paradise | BUY | |
| 6:39 PM | Sarah Wilson | “Incandescence” — Incandescence | BUY | |
| 6:30 PM | NYO Jazz | “We're Still Here/He's Alright” — Live in Johannesburg | BUY | |
| June 22nd at 7 PM Hour | ||||
| 7:54 PM | Joshua Redman feat. Gabrielle Cavassa | “Era's End” — Words Fall Short | BUY | |
| 7:46 PM | Itai Kriss | “Sunday Lemonade” — Daybreak | BUY | |
| 7:37 PM | Adrian Galante | “The Folks Who Live On the Hill” — Introducing Adrian Galante | BUY | |
| 7:31 PM | Tyreek McDole | “Won't You Open Up Your Senses” — Open Up Your Senses | BUY | |
| 7:21 PM | Jimmy Farace | “Growing Pains” — Hours Fly, Flowers Die | BUY | |
| 7:13 PM | Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quintet | “Lonnie's Lament” — Sound Remains | BUY | |
| 7:05 PM | Michael Dease | “Blues for Herb” — City Life | BUY | |
| 7:00 PM | Glenn Dickson and Bob Familiar | “Words Set Free from Doubt” — All the Light of Our Sphere | BUY | |
| June 22nd at 6 PM Hour | ||||
| 6:55 PM | Kris Monson | “T.N.T. (Two Note Tune)” — Option to Extend | BUY | |
| 6:50 PM | aron! | “table for two” — cozy you (and other nice songs) | BUY | |
| 6:45 PM | Brandee Younger | “BBL” — Gadabout Season | BUY | |
| 6:38 PM | The Westerlies | “The Evening Trumpet” — Paradise | BUY | |
| 6:30 PM | Bela Fleck, Edmar Castaneda, and Antonio Sanchez | “Countryside” — BEATrio | BUY | |
| June 8th at 7 PM Hour | ||||
| 7:58 PM | Tyreek McDole | “The Sun Song (Reprise)” — Open Up Your Senses | BUY | |
| 7:55 PM | Julian Shore Trio | “It Was a Dream” — Sub Rosa | BUY | |
| 7:46 PM | Brandon Woody | “We, Ota Benga” — For the Love of it All | BUY | |
RSS feed of the 30 most recent tracks of the show.