Breaking Jazz

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.

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

August 18th at 7 PM Hour
	7:55 PM	The Manhattan Transfer	“Jeannine” — Bop Doo-Wop	BUY
	7:47 PM	Maria Kim	“Jeannine” — Misty Blue	BUY
	7:40 PM	Duke Pearson	“Los Malos Hombres” — The Right Touch	BUY
	7:32 PM	Duke Pearson	“After The Rain” — Sweet Honey Bee	BUY
	7:25 PM	Lee Morgan	“Sweet Honey Bee” — Charisma	BUY
	7:20 PM	Blue Moods	“Ready Rudy” — Swing and Soul	BUY
	7:11 PM	Vincent Herring	“Big Bertha” — Don't Let It Go	BUY
	7:05 PM	Sullivan Fortner	“You Know I Care” — Aria	BUY
August 18th at 6 PM Hour
	6:59 PM	Duke Pearson	“The Fakir” — Prairie Dog	BUY
	6:43 PM	Grant Green	“Nomad” — Idle Moments	BUY
	6:37 PM	Donald Byrd	“Cristo Redentor” — A New Perspective	BUY
	6:30 PM	Benny Green	“Say You're Mine” — Then and Now	BUY
August 11th at 7 PM Hour
	7:57 PM	Jonathan Barber	“When Love Calls (Reprise)” — In Motion	BUY
	7:50 PM	Harry Skoler	“Last Star, Last Night (Epilogue)” — Red Brick Hill	BUY
	7:40 PM	Devin Daniels	“LesGo!” — LesGo!	BUY
	7:36 PM	Chance Hayden	“Open Back Cab” — Baritone Gold	BUY
	7:27 PM	Jonathan Powell	“Hope” — Mambo Jazz Party	BUY
	7:20 PM	Michael Wolff	“Left Out” — Memoir	BUY
	7:15 PM	Jeff Coffin	“A Hat for My Beard” — Only the Horizon	BUY
	7:06 PM	Chick Corea And Bela Fleck	“The Otter Creek Incident” — Remembrance	BUY
	7:02 PM	Bill Charlap Trio	“The Man I Love” — And Then Again	BUY
August 11th at 6 PM Hour
	6:57 PM	Martina DaSilva feat. Caity Gyorgy	“You're the Top” — Living Room Petit	BUY
	6:51 PM	Caity Gyorgy	“Colloquially” — Hello! How Are You?	BUY
	6:45 PM	Stav Goldberg	“Sahaf” — Symphony of Water	BUY
	6:40 PM	Jonathan Barber	“Radar” — In Motion	BUY
	6:30 PM	Bill Warfield and the Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra	“Light” — Chesapeake	BUY
August 4th at 7 PM Hour
	7:54 PM	Stav Goldberg	“Comfort Song” — Symphony of Water	BUY
	7:48 PM	Mike Clement	“I Got Somethin” — Hittin It	BUY
	7:43 PM	Jun Iida	“Gooey Butter Cake” — Evergreen	BUY
	7:33 PM	Emiliano Lasansky	“Dependence” — The Optimist	BUY

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