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…

February 2nd at 7 PM Hour
	7:56 PM	Dann Zinn	“Pros and Cons” — Two Roads	BUY
	7:47 PM	Yellowjackets	“Comin' Home Baby” — Fasten Up	BUY
	7:40 PM	Allison Miller & the One O'Clock Lab Band	“Congratulations and Condolences” — Big & Lovely	BUY
	7:35 PM	Yuval Cohen Quartet	“For Charlie” — Winter Poems	BUY
	7:28 PM	The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble	“Las Olas” — Gemini	BUY
	7:24 PM	Matters Unknown	“Permission to Malfunction” — Silhouettes: A Dream Sphere Journal	BUY
	7:19 PM	Preservation Hall Jazz Band	“Bill Bailey (Won't You Please Come Home)” — For Fat Man	BUY
	7:12 PM	Greg Spero	“Up in the Air” — Up in the Air	BUY
	7:04 PM	Corey Bernhard	“Sagittarius” — A Blessed Leap into Eternity	BUY
February 2nd at 6 PM Hour
	6:55 PM	Philippe Lemm Trio	“Echo the Sun” — Echo the Sun	BUY
	6:51 PM	Sachal Vasandani	“Tyrannosaur” — Best Life Now	BUY
	6:46 PM	Willie Morris	“How to Get Away with Murder” — Unbound Inner	BUY
	6:37 PM	Jeremy Pelt	“Invention #2/Black Conscience” — Woven	BUY
	6:30 PM	Cory Wong	“Pure Imagination” — Wong Air: Live in America	BUY
January 26th at 7 PM Hour
	7:56 PM	Dennis Mitcheltree and Johannes Wallmann	“Liberty Hop” — Holding Space	BUY
	7:48 PM	Sachal Vasandani	“Stay a Little Bit Longer” — Best Life Now	BUY
	7:41 PM	Erik Jekabson	“Washington as a Surveyor” — Breakthrough	BUY
	7:32 PM	Edward Simon, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade	“Three Visitors” — Three Visitors	BUY
	7:28 PM	Mafalda Minnozzi	“Postcard from Rio” — Riofonic	BUY
	7:22 PM	Dave Potter	“Tom Sawyer” — Retro Groove 2	BUY
	7:13 PM	Entre Amigos	“Half Moon” — Entre Amigos	BUY
	7:08 PM	Renee Rosnes	“Casa Forte” — Crossing Paths	BUY
	7:00 PM	Paul Vornhagen	“Montuno Salad” — Live at the Blue Llama	BUY
January 26th at 6 PM Hour
	6:54 PM	Dann Zinn	“Yarak” — Two Roads	BUY
	6:44 PM	Bill O'Connell	“So Beautiful, So Sad” — Touch	BUY
	6:38 PM	Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra	“Wired” — Tenor Madness	BUY
	6:28 PM	Allison Miller and the One O'Clock Lab Band	“Fierce” — Big & Lovely	BUY
January 19th at 7 PM Hour
	7:56 PM	Arild Andersen	“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” — Landloper	BUY
	7:45 PM	Emily Remler	“Someday My Prince Will Come” — Cookin' at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas 1984 and 1988	BUY
	7:40 PM	Brandon Sanders	“Human Nature” — The Tables Will Turn	BUY

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