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:
- Jan 28, 2026 - Black History Month 2026: An Exploration of Duke Ellington's Extended Works
- Jan 15, 2026 - MLK DAY 2026, Part II: MLK's Legacy as Expressed Through the Jazz of the 2020s.
- Jan 15, 2026 - MLK Day 2026: This Decade's Best Expressions of Black Artistry and Activism
- Dec 9, 2025 - Gordon Goodwin, Leader of Award-Winning Big Phat Band, Celebrated Composer and Arranger for Film and TV, Dies at 70
- Dec 2, 2025 - 2025's 12 Days of Sinatra is Here!
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:
| January 25th at 7 PM Hour | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:58 PM | Joel Ross | “The New Man” — Gospel Music | BUY | |
| 7:50 PM | Justin Joyce | “Loved and Lost” — Almost Familiar | BUY | |
| 7:42 PM | Julian Lage | “Havens” — Scenes from Above | BUY | |
| 7:40 PM | Tigran Hamasyan | “Years Passing” — Manifeste | BUY | |
| 7:34 PM | Alex Robinson | “If I Should Lose You” — I Really Oughta Tell You | BUY | |
| 7:26 PM | Alexa Tarantino | “This is For Albert” — The Roar and the Whisper | BUY | |
| 7:18 PM | Vance Thompson | “Bud Powell” — Lost and Found | BUY | |
| 7:12 PM | Tom Oren | “Fantasy in C-Sharp Minor” — Dark Lights | BUY | |
| 7:02 PM | Nathan Hubbard | “The Short Life and Forgotten Death of the Historian” — Territory Games | BUY | |
| January 25th at 6 PM Hour | ||||
| 6:56 PM | Simon Mogul | “Disturbed” — Simon Says | BUY | |
| 6:47 PM | Paul McCandless Quintet | “Punch” — Live at Kimball's East | BUY | |
| 6:41 PM | Ben Wendel | “Mimo” — Barcode | BUY | |
| 6:30 PM | Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra | “Tesseract” — Alkebulan | BUY | |
| January 18th at 7 PM Hour | ||||
| 7:56 PM | Justin Joyce | “Aporia” — Almost Familiar | BUY | |
| 7:43 PM | John Scofield and Dave Holland | “Mine Are Blues” — Memories of Home | BUY | |
| 7:35 PM | Martin Wind w. Kenny Barron, Matt Wilson and Anat Cohen | “Wail” — Stars | BUY | |
| 7:30 PM | Aubrey Johnson | “Hope” — The Lively Air | BUY | |
| 7:23 PM | Jordan Williams | “Ms. Baja” — Playing by Ear | BUY | |
| 7:13 PM | James Fernando | “Persistence” — Philly 3 | BUY | |
| 7:10 PM | Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade | “Roll” — Tokyo | BUY | |
| 7:03 PM | Dave McMurray | “The Wheel” — I LOVE LIFE even when I'm hurting | BUY | |
| January 18th at 6 PM Hour | ||||
| 6:54 PM | Alexa Tarantino | “Portrait of a Shadow” — The Roar and the Whisper | BUY | |
| 6:40 PM | Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest | “Recurrent” — Somni | BUY | |
| 6:30 PM | Michael League, Pedrito Martinez, and Antonio Sanchez | “Variant” — Elipsis | BUY | |
| January 11th at 7 PM Hour | ||||
| 7:55 PM | Justin Joyce | “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” — Almost Familiar | BUY | |
| 7:47 PM | Shai Maestro | “Moon of Knives” — The Guesthouse | BUY | |
| 7:42 PM | Lisa Hilton | “Wildflower” — Extended Daydream | BUY | |
| 7:25 PM | Lisa Hilton | “Spacious Skies” — Extended Daydream | BUY | |
| 7:23 PM | Lisa Hilton | “Extended Daydream” — Extended Daydream | BUY | |
| 7:12 PM | Lisa Hilton | “Momentary Mystery” — Extended Daydream | BUY | |
RSS feed of the 30 most recent tracks of the show.