This week I play recordings by some excellent jazz singers, and singer Janis Siegel's reaction to hearing those recordings.

In this episode you will hear:

Kurt Elling with the WDR Big Band

Includes two versions of The Best Is Yet To Come.

This is a 6 year old podcast from May, 2020, when I was living in Victoria, B.C. It was one of a number of podcasts where I celebrated songs that had interesting stories behind them, playing some different versions of them.

The six songs are:

Don't Blame Me

Lover Man

Have You Seen Miss Jones

Honeysuckle Rose

Good Morning Heartache

A Night in Tunisia

And one of those songs one might make a case that its the only song that makes a link between The Everly Brothers, Charlie Parker, and The Three Stooges. Guess which one?

This is part 2 of music inspired by Ken Burns PBS jazz series from 2001. A fast paced episode where I squeeze in 15 pieces of great music. the Swing artists include Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, and Chick Webb with Ella Fitzgerald. And its virtually all DANCEABLE!

Then I give you a voice clip from Howard Levy talking about the transition from swing to bebop.

The beboppers presented are Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. And I conclude the episode with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Ray Charles, and Regina Carter. Not quite so danceable.

Watching the Ken Burns series called 'Jazz', where he details some history, interviews some amazing people, and plays great music inspired by this podcast as well as next week's.

This week, lots of Louis Armstrong, one track by Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton, as well as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd, and a touch of Ellington.

From over 400 new jazz releases just in the first quarter of 2026, I use a table of random numbers to select 9 of them!

The result is a surprisingly coherent episode of great jazz. And its quite the variety. You'll hear:

-The new one from Shabaka, playing all by himself. #Shabaka

Of the 8 albums I selected from over 400 new jazz releases so far, I had only heard of six of the artists.

I tabulated a list of new releases....including some that haven't yet been officialloy released. Then used a table of random numbers to select 8 of those albums.

Two of them are archival records. All the others were totally new to me. And there's one I'm definitely going to follow up on. An album clled Vinterstemmer by Danish pianist and interpretor of popular Danish songs, Jacob Anderskov.

If you are into taking risks, this is a great episode to listen to.

The Junos are the Canadian equivalent to the Grammys in the U.S. This is Part 2 of Jazz and the 2026 Junos. I play music by some of the nominees for the three jazz categories, plus a couple from other categories that could have been placed under 'jazz'.

You'll hear Steve Holt talk about his experience as a student of Kenny Barron. Anthony D'Allesandro and his attempt to run a 4 minute mile. And Edmonton bassist Aretha Tillotson tells us musically and verbally about her experience of turning 35.

I also play music by Nancy Walker, Ale Nuñez, The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Caity Gyorgy, Alexis Baro Y La Big Band, Andy Rubal, and Kazdoura.

There truly is some marvelous music coming out of Canada. Whether or not you are from Canada, you owe it to yourself to give a listen to this episode plus last weeks (Episode 357)

The Juno Awards -the Canadian version of the grammy's---will be awarded March 29th. There have been 15 jazz albums nominated, plus albums in a couple other categories that jazz fans might appreciate.

In this episode I talk to two of the nominees---pianist Steve Holt and vocalist Alex Samaras. And I play tracks off six of the fifteen nominated jazz albums, one from the 'blues' category, plus a couple from one termed "global music". Also a jazz recording originally from 1974 from Joni Mitchell, who will be receiving a "Lifetime Achievement" award.

This is a great opportunity for all of us to acquaint ourselves with some of the best Canadian jazz.

As I go through some of the new jazz releases that I hear about---a few stand out. Of those, I gave a listen to a couple tracks, and if I liked what I heard, I would choose a track or two to play for you. And I play another track from three of the albums I played last week plus five others.

Here's my setlist for this week's episode:

Since I spent so much time on the best of 2025, I thought it would be worthwhile to put some focus on this year. So I've made a list of all the albums I could find that have been released or are about to be released in 2026. And in this episode I'm playing tracks from some of the ones that I am most looking forward to hearing.