The Jazz Podcast

Acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Judith Owen returns with her captivating new album, Suit Yourself, released today, April 24th, 2026 via Twanky Records.

Recorded at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans, Suit Yourself showcases Owen’s continued evolution into jazz, blues, and big band, blending the vibrant energy of her previous releases with her signature storytelling and rich musical arrangements. Our feature track today, “To Your Door” stands out as a heartfelt and playful original, inspired by the spirit of Django Reinhardt, while offering a refreshing twist on the classic “musician on the road” narrative.

Written and produced by Owen, the track serves as a personal love letter to her husband, actor and comedian Harry Shearer. Flipping the traditional perspective, Owen delivers a confident and empowering message from a woman’s point of view:

“The more you give me the freedom, the more I want to come home,” she explains, highlighting themes of trust, independence, and enduring love.

Adding an international flair, the release also features a French-language version, “TE CHERCHER (To Your Door French Touch Version),” with text adapted by Yasmine Mohammedi-Kyd.

Today we chat all things Judith and take a deep dive into the new album. 

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A graduate of the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, Adewumi became the first jazz trumpeter to receive the prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship in 2017. He went on to win 1st place at the 2019 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, the 2024 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award and Gregory Morris Composing Fellowship, and in 2025 received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. Adewumi has been voted a “Rising Star” in the DownBeat Critics Poll.

The Flame Beneath The Silence is Adewumi's debut as a leader, after work with Moran, Halvorson, Dave Douglas, Frank Carlberg and others. It finds the trumpeter, born in New Hampshire to Nigerian immigrants, with three of the most important voices in modern jazz: vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Marcus Gilmore. The album was recorded live at Brooklyn's Ornithology, an intimate and engaging showcase for Adewumi's skills as a composer, collaborator and conceptualist. 

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The Jazz Podcast releases its 300th episode and we celebrate with Tim Garland, chatting about his new album. Mezzo is a 2026 duo album by Tim and American pianist Geoffrey Keezer, celebrating a 25-year collaboration. The album prominently features a rare mezzo-soprano saxophone—one of only 20 in the world—played by Garland, blending classical, folk, and jazz influences. Recorded in New York, the album includes originals and a unique cover of Chick Corea's "La Fiesta", which we feature as the first track on the show. 

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Shae Maestro chats to Tara Minton about his new album, The Guesthouse.

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Visionary composer/bandleader Maria Schneider knows firsthand that deep listening is the key to understanding. “Every time I hear my band play, I witness the magic of listening,” she explains. “A true jazz improvisor thrives on listening.... Jazz shines a light on what we are allowing to slip away in our brittle and fractured world, making our art form more relevant today than ever before.”

Schneider’s new EP American Crow is out February 3, 2026, via ArtistShare®, along with a visual narrative exploring listening, connection and courage in a divisive age. 

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Kris Davis is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by The New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz [in New York] on a given night.” Davis has released 24 recordings as a leader or co-leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and Esperanza Spalding.  She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021.  In 2019, Kris Davis’ “Diatom Ribbons” was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Today Kris joins the show to share her newest music, The Solastalgia Suite. 

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Niklas Lukassen’s internationally renowned quartet with saxophonist Ben van Gelder, pianist Kit Downes and drummer Francesco Ciniglio, fuses captivating individualists of the jazz scenes of Amsterdam, London, Paris and Berlin into one symbiotic musical organism.
With natural improvisational flow, this unit's interplay runs like water through sonic river forks into unexpected directions. Unafraid of intentional, suspenseful collision, it produces pounding waves of raw energy. Enriched by artistic contributions from guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, saxophonist Wanja Slavin & trombonist Geoffroy De Masure, they musically explore the unimagined depths that underlie supposedly still waters.

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Community spirit has been a constant in the work of composer and trumpet player Sarah Wilson, whose experiences and inspirations have ranged from socially conscious puppet theater to brass band and New Orleans traditions to her own illuminating style of jazz. When musicians are truly inspired and connected with one another, Wilson describes, time seems to stand still for artist and listener alike.

“Time just evaporates,” Wilson says, “and you’re completely immersed in feeling the euphoria and joy of being in this creative moment. You forget everything else that is happening in space and time, while paradoxically the music is moving through time.”

During a 2023 artist residency in Krems, Austria, the Bay Area-based Wilson experienced a similar epiphany when she encountered the paintings of Viennese artist Thomas Reinhold. One of the founding figures of German “New Painting” or “Junge Wilde,” Reinhold’s large- scale work combines architectural planning with the chance effects of time. Wilson’s reaction to the paintings inspired the music on Incandescence, the joy-fueled new album by her sextet Brass Tonic.

Out July 18, 2025 via Wilson’s own Brass Tonic Records and co-produced by Wilson and Grammy Award-winning producer Hans Wendl, Incandescence was commissioned by InterMusic SF’s Musical Grant Program. It draws equal inspiration from Reinhold’s bold, multi-hued abstracts and from the street- level, community-spirited traditions of brass band, marching and New Orleans parade music. In Brass Tonic, Wilson combines an all-woman horn frontline – herself, alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, and trombonist Mara Fox – with the buoyant rhythm section of guitarist John Schott, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and, for this recording, drummers Jon Arkin and Tim Bulkley.

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Harben Kay joins the show to chat about the release of their highly anticipated new album, The World I Live In (Sulis Records, October 3rd 2025). This album represents a deeply personal exploration of identity, transformation, and the way change influences creativity. Written over the past three years, during a time of frequent moves between London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, The World I Live In reflects the shifts in Harben’s life and the profound impact they had on the music. Inspired by the work of renowned writer Bernardine Evaristo, particularly her book Manifesto, Harben delves into how the process of moving, both physically and mentally, can shape creativity. “There has been a lot of change in my life over the past few years, and this album reflects that,” says Harben. “It’s about how change shapes who we are and influences the music we create.”

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