This challenging subgenre, including the subset of free jazz, is driven by the fire of spontaneity, and its rules are still being written. Eleven writers, critics and musicians share their favorites.

In the late 1990s, Carlos Santana was still drawing big crowds to his live shows, but he hadn't had a top 20 pop hit since 1982. It had also been decades since he'd worked closely with Clive Davis… By ...

Whenever I’m asked to provide a “fun fact” about myself, I usually say that I worked as a smooth-jazz radio announcer back in college. It wasn’t the kind of unsuitable, faintly ironic part-time job ...

18 years ago this week Santana's "Smooth" began a 12-week run atop the Billboard 100 on its way to becoming the #2 Hot 100 song of all time. The track's co-writer, Itaal Shur, spoke to Billboard… By ...

Your Vox Membership goes further this holiday season. When you buy an annual membership, we’ll give one to someone who can’t afford access. It’s a simple way for you to support Vox’s journalism and ...

Happy birthday to the Penang Island Jazz Festival, six years old this year! Six years may not seem like a lot, but in small jazz festival terms it probably means that the difficult initial years have ...

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Smooth jazz saxophonist David Sanborn, who played on recordings by Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and Carly Simon and performed live with David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, died in Tarrytown, New York, ...