News, new releases and stories from the world of jazz and its surrounding culture.
Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Don Thompson is the 2026 recipient of the Louis Applebaum Composers Award, a $15,000 prize that this year honors a body of work in jazz. The Ontario Arts Foundation announced the award in Toronto on Oct. 20.
Wellington multi-instrumentalist Tyaan Singh has won the 2026 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award for 'Lunar Sparks,' from his album Imaginary Friends. The prize was presented on the final day of the Wellington Jazz Festival.
The 2026 Austrian Jazz Prize goes to guitarist Peter Rom for the album Wanting Machine II, trumpeter Lorenz Widauer as newcomer and the trio Mel*E as live act. Composer and trumpeter Michael Mantler receives the High Impact Award ahead of a Nov. 28 gala in Graz.
Pianist Craig Taborn's trio album Dream Archives, with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith, has won the 2026 Edison in the Jazz International category. A day earlier, the Dutch Nu Art Orchestra took the Jazz National award for its debut, The Tivoli Sessions #1.
Polish bassist Wojtek Mazolewski's Quintet will release Pure Form on Nov. 20 via NoPaper Records. The announcement, reported on Oct. 16, comes with the single Cordoba October and three UK solo bass concerts beginning Oct. 21 in London.
Manchester-born drummer Miles Pillinger will release his debut album Belonging on Oct. 23 and marks the project with a Late Late Show Upstairs launch at Ronnie Scott's in London on Oct. 20. The album pairs modern jazz writing with Brazilian and South African influences.
The Mingus Big Band opened a six-night residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London on Monday, Oct. 19, with shows scheduled through Saturday, Oct. 24. The venue lists a 14-piece lineup drawn from the New York ensemble that has carried Charles Mingus's music since 1991.
Malou Oheix, a 27-year-old singer from Nantes, France, won the $50,000 first prize at the 2026 Herbie Hancock Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition, the first edition held outside the United States.
Dieter Glawischnig, the Austrian pianist, composer and educator who turned a German radio dance orchestra into one of Europe's leading jazz big bands, died on Oct. 1 at 88, the broadcaster NDR announced.
The Rochester International Jazz Festival launched its first year-round concert series on Oct. 15 with New York Voices, the vocal quartet now on its Grand Finale farewell tour. Six more monthly concerts run through May 2027.
A KAIST research team says its AI pianist, Scott, and AI accompanist, DeepPocket, performed 26 pieces with 12 human jazz artists at South Korea's Jarasum Jazz Festival, following live tempo changes and generating solos and backing in real time.
Sam Noto, the Buffalo-born jazz trumpeter who played in the bands of Stan Kenton, Count Basie and Woody Herman and later recorded a run of bebop albums for Xanadu, died Oct. 16, 2026. He was 96.