photo of Walter Smith III by Travis Bailey
Now streaming:
Jazz After Hours has a rich and storied 40 year history on public radio, but we are not about the past. Our program celebrates the new, while honoring and recognizing the roots of this music. We nurture the constant evolution of jazz and look to its future. You can hear that future in our broadcasts and now our new streaming channel.
Browse to our Stations listing to find the program on your local public radio station. Or stream the show, weekend nights from 6P to 6A Pacific. During the week, enjoy a special selection of Jazz After Hours music, including classic material from our legendary library. Just click the play button.
Scan the QR code. Buy your tickets now. Listen for music by Aubrey Johnson, Jamie Baum, and Brad Shepik on Jazz After Hours.
Following a successful debut in 2024, The Unity Jazz Festival makes its highly anticipated return to Jazz at Lincoln Center on January 10-11, 2025, featuring an exciting new lineup of over 20 acclaimed acts and emerging artists. This year’s diverse roster of intergenerational and multicultural talent includes the Future of Jazz Orchestra, Pedrito Martinez & Alfredo Rodriguez, and Rachael & Vilray (performing as a duo and with an all-star band) among others to be announced. These dynamic performances take place throughout Frederick P. Rose Hall, known as the House of Swing (located on Broadway at 60th St. in New York City). The two-day Festival kicks off at 6:00 p.m. each night, continuing through the evening.
For tickets and more information, visit jazz.org/unity. For livestreaming information, visit jazzlive.com.
photo by Andrew Hurlbut
Want to go deeper? Looking for a past show you really liked? Maybe you want to binge listen to Jazz After Hours or take us with you on your mobile device during the week. Check out our archive. Every show from 2022 through 2024 is now available to stream and we are currently filling in the archive with shows from prior years! Check back soon.
Are you a jazz musician with a new record you want the world to hear? Jazz After Hours accepts submissions of new jazz for airplay. No record promoter is required to have your music considered. The only requirements: quality, musicianship and originality. Our mission is to support and encourage the creation of fresh new jazz. Your new music could be broadcast and streamed worldwide on the PRX network.
We do not accept physical copies. In the interest of everyone’s health, your budget, and the environment, only digital submissions are accepted. We accept studio quality recordings, in .wav, .mp3, .mp4, or .aiff file formats, delivered by download. Files must be properly named and accompanied by a one-sheet of information about you and your music.
Questions? Contact us through the contact form at the bottom of this page.
We look forward to hearing your new music.
photo of Owen Broder by Adrian H Tillman
With great affection and all due respect to its storied history and rich tradition, we think jazz music was never meant to be bronzed and put on a shelf. Captured, remembered, studied, even lionized, but not frozen in time. Jazz didn’t stop being great in 1947 or 1955 or 1968 or 1976. It’s pretty great in 2024.
Name a name, anyone in the pantheon of jazz greats. To a person, they once were young, feisty, likely impertinent. They sought to break the mold; dared to make mistakes; challenged the elders and the music that came before. That’s what jazz musicians do.
Each of those jazz musicians once had their first gig. Their first recording session. Their first breakthrough moment and their first bad review. And believe it or not, there was a joyful moment when someone played their music on the radio for the first time. For some hard-working musician, that happens almost every week on Jazz After Hours.
The point being … jazz ain’t over. Not even close.
Record stores come and record stores go. Most of them are long gone. Radio stations do the same. Technology changes, and while it closes some doors it opens many others. The critics and whiners are going to beat their chests and find every possible way to make a buck with a tired story about the death of jazz. People who haven’t bought a jazz record in 40 years are going to try to convince you that was the last great jazz. It wasn’t. Jazz is alive and very entertaining in 2023. We invite you to listen to what we play on Jazz After Hours and judge for yourself.
These are the musicians you’ll be talking about for the next 20 or 30 years. They’re playing music today that is the future of jazz. It’s new, it’s fresh and it’s damn good. Don’t take our word for it. Listen each week on public radio. This is your discovery process.
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