"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the Preservation of Fire.” - Gustav Mahler

© 2025, JazzAfterHours

Jazz through the night

discover and listen

Emerging jazz artists

discover and listen

Living jazz greats

discover and listen

The freshest new jazz

discover and listen

Programmed by human intelligence

discover and listen

Listen to the future of jazz

See what we just played
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. The future of jazz is being created right now by today’s living musicians.

"Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Jazz At Lincoln Center season 2025-26

Jazz After Hours listeners are invited to the premiere jazz institution in America this coming year for a thrilling season of music called Mother Africa.

Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced programming for its 2025-26 season of concerts at the home of JALC, Frederick P. Rose Hall, colloquially known as The House of Swing, which houses Rose Theater, the Appel Room, and Dizzy’s Club.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 38th season, Mother Africa, delves into the creative spirit that unites African and American musical traditions, and runs from July 24, 2025 to June 20, 2026. Featuring significantly more shows than last season, the organization’s 38th season includes: 19 unique weekends of Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts in the 1233-seat Rose Theater, nine concerts in the 467-seat Appel Room, and more than 350 nights of music at Dizzy’s Club, in addition to webcast performances and in-person and virtual education programs. The 2025-26 season also features tour dates worldwide by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, an ensemble of 15 virtuoso instrumentalists, unique soloists, composers, arrangers, and educators whose mandate is to coalesce and animate an unprecedented variety of styles and genres, in collaboration with noted guest artists and appearances by major figures in jazz and its related genres.

Dominating Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 38th season are concerts that explore the deep and enduring ties between jazz, the African continent, and its diaspora, a theme that the JLCO with Wynton Marsalis previously addressed in past performances:  Blood on the Fields (1996), Congo Square (2007), Ochas (2014), and the fresh big band arrangements comprising JLCO’s The South African Songbook concert (2019). The season highlights new works, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, from renowned jazz artists in the organization’s new The Commission Series. The new season also includes celebratory concerts to honor the centennials of three towering figures in jazz – Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, and Celia Cruz – further illuminating the far-reaching legacy of Afro-American and the African diaspora musical expression.

More information

At the heart of the thriving San Francisco jazz scene, you'll find Keys Jazz Bistro

Keys Jazz Bistro is the beating heart of jazz music in the Bay Area, supporting artists at all stages of their careers…a classy cozy room where artists and listeners connect in the moment, sharing music, food and drink in the building made famous by the legendary El Matador jazz club.

The club draws inspiration from the past, present, and future of live music in San Francisco, acknowledging the timeless traditions of iconic music and nightlife venues around the world.

“You blows who you is.” — Louis Armstrong

With all due respect...

Vibraphonist, producer, composer Roy Ayers ~ September 10, 1940 – March 4, 2025

Listen to this month's Jazz After Hours

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.

go to the archive

“A painter paints pictures on canvas. Musicians paint their pictures on silence.” — Leopold Stokowski

Your music on Jazz After Hours

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/or streamed worldwide.

We do not accept physical copies. Only digital submissions are accepted. Submit 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? Please contact us through the contact form at the bottom of this page. We look forward to hearing your new music.

Jazz After Hours Featured Video

In Your Eyes from Stryker With Strings Goes To The Movies

Dave Stryker – Guitar
Xavier Davis – Fender Rhodes
Jeremy Allen – Electric Bass
McClenty Hunter – Drums
Sara Caswell – Violin

ORCHESTRA:
Brent Wallarab – Arranger and Conductor
Trombone – Jim Pugh (lead), Tim Coffman, Jeff Parker, Andrew Danforth, Richard Dole
Alto saxophone – Greg Ward
Trumpet – Mark Buselli
17 piece string section – (Sara Caswell – Concertmaster)

Video by – Matt Stryker
Camera Team – Matt Stryker, Aaron Berecka, Max DiBella
Color by – Marshall Copous

 

Programming philosophy

Jazz is yours to discover

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.

Comment? Question? Programming suggestion?
We'd love to hear from you.

    Jazz After Hours is heard weekly on public radio across America and streaming directly from our website.
    Thank you to the countless musicians around the world playing jazz who make it possible.


    Currently, Jazz After Hours is not streaming.


    We will be back online Friday and Saturday nights at 6P Pacific to stream...