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Steve Reich turns 90 today. Long before "Music for 18 Musicians," he was a kid who wanted to drum like Kenny Clarke. He filtered that jazz pulse through Ghanaian drumming and gamelan to help create minimalism, and it changed how the world hears rhythm.

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Ronnie Scott's takes its Late Late Show across London this autumn: Tendayi (West, Oct 24), Hoos Collective (East, Nov 5), Wonky Logic (South, Nov 19) and SULA (North, Nov 28), in four grassroots venues.

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Six years after his debut, South African saxophonist Sisonke Xonti returns with "uKholo," a spiritual jazz statement with Shane Cooper, Ayanda Sikade and guest vocalist Mandisi Dyantyis, out now on Voom Voom Records.

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Flutist Elena Pinderhughes, longtime collaborator of Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper and Metro Boomin, releases her debut album "i hope you feel it too" on October 23, with Immanuel Wilkins, Chief Adjuah and Samora Pinderhughes.

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Fresh off his 90th birthday concert at Radio City, Buddy Guy has announced a new studio album for 2027, produced by Steve Jordan, with Willie Weeks, Isaiah Sharkey, Ivan Neville and special guest Kim Wilson.

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Robert Glasper's Robtober is back at the Blue Note New York through November 1, with Terrace Martin, Lalah Hathaway, Questlove, Bilal, Wyclef Jean and Kem, plus the club's 45th-anniversary show on October 14.

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NYC Winter Jazzfest returns January 12–19, 2027, under the theme "Collective Radiance," with Sun Ra Arkestra, Shabaka, Ravi Coltrane, Gary Bartz, Andrew Cyrille with Bill Frisell, Lakecia Benjamin, Brandee Younger and more in its first wave.

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On this day in 1971, "Soul Train" began national syndication, carrying Don Cornelius's Chicago dance show to audiences nationwide. Built and owned outside the major networks, it became a defining stage for Black music and dance, proof that the culture could build its own platform, on its own terms.

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Meshell Ndegeocello's "Synonym" reimagines classics from Dylan to the Bee Gees as same-gender duets with Cynthia Erivo, Chaka Khan, Cat Power, Brandi Carlile and more: "queer liberation as a synonym for liberation of all kinds."

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Grover Washington Jr.'s debut was meant to be Hank Crawford's. When Crawford missed his 1971 session, sideman Grover was asked to take the lead, on an alto he hadn't played since the army. Inner City Blues launched his career, and Mister Magic soon followed.

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Steve Reich turns 90 on October 3. ECM marks it with "Recordings on ECM," a 3LP box out October 2 gathering "Music for 18 Musicians," "Octet / Music for a Large Ensemble / Violin Phase" and "Tehillim," cut from the original analog masters.

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A London man who sold £2.7 million of counterfeit vinyl, including fake Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar records, has been jailed for three and a half years after the UK's largest seizure of its kind: four 70-year-old presses and 18 tonnes of evidence.

Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque and Geraldo Azevedo have recorded a jingle for Lula's re-election campaign, released three days before Brazil's presidential election. It's their first recording together since 1985's "Nordeste Já."

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Christone "Kingfish" Ingram expands "Hard Road" with four unreleased songs, including "Two. Four. Eight" featuring drummer Yussef Dayes. "Hard Road Extended" is out October 16, and its first new single, "The Chase," is out now.

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October 6 is Monty Alexander's night: the Jamaican piano great releases "A Jamarican in Paris," plays Paris's New Morning in trio, and is named Officier des Arts et des Lettres for his career.

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Vodun Days returns to Ouidah, Benin, January 2–9, 2027: a fourth edition of Vodun dances, Zangbéto and Egungun appearances, a grand ceremony with high dignitaries, and open-air seaside concerts with Beninese and international artists.

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The Jaco Pastorius Big Band celebrates Jaco's 75th birthday on December 1 in Pompano Beach, with Peter Erskine, Hadrien Feraud and Ed Calle, revisiting 1976: his debut album, "Bright Size Life," "Black Market" and "Hejira."

Alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, 29, is a 2026 MacArthur Fellow, recognized for jazz that blends tradition with modern textures in works reflecting on histories of injustice and resilience, from "Omega" to this year's "Live at the Village Vanguard."

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Jazzman's Spiritual Jazz 19 heads to California. Part 1, out October 2, digs into the modal and Afro-centric side of '50s and '60s West Coast jazz, with Chico Hamilton, Buddy Collette, Harold Land, Curtis Amy and Charles Lloyd.

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Jazzahead! 2027 (Bremen, April 22–24) names Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as partner region, with nine Baltic showcases, and launches a three-year Asia Pacific focus spanning Japan and Australia to South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

Masego takes his Fix Your Face Tour across Europe in February 2027, from Zürich (Feb 12) to Paris's Salle Pleyel (Feb 21), before a one-night-only "Masego & Friends" show at London's The O2 on February 25.

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Bilal celebrates 25 years of his neo-soul classic "1st Born Second" with a December European run: Brussels, London, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Paris, and an intimate 280-seat show at La Grange à Dîmes in Écouen on December 13.

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Terrace Martin is making his next album, "No Permission Needed," in Paris, inspired by Miles Davis's first trip there in 1949. He sees bebop as hip-hop's spiritual and rhythmic foundation, and walks the city every morning to absorb its sounds.

PJ Morton brings his R&B-meets-gospel double album "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" to Europe: ten dates from Manchester (Oct 8) through London, Berlin, Belgrade, Stockholm and Amsterdam, closing at Paris's Cabaret Sauvage on October 21.

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Sons d'Hiver 2027 (Val-de-Marne & Paris, Jan 15–Feb 6), first names: Immanuel Wilkins, Moor Mother, Shabaka, Joachim Kühn, Marc Ribot, Anouar Brahem, plus duos Léandre & Frith, Mitchell & Sissoko, Sorey & Thomas. Full lineup Nov 17.

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Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance at USC's tribute to Songs in the Key of Life at 50, joining Greg Phillinganes, Cory Henry, Tone Stith, Avery Wilson and Thornton students to close the night. Photo credit: @bri.fei

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Audrey Powne's second album, Bodies of Water, is out now on BBE Music. The trumpeter and singer moves from fire to water, blending jazz, Afrobeat and Dilla-inspired grooves into a meditation on vulnerability and responsibility.

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Hermanos Gutiérrez's new album, Los Ojos del Cóndor, is out now. Produced by Dan Auerbach and inspired by a photo of their father at Machu Picchu, it's an instrumental love letter to the Andes, with charango featured for the first time. #HermanosGutierrez #LosOjosDelCondor

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Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi reunite with the Amy Winehouse Band to perform Back to Black in full at London's Roundhouse on October 21, with Corinne Bailey Rae, Lianne La Havas, Jorja Smith, Yebba and more. #AmyWinehouse #BackToBlack20

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Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja was arrested in Liverpool for holding a sign supporting Palestine Action, a group banned in the UK in 2025. It's his second arrest this year, the latest chapter in the band's decades-long activism.

Fifty years ago today, Stevie Wonder released "Songs in the Key of Life," a sprawling double album where "Sir Duke" saluted Ellington and Herbie Hancock sat in on "As." It debuted at No. 1 and still sounds like a masterclass in making every genre feel like home.

Mighty Sparrow, the Calypso King of the World, has died aged 91. From "Jean and Dinah" in 1956 to eight Calypso Monarch titles, he made calypso a musical, social and political voice heard far beyond Trinidad and Tobago. #MightySparrow #Calypso

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Songs in the Key of Life turns 50 today, and Stevie Wonder is sharing four unreleased songs from its original sessions, newly mixed by the album's original engineers. A tour performing the album in full begins October 13. #StevieWonder #SongsInTheKeyOfLife

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Blue Note opened its first UK club in Covent Garden on September 23, John Coltrane's centenary, with Robert Glasper on stage. Erykah Badu, Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes and KOKOROKO follow in the first season.

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RYMDEN, the trio of Bugge Wesseltoft and e.s.t.'s Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström, release their fourth album, Today May Be Tomorrow, on Jazzland. It's eight pieces about time and uncertainty, from monumental riffs to gospel-tinged calm.

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The Flying Hats' second album, Ups, is out today on ATA Records. It has nine Hammond-led tracks joining Kingston reggae and New Orleans funk, all recorded in the same session as their debut.

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Symbole Records releases Lucien Joly's Selected Works today. It features seven tracks, one from each of his seven albums, honoring an underrated saxophonist of Caribbean music, with hand-finished LPs including a limited blue vinyl edition.

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In 1955, Marilyn Monroe personally called the Mocambo's owner and demanded Ella Fitzgerald be booked, promising to sit at the front table every night to guarantee press coverage. He agreed, and Ella later said she owed Monroe "a real debt", after that show, she never played a small jazz club again.

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Émile Parisien's Floating is out today on ACT, with Yaron Herman, Linda May Han Oh and Prabhu Edouard. Born from a Paris residency, it's a record in search of calm and sincerity, including "Portal," a tribute to the late Michel Portal.

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George Gershwin, born September 26, 1898. He composed "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Porgy and Bess" by treating the line between classical form and jazz feeling as something meant to be crossed, not respected.

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Mark Guiliana's BEAT MUSIC 2.0 is out today on Edition Records. It has eight synth-fueled tracks fusing retro production and futuristic drumming, with Gretchen Parlato, Tim Lefebvre, Stu Brooks and Nicholas Semrad.

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