Vinyl Standard
A jazz blog for serious listeners, written slowly, and on purpose.
Feel Every
Note.
Celebrating the artists, albums, and stories that shaped the most expressive music ever created. From bebop to fusion, from Tokyo to Detroit, this is jazz, reviewed one record at a time.
A love letter
to jazz.
Vinyl Standard is an independent jazz blog dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of jazz music. From the smoky clubs of 1940s New York to the global stages of today, we cover it all, deeply, honestly, and with love for the music.
Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.Nina Simone
Featured Artists
Miles Davis
Signature: Kind of Blue (1959)
The Prince of Darkness reinvented jazz multiple times, from cool jazz to fusion. His restless genius reshaped the art form forever.
Explore Miles →John Coltrane
Signature: A Love Supreme (1964)
From Soultrane to A Love Supreme, no one in jazz burned hotter or evolved faster. Thirty-five essential records across three eras.
Explore Coltrane →Bill Evans
Signature: Waltz for Debby (1961)
Impressionistic, lyrical, deeply introspective. Evans redefined the piano trio with a touch unlike anyone else, from Riverside through Keystone Korner.
Explore Evans →Thelonious Monk
Signature: Brilliant Corners (1957)
With angular melodies and deliberate dissonance, Monk crafted a harmonic language entirely his own. From Blue Note through the London sessions.
Explore Monk →Benny Golson
Signature: Meet the Jazztet (1960)
The man who wrote Whisper Not, Stablemates, and Killer Joe is one of the most important composer-saxophonists in jazz. Six decades, every one worth your time.
Explore Golson →Gene Ammons
Signature: Boss Tenor (1960)
Known as Jug, Ammons had one of the biggest and warmest sounds in jazz history. Four eras, from Mercury 78s through the posthumous Gentle Jug comp.
Explore Ammons →Dave Brubeck
Signature: Time Out (1959)
Brubeck brought jazz to college campuses and then rewrote the rulebook on rhythm. Six decades, from the Fantasy Octet through Indian Summer.
Explore Brubeck →Cannonball Adderley
Signature: Somethin' Else (1958)
Cannonball arrived in New York and immediately owned the room. From his EmArcy debut through Somethin' Else with Miles, the rise of a hard bop voice.
Explore Adderley →
The Tokyo
Jazz Story,
1923 to 1989
Japan absorbed jazz with an intensity unlike anywhere else on earth. From prewar dance halls to the audiophile masterworks of Three Blind Mice, through the avant-garde fire of Yosuke Yamashita and the fusion decade of the 1980s. This is the full history.
Landmark Albums
Recent Articles
New Jazz Releases, live from Apple Music
Recent jazz albums pulled live from the Apple Music catalog. Filter by year, search by artist, and open any album directly in Apple Music. No login required, no paywall, just a running window into what the jazz world is putting out this week.
