Long Form are in-depth articles on fundamental themes and artists in jazz.
Written by our best contributors and accompanied by exclusive photos, they represent the heart of jazz music history.
After years of requests from university students and enthusiasts, they are now available and updated on this page.
Long Form
Dossier on Sam Rivers
At the beginning of the 1970s, Sam Rivers – the subject of this focus – was 47 years old and already a grandfather. As a musician, however, he was still relatively unknown. His true epiphany came as he approached 50, on a specific date and in a specific place: 6 July 1973, in Montreux, when Claude Nobs, the Swiss festival’s director (and something of a visionary), introduced him with these words: “Those who don’t know Sam Rivers yet are in for a big surprise tonight. He is a musician we have already seen in Europe with Cecil Taylor, and he is coming to us for the first time with his own group.” The performance in question was released by Impulse under the title Streams and, in keeping with the multi-instrumentalist’s nature, unfolds as an uninterrupted sequence of four expository segments, each marked by a different instrument: tenor saxophone, flute, piano […]
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Hip-Hop: From Underground to Show Business
Hip-hop was born as an underground tongue built from crackling speakers, graffiti-covered walls and improvised rhymes on stoops and street corners. It was the...
Dossier on Anthony Braxton’s Quartets
June 4, 2025: Anthony Braxton turns 80 – an almost mocking age for someone who has been the true enfant terrible of the American...
Alphonso Johnson: A Great Talent
The history of jazz is filled with musicians who died prematurely, disappeared, or stepped away from the scene for various reasons. Into this last...
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Andy Bey: a tribute to the great singer who recently passed away
The early 1990s marked the return of great singers. Many who had lived in near anonymity during the 1970s suddenly came back into view....
Ran Blake: a poet in black and white
Let’s start with a song: “Laura.” David Raksin composed the music for the film of the same name (released in Italy as Vertigine), and...
Roy Ayers: “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”
Ayers died on March 4 in New York. The warm sound of his instrument has fallen silent, leaving an empty void. He was eighty-four...
The Indestructible Eddie Condon
They called him The Indestructible, and that’s how we’ll remember him: with that trademark sneering smile, croaky voice, his ever-present guitar slung over his shoulder, a bottle of gin never far from reach, and Gershwin’s “Liza” floating in the background.
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Remembering Martial Solal
The great pianist recently died at the ripe old age of 97, but he wasn't retired for long: when he said "enough" to live performances, he was 92, and he continued to write music until the end. We remember him with an extensive examination of his formative years
Sergio Mendes: Pretty World
The recent death of the Brazilian pianist truly marks the end of an enchanted world: a true la-la land built in the perfect image and likeness of its ingenious creator