Jazz has always reinvented itself. From bebop to cool jazz to free jazz to fusion — the music has never stood still. What’s happening now might be the most exciting reinvention yet.

The London Scene

Shabaka Hutchings, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, and the wider community around the Total Refreshment Centre in Hackney have created a distinctly British take on jazz — one deeply influenced by grime, Caribbean music, and UK club culture.

The LA Connection

Kamasi Washington’s The Epic (2015) announced that jazz was back and it wasn’t apologising for its ambition. His circle — including Thundercat, Flying Lotus, and Terrace Martin — has produced some of the decade’s most adventurous music.

The Next Generation

Artists like Immanuel Wilkins, Makaya McCraven, and Arooj Aftab are pushing the music in genuinely new directions. Aftab’s Vulture Prince, which won a Grammy in 2022, blends Pakistani classical music with jazz in a way that feels both ancient and utterly contemporary.