A shelf in the record shop
Jazz & Kin
Jazz and what borders on it.
21 stations
Every station here plays in 432 Hz instead of the usual 440 if you want it to — the page shifts the pitch down by 31.77 cents. We promise you no effect. We give you a dial.
-
WALM Radio · New York, US · mp3 · 253 kbit/s
A New York station playing jazz off original shellac and vinyl records, crackle and all. You actually hear the record, not the remastered reissue — a difference you won't want to miss after two tracks.
no ads human host
-
WALM Radio · New York, US · mp3 · 281 kbit/s
The sister channel to Adroit Jazz, with recordings from the twenties through the fifties, also straight off the record. Radio as archive visit — tracks here haven't been digitized by anyone in seventy years.
no ads
-
KNKX · Seattle, US · aac · 256 kbit/s
The jazz channel of public station KNKX out of Seattle, hosted by people who know their records. At 256 kbit/s AAC, one of the best-sounding jazz streams around, without the elevator-music lean of many smooth jazz stations.
human host no ads
-
WBGO · Newark, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
The jazz station out of Newark, listener-funded since 1979 and the most important jazz station on the American East Coast. Broadcasts right out of the city where many of the recordings it plays were made.
human host community
-
KJazz · Long Beach, US · aac · 128 kbit/s
A specialist channel playing bebop exclusively — Parker, Gillespie, Powell, and their successors, nothing after. That narrowness is the strength: if you want bebop, you don't want to land on fusion after three tracks.
no ads instrumental
-
Ella Radio · Hamburg, DE · mp3 · 192 kbit/s
A small Hamburg jazz station with several specialist channels, this one for bebop and hard bop. German jazz radio has become rare — this one runs without advertising and with palpable expertise.
no ads instrumental
-
Ashiya Radio · Ashiya, JP · aac · 193 kbit/s
A local station from the small town of Ashiya between Osaka and Kobe, playing a surprising amount of jazz between Japanese local news. Radio from a slice of Japanese everyday life a European would otherwise never hear.
local human host
-
SomaFM · San Francisco, US · mp3 · 256 kbit/s
Mod jazz, soul jazz, and European film music from the sixties — the music of coffeehouses before it turned into lounge kitsch. Closer to Blue Note than easy listening, with a feel for the moments when both were the same thing.
no ads
-
SomaFM · San Francisco, US · mp3 · 256 kbit/s
Bossa nova and what came after, including modern Brazilian electronic music and European arrangements. Considerably broader than pure bossa stations, which makes it the more interesting address for a genre that otherwise turns into wallpaper fast.
no ads
-
TSF Jazz · Paris, FR · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
The Paris jazz station, a fixture in France. Hosted throughout, with a preference for what's just come out — not an archive station, but one that keeps up with what's happening in the clubs.
human host
-
Concertzender · Utrecht, NL · mp3 · 256 kbit/s
The Dutch Concertzender is made by volunteers and funds itself without advertising. The jazz channel is correspondingly headstrong: shows that follow an idea instead of a playlist, often an hour long on a single musician.
no ads community human host
-
SRG SSR · Bern, CH · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
The jazz channel of Swiss public broadcasting, ad-free and unhosted — music plays, nothing else. The most unruffled way to have jazz running in the background without anyone talking over it.
no ads
-
XJAZZ · Berlin, DE · mp3 · 320 kbit/s
The groove channel of Berlin's XJAZZ Festival, at 320 kbit/s one of the best-sounding jazz streams around. Jazz with a pulse: jazz-funk, broken beat, tracks where the bass sets the direction.
no ads
-
XJAZZ · Berlin, DE · mp3 · 320 kbit/s
The channel where jazz and electronic music don't alternate but interpenetrate — improvised music with machines inside it. If you're at home in the Engine Room but still miss horns, start here.
no ads
-
Le Grigri · Frankreich, FR · mp3 · 192 kbit/s
A small French station throwing African music, free jazz, and hip-hop into the same pot and stirring. Exactly the kind of neighborhood where genre mixes come about that nobody else would play.
no ads community
-
KLCBS · Bandung, ID · aac · 130 kbit/s
KLCBS calls itself “The Jazz Wave” and broadcasts from Bandung on Java. The fusion channel plays what counts as jazz in Indonesia — and that's considerably closer to Weather Report than to Wynton Marsalis.
instrumental
-
WWOZ New Orleans · New Orleans, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
New Orleans's community radio, carried by listeners and volunteer hosts. Not a jazz station in the museum sense, but the station of a city where jazz is functional music — brass bands, funk, and everything that comes with it.
no ads community human host local
-
Northwestern University · Evanston, US · mp3 · 192 kbit/s
Student radio near Chicago, famous for decades for two things: its jazz programming and “Streetbeat.” If you want to hear what a station sounds like when nobody's telling it what to play, listen in here.
no ads community human host
-
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos · São Leopoldo, BR · mp3 · 192 kbit/s
University radio from southern Brazil. Bossa nova and Brazilian music, but broadcast from the country itself instead of a European lounge channel — the difference is noticeable after two tracks.
no ads community
-
Mt. Hood Community College · Portland, US · aac · 128 kbit/s
The second channel of Portland's jazz station, listener-supported and ad-free. Where the main channel plays the standards, this one goes further out — to where jazz stops following rules.
community human host no ads
-
Foundation to Advance Jazz · San Francisco, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
A non-profit jazz station from San Francisco, funded by donations instead of ads. Every hour is put together by hand from a collection of more than ten thousand recordings — laid-back jazz that still never slips into the bland.
no ads