The Lush Life Blog
The Most Valuable Jazz Records of 2026 (So Far)
We read every Discogs most-valuable roundup this year and pulled out the jazz. From a Tina Brooks Blue Note that sold three times to the rarest record on Strata-East, here are the highest jazz sales of 2026 so far, and what they say about the market.
The Most Valuable Jazz Records of 2026 (So Far)
We read every Discogs most-valuable roundup this year and pulled out the jazz. From a Tina Brooks Blue Note that sold three times to the rarest record on Strata-East, here are the highest jazz sales of 2026 so far, and what they say about the market.
The Greatest Jazz Saxophone Players of All Time
The definitive guide to the greatest jazz saxophone players of all time, built around ten who reinvented the instrument and opening out across every era, from swing and bebop to the London, Chicago and Australian voices leading the music now. Essential records named throughout.
The Greatest Jazz Saxophone Players of All Time
The definitive guide to the greatest jazz saxophone players of all time, built around ten who reinvented the instrument and opening out across every era, from swing and bebop to the London, Chicago and Australian voices leading the music now. Essential records named throughout.
Free Jazz: The Sound Everyone Was Supposed to Hate
It emptied rooms and its pioneers were called charlatans. Sixty years on, free jazz is the obvious starting point for half the interesting jazz being made. A guide to the records, the labels and the long argument about the most maligned and misunderstood music in jazz.
Free Jazz: The Sound Everyone Was Supposed to Hate
It emptied rooms and its pioneers were called charlatans. Sixty years on, free jazz is the obvious starting point for half the interesting jazz being made. A guide to the records, the labels and the long argument about the most maligned and misunderstood music in jazz.
South Africa's Mozart: Abdullah Ibrahim, 1934-2026
Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African pianist and composer whose "Mannenberg" became an unofficial anthem against apartheid, has died at 91. From District Six and the Jazz Epistles to Duke Ellington, exile and a final solo masterpiece, a look back at a singular life in music and the records that define it.
South Africa's Mozart: Abdullah Ibrahim, 1934-2026
Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African pianist and composer whose "Mannenberg" became an unofficial anthem against apartheid, has died at 91. From District Six and the Jazz Epistles to Duke Ellington, exile and a final solo masterpiece, a look back at a singular life in music and the records that define it.
What Is a Jazz Standard, and Why Did They Stop?
The most recently written song anyone seriously calls a jazz standard is Joe Zawinul's "Birdland", recorded by Weather Report in 1977. Nearly fifty years with nothing new entering the canon. What happened, and does it matter?
What Is a Jazz Standard, and Why Did They Stop?
The most recently written song anyone seriously calls a jazz standard is Joe Zawinul's "Birdland", recorded by Weather Report in 1977. Nearly fifty years with nothing new entering the canon. What happened, and does it matter?
ESP-Disk': The Label That Recorded What Nobody Else Would
Between 1964 and 1974, a New York lawyer named Bernard Stollman ran a record label out of Manhattan apartments with a family inheritance and a policy of total artistic freedom. The catalogue he built, from Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity to Sun Ra's Heliocentric Worlds to The Fugs' proto-punk debut, is one of the most important in recorded music. This is the full story of ESP-Disk', and a guide to collecting it on vinyl.
ESP-Disk': The Label That Recorded What Nobody Else Would
Between 1964 and 1974, a New York lawyer named Bernard Stollman ran a record label out of Manhattan apartments with a family inheritance and a policy of total artistic freedom. The catalogue he built, from Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity to Sun Ra's Heliocentric Worlds to The Fugs' proto-punk debut, is one of the most important in recorded music. This is the full story of ESP-Disk', and a guide to collecting it on vinyl.