Since 2011, the world has celebrated April 30 as International Jazz Day. It’s a day dedicated to celebrating the genre’s music, considered one of America’s greatest artistic and cultural creations, ...

So self-contained is the modern French jazz scene by comparison with those in Britain, Scandinavia and the US, that some of its most interesting artists are practically unknown beyond their home turf.

Jazz has a long tradition of heroism, both in practice and reception, in the acts of musicians and how they are understood. For the last few generations, hard-core jazz audiences have spent a lot of ...