Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding is playing Prague this week as she basks in the glow of her shock Grammy win for Best New Artist of the year. The Velvet Violin takes a look at some hot and not-so-hot past winners of the award.

Ahead of this week’s Prague performance by jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the Velvet Violin looks at a perhaps lesser known aspect of this jazzman’s career – movie scores.

If you’re a jazz fan on a visit to Prague, chances are you will want to hear some live jazz or blues in a city so famous for the genre. The Bílý Koníček jazz & blues lounge is an easy place for even the most pressed tourist to find, given that it sits right on [...]

As reported in Feb. 10′s Night & Day, tonight and tomorrow’s performances at Prague’s Jazz Dock by The Bad Plus comes after the Minneapolis/New York trio saw their latest album, Never Stop, got top 10 billing in many critics’ rundowns of the best jazz records of the past year. On that note, here at the [...]

If you you’re a fan of jazz but have never heard any jazz from Slovakia, you might be interested in checking a take on the genre from one of the country’s top jazz musicians. Petr Lipa (above left) will be performing with his longtime friend, actor and songwriter Milan Lasíca, whose poems Lipa set to [...]

Chris Potter’s Underground plays an exclusive two-night stand at the intimate Jazz Dock, this Tuesday & Wednesday evening. It’s a special treat for Prague, since the last time Chris Potter’s Underground performed in the city was a couple of years ago – and for thousands in the middle of Old Town Square at that – [...]