If you want to learn more, I cannot more highly recommend Ted Gioia's How to Listen to Jazz. Ted's work is a gift to the jazz world and imperative reading.
Every idea has a lineage. Nowhere is that more visible than in jazz.
The more I learned about the greats, the more I began to see the web of relationships beneath the music — bands, collaborations, mentorship, and influence. Every great player seems to lead you to another. Every record opens a door to five more.
That's what intrigued me. So I built The Jazz Map.
It's an attempt to visualise that network — to trace the connections between artists across generations, and to explore how the music evolves through the people who play it. You can follow the lines between musicians, discover who played with whom, and move through jazz history not as a timeline, but as a living, interconnected system.
There will undoubtedly be omissions, missed connections, and things that could be better. If you spot something, use the feedback button and I'll fix it.
I hope you enjoy exploring it as much as I've enjoyed building it.
Got a suggestion, spotted a mistake, or want an artist added? Drop a note below.
Every week, a deep dive into the connections and relationships that shaped jazz — who learned from whom, which collaborations mattered, and how ideas moved through the music.