February 2026

Volume 93, Number 2

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Cover

Snarky Puppy

By Stephanie Jones

Dreams are slippery things. From devout Jungians to the astrologers of TikTok, every new generation seeks to uncover what dreams might reveal about the self. When he set out to write music for Somni (GroundUP), Snarky Puppy’s new live collaboration with The Metropole Orkest, band leader and producer Michael League booked himself a residency in the Japanese countryside to meditate on dreams. He, too, grappled with those questions.

Features

Soulive
Still Live
By Gary Fukushima
Lettuce
Keepers of the Funk
By Bill Milkowski
Special Section
Great Jazz Venues
By DownBeat Staff

Sponsored by TurnTable

Blindfold Test

After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy Award for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12 of her original songs, Nicole Zuraitis was nominated for another pair in 2025 for Live At Vic’s Last Vegas and All Stars Lead To You — Live. In December, Zuraitis took her first-ever Blindfold Test.

Carmen McRae: “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” from Bittersweet (Focus, 1964)
Cécile McLorin Salvant/Alexa Tarantino: “Moon Song” from The Roar and the Whisper (Blue Engine, 2025)
Samara Joy: “Reincarnation of a Lovebird” from Portrait (Verve, 2025)
Sarah Vaughan: “The Nearness of You” from Live in Japan (Mainstream, 1973)
Doug Wamble: ““If I’m Evil” from Blues in the Present Tense (Halcyonic, 2022)
Ekep Nkwele/Vuyo Sotashe: “Skylark” from Emmet’s Place (YouTube, 2024)
Shirley Horn: “Everything Must Change” from May the Music Never End (Verve, 2003)
Betty Carter: “All or Nothing At All” from Feed the Fire (Verve, 1991)