In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

Ken Laster has a firm rule: no smooth jazz. That editorial stance tells you everything about where this show's heart is. Over 200 episodes and counting, In the Groove covers modern jazz, fusion, and the work of both established masters and emerging artists who are actually pushing the music somewhere new. Ken's hosting style channels the best of 1970s jazz radio -- informed, opinionated, and clearly in love with the records he's spinning. Each weekly episode runs about an hour and features curated playlists with full artist and album credits provided. The audio quality is consistently excellent, which matters when you're trying to appreciate the nuances of a particular saxophone tone or the way a rhythm section locks in. Ken programs thematically sometimes -- an episode focused on a particular instrument, or one responding to social and political currents through the lens of jazz history -- and other times just lets his ear guide the selection. The show holds a 4.7-star rating from nearly 380 reviews, and listeners repeatedly highlight the same thing: they discover artists here that they never would have found through streaming algorithms. There's a real human intelligence behind the curation that no recommendation engine can replicate. If you're the kind of person who wants to know what's actually happening in jazz right now, not just the canonical albums everyone already knows, Ken Laster is doing essential work with this show.