Jazz doesn’t always stay on its own side of the musical divide. Here are five artists whose music crosses borders, genres and expectations – and reaches far beyond the jazz faithful. What, jazz – stay in its lane? Now there’s an oxymoron. Much of the genre’s history is built on borrowing, reshaping and occasionally throwing the rulebook out the window. Sure, ‘crossover jazz’ sounds like a category invented in a record-company meeting – which, to be fair, it sort of was.

From the 1970s onwards, as jazz fusion broadened the music’s commercial reach, musicians and producers began looking for combinations that might coax a few more listeners through the door. Jazz met pop, funk, R&B and global music. Today, it can incorporate hip-hop, grime and electronics. Maybe there’s enough improv, soul or groove to call it jazz-adjacent.

Perhaps it weaves in samples of iconic jazz recordings. Possibly, it is the work of a jazz musician – that is, a musician with chops – whose sound can be understood and enjoyed without the listener needing to identify as a jazz fan. It might even be a gateway into jazz, even if today’s crossover artists don’t necessarily think they’re crossing anything.

Here are five albums that help prove the point.

Maya Delilah – The Long Way Round (Blue Note, 2025)

Jazz guitar is at the heart of it, but so are soul, R&B, funk, folk and pop. Jazz harmony and a blues vocabulary are the foundations of the highly accessible songs of this 20-something North Londoner, a dyslexic who grew up improvising in jazz youth clubs before honing her craft at the BRIT School and going viral with her catchy songs and colourful videos on TikTok. Inspired as much by crossover queen Norah Jones as by guitarists including John Mayer and blues-rock hero
Derek Trucks, Delilah can sing and shred with equal flair. Where songs such as “My Balloon” are intimate and acoustic, “Squeeze” gets properly funky. On “The Long Way Around”, genre blending isn’t a strategy – it’s a whole personality.

Jordan Rakei – The Loop (Decca, 2024)

Here, crossover isn’t just about genre – it is about scale. Rakei’s earlier work saw him hailed as a master of the intimate, self-produced alternative R&B record, but on “The Loop” the bedroom door opens and a choir and an orchestra walk in. Rakei’s slim, silky voice can sound both remarkably vulnerable and deeply soulful, and the soul references – Stevie, Curtis, Bill Withers – feel ubiquitous. There is gospel and groove, R&B and electronics. There’s sophisticated harmony tucked inside songs that remain immediately approachable, that invite you to hum along. The jazz is there in the chords, rhythms and improvisational feel, in the sound of an artist following the music wherever it leads

Liana Flores – Flower of the Soul (Verve, 2024)

Liana Flores’ music brings Brazilian bossa nova together with jazz, folk and sunshine-infused indie pop: a distinctive kind of crossover that has you hankering for a cosy listening space out of sight of the grind. The British Brazilian Flores crafted her first tunes, intimate and winningly imperfect, at home, recording in the DIY spirit of someone making music for its own sake. Then her private little song “Rises the Moon” found a new audience on TikTok, introducing her sound to listeners well
beyond the usual jazz and bossa nova crowd. “Flower of the Soul” retains her airy, intimate sound, with the jazz element folded into the harmonic detail and melodies that dip and float. Think sophisticated bossa nova meets plainspoken English folk, with jazz quietly joining the conversation.

FATHERS – FATHERS (Blue Note, 2026)

Fathers bring crossover jazz closer to the mixing desk. The quartet make magic at the intersection of jazz musicianship, hip-hop production and contemporary beat culture, each musician coming from several musical worlds at once, but all with an eye on the groove. It is music made as much with the producer’s ear as the jazz musician’s: space, texture and rhythm matter as much as virtuosity.

“Eye Level” establishes the mood with Smith’s elastic drumming and CARRTOONS’ weighted bass; “Pearl” finds Kiefer weaving hazy, hip-hop-informed keyboard melodies around Kenny Beats’ clever textures. Nothing feels bolted together: the jazz, beats and electronics occupy the same space, with the musicians responding to the groove rather than simply laying jazz over a hip-hop framework. A snapshot, if you like, of where jazz and beats are at. Jazz for a generation that understands that a loop can be as important as a solo, that restraint and texture can say as much – okay, almost – as virtuosity.

Julius Rodriguez – Evergreen (Verve, 2024)

Julius Rodriguez puts the notion of genre through a blender. Evergreen has it all going on: jazz, gospel, classical music, R&B, hip-hop and electronics. It’s a musical biography, explained in part by the background of the New York-born and Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer: immersion in church music; classical and jazz training; contemporary collaborations and a stint touring as a sideman for A$AP Rocky. “Run To It (The CP Song)” brings a gospel vibe into a
muscular jazz setting. “Funmi’s Groove” finds Latin and R&B feels alongside jazz piano, with electronic textures adding layers to the groove. “Champion’s Call”, with vocals by Georgia Anne Muldrow, leans into psychedelia. Crossover? And some. This is music that takes everything that’s gone before and – whoosh! – heads off in all directions.

_{Header Image: L-R Maya Delilah, Liana Flores, Kiefer, Jordan Rakei}

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Jane Cornwell is an Australian-born, London-based writer on arts, travel and music for publications and platforms in the UK and Australia, including Songlines and Jazzwise. She’s the former jazz critic of the London Evening Standard.

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