Michael J. West

Michael J. West has been a music journalist and jazz critic for almost 20 years. He is the reviews editor at DownBeat magazine and was previously reviews editor and interim editor-in-chief at JazzTimes. He writes a monthly column about local jazz for Washington City Paper and is a regular contributor to DownBeat, The Washington Post, Bandcamp Daily, and NPR Music. His work has also appeared in Jazziz, The Village Voice, TIDAL, and Slate. In 2024, West received the Berger-Carter-Berger Fellowship grant from Rutgers University’s Institute of Jazz Studies to conduct research in the Institute’s Andrew Hill collection.