‘Accessing Jazz and Improvised Music’ invites participants to consider the networks, infrastructure, physical and ideological barriers, creative problems, privileges, and prejudices musicians and audiences routinely negotiate as they make their way to and through jazz and other improvised music. Prompted in part by the new platforms audiences and musicians have used to connect during the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference aims to prompt delegates to reflect on the spectrum of physical and metaphorical barriers that have created space between artists, audiences, and researchers, and the bridges that have been built to span these gaps. We are excited to present a program of research papers and lecture recitals that weave together thoughts on ‘access’ from around the globe.