Anderson shares his “musical memoir” of growing up in 1960s Chicago with a live version of his Sweet Chicago Suite at the Newport Jazz Festival. His scaled-down Pocket Brass Band aims to sound like a full-sized jazz marching band.

Giordano has been obsessed with 1920s jazz since he first heard it on his grandparents’ Victrola. His band the Nighthawks performs the music heard on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

When their busy schedules align, the three jazz sidemen come together as a trio. Their format isn’t earth-shatteringly new — it’s built on classic sonorities in which Hammond B3 organ meets electric guitar — but after nearly 25 years as a band, their rapport is. Watch a live concert.

Alchemy is a step forward in defining and refining the trumpeter’s mix of jazz and Iraqi rhythms.

The pianist and club owner plays Cole Porter’s “So in Love” with host Marian McPartland in 2006.

He had gigs before and enjoyed prominent freelance work afterward. But the mellow saxophone and flute player’s career was kickstarted by spending more than a decade in the front row of Count Basie’s “New Testament” band.

In Nicole Mitchell’s words, “The flute and vibes coming together gives us the visual for Ice Crystal.” Hear the adventurous musician and composer play the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival with her quartet.

On this 2007 program, recorded before a live audience at the John F. Kennedy Center, Taylor performs his tunes “In Loving Memory” and “If You Really Are Concerned.”

The pianist loves water and music. Inspired by a trip along the Pacific Northwest, The Coastal Suite spins out as one uninterrupted arc. JazzSet captures the broadcast premiere at the Ibeam in New York.

The jazz legend practiced his saxophone 10 to 15 hours a day before he got his big break, and while he wasn’t the most reliable husband, when it came to music, he never wavered. Scholar Stanley Crouch’s Kansas City Lightning is the first of a two-volume biography of Parker.

The trumpeter and bandleader premiered his gospel-jazz Abyssinian Mass back in 2008. But now, accompanied by a 70-voice choir, he’s taking the sprawling work on the road and into African-American churches — whose services were the inspiration for the piece.

Chicago bassist Matt Ulery writes beautiful music in an unpretentious way. It’s intricate stuff, with interlocking parts and multiple sections, but it comes out sounding folky and simple. His small group, featuring bass clarinet and accordion, has it down pat.

The Broadway and screen actress known for her Tony-winning role in Cats, among many other major productions, has recorded 15 solo albums with another on the way. Along with musical director Kenny Werner, she joined Marian McPartland in 2007 for a session of standards.

Professing love for Bob James’ music can yield a side-eye in some circles, as his 1970s work is seen as a progenitor to smooth jazz. But he certainly knew his way around a catchy melody and an infectious riff — as legions of rap and house producers have discovered through sampling.

Costello joins host Marian McPartland and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi to perform “At Last” and more.

At 27, bandleader Trombone Shorty is already an icon in his hometown. So he’s giving back: Through his own foundation, the “supafunkrock” brass player is nurturing even younger talent in local schools.

The saxophonist, 24, came to the U.S. from Chile with little money and less command of English. But she did have some serious ability at the saxophone, which has now found footing in the New York scene. She visits her alma mater to perform with her international band.

The jazz pianist uses his new record to recall works of yesteryear and simultaneously illustrate his new sense of direction.

Growing up in Chile, Melissa Aldana insisted on playing in clubs and transcribed solos like mad — as her father did before her. Now, at 24, she’s won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for young musicians, and her youthful dedication is beginning to pay off.

The multi-instrumentalist joins Marian McPartland for Duke Ellington and Gershwin tunes in 1997.

Talent, dedication, a skill at adapting classical dances to jazz formats — these are some of Sung’s musical and personal qualities that make her one to watch and listen to. Hear a set from the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.

It’s vanilla, but that’s not really the point. In a short interview, the saxophonist explains why his band returns to a certain palate-cleansing, dairy-titled tune so often — and discusses his connection to its composer, trumpeter and long-time collaborator Ralph Alessi.

At the age of 78, jazz drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath is still displaying his aptitude for making songs swing while keeping them firmly in time. Critic Tom Moon reviews Tootie’s Tempo, Heath’s collaboration with two younger jazz players.

Prism features one of the loudest bands of the bassist’s career. The pleasures of the groove here are complex and deep — it’s not just about moving feet.

A cosmopolitan entertainer and authentic folklorist, the singing Cuban percussionist has lined up a program where timba, four-part harmony and The Jackson 5 butt heads. The result is a dance party as accomplished as it is hard to resist.

For three years, the jazz musician and his collaborator Mike Ladd have been working with war veterans-turned-poets to bring their words to light. NPR’s Arun Rath speaks with Iyer and Iraq veteran Maurice Decaul about the album that resulted, Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project.

When Brandon Bain started singing in New York jazz clubs, he knew he wanted to capture the scene on video. Against 10,000-to-1 odds, he found the means to do it. His web series Capsulocity now features impromptu performances of top young talent generating a bit of unscripted fun.

Saxophonist Gabe Baltazar is one of the last living links to an era when Asian-Americans began to make a name for themselves in jazz. Now, at the age of 83, he’s sharing his story in an autobiography.

The singer performs “On Such a Night As This” and “You’ll Never Know” with host Michael Feinstein.

Widely recognized as one of the preeminent interpreters of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eliane Elias has lately begun exploring the works of Bill Evans. She plays and sings a previously unreleased Evans tune, “Here Is Something for You,” for which she has written a lyric, and host Marian McPartland gives her own Evans tribute on “B Minor Waltz.”

The composer imagined his music more than 40 years ago. Known as the father of “Ethio-jazz”, Astatke has been credited with creating a new genre that blends Ethiopian music and jazz. His new album, Sketches of Ethiopia, is as complex as it is easily enjoyable — the mark of a master.

After releasing his latest album, last year’s Spirit Fiction, the saxophonist put his decade-old quartet on hiatus. He now takes a new group into a venue haunted by the ghosts of his parents, who also presented a new band there nearly 50 years ago. Watch a live concert.

Two of this year’s roster of grant winners are pianists who exemplify creative thinking and wide-ranging intellectual and artistic pursuits. And as it happens, NPR has a long history with each of them. See and hear excerpts of their distinctive work.

In the 1980s, pianist Michele Rosewoman and drummer Francisco Mora-Catlett started independently pursuing a mixture of Afro-Caribbean mysticism and avant-garde jazz. Thirty years later, they’ve finally recorded their otherworldly large ensembles.

Watch a Galician bagpiper and her trio take the traditionally Celtic sound of her bagpipes in an entirely new, wild and wonderful direction.

As a fledgling classical soprano in New York, Norman went to hear singers like Mabel Mercer perform. She tells WBGO’s Rhonda Hamilton that her study of jazz vocalists influenced the way she interprets songs — including operatic arias.

The 24-year-old tenor sax player is the first female instrumentalist to take home the annual prize for young musicians. Raised in Chile and based in New York, Aldana beat out friends Tivon Pennicott and Godwin Louis for first-place honors, worth a $25,000 scholarship and a recording contract.

The annual jazz competition for young musicians, which featured saxophonists in 2013, was a bit predictable — at least in the semifinal round. But given the particular displays of talent on stage, is that necessarily a bad thing?

The jazz pianist’s powerful 1976 album I Remember Bessie conveys a profound sense of loss.

Latin jazz works best when the musicians involved are as fluent in Afro-Cuban rhythms as they are in the deep grooves and advanced harmonics of bebop. A man with a powerful interest in both the past and the future, Arturo O’Farrill has that pedigree in his DNA.

Creative director Ben Jaffe discusses the band’s new album — titled That’s It! — and spotlights four live songs, recorded live at City Winery in New York City.

On this archival program from 1992, Clooney reminisces about her singing career with her sister Betty in Tony Pastor’s band. Her rich, smooth voice and skillful phrasing add to the deep feeling in “Our Love Is Here to Stay” and the challenging “Lush Life.”

The singer and songwriter grew up with Celtic and pop music in her home, and after discovering Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, she became known as a folksy jazz vocalist. She visits the program along with keyboardist Gary Versace.

These acid jazz veterans visit with David Dye and perform three songs from their new album, Inland Emperor.

The jazz artist, who turned to singing when an injury ended his football career, claims three people as his main influences: his minister mother, his absentee father, and Nat King Cole. He discusses his musical life and the new album Liquid Spirit with NPR’s Audie Cornish.

Before he was the drummer for The Bad Plus, King developed a strong work ethic — or maybe not — doing various forms of menial labor in the Midwest. He speaks on telemarketing, Orange Julius, and how it applies (or doesn’t) to his own bands.

Duke Ellington’s piece for Queen Elizabeth II is included in a new collection of late-period suites.

There’s an element of Porter’s singing that feels like a welcome throwback, though he doesn’t spell it out precisely. On his third album, he only seeks the soulful spirit of griots gone by. And all he asks you to do is clap your hands now.

Mangione and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi team up with host Marian McPartland to perform dynamic trio work in a session from 1999. The set includes Mangione’s famous tune “Feels So Good,” as well as a few beloved standards.

Known for experimentation, The Bad Plus’ drummer performs more conventional modern jazz on the side, as he showed on 2012′s I’ve Been Ringing You. With two underground rhythm-section guys from the Upper Midwest, he travels to New York for a week at one of the city’s most prestigious clubs.

At 60, New York City composer John Zorn is wiser, sure, but no less prolific, thoughtful and antagonistic than before. He tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that, at his age, “there are no more doubts.”

In the ’50s, Jamaican musicians combined Caribbean calypso and American jazz and R&B to create ska — the foundation of future developments like reggae. Now, jazz musicians are closing the circle of influence. For late summer, here are five songs inspired by the island’s characteristic riddims.

The boundary-pushing trumpeter plays Mary Lou Williams tunes with Marian McPartland in 2000.

The late South African vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin is remembered as her country’s greatest jazz singer, who brought deliberation and questions of identity to her music. But she only launched her own career, from the shadow of her famous husband Abdullah Ibrahim, after several false starts.

The late author and cultural theorist’s career was dedicated to proving that American culture wasn’t black and white, but both at once. In doing so, he called upon jazz as his chief example, devising many of the ways the music is now commonly perceived.

The pianist performs “Clouds” and pairs with host Marian McPartland for “How Deep Is The Ocean?” in 2003.

For more than 30 years, the jazz pianist hosted one of public radio’s most beloved shows. She died of natural causes on Tuesday at the age of 95. McPartland spoke with Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross in 1987.

The pianist and composer valued sophisticated harmonies, aching melodies and a tremendous emotional range. Here, we feature her original compositions and musical collaborations with Sarah Vaughan, Karrin Allison, Thad Jones, Elvis Costello and more.

Evans can be a heavy hitter at the keyboard, but on his new album, he reins himself in a bit.

As the host of a weekly public radio program pairing conversation and duet performances, McPartland brought many jazz greats to an audience of millions. For more than 40 years, she offered an intimate perspective on the elusive topic of improvisation.

Later this year, Cuban jazz legend Arturo Sandoval will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He talks with guest host Celeste Headlee about his start as a trumpet player in Cuba, his relationship with Dizzy Gillespie, and how American citizenship influenced his music.

A new double set of unreleased S.O.S. tunes, Looking for the Next One on the Cuneiform label, was recorded in concert and the studio in the mid-1970s. John Surman, Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore could sound timeless, of its time and ahead of its time.

Duke Ellington once described the influential writer and critic who helped found Jazz at Lincoln Center as the “unsquarest person I know.”

The bluesy, commanding improviser rose to eminence in the ’50s and ’60s with bands like Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, where he played a starring role and established himself as a deft small-group composer. Walton continued to perform and record his entire life.

The alto saxophonist stops by to present a master class in improvisation on the standards.

The drummer is 84 — he’s been around the jazz scene for a while. But he’s been more than around: He was the drummer on Miles Davis’ late-’50s and early-’60s masterpieces. These days, he’s still touring the world, leading bands like this international quartet. Watch a live performance.

The jazz trumpeter who made his first recordings 50 years ago this summer might be his instrument’s least appreciated giant. Perhaps the trumpeter of the 1970s, Shaw was an icon for the generation that followed, as well as an innovator on his horn.

Few musicians today are as versatile as the bassist, keyboardist, bass clarinetist, film composer, producer … you get the picture. A veteran of Miles Davis’ last band, and the ethos of that pan-stylistic music tends to carry over into his own. It headlines day one on the main stage.

Should you ever meet Donny McCaslin, you’ll encounter an imposingly tall fellow who’s one of the nicest guys you’ll shake hands with — and who wields a sax like few others. They played a side stage in the morning. The audience didn’t know what hit ‘em.

Heath joins host Marian McPartland and bassist Rufus Reid for an hour of unforgettable talk and music, including “You’ve Changed” and Heath’s most famous tune, “Gingerbread Boy.”

From church services to arguments at the table, the jazz musician finds himself drawn to the music of the everyday. His debut album, Live Today, is anchored in jazz grooves and layered with influences from hip-hop to gospel.

Duke’s career spanned five decades and he always straddled the line between disparate genres, collaborating with artists such as Miles Davis, Barry Manilow and Frank Zappa.

The singer-songwriter and guitarist plays a couple of Gershwin tunes with host Marian McPartland.

A 20-something singing pianist of the New Orleans virtuoso tradition, Jon Batiste has a natural entertainer’s charisma and chops to match. He met his band in school at Juilliard — and can do “modern jazz” with a metropolitan attitude. And yes, there’s a tuba.

This year actually marks three dozen years since the first incarnation of the group coalesced to resurrect a then-disappearing tradition — and infuse it with both bebop and funk. One of the original new-school New Orleans brass bands ignites dancing in the aisles.

One of the finest guitar players in jazz history — who made all those classic records with Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Ron Carter and so on — is still at it at age 82. He’s joined by a much younger guitar phenom in a cross-generational confab of guitar heroes.

See Michel Camilo’s stomping Oxfords and Esperanza Spalding’s vibrating bass in pixel portraits.

Among the most influential jazz composers of all time, the saxophonist turns 80 this year. He returns to Newport with his crackerjack quartet to celebrate, and his old friend Herbie Hancock also swung through Rhode Island to mark the occasion.

One gets the sense that the pianist feels completely at ease with his Experiment quartet, running his right hand in circles, cracking jokes and switching directions on the fly. Hear a freewheeling set of vamps and vocoder from the hip-hop hybrid band, with a Herbie Hancock tune followed by a Daft Punk cover.

The guitarist’s electronics-enhanced trio is driven by what its leader calls “textural surprise” — and by the memory of drummer Paul Motian. On stage, that’s a point of departure for a sonically diverse set of original compositions — and one Keith Jarrett tune.

See Marcus Miller’s Bruce Lee action figure, Wayne Shorter’s birthday set and more from Newport.

Take a New-Orleans-style brass band, then shrink it: That’s the general principle of how the trombonist’s band makes a joyful noise with only four members. With sousaphone and attitude, Anderson and company presents a suite inspired by his hometown of Chicago.

The trumpeter was a jazz and classical rising star when he started studying the hammered dulcimer and the modal music of his Iraqi heritage. His Two Rivers band splits the difference, using microtonal techniques to investigate the blues. It plays from a new commission.

The Berklee College of Music graduate grew up in the Palestinian territories, where music was literally what kept him off the streets. He’s translated that into a command of a 72-string instrument called the qanun. Now stateside, he’s blended it into in a fluid, jazz-based context.

A guitarist who sounds like no other, Halvorson can both astound and confound, with craggy phrasing, strange pitch-bends and pedal effects galore. She arrives at Newport as a bandleader, directing a classic instrumentation through several left-hand turns.

The New York pianist’s trio is about as elegant as it gets. It’s crashed by a clarinet summit when a veteran reedman straight outta Sidney Bechet arrives, and a young star joins in the fun. It makes for a refreshing hint of traditional jazz, as per Newport tradition.

As a whole, the trumpeter’s high-functioning band reliably serves up sleek modernism in the form of post-bop jazz. It plays from its new album Magnetic, and welcomes a guest turn from guitarist Lionel Loueke, making this band a rare six-man quintet. Herbie Hancock also joins on “Footprints.”

On the new album Dysnomia, the band Dawn of Midi uses acoustic instruments — drums, bass and piano — to create what often sounds like looping, minimal electronic music.