The ever-evolving Pat Metheny constantly experiments with new technology, honing his improvisational skills and refining his unique style. On this episode of Piano Jazz, Pat Metheny performs with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanche.
Written by John Kessler Bo Diddley may not have had the commercial success of some other performers, but his contributions to American musical culture are huge. Besides his trademark “Bo Diddley beat,” he had a brash sense of style, dressing in outlandish outfits, playing custom-made square guitars and generally having a lot of fun on […]
Bremen may be best known for its love of soccer and Beck’s beer. But in April, more than 20,000 jazz fans and industry professionals descend upon the German port city for a festival designed specifically to showcase new acts from across Europe.
In 1982, Jaki Byard and Tommy Flanagan played a duet date in San Francisco. Both pianists were of equal stature, among the best-respected in jazz history. But a newly released recording of that event illustrates why their differences are plenty interesting, too.
Velvet-voiced singer, guitarist and composer Allan Harris joins host Jon Weber for a set of standards and a few tunes from the Harris-penned musical, Cross That River.
Fresu’s work on trumpet and flugelhorn provides a perfect foil for Sosa’s introspective intersection of jazz, Afro-Cuban sounds and a chamber-music mentality. In this concert at NPR Music’s offices, the duo’s quietly energetic performance hangs over the crowd like a soft mist.
Canadian vocalist, Holly Cole, is one of greatest song interpreters alive. She can take a song you think you know and bring something out of it that you’ve never heard before. For example, her latest CD, Night, contains Holly’s inventive re-imagining of a James Bond theme (You Only Live Twice), as well as songs by […]
Written by Robin Lloyd. Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Influenced both by church choirs and Duke Ellington, he studied double bass and composition with classical masters. Mingus played and recorded with the leading musicians of the 1950′s– Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington […]
The saxophonist infuses his solo records with an unsettling rumble, while still making room for alternately grandiose and guttural moments that awe and unnerve. His new album features vocal contributions from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
The composer’s second album accompanies an animated work: the tale of a future metropolis where professional aims and neighborhood loyalty square off. It looks like both early-20th-century New York and a bordering-on-dystopian future. Perfect for a ultramodern big band like this one.
From 1948 until 1966, the Palladium Ballroom, at the corner of 53rd and Broadway, was the city’s Mecca for Afro-Caribbean dance music. And for a lot of that time, Puente was one of the main attractions. A new box set compiles the Latin music legend’s RCA recordings of this crucial period.
Bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding has taken the jazz world by storm with her grooving bass lines and her neo-soul vocals. Here, she shows off her talent on Lionel Hampton’s “Midnight Sun” and sings a song that seems to sum up her approach: “Jazz Ain’t Nothing but Soul.”
From Louis Jordan to Hawaiian music to Destiny’s Child, the Divine Miss M opens up her record collection.
Written by John Kessler Repression of African Americans didn’t stop at the end of the Civil War, and prisons and chain gangs were full of black people arrested for minor violations. This song, “Another Man Done Gone”, tells of the death of a man on one of those chain gangs. Folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Vera […]
JazzSet is in Boston for Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, a release concert for the album created by Carrington, professor of percussion at Berklee College of Music. It’s a trio album with ensemble touches, and in this concert from Berklee Performance Center, Carrington’s students are in the mix.
The advent of bebop added a fresh sound to American music. It also added new voices to some metropolitan radio stations: the late-night jazz DJs who specialized in presenting this new music to their fellow hipster nightflies. Appreciative musicians often wrote them tributes like these.
South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela is one of the giants of African music. Over his long career, he pioneered jazz fusion, and even managed to bump the Rolling Stones from the U.S. charts. Host Michel Martin sits down with Masekela to discuss his life and work.
Written by Robin Lloyd Bassist Buster Williams is a living legend of jazz,who has worked with Miles Davis, Count Basie, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, McCoy Tyner, Woody Shaw, Benny Golson, and Kenny Baron, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson. Williams has been making music on stage for over 50 years. He learned acoustic bass and drums from […]
As NPR’s employees file their federal returns and take up shop in a new building, we look back at an interesting historical moment in the 1940s. A cabaret tax led to more jazz being performed in smaller venues that couldn’t accommodate dancing. Of course, that’s not the only reason why bebop sounds the way it does.
Written by Robin Lloyd Herbie Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was jazz music’s preeminent flautist during the 1960s, an early pioneer of the fusion of jazz and world music. When Mann began playing flute in 1940s, there weren’t many jazz flautists to learn from, no pioneers of jazz flute to idolize. He […]
Kurt Elling’s pianist and arranger joins host Jon Weber for Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way.”
The pianist plays raucous original tunes with an Afro-Caribbean flavor with host Marian McPartland.
For centuries, the country turned its back on black musicians — including the jazz artists whose creations embodied freedom and empowerment. Today, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is one of Africa’s largest musical gatherings. Here are five musicians who played the festival this year.
Written by John Kessler Lonnie Johnson was one of the first American guitar masters, with a style that bridged jazz and blues, as well as country styles. Though often labeled as a “blues” player, he was versatile and accomplished enough to be a guest artist with Louis Armstong’s Hot Five in 1927, and with […]
Onstage in Orvieto, Italy, the trombonist, composer and fabulist Mauro Ottolini and his Sousaphonix play music for his science-fiction tale Bix Factor. Then, in Perugia, J.P. Jofre plays the tango with a string orchestra in an opera house from the 1700s. Hear them on JazzSet.
Mosaic Records has released Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945, a seven-disc showcase for the jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines’ right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves — and his left hand had a mind of its own.
The Smithsonian Museum of American History kickstarted its annual campaign with a day of performances and discussions. In a morning ceremony, drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and pianist Randy Weston officially donated artifacts from their personal collections.
In this studio session singer, Jackie Ryan, gives us three of her favorites: a gospel-tinged version of Accentuate The Positive, a beautiful reading of I Loves You, Porgy and the Spanish-language song, La Puerta, dedicated to her mother. As you’ll hear Jackie say in this interview, she grew up singing. After years as a touring R&B singer, Jackie discovered jazz […]
The country’s jazz scene is young, but it’s hit the world stage quickly thanks in large part to public funding. For Norwegian musicians, it literally pays to dream big — and to write lots of grant applications.
Influential vocalist and pianist Mose Allison joins Piano Jazz host Marian McPartland for a set of originals and a few favorite tunes by Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael and more.
Written by John Kessler Willie Dixon didn’t make his career writing songs about people who behaved themselves, and “Back Door Man” is no exception — it’s about a guy who cheats and then brags about it. Songs like this were well suited to the larger-than-life Howlin’ Wolf, who was already a well-established, middle-aged bluesman when […]
Fast hands, cymbals that shimmer, drop-kicks on the bass drum; these two drummers appreciate each other. Albert “Tootie” Heath performs in a trio with Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus) and Ben Street (Danilo Perez Trio), followed by Wilson’s Arts & Crafts quartet, in Surround Sound on JazzSet.
Written by Kevin Kniestedt This list, which took the better part of four years, was inspired by those who said that jazz was limited to a certain style or type of performer. The idea behind this list was not to create a “best” albums list, but rather a extensive list of albums that covered as […]
Corea’s “Spain” has an epic quality to it, as it draws from Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and joyous flamenco hoedowns to weave an extended narrative. At the opening night of the SFJAZZ Center, he guest solos in a new arrangement of the piece with a house band made up of all-stars.
Classically trained Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf has played with everyone from Sting to Salif Keita. While most trumpets have three valves, his has four, allowing him to play the quarter-tones that characterize Middle Eastern music and the “blue notes” of jazz.
Musicians like Lil Hardin Armstrong, Carla Bley and Mary Lou Williams didn’t just make it in the historically male-dominated field of jazz: They were the driving forces behind their own bands. Hear five pioneering examples of women who composed for and directed their own groups.
The Queen of the Organ solos on “Skylark” and joins host Marian McPartland on “In a Mellow Tone.”
What is a mistake? By going through examples with his improvisational jazz quartet, Stefon Harris gets to a profound truth: many actions are perceived as mistakes only because we don’t react to them appropriately.
Written by John Kessler Sleepy John Estes was a master of country blues with a “down-home” feeling. A little rough around the edges, but loaded with emotion. Though his music wasn’t complex, his songs have lasted through the years, and have been sung by Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan. In his 1935 recording of “Someday […]
The Monterey Jazz Festival is celebrating 55 years of swinging with a coastal California vibe. An all-star sextet is crossing the country, advancing the festival’s mission: to create and support jazz education and performance programs. JazzSet has highlights from the Kennedy Center.
It’s one of the defining songs of the Blues, written by one of its formative figures, Son House. The opening lyric “Woke up this morning…” would be considered trite today, but its 1930 recording date makes it more iconic than anything. With its simple but insistent guitar rhythm and mournful lyrics, “Walkin’ Blues” is a […]
The pianist and composer/arranger was a prime mover in the international musical exchange that was Havana in the middle of the 20th Century. Late in his career, he enjoyed a new wave of fame as his accomplishments came to light anew. The father of Chucho Valdés, he was 94.
The jazz trumpeter is 66 now, but he’s not slowing down any: His current band has released five excellent albums since 2007 alone. His new piano-less project is further testament to his prolific composing. Harrell presents new music live at the venerable New York jazz institution.
Munisteri and Michael Feinstein share tunes that, while forsaken by the past, are easy to remember.
When this episode of Piano Jazz was recorded in 2006, Krall was seven and a half months pregnant with twins. Hear the pianist and vocalist play “P.S. I Love You” and “Little Girl Blue.”
From Little Italy in the Bronx to the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village to the gardens in Fort Tryon Park, the rhythm of the city drives a suite by Chris Lightcap and his band Bigmouth. Here, they perform at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Apart from his globetrotting with the Vijay Iyer Trio and others, bassist Stephan Crump is also a composer, both for film and his own bands. His Rosetta Trio, with two guitars, strives for quieter sophistication. He presents his late-afternoon, back-porch ditties for interlocking strings.
Bassists Todd Sickafoose and Stephan Crump play with leading jazz artists and singer-songwriters. As bandleaders, they’ve each written richly-textured instrumental music for bands with dueling guitars. Those bands play back to back in this live broadcast.
The Memphis-bred, New-York-honed and coastal California resident developed a reputation as an earthy, sincere voice — one one the world’s most popular jazz musicians. Hear five tunes spanning the saxophonist’s career, from ’60s mysticism to modern spirituals.
Through a career that’s encompassed folk, rock, country and operetta, the singer has even recorded with minimalist composer Philip Glass. In this session recorded live at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass., Ronstadt sticks to jazz standards like “Lush Life.”
Hear “Mood Indigo” as a bluesy duet between the jazz singer and host Michael Feinstein.
Lloyd led a jazz quartet into The Fillmore, San Francisco’s legendary rock venue, in the 1960s. He backed Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King and hit the road with The Beach Boys. The charismatic musician is 75 this week.
Louis Jordan is one of the pioneers of American music, and an important force in the transition from the Jazz Era to Rock and Roll. He was one of the first to down-size the big band format to a combo of five or six players, pounding out high energy jump, swing and rhythm and blues […]
It’s another one of those mysteries — who actually wrote “One Way Out”? Elmore James recorded it in 1961, but didn’t release it until ’65. Sonny Boy Williamson released a version in 1961 and 1965 and G.L. Crockett had a 1965 hit with the same song under a different name. Elmore James’ 1961 recording is […]
Muddy Waters was born in rural Mississippi, and learned his blues at the feet of Son House and Robert Johnson. By the 1940’s he took that delta blues to Chicago and led the gradual transition to electrified urban blues. He then recorded “Honey Bee” in 1951 with just bass and guitar accompaniment. The sound was […]
By Nick Morrison During his 84 years on the planet, Yip Harburg contributed brilliant lyrics to some of the finest melodies of the American popular song canon. Most of his songs were originally written for Broadway shows or Hollywood musicals. Finian’s Rainbow is probably his most popular stage work, but he’s best known for working with composer […]
It’s one of the most iconic songs from New Orleans, and like the city, it’s origin and meaning are a product of may different influences. Its meaning is still being debated by scholars and linguists, but “Iko Iko” was first recorded in 1953 by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, who wrote the pop song “Jock-A-Mo” based […]
The Japanese pianist’s latest album begins with a tribute to a sound she’s never liked: the chime of an alarm clock.
Dameron was a composer and pianist who fused the sophisticated arrangements of the Big Band era with bebop’s complex harmonies. A new biography shines a light on the too-brief life of the man known as “The Architect of Bop.”
Trumpeter, flugelhorn player and vocalist Stacy Rowles was a fixture on the L.A. jazz scene, and played regularly in all-female jazz groups the Jazzbirds and Maiden Voyage. This program from 2001 is presented as a tribute to Rowles, who died in 2009.
By John Kessler Most blues started in the country before becoming urbanized, and Bukka White brought his brand of Mississippi blues to Chicago in the 1930’s and 40’s. It is likely that he met and learned from elemental bluesman Charley Patton, and he was known for playing a National steel guitar with a slide. He […]
The Czech Republic capital of Prague is home to the annual Strings of Autumn International Music Festival where, in October 2012, soulful jazz singer Gregory Porter brought down the house. Applause between songs ran for a minute or longer.
Veteran jazz masters “Killer” Ray Appleton and Barry Altschul have issued fine new albums this year. Both in their early 70s, it’s clear they draw from extensive experience. So how might that translate to making music that’s fun to listen to?
Many jazz standards are themselves about making lists. Here are five of them, including Louis Armstrong’s take on “Let’s Do It,” Johnny Hartman’s version of “These Foolish Things” and a classic reading of Jobim’s “Waters of March.”
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup has been called the “father of rock and roll” for writing the song that launched Elvis Presley’s career. His own career had a rough start– after migrating from Mississippi around 1940, he was living on the Chicago streets, playing for tips. His unique, though unpolished sound was distinctive enough to land […]
The former Tonight Show bandleader joins Marian McPartland for Cole Porter and Sonny Rollins tunes.
Little Walter made a harmonica sound like nothing that had been heard before – somewhere between a saxophone and an electric guitar. By the early 1950’s he not only used amplification, he used the amp to creatively alter his sound with distortion and sonic effects. You might say he was the Jimi Hendrix of the […]
Homegrown Christie Dashiell and expat Alfredo Rodriguez each bring something new to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. Dashiell’s vocal delivery is so easy, you can barely hear her breathe. Rodriguez’s control and dynamics make the piano sing, sweat and shake as he plays the music of Cuba.
With a new album of instrumental arrangements, the innovative Roxy Music frontman re-imagines some of his classic songs through the prism of 1920s jazz.
The tenor saxophonist plays in some of the most talked-about jazz groups of today; bands led by Ambrose Akinmusire, Eric Harland and Terence Blanchard. Freshly signed to a new record deal, Smith draws the leadership role in presenting his own quintet at his alma mater.
A guitarist with a decidedly non-standard approach to jazz’s standard practices, Halvorson balances golden-era hard-bop order and free improvising entropy. At the NPR Music offices, her band strikes comforting tones, but also morphs, rephrases and implodes those ideas.
One of the most celebrated voices in jazz returns to her old stomping grounds in Portland, Ore., to honor her longtime mentor, Thara Memory. Watch Esperanza Spalding and the Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra perform “City of Roses” in the place that inspired the song.
The host of NPR’s JazzSet joins Marian McPartland for a set of Duke Ellington and Gershwin tunes.
Since the Harlem Renaissance, African-American musicians have portrayed black history as extended musical works. Jazz is full of such long-form compositions. Hear five examples from composers such as Oliver Nelson, Wynton Marsalis and Duke Ellington.
The emotive alto saxophonist has been summoned all around the United States, and now calls his native Baltimore home. He returns to New York for this performance celebrating the release of his debut album, Songs From This Season.
The stylish jazz singer and a full band visited Apogee’s Berkeley Street Studio for a special KCRW event. Watch James flex his singular voice as he performs the funky single “Trouble.”
On a recent visit to Seattle, Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars stopped by for a three-song studio session with Jazz24 and KPLU in the KCTS 9 studios. How good was it? Well, as host, Abe Beeson says, “If this music doesn’t move you, you’ve got no place to go.” Watch the full […]
A pianist for Miles Davis and Frank Zappa, Duke plays “My Funny Valentine” with Marian McPartland.
A strong pianist who’s put out 19 albums. An emotive saxophonist who’s celebrating his first. Philadelphia and Baltimore musicians tackle New York in a twin bill of impassioned straight-ahead jazz, presented as a live broadcast and webcast on Feb. 20.
Jazz fans will surely know some of the musicians who have called the City of Roses home: Charlie Rouse, Jim Pepper, Esperanza Spalding and more. But the annual Portland Jazz Festival, which opens Friday, turns the spotlight on a diverse community of talent in place right now.
From the Newport Jazz Festival, guitarist Bill Frisell shines in three completely different settings: with his band playing reworking John Lennon tunes, in a duo with violinist Jenny Scheinman, and with The Bad Plus playing music of Paul Motian.
Hear the pioneering jazz drummer talk about his 40th-anniversary tour and working with Miles Davis.
The saxophonist and his quartet cross-pollinate Indian classical music and vintage Captain Beefheart to create complicated rhythms and solos reminiscent of jazz-rock fusion.
After he helped to develop the bluesy, driving hard bop style in the ’50s and ’60s, his funkier commercial hit recordings shaped black pop music through the advent of hip-hop. A committed music educator, the Detroit native was 80 when he died last week.
Earl King is one of the great songwriters and performers to come out of New Orleans, and his legacy continues to live on. Many of his compositions, including “Big Chief,” “Trick Bag” and “These Lonely, Lonely Nights” have become an important part of the New Orleans “songbook.” His 1960 recording of “Come On Pts. 1 […]
In the midst of the U.S. civil rights movement, pianist and composer Randy Weston found himself in Morocco, where he incorporated African musical forms and musicians in his recorded work. Weston returns to Piano Jazz with host Marian McPartland to perform “A Ballad for T.,” “Little Niles” and “African Lady.”
The legacy of the late hip-hop producer extended far beyond the beats he painstakingly created. Since his death, it’s also found artistic kinship in a generation of young jazz artists looking to square their instrumental training with their love of all modern music.
Composer and pianist Jason Moran ushers in his era as Artistic Advisor for Jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with this performance, captured by JazzSet in honor of Black History Month.
The history of jazz is often told as a sequence of epic heroes, legends whose careers proceed from one great accomplishment to another. Coincidentally, one widely admired saxophonist has been reading Homer lately. Potter presents his new Odyssey-inspired suite The Sirens in concert.
On her latest album, Claroscuro, the jazz clarinetist explores influences that range from Louis Armstrong to Brazilian music to that of her native Israel. It’s this desire to adapt the instrument to so many musical traditions that has earned Cohen such acclaim.
The prodigious drummer Marcus Gilmore, 25, has been playing with the biggest names in jazz since he was a teenager. He’s coming off a career year that saw him named the top rising star among jazz critics. It helps that his grandfather is Roy Haynes, one of the great pioneers of the drum kit.
Shorter says that in combos led by John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Blakey, he learned a crucial rule of being an effective bandleader: Leave the musicians alone.
Frisell has been on the cutting edge of jazz guitar since his arrival on the scene in the early 1980s. With amazing technique and a creative mind, he has incorporated the whole of American music in his work, relying on country, blues, rock and jazz. Hear an interview and performance.
The West African guitarist and vocalist is one of the most distinctive artists on the world-music scene. Loueke gets African-style rhythms going, tapping on his guitar and using his effects pedals. At the Kennedy Center, the music grows, as the band revels in itself and then slims back down.
A new four-CD set highlighting the music of the jazz keyboardist and drummer contains two discs that are gems and another two that have their moments.
The alto saxophonist keeps good company: He’s a member of legendary drummer Roy Haynes’ band, for one. That’s one of the reasons he’s become of the most in-demand players in New York. Shaw returns to his alma mater to lead his own band in a live concert webcast.
The jazz musician was beloved by his fellow artists and acclaimed by critics and fans for his ability to spontaneously coerce music from an ensemble. Working with musicians of all stripes, he pioneered a system of real-time arranging he called Conduction. He was 65.
Columbia Records’ latest release from the jazz maverick’s vault is a three-CD, one-DVD live compilation. The previously unreleased material captures a little-known burst of creativity, recorded between two vastly different periods in Davis’ career.
Few pianists have been as influential to modern jazz practice as McCoy Tyner. And at age 74, his driving left hand and dense chords are still in fine form. He performs with two all-star ensembles, including one with long-time collaborator Bobby Hutcherson, at the SFJAZZ Center opening.
Once he had established himself as a world-class saxophonist, Joshua Redman moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he grew up. Soon afterward, he co-founded the SFJAZZ Collective. With his successor in the tenor sax chair, Joe Lovano, the band runs through “Blackwell’s Message,” a jaunty, open swinger to ring in the opening of the new SFJAZZ Center.
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