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.”

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.

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.

Following in a long line of Cuban-born pianists, Virelles has quickly become an elite New York jazz pianist. But his personal vision is full of mystery — a back-to-the-future refraction of Afro-Cuban ritual through multiple generations of musicians, poetry and even abstract painting.

More than 25 years ago, the New-York-based musician pioneered a new vocabulary of ensemble interaction he called conduction. Since then, Morris, also a cornet player, directed more than 5,000 musicians around the world in real-time group improvisations. He was 65.

The saxophonist turns 80 this year, and he’s celebrating with the release of a live album. It features six new tunes from one of jazz’s greatest living composers, as well as a long-running band whose uniquely intense language somehow makes a living legend more legendary.

Pianist Bill Evans was a giant of jazz piano and one of Marian McPartland’s first guests on Piano Jazz in 1979. On this program, the usually quiet and reserved musical genius opens up about his approach and philosophy.

Hear a Surround Sound remix of music from the Grammy-nominated album, in performance at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival. Gretchen Parlato sings a song that Bill Evans arranged for Astrud Gilberto, while Truesdell chooses three additional pieces that have special meaning at Newport.

Thirty years after presenting its first concerts in San Francisco, the organization SFJAZZ has built a permanent home and performance venue. For its grand opening, masters like McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea rubbed shoulders with modern stars like Esperanza Spalding and the SFJAZZ Collective. WWOZ, WBGO and NPR Music present a live recording of the concert.

Percussionist John Santos and pianist Rebeca Mauleón played the very first SFJAZZ festival in 1983. Today, they’re employed by the organization, which has just built a new $64 million permanent home. On the eve of its grand opening, they reflect on what the new building means to the community.

The singer’s new album isn’t quite a jazz record, but it comes from someone who has obviously studied a lot of jazz, on and off the bandstand. James, a “huge John Coltrane freak,” reflects on the time he got to tour with Coltrane’s pianist.

Integration of Indian music, “three seconds and you know who’s playing” saxophone, double-necked guitar and all that it implies, homegrown approaches to composition: It’s all here. But the alto saxophonist’s new album surfs on this information overload without drowning in it.

Pianist, composer and NEA Jazz Master Chick Corea is one of the most creative and inventive musicians in jazz today. On this episode of Piano Jazz from 2002, he solos in “Monk’s Mood” and joins host Marian McPartland for an evocative version of his legendary tune “Spain.”

Get ready for ecstatic sounds, as the French horn, bass clarinet, bassoon, guitar and harp — along with reeds and brass, hand claps and vocals, bass and drums — dig the deep, dark, blues-drenched, jubilant Mingus groove from St. Bart’s Church in New York City.

It’s a festival with everything between international headliners and relative unknowns, intricately-plotted compositions and completely free improvisation, high-concept one-offs and bands shaped over decades. See photos from the nine-year-old marathon of new bands and repertoires in New York.

Elling’s commanding, richly grained baritone voice is the perfect vehicle for jazz songs, whether reworked classics or original compositions. Fusing jazz and poetry, Elling performs a series of Ornette Coleman poems with freeform accompaniment by host Marian McPartland.

The highest federally supported awards for jazz artistry are presented to singer-songwriter Mose Allison, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, club owner Lorraine Gordon and pianist Eddie Palmieri. On Monday, Jan. 14, watch a webcast of the ceremony live from Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

Unpredictability is the key ingredient of the annual New York showcase, which often emphasizes new bands or projects. Here’s a preview of five groups who will present unreleased music, featuring musicians like Lee Konitz, Brandee Younger and Jason Lindner.

The new year’s major releases so far feature a few living legends and a lot of drummers in charge. Here’s a preview of some records which will be talked about by jazz aficionados, including new efforts from Chris Potter, Darcy James Argue and Wayne Shorter.

Not long ago, when musicians needed good charts, they called Melba Liston. Now, saxophonist Geof Bradfield and his Chicago ensemble offer the radio premiere of a suite commissioned by Chamber Music America. The work traces Liston’s remarkable life story.

Starting around the 1960s, the music’s advocates increasingly turned to institutions of higher education. Within a few decades, college campuses became an unavoidable part of the modern jazz world, training generations of musicians, providing employment and shaping the future audience.

In an archival session from 1991, the vibraphonist gets together with host Marian McPartland for a performance of his own standard, “Bags’ Groove.”

Marsalis joins host Michael Feinstein to discuss the music that has affected him most, including a duet with his father and a recently discovered recording of Louis Armstrong’s last known performance.

Hammond B3 organ master Dr. Lonnie Smith leads his trio through a soulful set before a sold-out house at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club in Washington, D.C. The good doctor turns 70 this year, and he’s still a leader and innovator on his instrument.

The eclectic electric guitarist left college about 40 years ago, and judging from the success of his career to date, it wasn’t a bad decision. Berklee welcomes Scofield back to perform new tunes and old repertoire from his raucous, electronic-infused Uberjam songbook.

The New Year’s Eve party at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola featured two institutions of New York jazz: the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Nighthawks. They count down to midnight with their interpretations of Louis Armstrong’s monumental Hot Fives recordings.

The legendary trumpeter, now 92, was in good spirits and excellent form as 1989 became 1990. In this archival Toast of the Nation concert, he leads a band featuring his long-time friend, saxophonist Red Holloway, in a program of Ellingtonia and other favorites.

An impromptu bongo beat became a full-on tribute to James Brown, and suddenly a band had an all-new repertoire. A powerful and versatile vocalist, Alexander and her Evolution Arkestra address the legacies of Jimi Hendrix and the Godfather of Soul from the South Side of the city.

The large jazz orchestra, brassy and slick, powers through Goodwin’s charts from the main stage of the historic jazz festival, celebrating its 55th year. Included is a performance of the Grammy-winning arrangement for George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

On New Year’s Eve, NPR Music and WBGO present a live jazz broadcast from venues coast to coast. Wynton Marsalis, Dee Alexander and John Scofield are scheduled to perform; plus, hear concerts from Chicago, New York and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Glasper’s group makes a unique mix of jazz, soul and R&B. It’s impossible to classify as one particular genre, but as a sound, it’s as eclectic and different as it is cohesive and round. Watch the group perform “Lift Off” from Black Radio, released earlier this year.

The big band plays “Jingle Bells” and more last New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.

This Twin Cities trio, led by Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic bassist John Munson, stages an annual holiday show at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul; it’s always the hottest ticket in town. Watch The New Standards perform the centerpiece of the show, “Snow Days,” for The Current.

Marian McPartland and her guests from seasons past, present and future share favorite memories and unique musical performances of Christmas classics and original holiday tunes.

This year, the most popular records made by young jazz musicians reflected hip-hop, R&B and the black community where they came from. When they broke through, they made an ongoing conversation about jazz’s place in popular music more visible.

Brubeck swung the door open to a new world of free-flowing, where-is-this-going music. Countless people everywhere followed a first Dave Brubeck concert or recording with a lifelong interest in jazz. JazzSet remembers him with a set from the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival.

The newest album by the trumpeter and composer features his arrangements of hymns that his mother, who recently died of ovarian cancer, asked him to perform at her funeral service.

NPR Music has an annual tradition in December: Invite some of the world’s best jazz keyboard players to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, then set them loose on their favorite holiday tunes. Jason Moran, Taylor Eigsti, Geri Allen and Ellis Marsalis perform live.

There’s a certain intensity of spirit in jazz and improvised music, to the point where it occasionally aligns with religious worship. Of course, sometimes jazz musicians just like playing familiar songs. Here are five records, all from 2012, which run the gamut of Christmas jazz.

Kuhn is a highly accomplished pianist, a creative composer and a longtime friend of host Marian McPartland. In his youth, Kuhn played with Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz and John Coltrane. Over the years, he’s honed a unique style built on melodic variation and his ceaseless imagination.

Marsalis rings in New Year’s 2012 New Orleans’ style with the music of King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton. The trumpeter, who hails from the Crescent City, leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra through a rousing set before a boisterous, sold-out house at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York.

In his new book, the guitarist, singer and songwriter shares stories from life growing up in a musical household and talks about collaborating and sharing the stage with the likes of Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Paul McCartney.

For the better part of three decades, the pianist has been widely recognized as one of the fiercest and most inventive pianists in improvised music. Here, she rides the rhythmic boost of a particularly kinetic quartet, featuring tap dancer Maurice Chestnut.

Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new, seven-disc Charles Mingus box set chronicling the jazz legend’s mid-’60s live performances. The records, Whitehead says, “can be a little raw, as if the explosive music caught the engineers by surprise.”

In the liner notes to his 2012 trio album Accelerando, the pianist and composer Vijay Iyer wrote: “[T]his album is in the lineage of American creative music based on dance rhythms.” Dancing in rhythm and exemplifying creativity, here are 10 records which belong to that great lineage.

Jazz giant Dave Brubeck turns 90 this month. In this 1997 session, Brubeck and host Marian McPartland perform duets in “Just You, Just Me” and Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way.”

The jazz master died on Wednesday at age 91. In a 1999 interview with Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross he talked about his decades in the music industry and his first love: rodeo roping.

The latest twin bill presented by WBGO’s The Checkout features a leading-edge pianist finding a rhythmic boost from the percussion of tap dance, and an all-star band of modern masters lifting off in loose assembly. Watch a live webcast from downtown New York.

You’re judged by the company you keep, and at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival, we’re with geniuses. Saxophonist Miguel Zenón (from Puerto Rico) and drummer Dafnis Prieto (from Cuba) have both resettled in the U.S., and are reworking the music of their islands in studios and on bandstands worldwide.

The late pianist and composer never tired of playing his greatest hits. But both before and after his seminal 1959 album Time Out, Brubeck took his craft to college kids, to churches, to musicals, to social-justice concerns and to the imaginations of countless new jazz fans.

One of the most recognized and recognizable musicians of the postwar era — the piano player whose “Take Five” was a pop hit — died Wednesday, one day shy of 92.

The 26-year-old jazz guitarist has been making a name for himself ever since he joined the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra seven years ago. Watch him perform the title tune from his new album, Takin’ It There.

Miller’s cohesive band includes Ivan Taylor on bass and Rodney Green on drums. At the Kennedy Center Jazz Club, they play everything from bebop classics to Cole Porter and Thelonious Monk. Mulgrew’s take on the timeless ballad “My Foolish Heart” is unforgettable.

The guitarist joins bassist Richie Good for a set of performances with host Marian McPartland.

The death of 22-year-old pianist Austin Peralta prematurely ended a rapidly expanding career. A child prodigy, at the end of his teenage years he cut Endless Planets, an album which showed a jazz-trained musician just beginning to utilize the enormity of the tones and rhythms around him.

A saxophonist, a pianist and a bass player walk into a bar. But the bar happens to be one of the world’s preeminent jazz clubs, where they’re regularly sighted on stage. And they’re working as a collective band: no drummer, no hierarchy. So much for that joke.

As season three winds to a close, many regular guests of the show play a few numbers. Read a recap of the soundtrack, featuring Shamarr Allen, Cheeky Blakk, Kermit Ruffins, Jill Sobule, Big Sam, Tom McDermott, Ivan Neville, Trombone Shorty and Bonerama.

This fall marks the centennial anniversaries of two all-time great improvisers, born in 1912. The fat-toned saxophonist and the fleet, sparkling pianist were peers, and if they didn’t record a lot together, the story of their generation comes out in their shared histories.

The violinist attempts to mix jazz, classical and traditional Chinese music with his octet on Burning Bridge.