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Gene "Jug" Ammons was one of the tenor giants of his era. He had a big, deep tone that was perfect for everything from warm ballads to groove-intensive blues or sweet swing. His prolific recording career has resulted in music that has withstood the test of time.

As a kid, Halloween means dressing up with friends, looking for the spots with the best candy, and stopping for pranks along the way. As you get older, you're stuck handing out rather than filling up. Halloween may have a different sense of rhythm now, but some of the best Halloween ear candy hasn't changed.

Born in the '60s, soul-jazz is a groove-oriented style built from the bottom up. You take a strong bass line, establish a steady groove between the bass and drums, and then embellish that groove with riffs and melody lines that draw heavily from gospel, blues and R&B.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, as well as National Poetry Month. Hear five songs that were originally written as poems to be read, not as lyrics to be sung. Each jazz artist here transformed a poem into lyrics that fit his or her particular style and phrasing, and then composed music to round out the interpretation.

Want a great conversation-starter with a fan of Latin jazz? Ask, "What's your favorite pairing of conga and timbales?" Many long-standing percussion duos display seemingly telepathic interplay — the intensity of a runaway train mixed with the kind of swing that makes hips move by themselves. Picking five was a chore, but here they are.

Jazz and beer are natural companions, so we asked the Washington City Paper's "Beerspotter" to pair bottles with records by Charles Mingus, Sun Ra and more.

From before bebop to the present day, some of the best jazz albums of all time have been issued by Blue Note Records. The label celebrates its 70th anniversary this week, and to honor the occasion, pianist Bill Charlap has chosen five of his all-time favorite Blue Note songs.

Even with his contributions to the instrument, not even Coleman Hawkins could have predicted how the tenor saxophone would become so centrally identifiable with jazz. Five of today's leading tenor players have new releases in 2009, each with his own take on the shape of jazz to come.

Jazz being the esoteric art that it is, many of its major artists were similarly obsessed with other forms of divining — numerology, tarot readings, enneagrams and especially astrology. Here are five jazz songs that might inspire you to ask your fellow jazz fan, "What's your sign?"

Lovey-dovey romantic types get all the attention on Valentine's Day. But not everyone wants to be in love right about now, and some relationships just happen to be hitting their expiration date this very minute. Listen to five songs that are perfect for those looking to break someone's heart.