Nate Chinen

Sung reflects on how, as a young classical pianist, she stuck to her jazz dreams. More recently, she's translated her emotions on social justice into a thematic composition for her quartet.

With Art Blakey as both mentor and north star, Peterson emerged in the '80s as one of that decade's most striking jazz artists.

The composer and pianist joined with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh in late 2019 to record Uneasy, which now functions as a welcome reminder.

The legendary pianist has lived many lives as a musician, from post-bop wunderkind to free-jazz maverick to fusion explorer to chamber-jazz eminence.

The wide-ranging keyboardist, composer and bandleader died Feb. 9 of cancer. He was one of the fathers of jazz fusion, with his work spanning from acoustic jazz to his own interpretations of Mozart.

Jazz Night visits the St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church, an evolving house of worship that has incorporated John Coltrane's A Love Supreme album as their chief liturgical text.

Jazz Night shines a light on the reclusive 74-year-old pianist Billy Lester. Lester has spent his whole life in Yonkers, N.Y. We hear his story and listen back to a trio set recorded in 2019.

Jon Batiste was born for show business. Hear him play an intimate set in New York and on our radio show as we trace his story to his current gig as band leader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The cost of 2020 — in lives, livelihoods, legacies and communities — is high and still being tallied. For jazz critic Nate Chinen, all that loss demands change to old ideas of critical objectivity.

Jazz musicians often rely on the energy they take from a live audience. So when live performances were shut down because of the pandemic, they had to find ways to adapt.

We remember luminaries we lost this year in our In Memoriam program: Jimmy Heath; Lee Konitz; Càndido; Tony Allen; Annie Ross; Freddy Cole; Gary Peacock; Henry Grimes; Wallace Roney; and McCoy Tyner.

Hear the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra in 2006, with four virtuoso bassists: Rubén Rodríguez, Charnett Moffett, the late Andy González, and the mighty Cachao, two years before his death.

On this show, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis invite the Sesame Street gang onstage. Plus, trombonist Joe Fielder's Open Sesame share rare songs from the Sesame songbook.

Four luminaries – Henry Threadgill, Terri Lynne Carrington, Jimmy "Tootie" Heath and Phil Schaap – will be inducted in a ceremony scheduled, virtually, for next spring.

From the '80s on, Kondo stood with a new generation of free-form players, collaborating with a long list of fellow iconoclasts.

Charlie Parker with Strings was the most commercially successful project of his all-too-brief career. We'll examine the backstory and hear rare selections from the collaboration.

Performances and speeches honor this year's NEA Jazz Masters award recipients, including Dorthaan Kirk, Roscoe Mitchell, Reggie Workman and Bobby McFerrin. Watch on Thursday, Aug. 20 at 8 p.m. ET.

One of Grossman's earliest recording credits comes from his time in Miles Davis' band, a high-water mark he maintained through the decades. "He was the best of all of us."

A recent graduate of Juilliard, pianist Micah Thomas has made some serious waves this season with his debut album, Tide, and several prominent sideman gigs.

Woods played in the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a history-making all-female big band. She was 96.