jazz

Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews biographies of two musicians who transcended jazz, and to whom recognition was slow in coming: James P. Johnson, born in 1894, and Alice Coltrane, born in 1937.

Dizzy Gillespie and his iconic trumpet -- with its turned up bell -- brought a new era of American jazz to a global audience. It's part of our 250th anniversary series America in Pursuit.

Weston, who died in 2018, had a 60-year recording career, during which he lived in the U.S., Morocco and France. He was influenced by Duke Ellington's regal bearing, but Weston also had his own style.

Known for playing bass guitar in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea is releasing his first solo album -- and it features his first love: jazz trumpet. It's called "Honora."

There have been so many extraordinary iterations of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers that some remarkable editions have been overlooked — including Strasbourg 82, a newly discovered concert album.

In 1965, Davis led one of the all-time great jazz groups. That December, they recorded seven sets over two nights in a Chicago nightclub. The complete recordings went unreleased for decades.

The Huston-Tillotson Jazz Orchestra finished in third place earlier this month at the National Collegiate Jazz Competition in New York. They were the smallest school selected to perform and the only all-undergraduate band.

Saxophonist Noah Peterson is back again as part of his recurring music gig at the Dodging Duck restaurant.

NPR Music's Felix Contreras presents some of the stand out performances of beloved holiday tradition, celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Some books give Smith's birthdate as Dec. 8, 1925, but more recent sources cite 1928 as his birth year. Regardless, the late musician always delivered the goods, even as the beats behind him changed.