Jazz

The brass players' debut album is a set of pieces by Seattle-based composer and improviser Wayne Horvitz.

Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Horace Silver died Wednesday at age 85. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead says that Silver had been off the scene awhile, but his influence is as strong as ever. Hear an appreciation.

Famed jazz pianist Horace Silver died yesterday. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1984.

Two fine albums by drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society, Man Dance and its sequel Barbeque Dog, are now available again as downloads, after being out of print for ages. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead says they're prime examples of the 1980s' so-called "free-funk" movement.

Rosenthal has played George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" solo and with symphonic and jazz orchestras. Now he's recorded a version for jazz trio as part of an all-Gershwin album.

That June, Miles Davis played four nights at the New York rock palace Fillmore East. Those performances are now out in full for the first time.

On Feb. 5, 1953, Powell was uncommunicative face to face at the New York jazz club Birdland. But when he sat at the keys, it was a whole other story.

Musician Marty Ehrlich doesn't play much on his new album; instead, he conducts an ensemble that performs his compositions. He tells Fresh Air about his first album devoted to his orchestral music.

Starting in the late 1960s, the jazz saxophonist produced a series of recordings that came out on the musicians-owned Strata-East label. Those seven albums are now collected in a box set.

Eric Dolphy's creativity was exploding early in 1964, and he was finding more players who could keep up. Out to Lunch is free and focused, dissonant and catchy, wide open and swinging all at once.

There's something tender and specific about the ways elders like Frank Wess shaped their notes.

On Sixteen Sunsets, the soprano saxophonist varies and honors melody like Billie Holiday.

On Gilchrist's The View From Here, go-go dance beats inform his piano the same way freight-train boogie-woogie does.

The drummer known as "Klook" was a founder of bebop — and a man endlessly open to possibilities.

You could look at Rosewoman's New YorUba band as reuniting cousins who've drifted apart: jazz and folkloric Cuban music with its own family ties to the slave coast of West Africa.

This Thanksgiving there were a lot of articles online about arming yourself with good information before arguing politics at seasonal dinners. With so much contention in the air, maybe music can help bring folks with opposing views together.

With a career derailed due to severe hand problems, Amadie found a way to play the music he loved.

The guitarist, composer and arranger died in his sleep Tuesday at 83. Hall was known for a subtle, lyrical playing style, a gift for innovation and collaborations with a host of talented musicians in a career that stretched for more than seven decades. Hear an interview from 1989.

This is it," Webb said of Fitzgerald. "I have a real singer now. That's what the public wants."

With six concerts spread over eight discs, Wood Flute Songs documents the bassist's exhaustive and creative live output.