A longtime touring member of The Rolling Stones, Tim Ries says his favorite nights were the ones without a show — when he and Watts would sneak into town to play the music they loved most.

The versatile and impassioned singer was ready to throw in the towel until she heard a message in a Nina Simone song that told her, "You're going be fine. I understand how you feel. Keep going."

John Coltrane rarely performed the music from A Love Supreme after its release at the end of 1964 – meaning even the most ardent Coltrane-ologists have been unaware of the existence of these tapes.

The Tonight Show music director has been branching out: In addition to buying a farm, he's making his directorial debut with Summer of Soul, a documentary about a 1969 concert series in Harlem.

The NEA celebrates the 40th anniversary of its Jazz Masters Fellowship and inducts the class of 2022, including four jazz icons: Billy Hart, Stanley Clarke, Cassandra Wilson and Donald Harrison, Jr.

Ted Gioia first published his History of Jazz in 1997, updating it for the first time in 2011. This year he did so again, after a very important decade for the genre.

The musical polymath offers ideas on everything from Russian satellites and hip-hop, to Bach and football, and how they shape the musical education of America.

Maverick jazz composer Anthony Braxton was set to spend his 75th birthday performing at events around the world, but then... well, you know. He has two new boxed sets out this month.

For the final entry in Morning Edition's Song Project series, Vijay Iyer wrote a rhizomatic, inviting — and not entirely placating — instrumental piece to encapsulate his past year.

For most artists, 2020 was a year of forced isolation and few opportunities. But Dan Tepfer, a jazz pianist and composer, had a busy year, partly thanks to his technological acumen.

"Time Traveler," Nnenna Freelon's first new album in more than a decade, is a passionate expression of love enduring as she grieves the loss of her husband and other family members.

The Connecticut-born bassist was known both for his attack on the fingerboard and the decades he spent nurturing the next generation of players.

The Erroll Garner Jazz Project is collaborating on a deep, retrospective reissue of the composer and piano prodigy's live work, marking his 100th birthday in September.

After cutting his teeth in Detroit, a move to New York near the middle of the century found him directly in the center of a deeply important moment for jazz.

Nearly half of the Philadelphia-based pianist's recorded work had gone unheard for decades, until now.