The best jazz albums of the year feel supercharged with the spirit of discovery, but also offer revelations — both comforting and challenging — the deeper you dig.

Across the street from the jazz icon's home in Queens, a site of pilgrimage for fans from around the world, sits the new Louis Armstrong Center, which brings his 60,000-item archive back to the block.

An old-fashioned steam calliope designed by luminaries in the worlds of art and jazz is on display at the National Sculpture Garden.