Nate Chinen's new book Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century identifies the key players in the genre's resurgence. Chinen's aim with the book is to get the root of the resurgence.

Duke Ellington, composer, arranger, pianist and originator of big-band jazz, wrote "Sweet Jazz O'Mine" in 1930 when the genre was blooming.As a bandleader, Ellington was unsurpassed. He chose his ...

He would start out playing a song with both hands in one key -- G for example - and then all of sudden, his right hand might travel up the keyboard and begin playing in B flat, while his left hand ...

This is an important, even historic album. It marks—unannounced—the return of a great figure of the free jazz era, Pharoah Sanders.Saxophonist Albert Ayler once famously declared, "Trane was the ...

As with many Monk tunes, this piece is best heard and improvised to, while singing the melody. Just remember to substitute the 2/4 bar with a 4/4 bar in solos. Monk sticks closely to the melody on ...

Kenny G, smooth-jazz king, is in on the joke “When you’re Kenny G, every day is a good hair day,” the saxophonist writes in his memoir, “Life in the Key of G.” ...

NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Christian McBride of Jazz Night in America about the forgotten all-female big bands that toured the United States during World War II.