Pianist/Composer Anne Sajdera with Alisa Clancy

Saxophonist Azar Lawrence with Michael Burman

Vocalist/Pianist Mose Allison with Dick Conte

Pianist Peter Zak with Melanie Berzon

Martial Solal
Pianist Martial Solal is one of the most significant French jazz artists after Django Reinhardt. His trio and solo recordings since the 1960's show a boundary-melting approach to classic jazz that bristles with energy and ideas.

Bobby Bradford
One of the great brass players of the free jazz world, Bobby Bradford was an early compatriot of Ornette Coleman, with whom he recorded and played through some of Coleman's most important periods. His lengthy association with clarinetist John Carter yielded some of the best jazz of the 1970's and 80's, and his work as a bandleader, composer, and educator continues to be a motivating force for the scene in L.A.

Mary Halvorson
Originally inspired by educator Anthony Braxton, guitarist Mary Halvorson has carved out an important role as one of the strongest voices of the young forward-leaning jazz scene of NYC. Her associations as a side woman with Tim Berne, Myra Melford, and Marc Ribot have given her a wide audience and rare critical acclaim, and her work as a bandleader, shows a great balance of ability and creativity.

Barbara Donald
One of the most commanding of the avant-garde trumpeters, Barbara Donald came to prominence in the 1960's, when her fiery solos and powerful sound combined with her then-husband Sonny Simmons to produce some pivotal records. She released several fine albums as a leader in the 1980s before health problems caused her to slow down, but her voice and contribution is one that deserves far greater recognition.

Back Home with Chick Corea
Chico Corea and his trio (Carlos Puerto: bass, Marcus Roberts: drums) return to Chick’s hometown of Boston. Corea sits down with Jazz Night in America host, Christian McBride, to reminisce.

Mike Reed
After a harrowing encounter with white supremacists in 2009 in the Czech Republic, drummer Mike Reed created a suite called Flesh & Bone. It was released as an album last year, and captured by Jazz Night in America at Reed's venue, Constellation, in Chicago.

The Ojai Music Festival
In this century, few artists in or around jazz have been closer to the whirling center of the action than pianist/composer/bandleader/educator Vijay Iyer. Iyer is also an inspired consolidator, someone who brings divergent strands of theory and practice into dialogue. He does it all the time, but he really brought the idea into focus in June 2017, over four busy days in Southern California's ruggedly beautiful Ojai Valley.

Artemis
It's a jazz super-group: Renee Rosnes, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Ingrid Jensen, Melissa Aldana, Anat Cohen, Noriko Ueda, Allison Miller. Jazz Night in America captured their performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, and caught up with them to talk about the significance of their all-female band.

Joe Williams
Joe Williams easily charms Marian McPartland during his appearance on this 1991 Piano Jazz. They do Who She Do and touching renditions of Embraceable You, Just Friends and I'm Confessin'.

Diana Krall
When this Piano Jazz was recorded in October 2006, Canadian pianist/singer/songwriter Diana Krall, whose father was a stride pianist who encouraged her interest in jazz, was seven and a half months pregnant with twins. Two healthy boys were born less than two months later.

Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby's compositions have traversed an eclectic mix of styles, from pop and jazz fusion to roots music and soul. On this 2003 episode of Piano Jazz, the influence of Keith Jarrett and Bud Powell peeks through as he performs Solar and Parisian Thoroughfare.

Teddy Wilson
In this 1978 edition of Piano Jazz, Marian gets Teddy Wilson to talk about his trademark left handed runs that were so important to his style, along with his excitement at hearing classical jazz pianist Vladimir Horowitz in concert at the White House earlier in that year.

Dick Wellstood
In this 1981 edition of Piano Jazz, Dick Wellstood is in top form on Ain't Misbehavin' and medleys of James P. Johnson and Duke Ellington tunes; McPartland takes Detour Ahead as her feature, and they duet on Lulu's Back in Town, 'Deed I Do and a spirited Fine and Dandy.

Art Tatum
Though pianist Tatum was almost completely blind from birth, it never held him back. He often doubled and even tripled the tempo of a piece without losing any articulation or sacrificing his light touch. This technique enabled him to express an enormous flow of ideas in just a few measures, in a way that no one before or since has been able to duplicate.

Bessie Smith
No blues singer can escape the influence of Bessie Smith, "The Empress of the Blues". For over 100 years, this legendary, singer has been and continues to be a major influence on singers and instrumentalists of today. She was larger than life, inexhaustibly creative, and undeniably distinctive. Her legacies of songs speak to everybody; she gave the music its raw, regal poignancy -and marketability.

Willie "The Lion" Smith
A musician's musician whose original approach to the keyboard has made him the envy of virtually every pianist in jazz. He was part of the Harlem stride scene perfected by pianists James P. Johnson and Thomas Fats Waller. This show features rare tape of Smith talking and playing.

Billy Taylor
illy Taylor is a pianist, composer, bandleader, author, radio and television personality, an educator, and this country's leading jazz ambassador. He was the house pianist at Birdland on New York's famed 52nd Street in the mid '40s. He's been leading his own trios for the past thirty-plus years. He founded JazzMobile in New York, and has presented jazz features for CBS's Sunday Morning and hosted several NPR series, including Jazz Alive! Interviewees include Taylor, David Bailey, and Clark Terry.

Sarah Vaughan
Musicians and audiences alike marveled at the ease with which Sarah Vaughan moved up and down her four-octave range, turning even the most mundane songs into operatic riffs. Her sound possessed a full-bodied purity, with an approach not unlike an instrumentalist. Early in her career, "Sassy" cut her teeth on bebop, performing with Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. She also ventured into the pop world, recording hits such as Broken-hearted Melody, Day-O, and Send in the Clowns.