Patrick Jarenwattananon

Halvorson balances golden-era hard-bop order and free improvising entropy. At the NPR Music offices, her band strikes comforting tones, but also morphs, rephrases and implodes those ideas.

A strong and harmonically provocative pianist, Evans often makes the commute between Philadelphia and New York City. He brings a trio to downtown Manhattan for this live performance.

The alto saxophonist keeps good company: He's a member of legendary drummer Roy Haynes' band, for one. Shaw returns to his alma mater to lead his own band in a live concert webcast.

The history of jazz is often told as a sequence of epic heroes. Coincidentally, an admired saxophonist has been reading Homer lately. Potter presents his new Odyssey-inspired suite The Sirens.

Few pianists have been as influential to modern jazz practice as McCoy Tyner. And at age 74, his driving left hand and dense chords are still in fine form. He performs at the SFJAZZ Center opening.

Joshua Redman co-founded the SFJAZZ Collective. With his successor in the tenor sax chair, Joe Lovano, the band runs through "Blackwell's Message," a jaunty, open swinger.

Following in a long line of Cuban-born pianists, Virelles has quickly become an elite New York jazz player. But his vision is mysterious — a back-to-the-future refraction of Afro-Cuban ritual.

Thirty years after its first concerts in San Francisco, the organization SFJAZZ has built a permanent home and performance venue. For its opening, WWOZ, WBGO and NPR Music presented a live concert.

Percussionist John Santos and pianist Rebeca Mauleón played the very first SFJAZZ festival in 1983. Today, they're employed by the organization, which has just built a new $64 million permanent home. On the eve of its grand opening, they reflect on what the new building means to the community.

The singer's new album isn't quite a jazz record, but it comes from someone who has obviously studied a lot of jazz, on and off the bandstand. James, a "huge John Coltrane freak," reflects on the time he got to tour with Coltrane's pianist.