Patrick Jarenwattananon

RIP Ted Curson, a new jazz singer, the Jazz Composers Collective's modern history, Hurricane Sandy and downtown New York and Miles Davis in 1985. Plus: a Branford Marsalis interview, Arbors Records' Mat Domber, and what the Pittsburgh Steelers radio announcer does in his spare time.

He came to New York in the early '90s and became a top-notch jazz musician. Then he went back to Israeli to study the Middle Eastern musics of his ancestry. Now, the bassist surfaces all of it in his winding, funky compositions, performed live in downtown Manhattan.

On Tuesday night, pianist Jason Moran hosted an Election Night Jam at the Kennedy Center, where he mixed American classic tunes and campaign songs new and old. It represents the latest chapter in jazz's engagement with politics, including a few "presidential" nominations.

A monster saxophonist and clarinet player returned to New York from his teaching post in Tennessee. He found his band awaiting him, ready to play his knotty tunes with fire. Tardy's quintet performs in a live concert broadcast from lower Manhattan.

The spectacle, vice and musical mayhem of Mardi Gras returns to the program. Recap this year's episode, with The Neville Brothers, the Morning 40 Federation, the Storyville Stompers, the Golden Comanche tribe, the Marines marching band and many more. Plus, two more legends make cameos.

A mid-winter episode brings out some big-name cameos, headlined by Fats Domino himself. Read a recap of the music, including soul queen Irma Thomas, sludge-metal standard bearer Eyehategod, singer-songwriter Paul Sanchez and clarinet professor Dr. Michael White.

This week's news features the making of ELEW, another "jazz is dead" debate, and Chicago music history from long ago and the present day alike. Plus, Ron Carter on bass evolution, Phil Schaap on economics, a new Wayne Shorter album and Miles Davis for Japanese liquor.

In 1961, the great bassist and composer started a long residency at a club in Queens, N.Y., called Copa City. It was a period of bold artistic statements from Mingus. Now, a new box set of live recordings immortalizes that moment in time, and why it can be called a "titty."

Christmas 2007 arrives on set, and some of the musical guests return home. Read a recap of the live performance scenes, featuring Joe Krown, Tom McDermott, Jonathan Batiste, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Red Stick Ramblers and Sharon Martin.

He wasn't a mainstream jazz musician, but the power of his vision for free improvisation won him acclaim from both the jazz community and beyond. The leader of a long-running quartet and a sideman to greats like Cecil Taylor, he was 62 when he died of complications from kidney disease.