Patrick Jarenwattananon

Sifting through the overwhelming catalog of the Afro-futurist jazz master is a daunting task. To celebrate Sun Ra's centennial, we picked five essential songs that lay his otherworldly evolution bare.

The iconic jazz label celebrates a major anniversary with this special performance featuring artists from its past and present: Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Norah Jones, Jason Moran and many more.

Billy Crystal hosts Love, Loss and Laughter: The Story of Jazz — a tour of the music's history in song and dance, featuring an all-star lineup and the JALC Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis.

With this year's International Jazz Day concert taking place in Osaka, an East Asian historian (a musician himself) describes how the music came across the Pacific — and how it took off after that.

This weekend's Art of Cool Festival in Durham, N.C., aims to expand the audience for improvised music. So it's booked performers from modern R&B, hip-hop and beyond with deep jazz influences.

Even today's musicians know that jazz has a rapidly changing, living, breathing history. In a new video, young gun Kris Bowers takes a YouTube tour from ragtime and stride through the present day.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced recipients of its 2014 performing arts grants. Noted composers such as Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake and Randy Weston received a first tier award.

One of the world's best jazz drummers is also a singer-songwriter, session man for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and the son of a preacher man. It's all potently distilled for his band of over 15 years.

Longtime friends and collaborators Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter headline the numerous performing artists, ensembles and recordings awarded for achievement in the year 2013.

The trombonist and three fellow musicians from Houston started one of jazz's most popular groups in the 1960s. As the times changed, so did their music — and their success magnified further.