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Sheila Jordan's singing style lights up Piano Jazz with guest host Jon Weber.

It's a wonder Reed has time to get behind his drum kit at all, let alone lead two of Chicago's best bands. While his quintet Loose Assembly plays heavily improvised contemporary music, his quartet People, Places & Things has always embraced a strong historical current, paying homage to forgotten or overlooked Chicago music from six decades ago.

The modus operandi of Lindner's "Big Pump" is aural overload: With its odd-metered measures, the song functions as a throwback to bebop and shape-shifting jazz, but with hip-hop sophistication and the sensibilities of a jazz-rock band.

His best-known work — the music to A Charlie Brown Christmas — is currently airing across the country once again. But as a new anthology attests, Vince Guaraldi wrote and performed a lot more music that deserves attention, too.

Just in time for the holidays comes a backbreaking load for St. Nick — all of trumpeter Miles Davis' Columbia recordings in a single, 70-CD collection. Along with a DVD of a 1967 live performance, there's enough music here to keep a listener busy right into the new year.

It's quite a night in Los Angeles at the stunning Walt Disney Concert Hall. With the super-stylish and globally attuned Pink Martini — 19 musicians plus guests — every song is a polished gem.

Serpa was a student at the New England Conservatory in Boston when she was pulled into the jazz world in a big way by saxophonist Greg Osby. In a session from WBGO, the Lisbon-born vocalist sings two originals and gives her own unique twist on the fado.

It's true: Bill Frisell wears glasses, dresses casually and is modest and soft-spoken in person. But instead of stepping into a phone booth to put on a cape, he straps on his trusty Fender Telecaster and strides onstage at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater with his trio.

On a wet, chilly October afternoon, the prodigiously talented young jazz pianist Eldar visited the KPLU performance studio in Seattle. He immediately warmed everyone up with his outgoing personality and stunning solo piano work.

With many hundreds of new recordings each year, jazz maintains a lot of biodiversity in its tiny ecosystem. Chances are, it's got something for everyone, but finding the right fit is like searching for an ant in the jungle; it's never an easy quest, but when it happens, you'll likely find an entire colony. Here are the 10 finest jazz records of 2009, as chosen by WBGO's Josh Jackson.