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San Francisco-area jazz guitarist/singer/songwriter Joyce Cooling creates music because she says it's in her bones. NPR's Tony Cox talks to Cooling about her latest CD This Girl's Got To Play — hear full-length tracks from the critically lauded album.

Acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch has more than 20 recordings and two Grammy nominations to his credit. Over the last three decades, Hersch says he's drawn much inspiration from the works of poet Walt Whitman. It's the latest story in Intersections, a series on artists and their inspirations. Jeff Lunden reports.

Commentator David Greenberger has a personal appreciation of the music of Ella Johnson. With her brother Buddy Johnson, a bandleader, the singer was a regular fixture on the New York City club circuit in the 1940s and 1950s. She had many popular hits, including "Since I Fell for You," "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball?" and "When My Man Comes Home." Johnson died last month at age 86.

Legendary jazz singer Sarah Vaughan would have been 80 years old Saturday if she had not died in 1990 of lung cancer. Reporter Allison Keyes has a tribute to the incomparable musician nicknamed "The Divine One."

Jazz flautist and Latin Grammy Award winner Nestor Torres' intuitive sense of melody and rhythm has made him a fixture in the "smooth" jazz universe for more than two decades. He talks to NPR's Tavis Smiley about his latest CD, Sin Palabras (Without Words) — hear full-length cuts from the album.

Grammy-winning singer Cassandra Wilson arrived on the music scene in 1990s with her innovative take on jazz. Wilson tells how her unusual approach has its roots in the music of trumpeter Miles Davis.

Perennial Jazz Fest Performers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band perform live in NPR's Studio 4A. New Orleans' tiny Preservation Hall has presented traditional jazz for more than 40 years. The hall is more famous than the musicians who play there, but the Preservation Hall Jazz Band continues to attract music lovers at home and to its concerts around the world.

As the Fats Waller centennial approaches, Tom Vitale looks back at a remarkable career in both jazz and popular music. Waller — of "Ain't Misbehavin'" fame — was the first musician to be equally successful among black and white audiences.

American musical icon Ray Charles died of complications from liver disease Thursday at his Beverly Hills home. In a career that lasted more than half a century, Charles defied categorization and brought his soulful stylings to jazz, pop, country and R&B.

This week Koko Taylor became the first female blues singer to received receive a National Heritage Fellowship. We take a moment to listen to her song "Spellbound."