Search results for

In the Harlem "rent party" tradition, jazz artists would compete on piano in an apartment for listeners who paid a quarter each to get in. According to many, Fats Waller could outdo all comers. Known for his comic touch, Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ in jazz.

Pulitzer Prize winner Gunther Schuller once called Sarah Vaughan the "greatest singer of the 20th Century." Her voice won a 1948 talent show at the Apollo Theater, launching a career that included singing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. This album captures Vaughan at her purest.

Robert Siegel talks with Norwegian Jazz Pianist Tord Gustavsen about the art of jazz improvisation and his new album The Ground.

Lizz Wright burst on the scene two years ago with her debut CD Salt, and was hailed then as one of the brightest new voices in contemporary jazz. She talks about her sophomore record, Dreaming Wide Awake.

On his latest album, Occasion, singer, pianist and actor Harry Connick Jr. teams up with jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Connick and Marsalis join guest host Frank Stasio to discuss the collaboration and play some songs from the album, which was released on Marsalis' label, Marsalis Music.

He's been awarded the 2005 Pianist of the Year award by the Jazz Journalist's Association, and he also received the first ever 2005 Playboy Magazine Jazz Artist of the Year. His new album is called Same Mother, which reflects the 30-year-old musician's current interest in the blues.

The exotic strains of Ethiopian jazz are not widely heard by American ears. But the work of many talented artists can be enjoyed in an ambitious multi-volume CD series called Ethiopiques.

Clarinetist Ben Goldberg became known in the early 1990s as a member of the New Klezmer Trio. Goldberg's new album is a memorial to soprano-saxophonist Steve Lacy, who died two years ago. It shows how well Goldberg understands his subject.

But "Like A Star" is a real find: Languid and wistful, mild in a weirdly appealing way, it's a worshipful ode to a quarrelsome lover that's meandering, tentative and hook-free. It shouldn't sound nearly as good as it does, but Rae sells the song as if her life depended on it, uncovering new layers of longing and lust that probably weren't on the page to begin with. As a songwriter, Rae isn't fully developed, but as a rehabilitator of creaky jazz ballads, she's already first-rate.

Sasha Dobson carries on in the jazz tradition of past greats like Ella Fitzgerald, with a sultry voice and extensive performance experience, but she remains unconventional . Now 26, Dobson has been performing professionally since she was 16, in the process crafting a unique fusion of worldly jazz.