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Trumpeter Nicholas Payton shares three songs from his latest CD, Into the Blue. The New Orleans native talks jazz and what it means to resonate. The new songs show a creative musician who knows himself, and bandmates who understand each other.

Tierney Sutton may have had a cold in the studio during this performance and interview from KPLU, but it's hard to tell. The L.A.-based jazz vocalist lays down minor-key versions of otherwise "happy" songs, including a haunting cover of "You Are My Sunshine."

It took many sleepless nights to perfect the Las Vegas lounge act. Singer Keely Smith and husband Louis Prima put in many hours on the Strip in the '50s to do just that. Smith recalls her time at the Sahara. A new collection of her work is out on CD.

Part of jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard's A Tale of God's Will served as the soundtrack to Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Blanchard shares two solo piano performances with WBGO's Josh Jackson.

Percussionist Bobby Sanabria grew up in the musical melting pot of the South Bronx in New York City. Now, as the leader of a big band, it's no wonder that his brand of Latin jazz mirrors a panoply of Afro-Western styles from all over the Americas.

Mary Lou Williams was not only present for nearly every development in jazz music — she was influential to most of them. In her compositions, arrangements, piano playing, and teaching, she constantly advanced jazz music.

Two new offerings show her versatility on clarinet and tenor sax. On Poetica, the Tel Aviv-born New Yorker leads a small jazz combo and a string quartet. Then there's Noir, a CD that celebrates a modified big-band sound.

Kate McGarry is an equal opportunity vocalist. On her new CD, she revamps jazz standards with hints of popular music, and infuses her natural jazz instincts into pop, folk and original compositions.

Erik Friedlander's Block Ice & Propane contains ballads and hymns to a life most Americans could make common cause with, along with people who relate to what is most nomadic in America.

By the early 1930s, Louis Armstrong had already revolutionized jazz. Through the next four decades, he would continue to reinvent himself. Along the way, he produced landmarks of the 20th century in American music and entertainment.