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How would you introduce someone to the jazz of today? We asked young jazz fans — none older than 24 — who run promising jazz Web sites to write about their five-album introductions to modern jazz. Here are highlights from our guest contributors.

Americans have been observing Labor Day since 1894, through cycles of economic good times and bad times. Here are five songs by great blues and soul artists on the subject of work — and, whenever possible, the avoidance thereof.

Much of today's best Latin jazz embraces old traditions to create something new. NPR Producer Felix Contreras spotlights five female singers whose sounds borrow equally from Latin music and jazz.

Jazz music was born in America in the early 20th century, evolving out of a meeting of African and European music traditions. Once the style began to develop around the world, jazz found its way back to Africa. Hear five of Africa's best jazz musicians, including Mulatu Astatke.

Jazz is strange enough for some listeners. Dig a little deeper and it gets ever so bizarre. Some musicians take instruments from other traditions and make it their own. Some go for the big and bold. Others just invent. Hear the strange worlds of Cloud Chamber Bowls, the daxophone, mollusks and more.

There are thousands of apple varieties — even a new breed called "Jazz." Much like the music that lends its name to this autumn delight, Jazz is a hybrid. The time is ripe for planning that apple-picking day trip, so get the caramel ready for five crisp, fleshy jazz tunes related to a certain favorite fall fruit.

Throughout the '80s and early '90s, John Zorn and Bill Laswell were at the epicenter of extreme music. Hear five bands that take the ferocity of '60s free jazz and match it with pummeling death metal.

Iyer's new album is the work of a piano trio playing mostly covers — a common sight in jazz. To anyone paying attention to these sounds, which draw from visionaries as diverse as Andrew Hill and M.I.A., it's readily evident that his is an uncommon, even daring approach. Hear the record, Historicity, in its entirety for the week preceding its Oct. 13 U.S. release.

All Songs Considered's list of the 50 most important recordings of the decade continues with Kelly Clarkson to Jay-Z.

For all the jazz albums to be universally hailed as classics, many more deserve to be recognized as such. Here, arranger and Grammy-winning record producer Bob Belden picks five slept-on jazz classics.