Walter Smith stands straight when he raises his tenor sax to his mouth to embark on a solo, or play enthralling, serpentine, contrapuntal lines in unison with band mates like Ambrose Akinmusire.

Artists at this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival offer a range of approaches to the genre, including the sonic explorations of bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding and the traditional strains of ...

In 2005, Larry Appelbaum, a longtime curator of jazz at the Library of Congress, was thumbing through a batch of old acetate tape recordings that had been delivered in a truck from the Voice of ...

Simon Lott found his place in New Orleans. It’s a drummer’s town. “New Orleans is so rich with sounds,” said the jazz drummer and composer originally from Baton Rouge. “The city has a rhythmic ...

When alto saxophonist Tim Berne was in high school, he'd drive from Syracuse to Manhattan in his family's green station wagon, bound for now-defunct clubs such as Slug's Saloon and the Village Gate.

SARASOTA -- Soft-spoken, self-effacing and scholarly, Robert Moore sounds like a pretty traditional guy. As a kid growing up in Orangeburg, S.C., he came under the spell of Duke Ellington, Count Basie ...