Nate Chinen

With Art Blakey as both mentor and north star, Peterson emerged in the '80s as one of that decade's most striking jazz artists.

The legendary pianist has lived many lives as a musician, from post-bop wunderkind to free-jazz maverick to fusion explorer to chamber-jazz eminence.

The wide-ranging keyboardist, composer and bandleader died Feb. 9 of cancer. He was one of the fathers of jazz fusion, with his work spanning from acoustic jazz to his own interpretations of Mozart.

Jazz Night visits the St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church, an evolving house of worship that has incorporated John Coltrane's A Love Supreme albumas their chief liturgical text.

The cost of 2020 — in lives, livelihoods, legacies and communities — is high and still being tallied. For jazz critic Nate Chinen, all that loss demands change to old ideas of critical objectivity.

Jazz musicians often rely on the energy they take from a live audience. So when live performances were shut down because of the pandemic, they had to find ways to adapt.

On this show, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis invite the Sesame Street gang onstage. Plus, trombonist Joe Fielder's Open Sesame share rare songs from the Sesame songbook.

Host Christian McBride and trumpeter/composer Wynton Marsalis reflect on Marsalis' studio recordings that address injustices and speak about the role music plays in speaking truth to power.

Host Rachel Martin talks to Nate Chinen of member station WBGO and Jazz Night in America about the toll of event cancellations and club closures due to the coronavirus on performing musicians.

An innovative member of the classic John Coltrane Quartet, few musicians have ever exerted as much influence as a sideman, but Tyner also had a long and consequential career leading bands of his own.