JazzStories

Dr. Lonnie Smith has developed his own idiosyncratic style on the famous Hammond B3 organ. The master musician talked with our Andrew Rosenblum about life in jazz, the nature of funk and why he turned down a chance to join up with the 'Godfather of Soul.

The late bassist Percy Heath was a member of The Modern Jazz Quartet for over forty years, one of the great innovating groups of its time. But his success did not happen overnight. Heath talks about his initial unease around drummer Kenny Clarke, getting lessons from Charles Mingus and the close friendships that were essential to The MJQ sound.

The pianist and big band leader Toshiko Akiyoshi's musical exploration has spanned two continents and nearly 7 decades. She first discovered jazz as a teenager in post World War II Japan. She then moved to the United States to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. And in the 1970s, along with her husband and collaborator Lew Tabakin, Akiyoshi put together a rehearsal group to play her compositions and in the process helped revitalize the big band sound. Reed has worked as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and many other jazz greats, and led his own ensembles for nearly two decades. In October of 2011, he sat down with Ken Druker at a Jazz at Lincoln Center Listening Party to discuss the making of his twentieth album.

Eric Reed got his start on piano at age six, playing in his father's storefront Baptist church in Philadelphia. When the family relocated to Los Angeles, Reed began a deep study of jazz piano, developing a style overflowing with technique but steeped in driving swing. Word got out about the young man burning up the keyboard. In 1991, he left college in his freshman year, to go on the road with Wynton Marsalis.Reed has worked as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and many other jazz greats, and led his own ensembles for nearly two decades. In October of 2011, he sat down with Ken Druker at a Jazz at Lincoln Center Listening Party to discuss the making of his twentieth album.

In 1967 Saxophonist Joe Henderson and trumpeter Kenny Dorham assembled a big band that never toured or recorded an album, but attracted top musicians like Chick Corea, Randy Brecker, and Joe Temperley to its weekly rehearsals. Henderson tells us about composing for one of the great bands that was never heard.

In 1967 Saxophonist Joe Henderson and trumpeter Kenny Dorham assembled a big band that never toured or recorded an album, but attracted top musicians like Chick Corea, Randy Brecker, and Joe Temperley to its weekly rehearsals. Henderson tells us about composing for one of the great bands that was never heard.

The young pianist Jonathan Batiste hails from one of the renowned musical families of New Orleans. He played in various family bands and with the clarinetist Alvin Batiste. At age 17, he moved to New York to study at the Julliard School of Music while pursuing a career as a sideman with Roy Hargrove, Cassandra Wilson and Wynton Marsalis among others. Now he leads the Stay Human band, and serves as associate artistic director of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem. In this interview, he discusses his family's musical roots, taking the music to a higher level, and fitting himself into the New York jazz scene.

For the innovative pianist Fred Hersch, attaining a candid communication with his audience has been a process of evolution --moving from sideman to leader, from trio leader to pioneering solo pianist and living openly as an HIV positive gay man during the 1980s and into the present. In this interview recorded in 2000, he reveals how he learned to play his own experiences.

The Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes combines formidable technique with power, spinning out fast melody lines simultaneously with each hand. In this interview recorded in October 2010, Valdes talks about growing up in Cuba the son of famed bandleader, Bebo Valdes and about the historic visit of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to Havana.

Bobby McFerrin has spent some four decades breaking ground in vocal music – and always feels fresh. His work VOCAbuLarieS is featured in our live performance Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio series. At rehearsals, and later backstage, he told producer Alexa Lim and Howard Mandel about his introduction to improvisation - courtesy of Miles Davis and friends.

Vocalist and songwriter Gretchen Parlato's music is introspective and crafted with a knowing touch. Winner of the 2004 Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocalist competition, she has released three albums including 2011's highly-acclaimed "The Lost and Found." From this Listening Party, she discusses the writing process and her transition from interpreter to composer.

George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, has created countless festivals worldwide and can be connected to every important jazz musician in the last 60 years. He has worked with legends such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington, as well as contemporary masters like Kurt Elling, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Pat Metheny, and The Bad Plus. In time for this year's Newport Jazz Festival, George Wein shares great tales from the festival circuit from a 2006 Jazz Talk.

Philadelphia native Benny Golson studied piano thinking he'd be a concert pianist till he was 14, then he caught Arnett Cobb in show at the famed Earl theater and his world turned upside down. He began studying the tenor saxophone and entered a music scene that included the Heath brothers and a teenaged John Coltrane. Golson went on to co-lead the Jazztet, write standards like Killer Joe and Blues March, tour with Dizzy Gillespie and become a Hollywood composer. NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson -- modest, funny and wise, joins journalist Ira Gitler in a sparkling conversation.

Drummer Roy Haynes has played and recorded with every important jazz musician of the last 70 years -- Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk—and he continues to tour the world. From this 2008 Jazz Talks hosted by Dr. Lewis Porter, Haynes spoke about his first high-profile job, working with tenor saxophonist Lester Young.

In the 1950s during the Cold War, the US State Department made a conscious choice to use jazz as a "cultural weapon" by dispatching musicians around the globe to burnish America's image abroad. Louis Armstrong, one of several musicians who participated in the Jazz Ambassadors program, played with the late clarinetist Joe Muranyi in the final version of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in Tunisia in 1967. In this excerpt from a 2009 Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Talk, Joe Muranyi joins Dr. Penny Von Eschen, author of "Satchmo Blows Up The World: Jazz Musicians Play The Cold War," and moderator Dr. Lewis Porter in a discussion of jazz and cultural diplomacy.