Jazz

Eighty years ago, barriers were broken when Benny Goodman took a mixed race band to play jazz to Carnegie Hall.

Chicago jazz piano legend Willie Pickens died this past week at age 86. Fellow musicians remember him as a talented musician and mentor to generations of jazz students.

Paul Steinbeck's new book chronicles the antics, both on and off stage, of the storied jazz ensemble. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Message to Our Folks celebrates the band's success on their own terms.

Radio Camper Trent Smart interviews jazz drummer Usman Salahuddin about how he discovered jazz and his experience performing at a jazz festival in Burkina Faso.

Legendary saxophonist John Coltrane was born ninety years ago today (September 23, 1926), in Hamlet, North Carolina.

Stephon Alexander once downplayed the connections he saw between jazz and physics, concerned that — as "the only black person" in his professional circle — his credibility would be questioned.