Nnenna Freelon was heard at the peak of her powers during this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival.

​Hamid Drake takes to the frame drum at Chicago’s Logan Center during this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

Schubert NOW performs a showcase concert at jazzahead! 2025.

“With a really great artist, it’s not actually coming from them, it’s coming from their environment,” said Chris Wood, shown at right with his brother Oliver Wood (center) and Jano Rix (left). “They’re just open to reflecting what’s happening around them, and they just have the ability to intuitively recognize what’s good. It’s the beautiful mystery of the creative process, and we’re just constantly trying to surrender to it.”

“I do feel the need to say, ‘I am a jazz musician,’ but I’ve been in these other fields of music, and I do find them all related,” said pianist Paul Cornish.

Kandace Springs channeled Shirley Horn’s deliberate phrasing and sublime self-accompaniment during her set at this year’s Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival.

“My music is about the human condition,” said Darius Jones in introducing his song “No More My Lord” at the inaugural Sound & Gravity Festival.

“Louisiana Fish Fry has been a staple in my kitchen since childhood,” said Troy Andrews.

Always a sharp dresser, Farnsworth wears a pocket square given to him by trumpeter Art Farmer. “You need to look good if you want to hang around me,” Farmer told him.

“Who I am today is because of my experiences with the AACM,” Amina Claudine Myers said of the artist-led Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.