Jarred Sims directs the West Virginia University Mountaineer Honor Jazz Band during rehearsal.

Jazz Girls Day, a program spearheaded by Colleen Clark, assistant professor of jazz studies at the University of South Carolina (far right), has held five events over the past two years and is expanding the program to several other states.

“I think most jazz musicians exist in a space where the unknown is actually pretty thrilling,” said Sara Gazarek about putting together the new jazz vocal program at Eastman School of Music.

“I listened to players like Ben Webster and Wayne Shorter, two opposites, who spoke to me profoundly about saying a whole lot with less,” Osby says.

“My dad is always going to be a part of me and my music, especially since I still have so many manuscripts of his to explore,” says Johnathan Blake, who notes that he too has much more to explore.

“I like to just click on songs that touched me and see if I could do them in a personal way — especially if it’s a well-known song,” Alpert said about selecting material for his new album.

“Everybody thought I was smooth when I was growing up, so they called me ‘silky,’” Sean Mason says. The Southern Suite, his new album, proves it.

Steven Lugerner and Ross Eustis put their experience in the non-profit world into creating Slow & Steady Records.

“One of the first things I checked out heavily when I got serious about playing music was Weather Report’s Heavy Weather,” Payton says of his early influences.

Emmet Cohen, right, with one of his heroes, Houston Person.