Pianist Sullivan Fortner, who performed at the Old Church with bassist Tyrone Allen and drummer Kayvon Gordon, leads a clinic during the PDX Jazz Festival.

​Vijay Iyer (left) and Nicole Mitchell perform music by Andrew Hill at Harlem Stage’s Gatehouse on March 1.

​The full cast of the centennial celebration for Max Roach, held Jan. 26 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Mary Halvorson expanded her hollowbody guitar to match her imaginative foot-pedal-assisted forays at this year’s NYC Winter Jazzfest.

Opening night featured the duo of Miami native Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner.

“I really respect people who could learn this vocabulary and find a way to express it in a way that is so unique,” Nduduzo Makhathini said of the late pianist Don Pullen during his live Blindfold Test.

​“They were so in tune with each other, every note just works,” O’Connell said of Bill Evans and Jim Hall’s duo take on “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You.”

​Henry Threadgill was a major presence at this year’s Jazzfest Berlin.

A great Chicago blues night at SPACE, from left, Mike Wheeler, Roosevelt Purifoy, Cleo Cole, Bob Stroger, Billy Boy Arnold, Dave Specter, Sheryl Youngblood, Tad Robinson, Julia Miller, Larry Williams, Dick Shurman and Elbio Barilari.

An opening-weekend high point came in the form of Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven’s show at the Barbican with the London Contemporary Orchestra.