“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.

“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.

Samara Joy performing at the 2023 Monterey Jazz Festival.

Davis says, “I wouldn’t call myself a jazz musician; my music is more about crossing boundaries.” Her band Alula, from left: Chris Tordini, Davis, Tyshawn Sorey and Val Jeanty.

“The first Blues Deluxe album took seven days to finish, this one took five,” Joe Bonamassa says of Time Clocks, a tribute to, and continuation of, his first hit album 20 years ago.

Bill Frisell and writer Ashley Kahn at this year’s North Sea Jazz Fest.

“The more sophisticated the lyric, the easier the melody should be,” Lins offered as a songwriting guideline.

“Everything came together like the universe intended,” says Luke Stewart of the members of Irreversible Entanglements, from left, Camae Ayewa, Stewart, Tcheser Holmes, Keir Neuringer and Aquiles Navarro.

“This is not an album for dancing,” Fonseca says about his new recording, La Gran Diversión. “But if you want to move, to dance, you’re welcome.”

“The idea of joy was really important,” says Souza in the wake of the pandemic and the toppling of Brazil’s authoritarian regime.