During his concerts, Nicholas Payton frequently plays keyboards and trumpet simultaneously.

Guitarist Jeff Parker used the recording process to write material for his latest album, Suite For Max Brown (International Anthem).

Kandace Springs offers reverence to female musicians on her upcoming album, The Women Who Raised Me.

Singer José James is releasing No Beginning No End 2 on Rainbow Blonde Records, which he co-founded with singer-songwriter Talia Billig and sound engineer Brian Bender.

Gary Bartz (left), Vincent Herring and Bobby Watson perform at the New York club Smoke, where they recorded Bird At 100, a tribute to saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Vocalist Meredith Monk says she’s blessed to be “discovering new things and new ways of producing sound and new ways of putting music together that are very complex little forms” after a decade’s long career.

Nils Økland, who performs in Lumen Drones, has released a handful of recordings in various settings through Hubro, a label based in Oslo, Norway.

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt (right) displays a deep canonical knowledge on The Art Of Intimacy, Vol. 1, a ballad-focused recording the bandleader made with pianist George Cables and bassist Peter Washington.

Saxophonists Samuel Blais (left), Donny McCaslin, David Binney and Dave Liebman make up the Four Visions Saxophone Quartet, a group that can trace its lineage back to jazz and the work of classical saxophonist Marcel Mule.

A staple of Chicago’s jazz scene, Junius Paul’s debut full-length, Ism, takes into consideration the city’s past musical triumphs while incorporating the bassist’s own passions.