“I was writing music that I felt was really honest,” Rowe says of her new album, “and I wanted to share myself with these players I’ve met in the last five to seven years.”

“We’re going to do what we want to do; that’s how we got a fanbase in the first place,” says Snarky Puppy leader Michael League.

Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater will be among the headliners at this year’s DC JazzFest.

“I’m very proud of the music that I’ve written so far, but I’ve got a lot more work to do,” says drummer/composer Domo Branch.

This year’s grant recipients, top row, from left: Dee Alexander, Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, William Cepeda; center row, from left, Marilyn Crispell, Donald Harrison, Oliver Lake, Benny Maupin; bottom row, from left, Charles McPherson, Archie Shepp, Mary Stallings and Buster Williams.

Blindfold Test proctor Ted Panken, left, with the Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis.

Terri Lyne Carrington will teach at the HMTM’s Jazz Institute until the end of 2028.

“To go solo is a balancing act because on one hand you need to stand your ground but on the other you’re stepping into a realm of extreme honesty,” Wojtek Mazolewski says.

“I always believe in having a positive message,” says drummer Brandon Sanders. “I want to touch my audience’s heart and get them to start listening to jazz.”