Piano Jazz With Jon Weber

Jon Batiste. Ingrid Hertfelder/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

John Medeski. Michael Bloom/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Karen Oberlin. Heather Sullivan/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Cynthia Sayer. Gary Spector/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Marissa Mulder. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Linda Oh. Vincent Soyez/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Cécile McLorin Salvant. John Abbott/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Rudresh Mahanthappa. Jimmy Katz/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Donny McCaslin. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Robben Ford. George Wells/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Stacy Sullivan. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Allan Harris. Ayano Hisa/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Laurence Hobgood. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"Jaki [Byard] gives me an avenue to travel if I want to go into Earl Hines territory. When I play a Jaki piece, it's not only in honor of Jaki, but it's in honor of the people then who also gave it to him," Jason Moran says of his mentor. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"You have to love this art form," Stefon Harris says. "It's one of the only opportunities in the world where we really can be purely honest and in the moment, and let the music unfold and reveal itself." Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"I think I came out of the womb singing," says Whitney James. Marc Von Borstel/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

When trumpeter Dominick Farinacci was on a steady diet of Vanilla Ice, Ice-T and Ice Cube, he says it was hearing the music of Louis Armstrong that turned him to jazz trumpet. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

At a young age, Hiromi says her piano teacher taught her to play "from heart to heart, not from fingers to ears." Sakiko Nomura hide caption

Chris Dingman's song "Manhattan Bridge" was inspired by his daily commute to and from work: "[There's] this moment of beauty when you emerge on the Manhattan Bridge and you see the whole city before you, and there's this feeling of hope." Zachary Maxwell Stertz hide caption

"It's a matter of understanding the vocabulary, in my opinion," pianist Aaron Diehl says of stride-piano music. "That stuff isn't meant to be played note for note." Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Sachal Vasandani's vocal revelation stems back to middle school: "I would raise my hand to do a scat solo on one of the jazz choir songs and found out that the ideas that were in my head were coming out a lot easier in my voice than on the French horn." Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Kris Bowers opens this session with a soulful, prepared-piano version of Juan Tizol's "Caravan": "It's important to remember that [the piano] is a percussive instrument." Lauren Desberg hide caption

Tammy McCann says that improvisation was the "hardest thing in the world to do coming from classical to jazz." Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Julian Lage. Courtesy of the artist hide caption