Accessibility links
Jazz Night In America Jazz Night In America is a public radio program, a video concert documentary series, and an online home for the music, from NPR Music, WBGO and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Jazz Night In AmericaJazz Night In America
More Than Keeping Time: A Melodic Drumming Demo

Drummer, Allison Miller Colin Marshall/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Colin Marshall/NPR

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

More Than Keeping Time: A Melodic Drumming Demo

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Drummers usually make sure beats don't speed up or slow down. But drummer Allison Miller does more than keep time. Watch a demonstration of her unique style of playing called melodic drumming.

More Than Keeping Time: A Melodic Drumming Demo

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/639233311/639346419" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
How Benny Green Saw His Jazz Horizon
Frank Stewart/JALC

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

How Benny Green Saw His Jazz Horizon

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

The pianist shares memories of elders and mentors like Art Blakey, Betty Carter and Oscar Peterson, in conversation with Christian McBride.

How Benny Green Saw His Jazz Horizon

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/630407436/630541140" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
The GroundUP Music Festival Brings Even More Heat to Miami
Stella K. /WBGO

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

The GroundUP Music Festival Brings Even More Heat to Miami

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

GroundUP is unlike any other musical event. Lines blur between artist and fan, and spill onto Miami Beach. Hear a jazz sampler from the 2018 line-up.

The GroundUP Music Festival Brings Even More Heat to Miami

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/628077558/628245062" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music

Bassist Dave Holland and tabla player Zakir Hussain perform as part of Crosscurrents at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Lawrence Sumulong/Jazz at Lincoln Center hide caption

toggle caption
Lawrence Sumulong/Jazz at Lincoln Center

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Explore the influence of Indian music on the jazz and rock scenes of the '60s with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, prolific bassist Dave Holland and their international ensemble, Crosscurrents.

Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/622276130/622323361" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
At The Helm: Harold Mabern, Stalwart Accompanist, At 82

Harold Mabern Alan Nahigian/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Alan Nahigian/Courtesy of the artist

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

At The Helm: Harold Mabern, Stalwart Accompanist, At 82

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Harold Mabern has been one of jazz's most consistent accompanists over the last 60 years. In this episode of Jazz Night in America, we explore some of that history with him.

At The Helm: Harold Mabern, Stalwart Accompanist, At 82

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/614517884/614520719" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
What Makes A Jazz Standard?

Saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in concert with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in November 1960. Express/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Express/Getty Images

What Makes A Jazz Standard?

Christian McBride of Jazz Night in America joins NPR's Audie Cornish with a few criteria for what turns a regular composition into a canonized classic.

What Makes A Jazz Standard?

Listen · 7:59
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/613091545/613117691" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Bad Plus: The Band That Never Stops

The Bad Plus Colin Marshall/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Colin Marshall/NPR

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

The Bad Plus: The Band That Never Stops

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

For a group that has always stood for musical collectivism, the substitution of pianist Orrin Evans for Ethan Iverson was a shakeup of existential proportions.

The Bad Plus: The Band That Never Stops

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/610006858/610028780" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Jazz Giants Take The Stage At The NEA Jazz Masters Listening Party

Joanne Brackeen and Jason Moran at NPR's Studio One in Washington, D.C. Eric Lee/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Eric Lee/NPR

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Jazz Giants Take The Stage At The NEA Jazz Masters Listening Party

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Jason Moran sat down with the NEA Jazz Masters to talk about their careers and listen to music that played important roles in their lives.

Jazz Giants Take The Stage At The NEA Jazz Masters Listening Party

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/608093895/608239849" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Jazzmeia Horn Enters The Jazz-Vocal Pantheon
Niki Walker/Niki Walker

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

Jazzmeia Horn Enters The Jazz-Vocal Pantheon

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

A singer of ironclad capability, creative drive and irrepressible panache, she has emerged as the breakout new talent in a formidable jazz-vocal tradition.

Jazzmeia Horn Enters The Jazz-Vocal Pantheon

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/598048516/598048666" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Jane Bunnett And Maqueque: The New Queens of Afro-Cuban Jazz

This week's episode of Jazz Night In America features music by Maqueque Emma Lee Photography/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Emma Lee Photography/Courtesy of the artist

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Jane Bunnett And Maqueque: The New Queens of Afro-Cuban Jazz

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Canadian saxophonist and flutist Jane Bunnett has dedicated her life to Cuban music. Her latest project is Maqueque, an all-female band of young Cuban artists blending folkloric grooves and jazz.

Jane Bunnett And Maqueque: The New Queens of Afro-Cuban Jazz

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/596004201/596139016" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Marian McPartland: A Centennial Celebration
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Marian McPartland: A Centennial Celebration

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

No jazz musician has ever been heard more on public radio than the late Marian McPartland. But for all her ubiquity, how well did we really know her?

Marian McPartland: A Centennial Celebration

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/592860349/594128433" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South
Jesse Kitt

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Vocalist Lizz Wright takes us on a road trip tracing her Southern roots in her home state of Georgia — and we hear a performance from a concert recorded in Atlanta at the Variety Playhouse.

Lizz Wright: Finding Grace In The South

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/589850767/589942936" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Christian Scott: Building Bridges Across Cultures

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Courtesy of... hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of...

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

Christian Scott: Building Bridges Across Cultures

We join Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah for a performance at the New Orleans Jazz Market drawn from The Centennial Trilogy — and explore his work as a bridge-builder, an ambassador and an avatar.

Christian Scott: Building Bridges Across Cultures

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/587942922/588130133" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Mike Reed: The World That I'm In
Tessa Chong/NPR

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

Mike Reed: The World That I'm In

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

In 2009, drummer Mike Reed had a close encounter with a racist mob while on tour in Europe. He turned the experience into art with Flesh & Bone.

Mike Reed: The World That I'm In

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/582395685/582487087" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Fred Hersch And The Art Of Introspection
Frank Stewart/Jazz At Lincoln Center

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Fred Hersch And The Art Of Introspection

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

We join the pianist at his loft in SoHo to talk about his upbringing in Cincinnati, late-night gigs in New York, his recovery from a coma in 2008, and his adaptation of Walt Whitman's poetry.

Fred Hersch And The Art Of Introspection

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/578894724/579216920" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
SFJAZZ Collective Plays Joe Henderson And More

The SFJAZZ Collective. Chuck Gee/Courtesy of SFJAZZ hide caption

toggle caption
Chuck Gee/Courtesy of SFJAZZ

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

SFJAZZ Collective Plays Joe Henderson And More

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

This year, the octet has chosen to salute a tenor sax titan and a long-time San Francisco resident. It plays re-arrangements of Henderson classics along with new original pieces live in concert.

Behind The SFJAZZ Collective

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/390275756/574641731" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Home Cooking: The Philadelphia Jazz Organ Tradition In Concert

Sonny Keaton performs during the Home Cooking concert. WXPN hide caption

toggle caption
WXPN

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

Home Cooking: The Philadelphia Jazz Organ Tradition In Concert

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

It was in Philly where Jimmy Smith first took a church instrument and made it swing. Years later, the city's jazz community gathers to salute its many soulful pioneers of the Hammond B-3 organ.

The Jazz Organ Tradition In Philadelphia

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/396691354/575119867" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
A David Murray Double Bill

David Murray performs at Winter Jazzfest 2015. John Rogers for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
John Rogers for NPR

Jazz Night In America: Video Episodes And Shorts

A David Murray Double Bill

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

The monstrously talented and astoundingly prolific tenor saxophonist returned to New York this winter to present a four-clarinet summit and a new trio with Geri Allen and Terri Lyne Carrington.

The Many Sides Of David Murray

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/379000722/575119107" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Wayne Shorter: Artist In Residence At The Detroit Jazz Festival

Wayne Shorter performs at the 2017 Detroit Jazz Festival. Farrad Ali hide caption

toggle caption
Farrad Ali

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

Wayne Shorter: Artist In Residence At The Detroit Jazz Festival

WBGO

This episode focuses on a highlight of the saxophonist's banner year: the time he spent as artist in residence at the Detroit Jazz Festival.

Wayne Shorter: Artist In Residence At The Detroit Jazz Festival

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/574155119/574335785" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
'Jazz Night In America' Remembers Artists We Lost In 2017

This year, we bade farewell to avant-garde pioneer Muhal Richard Abrams. Michael Hoefner/Wikipedia hide caption

toggle caption
Michael Hoefner/Wikipedia

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

'Jazz Night In America' Remembers Artists We Lost In 2017

WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center

Friends of our program honor a handful of departed artists, celebrating their lives in an episode filled with insight, humor and plenty of music.

'Jazz Night In America' Remembers Artists We Lost In 2017

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/572421441/572633580" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org