The urge to build a community of sound, first found on the streets of Philly playing with The Roots, still drives bandleader Joshua Abrams. Since Time is Gravity deepens the jazz band's own roots.
On their debut album, the improvisational supergroup — singer Arooj Aftab, pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismaily — try to answer a musical riddle: What does listening sound like?
The Queen's Cartoonists is a jazz band with elements of classical music, comedy and clowning that performs music live to animation, both old and contemporary.
Raised in lily-white Cape Cod, Mass. while one of the few persons of color around, Esperanza found their voice the old-fashioned way: by searching for it.
Shorter's biographer, Michelle Mercer, recalls the many "isms" and lessons she learned from her time working with the legendary composer and saxophonist on his biography, Footprints.
Sánchez observes the world with a drummer's sensibilities. Here, he and his pals in Bad Hombre explore the rhythm of language in a set of tracks from Sánchez's latest album.
Artists in New Orleans and Cuba are exploring their shared heritage and similar sounds, and bringing high school musicians from both places together in a funky cultural exchange.
Multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has explored mass incarceration for the last eight years. With this sizeable grant, he hopes to sustain "The Healing Project" for decades to come.
NPR's Leila Fadel talks to pianist Lara Downes about her interview series Amplify, which examines how Black artists today might find themselves in a new cultural renaissance.
Watch Lara Downes' conversation with the 23-year-old, Grammy-nominated sensation about balancing the demands of a surging career and the women artists who paved the way.