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In the long lineage of tenor sax legends, Joe Henderson holds a special place in the hearts of jazz fans. So many tenor saxophonists who came of age in the 1960s adapted heavily from both Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, but none exceeded the success that Joe Henderson had in forging his own inimitable style from two such familiar influences. Henderson's "inside-outside" approach was nuanced enough to bring vitality to tender ballads and abrasive enough to set more dynamic songs afire. In an age in which traditionalist and progressive camps in jazz rarely saw eye-to-eye, Joe Henderson had a fervent following that straddled the whole spectrum.

Few jazz pianists have demonstrated a more expansive and awe-inspiring vision of the improvisational arts than Lennie Tristano (1919-1978). Yet one would hardly know that from reading most what has been written about Tristano. He is usually dealt with as some sort of sociological or anthropological phenomenon—the portrait of a jazz artist as a cult figure. Yet the majesty of the man resides in his music.

In short, this artist must be heard to be appreciated. His recordings span swing and bop stylings, hot and cool, the highly structured and adventurously free. In this installment of The Dozens, Ted Gioia surveys the oeuvre of this provocative pianist and highlights twelve essential tracks.

It’s evening in Washington, D.C., and the year is 1938. Pianist Jelly Roll Morton, who had once known far better times, tuned in his radio to Robert Ripley’s popular broadcast, “Believe It Or Not.” Ripley’s guest was W.C. Handy, the man who composed or set down some of the most popular blues tunes of all—notably the “St. Louis Blues,” “Memphis,” and “Beale Street Blues.” When Handy was introduced as the originator of jazz and the blues, Morton went uncorked and fired off a 4000-word screed to the Baltimore Afro-American and Downbeat magazine. “W.C. Handy is a liar,” was the headline of the Baltimore paper. He went on: “It is evidently known, beyond contradiction that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.”

Did Jelly Roll Morton invent jazz? It’s hard to imagine any single individual filling those large shoes. But few musicians from early jazz did more than Morton in codifying the music and leaving behind a lasting body of work. Rob Bamberger looks at the career of this fascinating figure and selects twelve essential tracks.

Not everybody gets to be Hendrix or Clapton. But for every guitar hero who struts the big stage there are countless might-have-been stars working on the fringes of the music world. And as dedicated music fans know, the most exciting recordings are frequently found off the beaten track. In this installment of The Dozens, Ted Gioia highlights twelve guitarists whose careers exist on the fringes of the music industry. The range of styles covered here is wide. The selections move from world music to jazz, understated acoustic to sizzling electric, avant garde to traditional approaches. None of figures listed below are superstars, although some have enjoyed brushes with fame, and many have devoted cult followings. They are not household names—unless you live in a very hip household. But each one brings something distinctive and original to their music, and all our deserving of your attention and a place in your CD rack or iPod.

Singer Bob Dorough, who turns 85 on December 12, 2008, has had two fan bases during his career, with some crossover. First he enjoys a cult following (definition: small, loyal and enthusiastic) among devotees who adore him as an eccentric jazz singer and pianist; second, he has a much larger audience among those who loved the many songs he created and sang for ABC-TV's Schoolhouse Rock. On a gig, Dorough is just as likely to get requests for "Three is a Magic Number" or "Conjunction Junction" as he is for "Baltimore Oriole" or "I'm Hip." His discography even includes a noir Christmas track alongside Miles Davis, which deserves a spot on anyone's short list of jazz oddities. Scott Albin canvasses twelve of Dorough's best tracks in a survey that will be a happy reminder for those already in the know, and a beginner's guide for the uninitiated and curious.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the “big band is dead." It has just gone underground, maybe as part of the jazz witness protection program, and is waiting for you to rediscover its virtues.

Some of the more interesting musical minds to emerge over the last 35+ years have come out of the big band world, and yet many still receive comparatively little recognition for their effort. Is this perhaps due to their inclusion in a genre that is sometimes unfortunately labeled as a "has-been?" Is it because it's financially unfeasible to assemble a big band and keep it afloat, making it easy to brush past the relatively small number of longstanding, high-ranking modern big bands that have actually made it happen?

In jazz.com’s on-going series of guest artist Dozens, edited by Ted Panken, leading jazz artists of the current day take us on a guided tour of works by major figures from the past. In the current installment, pianist Vijay Iyer conducts a survey of the music of Andrew Hill (1931-2007).

Hill’s recording career began in the mid-1950s, but took on greater focus in the 1960s when he began his relationship with the Blue Note label. Hill recorded extensively for Blue Note, both as a leader and sideman, although he never had the large crossover sales that label-mates such as Lee Morgan or Herbie Hancock enjoyed. As a result, many of his sessions remained unreleased at the time. Yet Hill’s influence seemed to expand with the passing decades, and his attempt to navigate a middle course between the streams of avant garde and hard bop proved to be prescient, charting a path that many leading figures from later years would follow.

Okay, there have been Sonnys in sports (Jurgensen, Liston, heck even Sixkiller), and Sonnys in politics (Congressman Bono, Governor Perdue). But no walk of life has produced more illustrious Sonnys than jazz—where fans always seem to be gravitating to the Sonny side of the street. And despite the diminutive connotations of the name, these artists are some of the biggest personalities in the art form. A group of dedicated musicians, they have experienced careers of varying degrees of success; some met tragic, premature ends while others still perform to large audiences today. They represent a microcosm of life in general, but the jazz fan has a special affinity for these individual creative artists.

In this latest installment of the Dozens, Scott Albin looks at twelve of most illustrious Sonnys in jazz. Check out his selections by clicking on the arrow below.

In the latest edition of Guest Artist Dozens, edited by Ted Panken, Bobby Broom selects and reviews twelve essential tracks by newly named NEA Jazz Master George Benson.

Benson is best known among the general public for his soulful vocals and big-selling hits such as “This Masquerade,” “Give Me the Night,” and “On Broadway.” But jazz fans were hip to the brilliance of this artist long before he climbed to the top of the charts, and it was his guitar work rather than his singing that captivated them. With his mastery of the fretboard, improvisational brilliance, and ability to infuse jazz with elements drawn from other styles of contemporary music, Benson would be a seminal figure even without all those gold records on his mantelpiece.

Mildred Bailey (1907-1951) was one of the first female singers to make a name for herself with a major band and one of the first white singers to incorporate the innovations of black jazz and blues. She loved the music of Bessie Smith, and she was an early fan and advocate of Louis Armstrong. Bailey is known for her small, agile voice and her ability to swing with the best, including Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Coleman Hawkins, and perhaps most notably, the legendary xylophone player, Red Norvo, whom she married in 1933. Together, Bailey and Norvo captivated audiences as “Mr. and Mrs. Swing.” Bailey is a major artist and innovator whose influence extends to singers as diverse as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Rosemary Clooney.

Bill Evans’s career as a jazz pianist started with little fanfare. His first leader date, New Jazz Conceptions from 1956, only sold 800 copies during the first year after its release. Yet in time, Evans would become one of the most popular jazz artists of his generation. He first came to the attention of many fans through his sideman work with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue, and alongside other leading jazz artists of the era, including Cannonball Adderley, Charles Mingus, Tony Scott and Art Farmer. Yet Evans would come to exert even more influence over the evolution of jazz piano in a series of highly introspective trio recordings. His work with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian was almost telepathic, and later Evans ensembles followed a similar vision of ethereal chamber jazz. Evans’s sense of time and space, his harmonic palette and melodic sensibility, continue to hover over the work of many current-day jazz players. In this installment of the Dozens, Ted Gioia selects 12 essential tracks from this seminal figure.

The jazz trumpet vocabulary was revitalized by trumpeter Woody Shaw in a 1980s on a series of recordings that have stood the test of time. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1944, Shaw first made his name as a sideman with Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and others. He signed with the Columbia label in 1978, and released a series of much heralded LPs that were among the most widely heard and imitated jazz recordings of the era. His untimely death in 1989 cut short a celebrated career, but his distinctive improvisational style still exerts a powerful influence today. Trumpeter Brian Lynch shares his intimate knowledge of Shaw’s oeuvre in this survey of twelve essential tracks. For the full text of this article click on the arrow below.

In honor of Horace Silver’s 80th birthday, jazz.com looks back at some essential performances by this seminal figure. Silver's impact goes beyond craftsmanship. If Tadd Dameron (1917-1965) is the under-acknowledged godfather of hard bop—that music's Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman, and one of Silver's avowed influences—then Silver has been hard bop's Duke Ellington. (His closest competition for that title is probably tenor saxophonist/composer Benny Golson.) The trumpet-and-tenor quintet has been Silver's orchestra, and within its seeming limitations he has created a personal, evolving musical language. Bill Kirchner conducts this survey of historic tracks by this popular and influential artist.

While Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes and Max Roach and others all lent a hand in creating and sustaining the art of four-limb jazz independence on the drum kit, the traditional role of each limb remained fairly intact in each of their (greatly varied) playing styles. Without sacrificing historical respect for these drumming pioneers, Elvin Jones rather efficiently shattered those traditional roles. Following Jones's arrival on the scene, all four limbs were free to play on any beat, at any volume, in any order, at any time. Other jazz musicians soon discovered that interacting with Elvin Jones revealed a new realm of improvisatory possibilities.

Muhal Richard Abrams developed his determination to follow his own muse on the South Side of Chicago during the years after World War Two, when African-Americans were migrating en masse from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to Chicago for factory, railroad and stockyard jobs. Chicago was a center of comparative freedom, both social and musical. “You were expected to do whatever it is that you felt you wanted to do, and nobody said a word . . . Chicago was full of musicians who distinguished themselves as individuals.”

A point of aesthetic intersection for Abrams and Moran is their abiding love for the blues and for pre-bebop piano styles. Another is their commitment to experimentalism as a means of navigating the world. “As a teenager or in my early 20s, I didn’t believe it when I heard musicians talk about telling a story,” Moran told Down Beat. “I also wonder what chords and what sounds make me real. Does my band also make me real? Which songs do we play that really tell our narrative? Looking at songs, even song titles or song composers, expresses where I am, or who I am. . . . There’s a great interview with Monk and Hall Overton from the New School, where Monk says, ‘I want to make music that is good for me to play, and I want my audience to enjoy it, and I don’t want any criticism from the other musicians.’ That sets up this place where we sit in current jazz piano, a place where you are able to tell these narratives, which are your personal ones. . . . It’s trying to find that place where you can tell your story freely.” On this latest installment of the Dozens, Moran celebrates an pioneering artist who has traveled this same path.

"Summertime" is a rarity among jazz standards in that it was taken directly from an opera and suffered no changes in melody and form in moving from the classical idiom to the popular. Of course, the major reason for this easy transition is that "Summertime" was written by George Gershwin, whose works are ever popular among jazz players. More than 1,500 jazz versions of "Summertime" have been recorded over the years, with everyone from Sidney Bechet to Kenny G testing their ingenuity against the changes of this popular standard. Jazz.com’s Thomas Cunniffe surveys this star-studded landscape, and highlights twelve essential versions.

In the weeks that have passed since the tragic death of Esbjörn Svensson, there has been an outpouring of love and respect in cyberspace. People have left countless comments on Myspace and the ACT Music + Vision website. Still, few fans have taken the full measure of Svensson’s commitment to music and his integrity and modesty. During the past few years, Svensson’s career was taking off, and along with his cohorts—bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström—he was changing the face of jazz. Reversing the stigma that a piano trio is where clichés reign supreme, e.s.t. established themselves on the jazz map, and after years of struggling, they became a presence large enough to be the first foreign band on the cover of Down Beat. At the same time, the trio learned to enhance their instrumental conception by using detailed orchestration, and relying on the expertise of sound engineer Åke Linton, who was a permanent fixture in their performances. Soon enough, the Esbjörn Svensson Trio took their self-styled identity and ran with it. They never looked back.

Fifty years ago this week, Miles Davis entered the studio to begin work on his classic Porgy & Bess project. Fronting a large ensemble under the direction of Gil Evans, Davis created the definitive jazz interpretation of the Gerswhin magnum opus. Here Miles revealed his sensitive mastery of the flugelhorn, and Evans continued to expand the innovative palette of orchestral colors he had already demonstrated in previous collaborations with Davis. In honor of this golden anniversary, editor Alan Kurtz and a crack team of critics -- Scott Albin, Eric Novod and Jeff Sultanof -- provide a track-by-track assessment of this seminal album and classic of the "cool jazz" genre.

Gary McFarland's life could be the subject of a movie screenplay. Until he was in his mid-20s, McFarland (1933-1971) was a musical illiterate. By the age of 27, after two summers at the Lenox School of Jazz and a short stay at the Berklee, he had moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. In the next decade, he became one of the most acclaimed and recorded composer-arrangers in jazz; writer Gene Lees called him an "adult prodigy."

Following his tragic death in 1971, McFarland was a virtually forgotten figure. But in recent years, that situation has improved. A number of McFarland's records have been reissued on CD, albeit often only as imports. A comprehensive website is now devoted to his work. And filmmaker Kristian St. Clair has released the documentary This Is Gary McFarland., a In this latest installment of The Dozens, Bill Kirchner looks back at 12 key tracks by this remarkable artist.

More than seventy years after vibraphonist Lionel Hampton was invited to join the Benny Goodman band, the vibes still remain a mystery to most folks outside the world of jazz. "People come up to you on a gig," Jay Hoggard relates. "'Yeah, I like the way you play that thing – you hit that thing real well,' or they ask you what instrument do you play and you say, 'Well, I play the vibraphone' and it's like 'What is that?'"

But jazz fans know the magic of the vibes. From the Benny Goodman Quartet to the Modern Jazz Quartet to recent combos led by Dave Holland and Stefon Harris, the vibraphone has been at the heart of many of the most beloved groups in the history of the music. Scott Albin looks back at th rich heritage of the vibes and picks twelve essential performances.

As jazz slowly but surely enters the academic realm, questions arise regarding a suitable narrative for its history. How do we tell the story of a complex, nuanced genre that is not even a century old and has rapidly shifted and developed? There's certainly no easy answer, but it seems increasingly evident that the tale most often told – of "heroic figures" who led bands or played the most solos – is becoming progressively insufficient. After all, jazz is nothing if not interactive and improvisatory, and a leader or soloist can't go it alone (not all the time, anyway). While recounting jazz history through the prism of rhythm sections can be as problematic as the leaders/soloists perspective, conscientiously merging the two vantages may move us a little closer to the million-dollar vision.

As the “founder, artistic director, and Composer-In-Residence” of the non-profit Jazz Composers Collective (1992-2005), Allison has played a vital role in developing the lively NYC jazz scene of the past 15+ years. Beside contributing multiple compositions to the Collective himself, Allison brought artists such as Michael Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Ted Nash, Ron Horton, Kevin Hays, Ethan Iverson, and Vijay Iyer and on board as either Composers-In-Residence or Guest Composers – all of whom are still active in the NYC jazz scene today. A complete list of musicians, along with a detailed description of the work of the Collective can be found here.