Being on stage can be stressful. Even more so when singing for a live audience and you forget the words to the song. When you have the improvisation skills of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, though, you can turn lemons into lemonade.

His playing influenced Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and no – we’re not talking about a horn player. We’re talking about pianist Ahmad Jamal. Paige Hansen has more for our series during Jazz Appreciation Month.

The important connection between musicians onstage and a crowded jazz club has been missing for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many fans have been turning to live recordings that captured moments of magic, when the music onstage was matched by the energy in the crowd.

Nationwide recognition for jazz artists is a rare thing. The National Endowment for the Arts stepped up its mandate in 1982 to include jazz as an art form and celebrate those who advance it. Robin Lloyd introduces the 2021 NEA Jazz Masters for Jazz Appreciation Month.

Bassist Jaco Pastorius was a musical innovator, a celebrated master and an audacious free spirit, who proved an inspiring—and challenging—force to all who played music with him. KNKX’s Michael Stein tells us more.

Historically speaking, jazz and blues met at the piano. For Jazz Appreciation Month, KNKX Music Director Carol Handley traces the development of the irresistible style called "stride" from its beginnings to the present day.

During the 1940s Swing Era, certain big bands began to popularize a saxophone style that would become known as the "Texas Tenor" sound. Nick Morrison’s going to take us back to the beginning of that sound and follow its evolution from the big-band era to 1960s soul music.

Jazz Appreciation Month brings recognition to the art form and to the artists who produce it. But did you know there are also awards for the behind-the-scenes supporters of jazz? Robin Lloyd has the scoop from jazz journalist Paul De Barros.

When you hear Bill Charlap on piano, you have the sense of someone lost – so lost in the music we may never be able to exist on that mountain with him. Paige Hansen has more on his exquisite playing in our series for Jazz Appreciation Month.

Jazz is a music based on improvisation, and evolution. Moving through Dixieland, swing, bebop, free jazz, fusion and beyond can make describing what jazz is a difficult proposition. KNKX jazz host Abe Beeson spoke to three generations of musicians to find a definition.