The pianist and big band leader Toshiko Akiyoshi's musical exploration has spanned two continents and nearly 7 decades. She first discovered jazz as a teenager in post World War II Japan. She then moved to the United States to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. And in the 1970s, along with her husband and collaborator Lew Tabakin, Akiyoshi put together a rehearsal group to play her compositions and in the process helped revitalize the big band sound.

Reed has worked as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and many other jazz greats, and led his own ensembles for nearly two decades. In October of 2011, he sat down with Ken Druker at a Jazz at Lincoln Center Listening Party to discuss the making of his twentieth album.