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Art Pepper was a self-taught jazz legend. He played with Miles Davis and was hailed as one of the greatest alto players to follow in the footsteps of Charlie Parker. He also spent ten years in prison on narcotics charges. Now his widow is turning his life story into a series of short films she's posting on YouTube.

The cliché about a catchy song: "It's got a good beat, you can dance to it." But things get more complicated when the beat is all there is to it. Two recent albums put the percussion front and center: Batterie, from Loop 2.4.3, and Global Drum Project, with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and tabla master Zakir Hussain.

To many, autumn is the most pleasant season in which to visit New York: The sight of leaves turning colors and falling through Central Park is breathtaking. If you're daydreaming about New York, you'll need a soundtrack, courtesy of WDUQ.

In the last 30 years of jazz, bassist Reid has been a major-league support player with saxophonist Dexter Gordon, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and trombonist JJ Johnson. These days, he works as a composer and bandleader. Hear a full concert recorded by JazzSet.

Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters after the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in 1994. Foo Fighters' latest, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, includes a song Grohl wrote for two miners who, trapped in an Australia mine collapse, asked rescuers to send down an iPod loaded with Foo Fighters songs.

Fun-loving, strong-willed bassist Christian McBride can play anything he wants, and he likes to "mess with the jazz fans." McBride performs with his band at the Kennedy Center in concert recorded by JazzSet.

Whenever he took the stage, audiences were guaranteed a musical spectacle. Half mystic, half visionary, the pianist and bandleader charted a relentlessly adventurous course through the jazz tradition.

From the 2006 North Sea Jazz Festival, saxophonist Benny Golson leads an all-star jam in honor of trumpet legend Clifford Brown. Keyboard synthesist Joe Zawinul, performing with the WDR Big Band, revisits the pioneering 1970s fusion collective Weather Report. Listen to both concerts recorded by JazzSet.

The 50th annual festival, held in September 2007 on the jam-packed Fairgrounds at Monterey, had the excitement of a world-class event and the familiarity of a class reunion. Hear Dave Brubeck and his quartet in a concert performed for the world-famous jazz festival.

Over a 60-year career, Zawinul embraced many types of jazz, but came to define the style known as jazz-fusion with his influential band Weather Report, and its 1977 hit "Birdland." Zawinul died of cancer early Tuesday.