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Mary Lou Williams taught herself how to play the piano and performed in public by the time she was six. She composed for the New York Philharmonic, arranged for Duke Ellington, and modernized her style as one of the few "stride" pianists. 1927-1940 tracks this boogie woogie master's musical development as a young woman.

In 1960, "the first lady of song," Ella Fitzgerald, recorded the album that Murray Horwitz calls "his favorite Ella Fitzgerald performance of all time." Wishes You a Swinging Christmas includes classic holiday pieces by Irving Berlin and Mitchell Parish.

Proficient on both alto and tenor saxophone, James Moody was also a brilliant jazz flutist. He toured Europe in the 1940s with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Max Roach. This album is known for its popular title track, which is a version of "I'm in the mood for love."

Dizzy Gillespie once said that he heard Roy Eldridge playing trumpet and uttered, "That's the job I want." Later, the two musicians were bitter rivals, but eventually agreed to produce a record. The result was 1954's Roy and Diz, a classic repertoire of dueling trumpets.

Alan Cheuse reviews A Long Way Down, by London writer Nick Hornby, about a unlikely quartet of would-be suicides who find each other on a London rooftop on New Year's Eve.

After three decades of performing his post-Beatles pop, Paul McCartney releases a new live recording filled with Beatles tunes. In an interview with NPR's Renee Montagne, McCartney discusses the emotions of performing songs dedicated to George Harrison and John Lennon.

Trumpeter Enrico Rava, one of the first Italian musicians to have worked and recorded in America in the 1960s, has a sound that blends an Italian flow and colors with the configuration of jazz. Hear him at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

The Israeli-born jazz clarinetist brings new life to a Flying Lotus jam. The latter's bleeps and synths are translated to acoustic instruments in a way that brings out the warmth in both environments.

The guitarist's custom seven-string axe lets him create a deeply funky bass line and a Hendrix-like melody — at the same time.

An Ontario orchestra shines in recent music by Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood and Richard Reed Parry.