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Long before Louis Armstrong came along, the trumpet and New Orleans were intertwined. For local jazz legend Nicholas Payton, the instrument represents the essence of the Crescent City.

Pick a Bigger Weapon is the new CD from the San Francisco Bay Area progressive rap group The Coup. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine offers a review of the album, which mixes nostalgic beats and rhythms from the 1970s with contemporary political messages.

Following jazz great Ray Brown and funk's Bootsy Collins, Christian McBride is building on his predecessors' bass work. He McBride finds plenty of room to explore "the groove underneath — the bottom."

Commentator Nat Hentoff looks back at Billie Holiday's 1957 performance of "Fine and Mellow."

Jesse Harris never imagined his song "Don't Know Why", the inescapable hit from Norah Jones, would bring them as much success as it did. On Morning Edition, the songwriter tells NPR's Lynn Neary he felt "a bit guilty" beating Bruce Springsteen for the Song of the Year Grammy. Hear samples from Harris' new CD and his own version of Jones' big hit.

No one in jazz was as far out and far in as tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler. Far out in terms of how he improvised. Far in, in terms of the songs he wrote to improvise on.

One of the great cornet players from the early jazz era was also the late husband of host Marian McPartland. Piano Jazz celebrates the legend's centennial with a special concert from the Danny Kaye Playhouse at the 2007 JVC Jazz Festival.

Throughout his 60-year career, Max Roach redefined jazz drumming by dividing rhythms in new ways and creating a wide palette of colors. Always the innovator, he extended possibilities for drummers, and helped develop modern jazz.

Former graphic designers Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay met by chance and discovered a shared love of dance music. Together, they put down their design tools, picked up skills at remixing and audio editing, and created their own sound.

Musician, singer-songwriter and Internet sensation, Jonathan Coulton used to write software. Now, he's helping rewrite the lyrics to Justin Bieber songs as Ask Me Another's house musician. Listen to all of his live songs from the show's first season.