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The music world is mourning the loss of two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer Cassandra Wilson. Wilson died this morning (September 2) in Jackson, Mississippi. She was 70. Wilson's manager for 20 years, Robert Torre, released this statement to WBGO: "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist.

Forty years ago this month, Paul Simon released Graceland, an album that became one of the defining records of his career, and one of the most celebrated and debated albums of its era. The story famously begins with a cassette of South African township music that Simon couldn't stop listening to.

Pianist Sullivan Fortner first felt music playing organ at age seven in a Baptist Church in New Orleans, where he was born. With a pedigree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Sullivan would work with Stefon Harris, spend considerable time with Roy Hargrove, among countless others, and release a number of recordings under his own name, with Grammy Awards and honors, including the American Piano Awards Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz.

For many years, WBGO has been, and continues to be on the receiving end of extraordinary generosity from two distinct communities of supporters - our members - like you - and a wide variety of local and regional businesses that pay for “underwriting” announcements, which are in effect advertisements that promote goods and services, without including certain types of language ("qualifiers", "calls to action", etc.) in compliance with Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulations.

In 2024, singer-songwriter Nicole Zuraitis took home the Grammy for best vocal jazz album with a record of all original songs, practically unheard of in the jazz world. Now she's back with her most ambitious project yet: the devil i knew, an epic 20-track album presented in five parts. On this episode of Jazz Night in America, Zuraitis walks us through each of the five themes of the album – from being the martyr to looking in the mirror.

There are many parts of New York City where it’s not easy for people to get the mental health care they need. To try to help, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation is working with different religious groups to help those in faith communities recognize signs of mental illness and connect people to the help they need.

When pianist Aaron Diehl took over as artistic director of the 92NY’s Jazz in July series, he inherited one of New York's longest-running jazz traditions. The festival was founded more than forty years ago by the endlessly versatile Dick Hyman, and for nearly two decades it was shaped by pianist Bill Charlap, a master of both the piano and of bringing musicians together in ways audiences might never have imagined. Now it's Diehl's turn.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is one of the brightest stars in the blues universe. He is a soulful singer, an incendiary guitarist, and one of the top songwriters in the genre. The 27-year-old Mississippi native has been given the honor of curating an event at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. He has assembled the lineup and will perform in Kingfish’s Blues Jam on June 18-20 at the Rose Theater.

Tony Bennett's Carnegie Hall debut was a benefit concert for Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1961. But it was his second Carnegie concert, on June 9th 1962, that takes center stage in the legacy of live musical performances. The concert received the full Broadway treatment – it was directed by two celebrated practitioners of stage and screen -  Oscar-nominated Arthur Penn and Tony-nominated Gene Saks.

On the May 23 WBGO Journal... Today, we’ll find out about The Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride 250, a one-thousand mile cycling journey that will end in New York City on May 29th… Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride 250 New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker chats with Newark Today host Michael Hill…. U.S. Senator Cory Booker WBGO’s Jon Kalish introduces us to 104-year-old educational psychologist Edmund Gordon...