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While Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes and Max Roach and others all lent a hand in creating and sustaining the art of four-limb jazz independence on the drum kit, the traditional role of each limb remained fairly intact in each of their (greatly varied) playing styles. Without sacrificing historical respect for these drumming pioneers, Elvin Jones rather efficiently shattered those traditional roles. Following Jones's arrival on the scene, all four limbs were free to play on any beat, at any volume, in any order, at any time. Other jazz musicians soon discovered that interacting with Elvin Jones revealed a new realm of improvisatory possibilities.

Muhal Richard Abrams developed his determination to follow his own muse on the South Side of Chicago during the years after World War Two, when African-Americans were migrating en masse from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to Chicago for factory, railroad and stockyard jobs. Chicago was a center of comparative freedom, both social and musical. “You were expected to do whatever it is that you felt you wanted to do, and nobody said a word . . . Chicago was full of musicians who distinguished themselves as individuals.”

A point of aesthetic intersection for Abrams and Moran is their abiding love for the blues and for pre-bebop piano styles. Another is their commitment to experimentalism as a means of navigating the world. “As a teenager or in my early 20s, I didn’t believe it when I heard musicians talk about telling a story,” Moran told Down Beat. “I also wonder what chords and what sounds make me real. Does my band also make me real? Which songs do we play that really tell our narrative? Looking at songs, even song titles or song composers, expresses where I am, or who I am. . . . There’s a great interview with Monk and Hall Overton from the New School, where Monk says, ‘I want to make music that is good for me to play, and I want my audience to enjoy it, and I don’t want any criticism from the other musicians.’ That sets up this place where we sit in current jazz piano, a place where you are able to tell these narratives, which are your personal ones. . . . It’s trying to find that place where you can tell your story freely.” On this latest installment of the Dozens, Moran celebrates an pioneering artist who has traveled this same path.

"Summertime" is a rarity among jazz standards in that it was taken directly from an opera and suffered no changes in melody and form in moving from the classical idiom to the popular. Of course, the major reason for this easy transition is that "Summertime" was written by George Gershwin, whose works are ever popular among jazz players. More than 1,500 jazz versions of "Summertime" have been recorded over the years, with everyone from Sidney Bechet to Kenny G testing their ingenuity against the changes of this popular standard. Jazz.com’s Thomas Cunniffe surveys this star-studded landscape, and highlights twelve essential versions.

In the weeks that have passed since the tragic death of Esbjörn Svensson, there has been an outpouring of love and respect in cyberspace. People have left countless comments on Myspace and the ACT Music + Vision website. Still, few fans have taken the full measure of Svensson’s commitment to music and his integrity and modesty. During the past few years, Svensson’s career was taking off, and along with his cohorts—bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Öström—he was changing the face of jazz. Reversing the stigma that a piano trio is where clichés reign supreme, e.s.t. established themselves on the jazz map, and after years of struggling, they became a presence large enough to be the first foreign band on the cover of Down Beat. At the same time, the trio learned to enhance their instrumental conception by using detailed orchestration, and relying on the expertise of sound engineer Åke Linton, who was a permanent fixture in their performances. Soon enough, the Esbjörn Svensson Trio took their self-styled identity and ran with it. They never looked back.

Fifty years ago this week, Miles Davis entered the studio to begin work on his classic Porgy & Bess project. Fronting a large ensemble under the direction of Gil Evans, Davis created the definitive jazz interpretation of the Gerswhin magnum opus. Here Miles revealed his sensitive mastery of the flugelhorn, and Evans continued to expand the innovative palette of orchestral colors he had already demonstrated in previous collaborations with Davis. In honor of this golden anniversary, editor Alan Kurtz and a crack team of critics -- Scott Albin, Eric Novod and Jeff Sultanof -- provide a track-by-track assessment of this seminal album and classic of the "cool jazz" genre.

Gary McFarland's life could be the subject of a movie screenplay. Until he was in his mid-20s, McFarland (1933-1971) was a musical illiterate. By the age of 27, after two summers at the Lenox School of Jazz and a short stay at the Berklee, he had moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. In the next decade, he became one of the most acclaimed and recorded composer-arrangers in jazz; writer Gene Lees called him an "adult prodigy."

Following his tragic death in 1971, McFarland was a virtually forgotten figure. But in recent years, that situation has improved. A number of McFarland's records have been reissued on CD, albeit often only as imports. A comprehensive website is now devoted to his work. And filmmaker Kristian St. Clair has released the documentary This Is Gary McFarland., a In this latest installment of The Dozens, Bill Kirchner looks back at 12 key tracks by this remarkable artist.

More than seventy years after vibraphonist Lionel Hampton was invited to join the Benny Goodman band, the vibes still remain a mystery to most folks outside the world of jazz. "People come up to you on a gig," Jay Hoggard relates. "'Yeah, I like the way you play that thing – you hit that thing real well,' or they ask you what instrument do you play and you say, 'Well, I play the vibraphone' and it's like 'What is that?'"

But jazz fans know the magic of the vibes. From the Benny Goodman Quartet to the Modern Jazz Quartet to recent combos led by Dave Holland and Stefon Harris, the vibraphone has been at the heart of many of the most beloved groups in the history of the music. Scott Albin looks back at th rich heritage of the vibes and picks twelve essential performances.

As jazz slowly but surely enters the academic realm, questions arise regarding a suitable narrative for its history. How do we tell the story of a complex, nuanced genre that is not even a century old and has rapidly shifted and developed? There's certainly no easy answer, but it seems increasingly evident that the tale most often told – of "heroic figures" who led bands or played the most solos – is becoming progressively insufficient. After all, jazz is nothing if not interactive and improvisatory, and a leader or soloist can't go it alone (not all the time, anyway). While recounting jazz history through the prism of rhythm sections can be as problematic as the leaders/soloists perspective, conscientiously merging the two vantages may move us a little closer to the million-dollar vision.

As the “founder, artistic director, and Composer-In-Residence” of the non-profit Jazz Composers Collective (1992-2005), Allison has played a vital role in developing the lively NYC jazz scene of the past 15+ years. Beside contributing multiple compositions to the Collective himself, Allison brought artists such as Michael Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Ted Nash, Ron Horton, Kevin Hays, Ethan Iverson, and Vijay Iyer and on board as either Composers-In-Residence or Guest Composers – all of whom are still active in the NYC jazz scene today. A complete list of musicians, along with a detailed description of the work of the Collective can be found here.

Woody Allen made a rare jazz festival appearance at the 2008 Montreal Jazz Festival. Fans of traditional jazz, of course, are familiar with his long-standing New York performances on clarinet in a New Orleans-inspired ensemble. Currently his work with the Eddy Davis band is a regular fixture on Monday nights at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel, where the comedian comes and goes, talking perhaps of Lorenzo Tio. But you don’t need to show up at one of Allen’s gigs to appreciate his love of jazz. For decades, this filmmaker has added generous doses of jazz, including many classic performances from the music’s past, to his motion pictures. Jazz.com’s Alan Kurtz looks back at some jazz highlights from Allen’s movies in this latest installment of the Dozens.

In the latest edition of Guest Artist Dozens, edited by Ted Panken, Joe Lovano selects and reviews a Baker's Dozen of John Coltrane tracks. Lovano's selections span Coltrane’s career, from his sideman work with Miles Davis (“Ah-Leu-Cha”) up to some of his final recordings (“Venus” and “Expression”).

It was fitting that Lovano would contribute this article during a week’s residence at Birdland by Saxophone Summit, a collective group comprising Lovano, fellow saxophonists Dave Liebman and Ravi Coltrane, pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Billy Hart. This ensemble explores both the compositions of John Coltrane and Coltrane-inspired originals by the band, channeling the questing spirit that exemplified the work of this seminal artist.

As jazz history was being constructed within the borders of the United States, it was also acquiring other histories in other part of the world, most notably Europe. Here individual nation states embraced jazz either as an engagement with modernity or, as in the case of satellite countries of the former Soviet Union, as a symbol of freedom. Yet for many fans, European jazz has tended to be regarded not for what it is, but for what it is not – American jazz.