@Percy Agnew

Everyone gets the concept of pairing wine with food, but what about pairing it with music? Barbecues, backyard hangs, informal get-togethers: Here’s a playlist inspired by 1976, a moment when Napa Valley wineries like Chateau Montelena and Stag’s Leap helped bring big, new-world wines into serious conversation, and hybrid artists from George Benson and Weather Report to Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan blended jazz tradition with new pop forms. Because even greats evolve. Our editors regularly update this playlist to highlight celebrated vintages in jazz and wine history, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Relax and reflect with selections from the quieter side of jazz. Our editors regularly update this playlist—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

The marriage of jazz and Indian music makes plenty of sense: Both traditions rely heavily upon improvisation. Modal jazz of the ‘50s featured extended solos in a setting akin to the melodic modes of Indian classical music. While some of the earliest blends of the two traditions in the ‘60s came from jazz musicians—such as John Coltrane—who either applied ornamental qualities from the subcontinent’s music or embraced its spiritual qualities. Over time parallel studies yielded more substantive fusions. Practitioners like John McLaughlin began to incorporate instruments from India or to use traditional ragas as compositional forms, forging a vessel for beguiling two-way exchanges.

Forgive our mellowness, but some days there’s nothing like a quiet morning with a good soundtrack and a hot cup of coffee or tea to make you feel like the world is a pretty nice place after all. In that spirit, here’s a jazz playlist that leans on the softer side of things: warm ripples of sound, half-thoughts coming into focus, possibility unfolding like an open road. Our editors update picks here now and then, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

When not creating a peerless body of work as a leader, saxophonist Wayne Shorter has often played with others, but it would be a mistake to simply call him a sideman. His mercurial genius as an improviser and a composer of standards like “Footprints” and “E.S.P.” was crucial to the identity of classic bands led by Miles Davis and Art Blakey. And his smoldering presence led jazz-influenced pop artists Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan to enlist his talents.

The commingling of jazz and rock dates back to the late '60s, when artists like Miles Davis and Frank Zappa started feeling around for new ways to stretch out. That spectral sound that we've come to know as “fusion” has only widened over the ensuing decades, with all kinds of influences—funk, soul, blues—being adventurously mapped onto jazz's template. What follows is a snapshot of today's most invigorating jazz-centric hybrids, for listeners seeking progressive, improvisatory thrills. Our editors regularly update this playlist. If you like a song, add it to your library.

From pop and rock to classical and folk, jazz has left its mark on almost every musical genre. But equally, it has absorbed music from all corners of the globe, whether Argentinian tangos or Spanish flamenco, Indian modes or African rhythms and melodies. Here you’ll encounter these dizzying and innovative fusions from international jazz artists emerging, established, and legendary. This playlist is updated weekly, so if you hear something you love, add it to your library.

There's often a spiritual, ecstatic quality to jazz from South Africa, where elements of local tradition and languages as well as modern R&B and other eclectic strains all blend together. Born in struggle, the music reflects its still-new, post-apartheid reality, brimming with promise and conviction. Our editors regularly update this playlist. If you like a song, add it to your library.

Like the Miles Davis album from which it takes its name, this playlist doesn’t capture a specific sound so much as a set of possibilities, a juncture at which a variety of black American styles—hip-hop, jazz, funk, soul—can conjugate. Progressive but tied to tradition; felt but also considered; mellow but brimming with life: Here’s the sound of bright contemporary minds pointing the way forward. Our editors update these tracks regularly, so if you like something, add it to your library.

After tenures with Donald Byrd and Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet, Herbie Hancock became one of the de facto keyboardists for the Blue Note label, recording dozens of sessions with such legendary players as Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Grant Green. Hancock's versatility is underscored in these tracks, culled from the last half-century, which cover a diverse array of styles and arrangements.