@Barbara Crocker

The piano has enjoyed a place of prominence throughout jazz history. Pianists' intrepid shifts and innovations provide a road map of the genre's twists and turns, tracing the early swing of Fats Waller and Count Basie, the bebop of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and the hard bop of Red Garland and Horace Silver. The piano thrives in a solo setting, where musicians can revel in its rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic qualities simultaneously. In big bands, it plays the essential role of directing the flow of traffic while adding mutable textures. And as a microcosm of jazz’s tireless trajectory, it simply can't be beat.

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.

Mal Waldron was the ultimate singer's pianist, providing the kind of delicate, atmospheric backdrop that allowed frontwomen like Lady Day to tear into their songs with stunning emotion (his version of “Willow Weep for Me” with Holiday is a must-hear). But he was also a musician's musician, gleefully poking holes in jazz convention with fellow mavericks such as Eric Dolphy on serpentine tracks like “Fire Waltz.”

In addition to his own celebrated solo career, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard backed a host of legendary jazz artists, from John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock, to his three-year tenure with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers alongside Wayne Shorter and Curtis Fuller. The best of these collaborations, including tracks with Oliver Nelson, Eric Dolphy, and McCoy Tyner, are featured in this wide-ranging set.

While the jazz scenes in Los Angeles and San Francisco were often overlooked compared to their East Coast and Midwest counterparts during the '40s and '50s, the West Coast has long produced a kaleidoscope of fantastic pioneering music. West Coast jazz often refers to the lighter sounds of cool jazz, which thrived in L.A. during the '50s, but the city was also an early base for beboppers like Charlie Parker and Howard McGhee, and it was where Ornette Coleman first formulated his paradigm-shifting free jazz in the late '50s. Big-band leaders Stan Kenton and Shorty Rogers forged a complex sound that moved away from the dance floor, while small-group leaders like Chico Hamilton and Jimmy Giuffre experimented with classical influences. Up in the Bay Area, pianist Dave Brubeck pioneered his metrically complex sound, eventually topping the charts with <I>Time Out</I> in 1959. The region continues to be a jazz hotbed, proven by the epic spirituality of Kamasi Washington or the hip-hop-drenched sounds of Terrace Martin.

Beginning his career at the tender age of 19, trumpet prodigy Lee Morgan became a go-to sideman from moment one. A trusted associate of Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith, Joe Henderson, Grachan Moncur III, and Wayne Shorter, Morgan collaborated with some of the most innovative names in jazz before his life was tragically cut short at age 34.

On paper, the idea of Third Stream is simple: jazz and classical music, mixed together—not in a way meant to supersede jazz or classical but as, in the words of composer Gunther Schuller, “another option amongst many for today’s creative musicians.” Of course, those musicians took a simple concept and used it as a launchpad to create records that are deep, dynamic, and complex, exploring new possibilities for melody and improvisation. Schuller coined the term in 1957, but this playlist starts earlier, beginning the story of Third Stream with the orchestral innovations of hybrid composers like George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. The Modern Jazz Quartet, meanwhile, take center stage, emerging from Dizzy Gillespie’s rhythm section in the early ’50s, using John Lewis’s subtly swinging piano and Milt Jackson’s unpredictable vibraphone to explore new possibilities in fusion, crossing from the conservatory to the nightclub and back again.

One of the founders of Riverside Records, producer Orrin Keepnews worked with some of the greatest names in post-war jazz, recording hundreds of albums over his career. Known for his warm sound and live-in-the-studio style, Keepnews could handle everything from hard bop to free jazz, and this collection features classics he produced for legends like Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, and Wes Montgomery.

In 1956, producer, promoter, and talent manager Norman Granz launched one of jazz’s cornerstone labels, Verve Records—but much led up to its arrival. Firstly, he kicked off his career in earnest by holding the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles in 1944. That event—which featured Nat King Cole, Illinois Jacquet, Les Paul, and others—not only brought jazz from clubs and dance halls to grand concert auditoriums normally reserved for classical music, but it was one of the earliest large-scale concerts to have both a desegregated band and audience—a bold statement at a time of inequality and injustice. A tour series followed (driven by Granz’s ironclad insistence on racial integration at all shows’ venues), and some of its recordings would eventually end up on Granz’s Norgran, Clef, and—eventually—Verve labels, helping to propel the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, and plenty other artists we’ve come to know as jazz legends. While Granz sold Verve to MGM in 1960, his legacy remains one of jazz’s most important and robust. Hear his influence on the music through this set of classic works from a range of artists.

With eclectic taste, this saxophonist rarely wasted a recording opportunity. When playing behind singer/guitarist Tiny Grimes on “Romance Without Finance,” Parker energized the ensemble with mercurial lines. When stretching out in a live setting, he created richly dramatic solos, as on “There's a Small Hotel.” His concept albums Big Band and South of the Border focus on swing-era hits and Latin-jazz grooves.