The Checkout

There’s nothing fake about David Murray.

Whatever else you call Herbie Hancock — jazz-piano paragon, funk-fusion pioneer, Afro-Futurist, humanitarian, sage — you’d have to agree on “moving target.”

Forward motion is the hallmark of his multifaceted career, which has yielded all manner of accolades, including a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys in 2016.

Before he made his leap to stardom as the musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jon Batiste already showed signs that he wanted to change the world for the better.

Batiste, 32, will headline a special concert at the Newport Jazz Festival next Friday, at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He has a new album releasing on the same day: Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard (Verve), which was recorded during an engagement last fall.

Charlie Haden left us five years ago, but his influence and musical contributions are still being felt today.

Last year, Impulse! Records posthumously released a tranquil recording featuring the double bassist in an intimate duo setting with the pianist Brad Mehldau, titled Long Ago and Far Away. They performed together in 2007 at the Enjoy Jazz Festival in Germany.

The Mexico City-born artist Antonio Sanchez has always been outspoken about immigration, a subject he addresses on his new album, Lines In The Sand.

For Sanchez, a five-time Grammy award-winning drummer and composer, activism came naturally; in a sense, he never had a choice in the matter. His calling as a crusader for human rights is indelibly linked to an immigration story in his family, which took place before he was born.

The title of Kendrick Scott’s new Blue Note album, A Wall Becomes A Bridge, suggests a provocative response to current events. But Scott — a generational talent on drums, and an acclaimed composer — says he had something a bit more personal in mind.

In this episode of The Checkout, he speaks candidly about the struggle he experiences when creating original work — in particular, the voices of self-doubt in his head.

What’s the opposite of sampling when constructing a great loop? Kassa Overall has some ideas.

On his recent album Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz, the Seattle-born, New York-based artist often lays the groundwork for a great song by capturing a stellar collaborative improvisation, steering the flow from behind the drum kit. Then he digitally modifies those organic performances to create precise hip-hop compositions that feature his own ethereal lyricism.

Pianist-composer Myra Melford isn’t one for dogmas.

Whether she’s checking out the boogie-woogie of James P. Johnson, the fractured concepts of Cecil Taylor or Gnawa trance ceremonies in Morocco, openness guides the way she navigates life and music.

Reza Khota is a guitarist and composer from South Africa — born in Johannesburg, based in Cape Town — and he joins us for another edition of My Music on The Checkout.

By soaking in the sounds of Igor Stravinsky and John McLaughlin, and combining them with his own rich musical Indian upbringing, Khota gives a voice to the subaltern.

Godwin Louis has been on a quest to trace the roots of jazz.

In the last couple of years, the saxophonist has traveled to over 100 countries in study of the African musical diaspora. His findings inspired Global, a far-sweeping and personal debut album, which could also be seen as a manifesto. Louis believes we are all more connected throughout the Americas than we may realize.

Last summer, the Slovenian-born, Amsterdam-based pianist and composer Kaja Draksler was bestowed the Paul Acket Award at The North Sea Jazz Festival — one of the highest honors given to a contemporary jazz artist deserving of wider recognition.

On this edition of The Checkout, Draksler shares new music from her octet of forward-thinking musicians trained in Baroque, new classical, and European free-jazz traditions.

Andrew Bird is mostly known for his tightly crafted and intricately layered pop songs. But this violinist also thrives in extremely loose and often chaotic environments — settings that favor unpredictability and ample space for improvisation — as we learn on this episode of The Checkout.

Mark Guiliana’s Beat Music grabs a lot of attention for its innovative use of synths and sampling, along with its next-level rhythmic designs. But Guiliana, a groundbreaking drummer, drum programmer and composer, frames the whole project in terms of human connection.

Kurt Rosenwinkel might be the preeminent jazz guitarist of his generation. He’s also an artist who has taken some unexpected turns in an already fascinating career. Once a stalwart on New York’s jazz scene, he left to pursue musical opportunities in Europe. Then he made a new creative shift, pointing his laser-like focus to another realm of possibility: the music of Brazil.

Dan Tepfer is a jazz pianist whose newest project, Natural Machines, brings virtual reality and algorithmic learning into the realm of the concert hall. He appears next Tuesday at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, where his audience will join him in an immersive audiovisual saga.

Moonchild consists of three self-professed "jazz school nerds" from Los Angeles, but their music is where silky-smooth R&B meets engrossing dream pop. 

They met while playing together on tour in a horn section. Then, one luminous night, they were stargazing on a friend’s lawn and decided to form their own trio, which required each member to become a multi-instrumentalist.

What exactly is HighBreedMusic?  Is it a Brooklyn recording studio? A digital music channel? An artist commune? For soul-pop artist Kimbra, tribal hip-hopper Farrah Boulé, and Fender Rhodes aficionado Marc Cary, it’s all of the above. This artist-friendly media platform is a safe place where musicians can find their zone, workshop ideas, and display their musicianship to the world.

The GroundUP Music Festival, which just wrapped its fourth edition in Miami, aims to dissolve the barrier between musician and fan.

With a scarcity of VIP badges, famous artists mingling with festival goers, and jaw-dropping curation of unfamiliar international talent, this annual musical gathering cultivates an ethos of inclusivity.

Multi-instrumentalist Joey Dosik, a 33-year old singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, crafts original soul music that draws from the pantheon: Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder. On this edition of The Checkout, we'll get inside some of his sports-themed songs and walk through his autobiographical, L.A.-centered jazz playlist.

As we reflect on our eighth season featuring distinguished alumni from Berklee College Music, one theme becomes immediately apparent: jazz is flourishing internationally, especially among younger artists.

Butcher Brown — a group of five sophisticated musicians from Richmond, Va. — upholds a self-professed blue-collar approach to music. Stylistically speaking, that music falls somewhere on the spectrum between jazz, rock and funk.

The meteoric rise of James Francies is no surprise to anyone embedded in New York’s thriving jazz scene. 

Besides celebrating his auspicious debut, Flight, on Blue Note Records, this multi-pronged pianist keeps an ambitious touring schedule with guitarist Pat Metheny and others. On this edition of My Music, Francies — a Houston native at ease in many settings, from jazz to electronic music to hip-hop — tells his story. 

Mark de Clive-Lowe, the Los Angeles-based live-electronics pioneer, is half-New Zealander and half-Japanese. He has lately turned his focus to his Japanese heritage — on a new album and on this episode of The Checkout, from the Berklee College of Music.

Last fall, The Checkout presented Thiefs in concert at Nublu in the East Village. The French-American jazz ensemble with a hip-hop edge takes on some of the concerning issues of today — specifically the rise of racism in Western society. Watch the band perform four thought-provoking compositions, including two song premieres, which are coming to their forthcoming album.

It makes sense that Nellie McKay would find a close kinship with the late NEA Jazz Master Bob Dorough. Despite being separated by nearly 60 years in age, both artists found a niche for their quirky and original songs. The duo made one memorable recording together and also toured the world.

On this edition of The Checkout, Nellie McKay pays tribute to her favorite hipster sidekick, who passed away last April. 

There are many theories as to why jazz is cool again.

Perhaps we’re not giving enough credit to Brainfeeder, the genre-agnostic indie label founded by composer-producer Flying Lotus. Ten years have passed, and one thing is clear: the L.A. based company has been steadily boosting jazz’s prospects and giving the music a healthy makeover. Today we listen back to some of its early recordings, and shine a light on two of its rising stars, Brandon Coleman and Jameszoo.

Anniversaries can be a time for reflection, and taking stock of where we’ve been. So in celebration of WBGO's 40th anniversary, this episode of The Checkout dips into the archives, recalling the era when it was hosted and produced by its founder, Josh Jackson.