Esperanza Spalding

WBGO’s Lezlie Harrison speaks with pianist Fred Hersch and vocalist esperanza spalding about their collaboration on the album Alive at the Village Vanguard.

A lot of great music is ahead this weekend at the Newport Jazz Festival, and WBGO can help get you there. Meanwhile, here are five acts to get excited about.

'Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival,' due out on Candid on Sept. 9, captures a climactic set from 2017, featuring Wayne Shorter with Terri Lyne Carrington, esperanza spalding and Leo Genovese.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Wayne Shorter and Terri Lyne Carrington are among the first artists to benefit from Creative Inflections, a new funding initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

WBGO's Nate Chinen reflects on the year in jazz.

Both Terence Blanchard and Wayne Shorter realized long-held dreams: they both premiered operas. But more than that, they crumbled walls that have long separated musical genres and communities.

The pair took a close look at the subtexts of Euripides' sad, epic tale of Iphigenia — agency, testosterone, violence, faith — and, through a suite of new music, hold them up to the light.

"Formwela 10" is one of Spalding's more enchanting spells: a shape-shifting chamber invention that ponders the question of what we ask of one another in the course of romantic exchange.

This week's freshest tracks include the latest from Nate Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Joel Frahm, Lauren Henderson and Dave Rempis.

'Iphigenia,' a mythical work-in-progress for several years, pairs music by Wayne Shorter with a libretto by Esperanza Spalding.