StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: NPR's "Jazz Night In America"

As part of StLJN's continuing quest to find more jazz video content (without this feature's usual organizing principle of "previewing upcoming shows in St. Louis"), this week let's take a look at the archives of NPR's "Jazz Night in America." Encompassing both radio broadcasts and online video, the program features a different musician or theme in every episode, and has presented many top and up-and-coming jazz players in recent years.

This post features a half-dozen shows from the "Jazz Night..." vault, starting up above with bassist Linda May Han Oh presenting music from her 2019 album Aventurine. Recorded on July 1, 2019 at NPR's Studio One in Washington, D.C., the video features Oh leading a band including Greg Ward (soprano sax, alto sax), Matt Mitchell (piano), and Ches Smith (drums, vibraphone), augmented by a string quartet including Fung Chern Hwei (violin), Curtis Stewart (violin), Benni von Gutzeit (viola), and Jeremy Harman (cello).

After the jump, you can see pianist Chick Corea and the group he calls the Vigilette Trio, with bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and drummer Marcus Gilmore, in a full set of music recorded in September 2019 at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, MA.

Next, you can see a set by Crosscurrents, a project led by percussionist Zakir Hussain and bassist Dave Holland, recorded in May 2018 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall in New York City. In addition to Hussain and Holland, the featured musicians include vocalist Shankar Mahadevan, saxophonist Chris Potter, guitarist Sanjay Divecha, pianist Louiz Banks, and drummer Gino Banks.

The fourth video features trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and his band, performing music from his album The Centennial Trilogy in October 2017 at the New Orleans Jazz Market in New Orleans, LA. Alon with Scott, the group includes Elena Pinderhughes on flute, her brother Samora Pinderhughes on piano, East St. Louis' own Weedie Braimah on percussion, Kris Funn on bass and Corey Fonville on drums.

That's followed by music from guitarist John Scofield, who was supported by two different bands for a retrospective program called "Quiet And Loud Jazz" that was recorded in May 2017 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room.

The "quiet" band features Scofield with some familiar names - saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Bill Stewart - along with Charles Pillow (flute and horn), Michael Rodriguez (trumpet and flugelhorn), Roger Rosenberg (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet), Jeffrey Scott (French horn) and John Clarke (French horn). The "loud" band features more longtime Scofield collaborators, with keyboardist Jim Beard, bassist Gary Granger, and drummer Dennis Chambers.

The final video is a live performance of saxophonist Kamasi Washington's breakout album The Epic recorded in 2015 at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles, and featuring a cast of dozens of musicians and singers.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...