Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz

On the day tenor saxophone legend Sonny Rollins turns eighty-nine, Geoffrey Smith celebrates the man hailed as the greatest living jazz musician with a selection of tracks from Rollins’ own archive of road show performances, including such classics as “Don’t Stop the Carnival”.

Deeply if unconventionally religious, Duke Ellington regarded the three Sacred Music Concerts of his last years as “the most important thing I have ever done.” Geoffrey Smith selects highlights from these passionate, exuberant, personal works combining song, dance and the great Ellington band.

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess has provided jazz musicians with a host of gorgeous melodies.Drawing on interpretations from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald to Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis, Geoffrey Smith presents an all-star omnibus version of the opera.

Beginning in the 1940s, Duke Ellington devoted his main creative energies to composing suites ranging from the Deep South to the Far East, Shakespeare and H.M. the Queen

Doyenne of British jazz singers, Norma Winstone has inspired composers like Kenny Wheeler, excelled at free improvisation and standards, composed lyrics and led her own innovative groups. Geoffrey Smith salutes an artist still in her prime

A mighty swinger, pianist Red Garland (1923-84) was the linchpin of Miles Davis's great 1950s band. Geoffrey Smith picks highlights from his work with Miles, John Coltrane and his own hard-driving combos

A trail-blazing teacher and pianist, Lennie Tristano (1919-78) influenced the likes of Bill Evans and Charles Mingus, while creating coolly radical music of his own. Geoffrey Smith salutes a unique free-jazz pioneer

Trumpeter Clark Terry died in February at the age of ninety-four, renowned for the joyous virtuosity of his playing and his hilarious “mumbling” vocals. Geoffrey Smith recalls a great career with the likes of Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson

To mark the centenary of the birth of Billie Holiday on April 7, Geoffrey Smith concentrates on the passionately personal songs of her later years, before her tragic and untimely death in 1959 at the age of just forty-four

In a class by himself, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson (1937-2001) combined edginess, abstraction and elegance, with the likes of Horace Silver and in classic recordings of his own. Geoffrey Smith salutes a distinctive voice and a great career

What do Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Chick Corea have in common? Drum legend Roy Haynes has played with them all, and is still going strong! Geoffrey Smith surveys the starry career of a master musician who has just celebrated his 90th birthday.

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of Charlie Parker's death in 1955, Geoffrey Smith picks some personal favourites by the alto saxophone master and prime mover of bebop, concentrating on the works of his later years

Hailed as "the President of all the tenors", Lester Young revolutionised saxophone playing with the Count Basie band. Geoffrey Smith picks highlights from his post-Basie career in the 1940s and 50s

How about some Valentine's Day blues? Geoffrey Smith serves up a tasty selection of moods and hues by a pair of classic singers with Kansas City connections: Big Joe Turner (1911-85) and Helen Humes (1909-81)

Godfather of Harlem piano, James P. Johnson (1894-1955) taught Fats Waller, accompanied Bessie Smith and composed both jazz standards and classical works. Geoffrey Smith salutes a keyboard master with a legendary left hand

The legendary free-jazz maverick who turned jazz upside down in the 1950s and 60s, saxophonist Ornette Coleman mixed wailing passion and haunting tunes. Geoffrey Smith salutes a pioneer nearing his 85th birthday

In honour of what would have been Kenny Wheeler's 85th birthday, Geoffrey Smith chooses favourite works by the revered trumpeter-composer who died last October, including excerpts from his portrait of Don Quixote, Windmill Tilter

In the second of two programmes celebrating Count Basie, Geoffrey Smith showcases his "New Testament" band of the 1950s and 60s, which topped the charts with such powerhouse hits as "April in Paris" and "Lil Darlin"

In 1936, The Count Basie Band came sweeping out of the West, to amaze America with great soloists such as Lester Young, and the most swinging rhythm section in jazz. In the first of two programmes, Geoffrey Smith celebrates the Basie effect with that original band, followed next week by the Count's famous crew from the 1950s and 60s

Geoffrey Smith gets into the Christmas spirit with a mixed bag of treats - tracks that missed out first time around from the likes of Art Blakey, Fats Waller and Bunny Berigan, plus a farewell to Kenny Wheeler