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To celebrate Ornette Coleman's 80th birthday this month, the Jazz Library Podcast surveys the music of a man who - in 1959 - declared his sound to be 'Shape Of Jazz To Come'. Alyn Shipton is joined by Scottish saxophonist Paul Towndrow to select the key recordings by Coleman, the saxophonist who was central to the development of free jazz in the 1960s and who continues to explore new ground with his current quartet.

Jazz Library pays tribute to the late Ed Thigpen. A second generation jazz drummer, Thigpen's father belonged to Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy, a leading "Territory" band of the 1930s. When he came to New York in the 1950s, Thigpen junior immediately became a central figure on the national jazz scene, working with Dinah Washington and then Ella Fitzgerald In this week's podcast, he tells Alyn Shipton about working with in Oscar Peterson's trio for six years from 1959 and how love brought him to Europe,...

Mathias Rüegg is the driving force behind what is often described as Europe's leading big band, the Vienna Art Orchestra. Originally founded as an anti-establishment statement by the city's improvising musicians, it has now become part of the fabric of Austrian musical life. Anarchic humour, chaos and rebellion still flutter under the surface of every performance, but Rüegg has also assembled a peerless collection of ensemble players and soloists who tackle a staggeringly varied stylistic range with...

A frequent visitor to Britain, Ray Bryant is both a dazzlingly-proficient piano player and a charming, charismatic personality. Brought up in Philadelphia, his contemporaries included the Heath Brothers, John Coltrane, Benny Golson and a host of other talented players with whom he cut his musical teeth. In this week's Jazz Library Podcast, Bryant brings to life a vanished era of jazz in conversation with Alyn Shipton, particularly focusing on the mid-1950s when he was a member of the Dizzy Gillespie...

The British-born pianist Marian McPartland, created OBE in the New Year's Honours List, has become an American national treasure, not least through her long-running radio show Piano Jazz. In this edition of the Jazz Library Podcast, she joins Alyn Shipton to celebrate her 92nd birthday next month, and to select the highlights both from her recordings with her own trio, and also from available CDs of her radio series.

Keith Tippett is one of Britain's most inventive musicians, although nowadays he something of a prophet without honour in his own land, celebrated in Europe, but performing infrequently at home. This Jazz Library Podcast demonstrates just what local audiences have been missing, in a fascinating spread of music in which Tippett handles sprawling big bands with the same sureness of touch as he applies to his own piano playing. The programme includes his large groups Tapestry, Ark and Centipede, his...

Jaco Pastorius was a master of the fretless electric bass and became a key figure in jazz-rock fusion. To identify the essential Pastorius albums, Alyn Shipton is joined in this week's podcast by pianist Gwilym Simcock, to cover music ranging from discs by Weather Report and Trio Of Doom to several of the records the bassist made under his own name.

Erroll Garner was one of the most distinctive and original pianists in jazz. To select his finest recordings, Alyn Shipton is joined by the young British pianist Neil Cowley This week's Jazz Library Podcast includes examples of Garner's earliest stride style, covers the emergence of his own individual jazz voice, and features his most popular album "Concert by the Sea".