On this week’s episode of Visions, I bring in the month of March, and Women’s History Month, with an episode of all women jazz artists. I include women on every show, and I make sure the women I include aren’t just vocalists. That’s a common stereotype about women in jazz, that they’re just singers. But there are incredible instrumentalists, composers, arrangers, and vocalists alike who are just as important as their male counterparts within the jazz canon.

You hear from Detroit’s Marion Hayden, Gayelynn McKinney, Geri Allen and Alice Coltrane. I include two all-female groups Artemis and Alliance. I also play some of the greats from past and present: Mary Lou Williams, Sarah Vaughn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Ingrid Jensen, Amina Claudine Myers, Regina Carter, and more.

I hope this episode is a mix of those familiar to you and some new music discovery. Happy listening!

Check out the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

Visions Playlist for Mar. 2, 2026

• “Amsterdam After Dark (feat. George Coleman)” – Ingrid Jensen
• “Higher Ground” – Regina Carter*
• “All Blues” – Mary Lou Williams
• “Mismatch” – Yvonne Rogers
• “Perhaps” – Marion Hayden*
• “Ladies Day” – Bobbi Humphrey
• “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” – Sarah Vaughn
• “Pisces” – Geri Allen* & The Mary Lou Williams Collective
• “Little Jump” – Terri Lyne Carrington
• “Jo Jar” – Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid & Mike Reed
• “Blues Melba” – Melba Liston
• “The Very Thing (feat. esperanza spalding & Tony Malaby)” – Kris Davis
• “Jaya Jaya Rama” – Alice Coltrane*
• “Conjure Man” – Gayelynn McKinney*
• “Louisville” – Amina Claudine Myers Trio
• “Linger (feat. Sharel Cassity & Colleen Clark)” – Alliance
• “Violets for Your Furs” – Jutta Hipp & Zoot Sims
• “What the World Needs Now is Love” – Artemis

* indicates Detroit artists

This week on Visions, I celebrate Black History Month with the creators, innovators, and current shapers of jazz. Since jazz music is Black music, what better way to start this month than with jazz through the decades? This episode features bebop, spiritual jazz, the avant-garde, modern jazz and hard bop. It touches on themes of slavery, freedom, resistance, political issues of the time, and forward-thinking, afro-futurist art.

I start out in 1947 with one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, Charlie Parker. I move through almost each decade with selections from Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Andrew Hill, Sonny Stitt, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, and Ornette Coleman.

I play more contemporary selections from Cassandra Wilson, Wynton Marsalis, Trio 3 & Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell, and Kamasi Washington. I’ll continue featuring Black artists this month, so stay tuned!

Check out the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

Visions Playlist for Feb. 2, 2026

• “Donna Lee” – Charlie Parker
• “Bright Mississippi (Take 1)” – Thelonious Monk
• “What’s Your Story, Morning Glory” – Trio 3 & Geri Allen*
• “Driva’man (feat. Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens)” – Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell
• “Strange Fruit” – Cassandra Wilson
• “Original Faubus Fables” – Charles Mingus
• “The Chocolate Nuisance (Live)” – Cannonball Adderley
• “Lift Every Voice and Sing” – Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
• “There Is No Greater Love” – Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt
• “Land of Nod” – Andrew Hill
• “Broad Way Blues” – Ornette Coleman
• “The Windmills of Your Mind” – Dorothy Ashby*
• “A Love Supreme, Pt. 2: Resolution” – John Coltrane
• “Chambers Of Tain” – Wynton Marsalis
• “Final Thought” – Kamasi Washington

* indicates Detroit artists