Jazz was born of New Orleans’s melting pot. The influx of cultures into the city provided the raw material that formed the music. The experiences, the stories and tongues, and the songs. When it moved out of New Orleans - north to Chicago, east to New York City and west to California - it gained new material to add to the stew. And new styles were born that moved across oceans and continents. So the cycle continued.

This playlist celebrates the melding of these genres into new forms. From Fela Kuti’s afrobeat, to the latin-jazz-rock of Santana, to Tom Waits’s character-driven songs and on to Swedish jazz trumpeter Erik Palmberg’s interpretations of the art. Music is the universal language. These tunes confirm that statement.