French culture in the postwar years was strongly influenced by both jazz and the growing American genre of film noir.

"Serious jazz musicians are into their music like it's a religion," says Sisto.

Lalo Schifrin is best known for his “Mission: Impossible” theme and numerous other film scores, but the pianist and composer first emerged from mid-20th century Argentina as a jazz artist, working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording under his own name as well.

As the 1960s neared to a close, the jazz world continued to absorb the cultural upheavals of a volatile decade.

Jazzing Broadway songs, scoring movies, conducting classical music: Andre Previn could do it all before he'd even turned 30.

A career-spanning musical tribute from WFIU's afternoon jazz program "Just You And Me."

Pianist Lennie Tristano was a singular and charismatic modernist and mentor whose methods helped point the way for the rise of jazz education.

Jazz critic Nate Chinen talks about his recent book "Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century," and we hear music from some of the artists discussed as well.

Some Night Lights recommendations for reading about one of jazz's greatest figures, as well as some programs featuring his music.

As television rocketed into the entertainment culture of mid-20th-century America, musicians and composers, many of them with jazz backgrounds, were called upon to write themes and cues for the wide variety of programs that populated the airwaves.