Cuadrado is part of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a collective of 10 bandleaders in a New York borough full of jazz musicians.

NPR: Alexis Cuadrado: Jazz from the Underground

Musicians like Cuadrado and the Brooklyn Jazz Underground understand that it takes more than talent.

NPR: Alexis Cuadrado: Jazz from the Underground

Between the Puzzles Quartet and the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, he's found a way to make all the pieces fit.

NPR: Alexis Cuadrado: Jazz from the Underground

New festival elements this year include Cross the Tracks, a strand that throws the spotlight on contemporary, underground music influenced by jazz.

BBC: Mud Morganfield

But public mixing of the races was illegal, and jazz players in integrated bands risked arrest playing in underground clubs run by gangsters.

NPR: Abdullah Ibrahim Stays Rooted to His Homeland