From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras.

We're finally giving Anna Maria Cair some days off.

So this week, we're going to change things up a bit.

We're going to take a deep dive into something I've been curious about,

and I have talked about on past episodes, musicians from Latin America who play jazz.

Now, jazz has been called America's Gift to the World, and this week we'll meet some South American jazz musicians, vocalists and instrumentalists who occupy a unique space where Ella Fitzgerald rubs elbows with Mercedes-Sosa

and where Argentine Chacarrera coexist with swing.

We're going to hear from six different musicians who are each making amazing music

and each tell us something different about the state of jazz today.

Now, we'll hear some common themes, stories about how they came to jazz,

their passion for the rich folk traditions of Latin America,

and the inspiration they find from reflecting their own cultures and traditions

into their own unique expression.

Let's get into it.

My name is Claudia Cune. I am a singer, storyteller, songwriter, composer, band leader, a woman from the south of the America who was born in Chile.

I asked Claudia O'Cunia how she got started on her journey as a vocalist and her love for jazz.

When you ask me that question, you take me far a long time ago, like when I was maybe 14 years old,

I knew always I wanted to sing,

and I started with folk music, and then I put my hands everywhere I could, you know?

But I fell in love with jazz because the part where you improvise,

and musicians are in full service of the music, and it becomes a really

on real-time talk. In fact, it was jazz pioneer Dizzy Gillespie's love of Afro-Cuban music,

...