It was the inimitable Louis Armstrong who summed it up best when he said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you will never know.” The genre is often tagged as elusive, and sometimes, even elitist. Yet, there is a simplicity and freedom to jazz that stands out, regardless of the performer. Starting tomorrow, the city will witness a host of such performers explore the many dimensions of the genre through their music at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) over a span of three days.

The first day, though, belongs to German pianist, composer and arranger Thilo Wolf’s Big Band. Having started out at the age of 24, Wolf remains among the rare composers to still lead a jazz band — a tradition that dates back to names such as Armstrong, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. “For a bandleader, the same requirements apply as for any leader. You develop clear ideas about how you want to shape a team or a band. The aim is for the band to develop its own style and sound in the end,” Wolf notes.