African Routes is Jazz at Lincoln Center’s ongoing platform for tracing the music’s ties to African rhythms, migration, and modern improvisation. In New York City, the series functions as a living archive, placing contemporary artists in dialogue with lineages that predate jazz and extend far beyond the U.S. The current program brings Danilo Pérez and Godwin Louis together with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis, while related events widen the lens through Bill Frisell’s anniversary set and the WeBop family concert. One clear takeaway is how deliberately the series treats jazz as history in motion rather than a fixed repertoire.