Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
In 2013, when t
he Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis set out to honor the legacy of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s maestro John Lewis, they teamed up with New Orleans’ own Jon Batiste. The bandleader of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and a prodigious talent in his own right, Batiste joined the JLCO to tackle some of Lewis’s most iconic tunes during a sold-out concert in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s House of Swing. Few captured the sleek, swinging sophistication of jazz better than pianist, composer, bandleader John Lewis who had a long, deep personal relationship with Jazz at Lincoln Center. “He used to always call our program a miracle,” says Marsalis. “He used to always say, ‘Keep that miracle going.’”
Now in the middle of a towering career as founder and leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, musical director for Ruben Blades, and pianist, arranger and producer for some of the biggest names in contemporary Latin music, three-time Grammy winner Oscar Hernandez takes a moment for himself and his working quintet, Alma Libre, with his new recording, “The Art of Latin Jazz.” Pulling from several lifetimes worth of musical experiences, Hernandez penned ten originals to perform with his Los Angeles-based ensemble, featuring the legendary saxophonist Justo Almario, and special guest, San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castallanos.
Also this week, the Greek bassist and composer Petros Klampanis unveils his third album as a leader and his first large ensemble project, “Chroma”.
Guitarist Kevin Eubanks explores the chemistry he maintains with musicians from both coasts on “East West Time Line”.
Bassist Nathan E
ast is joined by Chuck Loeb, Kirk Whalum, Chick Corea and others on “Reverence.”