Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Originally from the Minneapolis area, flugelhornist John Raymond moved to New York City after spending some time studying music in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He was able to establish himself on the New York scene playing alongside well-known musicians like Billy Hart, Orrin Evans and Kurt Rosenwinkel. But Raymond was increasingly drawn to creating and leading a band of his own in a flugelhorn-led trio with guitar and drums a la Jim Hall and Art Farmer. By the time he moved to the City, he had already been drawn to guitarist Gilad Hekselman, whose lyrical style was perfect for Raymond’s musical direction. Drummer Colin Stranahan would cement himself as the bedrock of the trio, now known as Real Feels. The majority of the music on their new CD, “Joy Ride,” was written during a self-imposed summer retreat in which Raymond spent hours composing each day.
Jemal Ramirez is a San Francisco-based drummer and bandleader who is called “Mr. Ramirez” by 200 public school music students daily, keeping him busy as a band director and percussion teacher in San Jose, California. His resume includes performances with Eric Reed, Joshua Redman, Marcus Shelby, Dayna Stephens and other notable jazz musicians. His own high-powered ensemble features the acclaimed vibraphonist Warren Wolf, saxophonist Howard Wiley and trumpeter Mike Olmos. Jemal’s new disc, “African Skies,” also includes one of the final performances of bassist and Iowa native John Shifflett, who passed away just a few months after the recording sessions.
Also this week, four-time Grammy Award winning producer and keyboardist Charlie Peacock unveils his fourth jazz album, “When Light Flashes Help is On the Way,” featuring bassist Felix Pastorius drummer Ben Perowsky and reedman Jeff Coffin, among others.
Trumpeter Craig Frae
drich, now retired after 31 years with the elite U.S. Army Blues, is joined by current or former ‘Blues’ brothers in his Jazz Trumpet Ensemble on “Out of the Blues”.
Saxophonist Ken Fowser dishes up another batch of original compositions for his seventh release as a leader, “Don’t Look Down.”