Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
With inspiration provided by myriad jazz masters and the Los Angeles musicians she surrounds herself with, vibraphonist Lolly Allen creates a warm, swinging, and jubilant set of music on “Coming Home,” celebrating the L.A. jazz scene that developed out of the flourishing Central Avenue clubs of the 1950s. With revered veterans of the scene, such as drummer Paul Kreibich and pianist Tom Owens, and young, vital members of the next generation, including pianist Josh Nelson and saxophonist Danny Janklow, Lolly delivers invigorated perspectives of the quintet group dynamic. Classics from the likes of Horace Silver, Mario Bauza and Dizzy Gillespie are paired with Allen’s originals in a seamless blend of supple ideas and renewed approaches to traditional repertoire.
Trumpeter Joshua Jern jumps onto the Chicago jazz scene with his brand new jazz orchestra on their debut CD, “Midnight Stroll.” Jern studied his instrument with such world renowned big band trumpeters as Rob Parton and Roger Ingram, and studied composition with big band legend Tom Garling. When not running the Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra, he keeps busy with theatre work, occasional rock tours, and various Chicago-based big band projects. The collection of all original material on the disc is eclectic in style maintaining a classic, almost vintage sound while weaving in such modern elements of cutting edge big band and fusion as to make for an album that feels familiar yet sounds fresh and energetic
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Also this week, Posi-Tone Records debuts their latest musical collective under the apt title of Works for Me and the CD, “Reach Within,” featuring the talents of saxophonist Alexa Tarantino, pianist Caili O’Doherty, guitarist Tony Davis, bassist Adi Meyerson and drummer Joe Strasser;
Award-winning pianist and acclaimed composer Lisa Hilton is joined by jazz luminaries JD Allen on tenor sax, Rudy Royston on drums and Luques Curtis on bass for “Chalkboard Destiny”;
and Chicago-based trumpeter and composer Markus Rutz offers up an engaging two-volume album, “Blueprints Figure One: Frameworks.”