Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Snorre Kirk—the composer, bandleader and drummer—has long since made his mark on listeners in Scandinavia and further south. He was 16 when he went from Norway to Helsingor in Denmark. The relocated Norwegian, an exquisitely flexible musician with a keen eye for tradition, sits behind the kit with some of the finest musicians on the Scandinavian jazz scene as well as prominent international players. As a composer, Snorre caters his writing specifically to the individual soloists, thereby creating a unique sound. On “Tangerine Rhapsody,” he collaborates with American tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley and Snorre’s regular team featuring pianist Magnus Hjort and bassist Anders Fjelsted.
Trumpeter/composer Thomas Marriott has covered a lot of ground over his eleven releases as a leader, most recently the lush balladry of his disc of last year. For “Trumpet Ship,” Marriot goes for the exuberant, highly intuitive, propelling joy that defines a jam session. The session includes three of the more electric and empathetic players in jazz—pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr.—all long-time collaborators with Marriott, recorded on an off-day in Seattle while on a tour of the Northwest. The quartet’s spirit and chemistry shine through a set of five Marriott originals along with tunes from Jerome Kern and Gil Evans.
Also this week, “Sounds for Sculpture: The Awakening” features vibraphonist Christian Tamnburr’s compositions inspired by the iconic bronze sculptures of Seward Johnson, which can be seen around the world in places like Times Square, the Chicago Pier, and the National Harbor in D.C.;
Chicago-based pianist and composer Lara Driscoll debuts with “Woven Dreams,” with the trio she led while a graduate student at Montreal’s McGill University;
and guitarist John Stein, who is about to retire from his decades-long teaching career at his alma mater Berklee in order to play music full time, unveils his 15th recording, “Watershed.”