Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
After 20 years at the helm of her acclaimed acoustic sextet, taking her across the globe and onto such renowned stages as the Newport Jazz Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Amina Figarova embarks on a bold new chapter with the release of “Persistence.” On the disc, the Azerbaijani-born pianist and composer debuts her exploratory new ensemble Edition 113, an electric band grooving somewhere in the sweet spot between jazz fusion, classic R&B, inventive hip-hop and progressive funk. She’s joined by guitar great Rez Abbasi, drummer Rudy Royston, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and her partner in music and life, flutist Bart Platteau.
Grammy Award-winning artists Luciana Souza and Vince Mendoza have joined forces with the WDR Big Band of Cologne for a most extraordinary collaboration, “Storytellers.” Considered one of the most important vocalists of her generation, the Brazilian-born Souza brings her deeply personal and illuminated singing to songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Pinheiro, Edu Lobo, Chico Barque, Djavan, Ivan Lins and Gilberto Gil. Renowned arranger Mendoza presents each song in the collection with an enlightened score that springs from his profound understanding of orchestration, coloring, and his exceptional ability as a composer.
Also this week, the trio Gilfema with guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth, unveil their first release since 2008, “Three”;
bassist and reedman Troy Roberts pushes his musical abilities to the next level of originality with “Stuff I Heard,” showcasing his versatility as an instrumentalist and composer;
and saxophonist Jimmy Greene finds solace, support and inspiration from multiple directions “While Looking Up.”