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Six years after Pat Metheny’s last studio recording, and fifteen years after the final Pat Metheny Group album, comes a set of brand new pieces recorded with a new band. “From This Place” features drummer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Linda May Han Oh and pianist Gwilym Simcock along with special guests Gregoire Maret on harmonica, Meshell Ndegeocello on vocals and Luis Conte on percussion. Pat also split up tracks on the disc and assigned them to two of the most distinguished and advanced arrangers on the scene today, the magnificent Alan Broadbent and the endlessly inventive Gil Goldstein. They produced brilliant charts for the band and the Hollywood Studio Symphony under the direction of Joel McNeely.
Drummer Brian Andres unleashes an electrifying new project with the release of “Mayan Suite,” the inaugural recording of his Trio Latino. Though it finds Andres stepping back from his longtime leadership of the eight-piece Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel, the new trio featuring pianist Christian Tumalan and bassist Aaron Germain shows itself to be every bit as musically rich as the larger ensemble. The album’s striking originals and zesty interpretations find the band equaling that richness with audacity. “There’s much more space to explore, for creative expression, and with that freedom there’s greater responsibilities for all three of us,” Brian explains. “Whether it’s bomba or mambo, even though there’s no hand drummer, those rhythms are represented.”
Also this week, flutist Gerald Beckett showcases finely played covers and original compositions with an ensemble cast of San Francisco’s finest musicians on “Mood”;
trumpeter Farnell Newton gets up on the good foot and heads of “Rippin’ & Runnin’”on his second release as a leader, with Brandon Wright’s hard-swinging tenor sax, alongside the all-star rhythm section of organist Brian Charette and drummer Rudy Royston;
and Leni Stern, dubbed a “genre-defying adventurer” by Guitar Player magazine, showcases crystalline guitar work, West African rhythms and multilingual songs on her new release, “4.”