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Five brilliant and focused musicians, against odds imposed by history and impossibility, have risen to the occasion to create a recording that provides depth, joy and emotional outreach in times of isolation and hardship. Developing their musical voices on the Seattle jazz scene, bassist Ben Feldman and saxophonist Santosh Sharma moved to New York for school and opportunity, while drummer Xavier Lecouturier, pianist Dylan Hayes and guitarist Martin Budde became invaluable creatives in Northwest music circles. Sidelined from various tours last year, the five ended up gathering in Alaska, composing, playing and discovering that as a quintet, the joy of music and creation was rekindled. Setting up in an airplane hangar, the quintet, known as Meridian Odyssey, recorded “Second Wave.”
Legendary composer Leonard Bernstein once called jazz “the ultimate common denominator of the American musical style.” The music made a profound impact on Bernstein’s work, not only the more explicit “jazziness” of his work in musical theater, but throughout his serious orchestral music as well. With the new album, “Bernstein Reimagined,” the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra mines the composer’s vast repertoire for a vibrantly diverse set of music that delves into pieces rarely if ever performed in a jazz context. The music was originally commissioned as part of the worldwide celebration of Bernstein’s centennial year in 2018.
Also this week, “Collecting Things” is the newest recording by guitarist and composer Mike Scott, a pastiche of musical styles performed by some of the top jazz musician in Southern California;
the Ira B. Liss Big Band Jazz Machine celebrates its 40th anniversary with “Mazel Tov Kocktail,” their sixth full length recording;
and Los Angeles-based reed player David Sills unveils his 17th CD as a leader, “Natural Lines.”