Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
“The Magic of Now” is the 20th album of pianist and composer Orrin Evans’ luminous career. Recorded in the midst of the upheavals set in motion by the Covid-19 pandemic, this latest document of Evans’ kaleidoscopic artistic journey coincides with several self-generated sea changes in his life. Perhaps the most significant change being his decision to leave the popular trio The Bad Plus after three rewarding years to refocus his time and energy on his own multiple projects. For the new disc, Orrin leads a multi-generational cohort of A-list partners—first-call New York bassist Vincente Archer; iconic drummer and Iowa native Bill Stewart; and the dynamic 23-year-old alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, who wowed the crowd at the Iowa City Jazz Festival this summer.
Wayne Alpern is a New York City composer, arranger and scholar who integrates popular and jazz idioms with classical techniques and repertoire to create a sophisticated contemporary style of cross-genre, or even post-genre music. His work includes numerous jazz arrangements, string quartets, woodwind and brass quintets, mixed ensembles, pieces for string orchestra, and several piano works. His new album, “Frankenstein,” features saxophonist David Mann and bassist John Patitucci on reworkings of rock and pop tunes of the ‘60s, a few jazz standards and some Broadway music.
Also this week, pianist Ray Gallon, who has plied his trade in the bands of Ron Carter, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie and others, finally leaps into the fray as a bandleader with the stellar debut, “Make Your Move”;
Chicago-based pianist Dave Flippo and his band Jazz from Planet Flippo offer up “Dedications”;
and percussionist and composer Julien Gerstin reflects his experience working with musicians in and from Cuba, Martinique, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt on his new disc, “Music for the Exploration of Elusive Phenomena.”