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Why would one of poetry’s most revered voices want to curate a jazz saxophonist’s album of gospel hymns and spirituals? “These songs are so important,” says Nikki Giovanni, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends and a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2017. “They comforted people through the time of slavery, and during recent years we needed them to comfort us again.” Giovanni’s historic collaboration with saxophonist-composer and former Jazz Messenger Javon Jackson has yielded “The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni.” Jackson brings his bold-toned, Trane-inspired tenor lines to bear on a series of hymns, spirituals and gospel numbers hand-picked by Ms. Giovanni.
The Seattle-based soul-jazz groove machine Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, founded by Lamarr’s wife and manager. It has since released two Billboard-charting albums and toured the world to sold out venues. Lamarr is a self-taught virtuosic musician who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. Guitarist Jimmy James eases through Steve Cropper-style chanking guitar, volcanic acid-rock freak-out lead playing, and slinky Grant Green-style jazz. Their latest record, “Cold as Weiss,” is the first to feature new drummer Dan Weiss, also of the powerhouse soul and funk collective The Sextones.
Also this week, pianist and composer Ethan Iverson makes his Blue Note Records debut, “Every Note is True,” with a masterful new trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette;
pianist Michael Weiss, a valued member of New York’s jazz community since the 1980s, presents his fifth recording as a leader, “Persistence,” featuring sax great Eric Alexander;
and “Overtones” is a new disc from guitarist Doug MacDonald and the L.A. All-Star Octet, which includes drummer Roy McCurdy, bassist Chuck Berghofer, pianist Bill Cunliffe, and saxophonists Ricky Woodard and Kim Richmond.