Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
For his first larger ensemble recording, New York vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker made a trip to Denver and rekindled relationships developed years ago during his tenure as director of the Aspen Music Festival. Originally a trumpet player, Piltzecker continually seeks the organic connection between breath and musical expression as it relates to the vibraphone. “Vibes on a Breath” allows him to phrase with the septet’s horn players, Brad Goode, Paul McKee John Gunther and Wil Swindler, and to provide counterpoint as the only harmonic instrument in the rhythm section with drummer Paul Romaine and bassist Gonzalo Teppa. The eight reimagined jazz classics, along with three originals, unveil new twists and turns to a classic sound.
Grammy Award-winning vocalist Luciana Souza has been a fan of the outstanding, Grammy-winning Sao Paulo-based group Trio Corrente since their inception. She had initially met the trio’s drummer, Edu Ribeiro, while teaching but was reintroduced while they recorded an album with trumpeter Till Bronner. Pianist Fabio Torres was also on that date and was well known as a member of guitarist Chico Pinheiro’s different ensembles, while Paulo Paulelli was familiar for his work with the great Rosa Passos. It was Torres who invited Luciana to her native Brazil to collaborate and tour together last Fall. It struck her immediately that they should make a recording the unites their collective love of Brazil’s uplifting music and jazz. “Cometa” is the resulting album.
Also this week, Japanese pop singer-songwriter turned jazz pianist Senri Oe revisits his superstar past on his joyous new piano trio album, “Class of ‘88”; drummer, composer and bandleader Johnathan Blake and his band Pentad dedicate his new disc, “Passages,” to the memory of his father, the late jazz violinist John Blake, Jr.; and Huntertones, who wowed the crowd at this summer’s Iowa City Jazz Festival, drop their new disc, “Engine Co.”