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In a 2019 article, Forbes magazine decreed that the two characteristics women need most to thrive in the business world are “grit and grace.” Bass trombonist Jennifer Wharton has exemplified those qualities in the music she’s made with her brass-forward band Bonegasm since its 2019 debut. How else to explain Wharton’s venture into improvising and bandleading after years in the classical world, big band sections and Broadway pits? On her third outing with the band, “Grit and Grace,” Wharton demonstrates both attributes brilliantly on a vibrant and thrilling collection of new music, most of which was written by women composers.
Named for the Grateful Dead tune that concludes his inspired new double album, “Uncle John’s Band” features masterful guitarist John Scofield at his most freewheeling. Wide ranging repertoire finds his trio with Vicente Archer and Bill Stewart tackling material from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Bernstein, and Miles Davis. And a couple of jazz standards rub shoulders with seven Scofield originals that are variously swing, funk and folk-inflected. The thread through the program is the trio’s tremendous improvisational verve.
Also this week, 20-year-old pianist and composer Joey Alexander and his trio bring special guest trumpeter Theo Croker to the proceedings on Joey’s seventh album, “Continuance”; drummer Tony Addison, who hails from Washington, D.C. and has shared the stage with legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Cole, debuts with a new sextet release, “Relentless Pursuit”; and trumpeter Constantine Alexander also makes his swinging, soulful jazz debut with “Firetet.”