Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Betty Bryant has a long and storied career. She was mentored early on by the great Jay McShann. “Betty Bryant Day” was declared in Kansas City in 1987, and she was awarded the key to the city. A famous photograph of Betty with McShann hangs in the lobby of the city’s American Jazz Museum. At 94, Ms. Bryant is still going strong, and like the title of her new album, “Lotta Livin’,” the beloved pianist, singer and composer still has a whole lot of living to do. It’s Ms. Bryant’s 14th disc, and like with her other albums and live performances, her playing and singing is effortlessly cool and reflects her blues roots.
There have been many tribute albums dedicated to jazz violin pioneer Stephane Grappelli, as well as to the brilliant piano virtuoso Oscar Peterson. With “Reverence: A Tribute to Stephane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson,” violinist Jason Anick and pianist Matt DeChamplain team up to recreate the chemistry between these two jazz titans who performed together in the 1970s. Crisp arrangements combined with the spontaneity of a live studio recording bring out the best from Anick and DeChamplain. Archtop guitarist Matt Munisteri and bassist Eduardo Belo round out the rhythm section with equal finesse.
Also this week, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra releases its first full-length album in over a decade, “And So It Goes”; some of L.A.’s finest comprise the Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra on “Flying Colors,” featuring one of the last sessions of the late, great trumpeter Carl Saunders; and saxophonist extraordinaire Diego Rivera seamlessly blends traditional jazz influences with innovative contemporary arrangements that transcend the boundaries of conventional jazz on “With Just a Word.”