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Bassist Carlos Hendriquez has built his artistic life through the decades with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, joining as a teenager performing with Wynton Marsalis and becoming a full-time member, with Jazz Times praising his playing as “jet fuel” for the Orchestra. “Monk Con Clave” presents Henriquez’s big band in a large-ensemble tribute rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythm and New York history reimagining the music of Thelonious Monk. Drawing from his long relationship with Monk’s work and the cultural history of San Juan Hill, Henriquez brings together a multigenerational band featuring members of the JLCO for his new project.
The piccolo flute has spent most of jazz history on the sidelines, with very few examples of the instrument in a leading role. One of the closest precedents appears in Buddy Collete’s late-1950s “Swinging Shepards” projects—flute-frontline concept albums where piccolo was explicitly credited as part of the lead sound. With “Picc Pocket,” Erica von Kleist puts it right out front, leading a stellar, straight-ahead small group through a set of original, high-energy jazz compositions with guest appearances by tenor saxophonist John Ellis and trombonist Jennefer Krupa.
Also this week, Emmet Cohen, DownBeat magazine’s 2025 Pianist of the Year, pairs timeless classics with new originals on “Universal Truth,” with special guests Ron Carter and George Coleman; Danish saxophonist and composer Jan Harbeck presents “Conversation,” capturing the natural warmth and immediacy of a quartet that has played together for nearly two decades; and “Ao Vivo” presents pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias in a live setting recorded in San Francisco at the SFJazz Center.