Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Released in honor of Oscar Peterson’s centennial, “Around the World” is a celebration of the pianist’s profound artistry through solo, duo and trio performances from 1969 to 1981. Featuring never-before-heard live concerts from Detroit, Michigan; Basel, Switzerland; and his home of Toronto, Ontario, the disc celebrates the “Maharaja of the Keyboard,” as Roy Eldridge called him, and helps usher in the next 100 years of Mr. Peterson.
New York-based Canadian Bria Skonberg is a Juno Award-winning triple threat trumpeter, singer and songwriter. The New York Times has called her “the shining hope of hot jazz,” and she’s been described as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation.” Her new album, “Indigo,” is an exploration in nuances, and conversations about chemistry, fragility, and sense of self. It features Ms. Skonberg on trumpet and vocals, Gil Goldstein at the keyboards and as arranger, Eric Wheeler on bass, Darrian Douglas playing drums, plus a string quartet.
Also this week, the WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany, is joined by featured trumpeter Sean Jones on “Jagged Edges, Elegant Lines,” featuring the work of the dynamic composer Ayn Inserto; world-renowned Jamaican-born pianist Monty Alexander, one of the true pioneers of not only jazz but also ska and reggae, is “A Jamarican in Paris” on his latest offering; and pianist Dave Bass continues to demonstrate why he has become one today’s most distinctive jazz pianists and composers on “Trio Nuevo Vol. 3.”