Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Singer Jane Mo
nheit has had plenty of milestone moments in establishing herself as one of today’s best and most important vocalist-musicians. With her new CD, “The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald”—the first to be released on her own Emerald City Records—the Long Island native has surprised even herself with her artistic leap. Monheit pays joyous tribute to Ella, guided by her producer, arranger, and trumpet great Nicholas Payton. Once she decided to make the dream project a reality, she jotted down a list of 25 titles “almost immediately.” She and Payton then narrowed the choices to a dozen and settled on the final list together. “I had no idea what to expect from Nicholas because we had never worked together,” Monheit explains,” but it was evident from the start that he is a sensitive soul and his knowledge and understanding of history was beyond compare.”
Acclaimed tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana releases her second trio album, and fourth as a leader, with “Back Home.” The title might evoke Chile, where Aldana left in 2007 to pursue jazz at ever higher levels in the United States. In fact, she reveals, the disc “is not really related to Chile itself. It’s related to the first time I picked up the tenor and I heard Sonny Rollins. He was one of the first reasons I started playing trio, because of the freedom that you have within the music, the interaction, the opportunity you have to express yourself and communicate with the other musicians.” Pablo Menares, Aldana’s fellow native of Santiago, Chile, is again on bass. On drums is the in-demand Jochen Rueckert, bringing a supple and unpredictable rhythm elan to the session.
Also this week, saxophone virtuoso and visionary composer Matt Parker, whom Downbeat magazine calls “restlessly inventive,” unveils his new trio release, “Present Time”.
Guitarist Will Bernard is joined by four A-list musician—John Ellis, Ben Allison, Brian Charette and Allison Miller—on his new project, “Out & About”;.
All About Jazz describes Canadian songstress Susie Arioli’s “Spring” as “a spectacular blues and soul-influenced vocal project combining four fresh originals with a selection of vibrant standards for a very spicy and rousing good time.”