Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Two of John Pizzarelli’s greatest influences, Frank Sinatra and the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, joined forces in 1967 to present a softer, sultrier side of Sinatra. Sinatraphiles consider the disc, “Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim,” one of Frank’s greatest, a meeting that found him in an out-of-character setting. Half a century later, Pizzarelli pays tribute t o those original recordings with “Sinatra & Jobim @ 50,” enhancing that collection with two originals, Michael Franks’ ode to Jobim and songs that Sinatra and Jobim recorded in a 1969 session. “A lot of what we did on this record, the medleys and the arrangements for the new songs,” says Pizzarelli, “came out of what they did on their album and the influence they have had on my music.”
“Individually or collectively, these are first class musicians, and their expertise and rapport are explicitly manifest on every page of ‘Chapter Four’.” That quote from All About Jazz describes the work of Paul Tynan and Aaron Lington on their 2014 release, “Bicoastal Collective: Chapter Four.” With the fifth album from their decade-long collaboration, “Bicoastal Collective: Chapter Five,” the Nova Scotia-based trumpeter and Bay Area baritone saxophonist are at their most ambitious. With eight new large ensemble compositions for a big band that includes friends and colleagues from their days at the University of North Texas, they further solidify a captivating musical partnership that restlessly pursues new vehicles for their compositions and music visions.
Also this week, the duo of guitarists Francesco Buzzurro and Richard Smith take on the music of Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock and others on “One World, Two Guitars”.
Guitar master Russell Malone returns with his talented quartet on “Time for the Dancers”.
Bassist Gerald Cannon is joined by an all-star ensemble including Gary Bartz, Kenny Barron, Steve Slagle, Jeremy Pelt and others on “Combinations.”