Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Mary LaRose has pushed the boundaries of the tradition of jazz vocalese into the post-bop world for many years, writing lyrics to the compositions and improvisations of Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, and most often, Eric Dolphy. “I have felt connected to the music of Eric Dolphy since my earliest days in jazz,” she says. On her new album, “Out Here,” LaRose takes on the legacy of Dolphy as a composer in a focused way, joined by some of the most important young improvisers in the music today, including her partner/producer/reed player Jeff Lederer, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Matt Wilson.
Born in Nova Scotia and a Montrealer since 2008, Beth McKenna is one of Montreal’s most versatile saxophonists, bandleaders, and composers. A Prix Opus Laureate, Beth has studied with a wide range of renowned industry leaders including Darcy James Argue, Christine Jensen and Jim McNeely. Written almost entirely prior to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, McKenna’s new album, “Beyond Here,” was inspired by the impact we as humans have on the world around us. It mixes a wide range of influences: from Pat Metheny to Brad Mehldau, Snarky Puppy to Jacob Collier, and from Pink Floyd to the Brian Blade Fellowship.
Also this week, drummer and composer Johnathan Blake makes his Blue Note Records debut, “Homeward Bound,” with his quintet Pentad featuring saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and vibraphonist Joel Ross;
French-born vibraphonist Simon Moullier pays homage to the great composers and pillars of jazz on his sophomore album, “Countdown”;
and pianist and film composer Todd Cochran offers up his first album since his two underground classics from the early Seventies as he folds his earlier explorations into a fresh new musical creation on “Then and Again, Here & Now.”