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Approaching 80 years of age is occasion enough for anyone to take a moment and look back on a life well lived. For legendary drummer Al Foster, those eight decades have been more memorable than most, filled with exhilarating sounds and encounters with some of the music’s iconic legends. Foster revisits the work of several of those peers on his new disc, “Reflections.” The session features vital treatments of well-known and less-traveled numbers by iconic legends Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rolllins and McCoy Tyner, all of whom regarded Foster as their first-call drummer for long portions of his celebrated career.
Veteran guitarist and composer Grant Geissman’s storied career took off in 1978 when he recorded alongside Chuck Mangione on the flugelhornist’s platinum selling “Feels So Good,” and became part of Mangione’s touring band. His prolific career as a session musician has included work alongside other greats like Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Lorraine Feather, Gordon Goodwin and David Benoit. Geissman’s solo work in the 1980s also helped define the contemporary instrumental music of that era while his work writing and performing for film and television has earned him an Emmy Award. His new CD, “Blooz,” is a collection of original blues and jazz songs, performed by a stellar cast of musicians and friends like Randy Brecker, Robben Ford, Russell Ferrante and Tom Scott.
Also this week, trombonist Ben Patterson channels the likes of the Crusaders, the Brecker Brothers and Herbie Hancock in creating a set of new original music on “The Way of the Groove”;
one of Canada’s most recognizable voices in jazz, Tia Brazda, delves into the past rediscovering songs from the Great American Songbook on “When I Get Low”;
and multi Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch returns with his Spheres of Influence band for a second volume of his acclaimed Songbook Series, “Dance the Way You Want To.”