Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Swedish bassist Mattias Svensson’s first encounter with pianist Bill Mays was in a studio in Japan where they recorded Svensson’s 2009 debut trio recording. Further recording and touring only heightened their desire to work more together, so Mattias took action and assembled a session in Copenhagen in 2022 with Mays and drummer Morten Lund, his longtime trio mate with the Jan Lundgren Trio, for the new album “Embrace.” The trio exudes and effortless fluidity through ten of the bassist’s spacious compositions, a Mays burner dedicated to his cat Cheddar, along with a couple of themes from ‘70s TV shows that Mattias watched as a child.
With his signature tone—part Lee Morgan fire, part soulful explorer—New York trumpeter Eddie Allen leads his band Push through a vibrant sonic journey on “Rhythm People.” Joined by saxophonist Jonathan Beshay, keyboardist Misha Tsiganov, pianist Tyler Bullock II, bassist Kenny Davis and drummer EJ Strickland—and featuring trombone legend Steve Turre as special guest—Allen sets out to make music that moves. Always swinging, but unafraid to borrow from Latin grooves, reggae pulses, and urban textures, at its heart lies the unifying force of rhythm—rhythm that transcends age, background or genre.
Also this week, guitarist Paul Ricci unveils “The Path,” a disc 29 years and 17 collaborators in the making, including Randy Brecker Anthony Jackson, Michael Wolff and Manolo Badrena; guitarist Dave Stryker, who cut his teeth working with Jack McDuff and Stanley Turrentine before branching out on his own, brought his longtime trio of Jared Gold on organ and McClenty Hunter on drums into the historic Van Gelder recording studio for the first time for “Blue Fire”; and pianist and composer Lisa Hilton returns with a new quintet recording, “Extended Daydream.”