Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Juno Award-winning saxophonist, composer and arranger Allison Au was born to a Chinese father and Jewish mother, and was raised in the multicultural metropolis of Toronto. Exposed to a wide array of musical styles growing up, Allison was captivated by the unhinged freedom of jazz, which became her lab of self-expression, exploration and musical experimentations. Her work weaves a mosaic of influences into a concoction steeped in the jazz tradition but skillfully laced with elements of classical, pop, R&B/hip hop, Latin and world music. Following on the heels of her 2016 Juno Award win for Best Jazz Album of the Year, the Allison Au Quintet releases its highly anticipated third studio album, “Wander Wonder.”
Impulse! Records has brought together some of the great progressive jazz musicians of our time to pay tribute to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” As label president Danny Bennet explains, “This recording showcases the most meaningful up-and-coming and established artists that are taking the new jazz scene by storm. Each was given the challenge to create a work that would push the musical envelope by presenting an impressionistic rendering of a favorite song from Pepper.” “A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper” includes performances by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings from the UK jazz scene, Miles Mosley and Cameron Graves from L.A.’s West Coast Get Down, Onyx Collective from N.Y.C., Makaya McCraven and JuJu Exchange from Chicago, pianist Sullivan Fortner, percussionist Antonio Sanchez and guitarist Mary Halvorson.
Dan Bonsanti’s The 14 Jazz Orchestra, comprised of alumni from the University of Miami who are all active in South Florida as jazz and studio musicians and/or important educators, releases “The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be”;
Also this week, veteran Seattle bassist Chuck Deardorf brings together longtime musical friends Dawn Clement on piano, saxophonist Hans Teuber, and drummer Matt Wilson for “Perception”;
and the Colorado-based David Caffey Jazz Orchestra offers up “All in One.”