Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Always one 
to seek out new ways to express his musical vision, pianist Bill O’Connell has throughout his career embraced a broad stylistic swath of jazz, Latin and Brazilian idioms while experimenting with equally diverse orchestral formats, from a duo to unconventional trio settings and ensembles of various sizes. His well-known resume includes longs stints as keyboardist and arranger for the legendary Cuban conguero Mongo Santmaria and Puerto Rican flutist Dave Valentin as well as engagements with a diverse array of jazz and Latin artists, from saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Gato Barbieri to trumpeters Chet Baker and Jerry Gonzalez. For his latest offering, “Heart Beat,” Bill is joined by his acclaimed Latin Jazz All-Stars, featuring Conrad Herwig, Steve Slagle and Cuban percussionist Ramon Diaz.
For those who think that big band music should capture a nostalgic spirit of the music of days gone by, the 14 Jazz Orchestra may not be what they are looking for. But for those who are uplifted by orchestral jazz as initially defined by Duke Ellington and continued over the years by visionaries like Charles Mingus, George Russell and Gil Evans, the Orchestra’s debut CD, “Nothing Hard is Ever Easy” will be a joyful revelation. Comprised of some of the Miami area’s most accomplished jazz and studio musicians and jazz educators under the direction of the remarkable arranger/conductor Dan Bonsanti, the 14 Jazz Orchestra has been delighting audiences with its exciting and challenging contemporary jazz since its initial performance in 2013.
Also this week, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, who has long entertained a wish to make a recording with the great bassist Ron Carter, makes it happen with “#Jiveculture”; venerable cornetist Ron Miles sat in with the bass-less trio Whirlpool during a 2013 live performance in his hometown of Denver, Colorado, with the resulting synergistic output leading to the new CD, “Dancing on the Inside”; and the Swiss quintet Le Rex puts a new spin on the brass band genre with “Wild Man.”
