Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Beginning his 
professional career with the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the top call New York trumpeter Raul Agraz has performed with Tito Puente, the Mingus Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Percolating with a combination of Latin rhythms, boss nova, swinging big band arrangements, traditional Venezuelan rhythms, and tender arrangements scored for strings, “Between Brothers” marks his dynamic debut. Along with the electric talents of Dave Samuels, Paquito D’Rivera, Luis Perdomo, and Luisito Quintero, Agraz has created a dazzling set of music, dedicated to the musical brothers who came together to make the recording a reality.
After many years of crafting the music he loves in various genres, guitarist Corey Christiansen has found a home with the unique combination of jazz and traditional American music he’s explored in his last several recordings. On his new release, “Factory Girl,” Corey has singled out the feminine side of American frontier music and remodeled simple tunes into rhythmic and harmonically subtle contemporary arrangements. As guitar great Andy Summers states in his liner notes, “Cory is at the frontier of American jazz guitar. In addition to a gorgeous tone, he also employs edgy blues tones and biting slide guitar that would make Duane Allman sit up. Even on these antique pieces, Corey plays inside and outside of the harmonic structures with a natural and gifted ease.”
Also this week, the Hot Sardines combine covers and originals as they effortlessly channel New York speakeasies, Parisian cabarets and New Orleans jazz halls on their sophomore studio album, “French Fries + Champagne”.
Saxophonist Oleg Kireyev and pianist Keith Javors are joined by trumpeter Tom Harrell, bassist Ben Williams and drummer E.J. Strickland on their sophomore effort, “The Meeting”.
Orbert Da
vis and his Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble create an innovative, contemporary take of Afro-Caribbean music on “Havana Blue”.