Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
“In Harmony” is the first previously unissued recording of the late Roy Hargrove since his passing in 2018. Captured live at Merkin Hall in New York City in 2006 and Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 2007 with the late piano great Mulgrew Miller, the set is an intimate snapshot of two masters performing without a net at the top of their games. Aida Brandes-Hargrove, president of Roy Hargrove Legacy, says, “Roy’s daughter Kamala and I are excited to get this great new album out to Roy’s many fans.”
Will Bernard offers up a hearty meal of tastes and styles from his own harvest of “Ancient Grains” on his third release for Posi-Tone Records. With a modern jazz sensibility and elegantly lyrical compositional focus, the crux of this evocative musical program remains focused upon the fingers and strings of the expressive guitarist himself. Meanwhile the masterful contributions of B-3 organist extraordinaire Sam Yahel and the explosive metrics of drummer Donald Edwards provide several melodic highlights in addition to the rhythmic support necessary to keep the session deeply in the pocket.
Also this week, alto saxophonists Greg Ward, Sharel Cassity and Rajiv Halim come together to showcase their talents on “Altoizm”;
the Alpha Rhythm Kings’ new disc, “Sharp Dressed Men,” was one of the last recordings made at the world-famous Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California before it closed its doors;
and San Francisco pianist Clifford Lamb continues his concept of jazz mashups, stirring his compositions into existing jazz works to offer a new perspective on history and culture on “Blues & Hues: New Orleans.”