Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Any chance that one has to hear a master musician in his or her preferred setting is a gift. For all the one-offs and ensemble-by-committee type of gigs that spring up, it is the reunion with familiar collaborators for a stint of a few nights that really becomes integral for the best performances. On his new recording, “At This Time,” Steve Kuhn found himself in just the right time and place to record a trio record that feels timeless and truly inspired. Kuhn, of course, has been one of jazz’s foremost pianists for over a half a century. He has been fortunate to accompany some of the most important voices of his generation, including John Coltrane, Sheila Jordan and Kenny Dorham, but it is his work in the trio setting that has been where he has made his name. His ensemble on the new disc, which features legendary bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joey Baron, was happy to find itself in an extended engagement at Birdland in New York last September and found time to g et into the recording studio before heading to Europe on tour.
Contempor
ary jazz keyboardist and composer Peter Horvath is a Budapest, Hungary, native who came to the United States in 1983 to study at Berklee College in Boston. He has since recorded, performed and toured nationally and worldwide with a long line of world class artists, including jazz greats Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Ernie Watts, Eddie Henderson, Charles McPherson and others. His new album, “Absolute Reality,” features some of today’s greats like Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Victor Bailey and Lenny White. The original music fuses a variety of elements from hard hitting funk jazz with horns to pieces with Latin and straight-ahead jazz influences.
Also this week, Hristo Vitchev, referred to by the media as one of the newest and most innovative voices in modern jazz guitar, offers up his seventh set as a leader, “In Search of Wonders”.
Trombonist Ryan Keberle & Catharsis tap into various South American musical forms and cultures on “Azul Infinito”.
Percussionist Ed Fast & Conga Bop are joined by special guest guitarist Larry Coryell on their new one, “Do or Die.”