Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Renowned saxophonist Vincent Herring battles back from a bout with Covid-19 and career-threatening side effects with a defiant and joyful new album, “Preaching to the Choir,” with swinging help from pianist Cyrus Chestnut, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Johnathan Blake. Herring speaks for nearly all of us when he says, “2020 into 2021 was a morbid nightmare.” He experienced the pandemic first hand, not only contracting the virus but also suffering the same loss of performance opportunities befalling every musician during the past year. Despite the prevailing darkness, the disc delivers a sermon of optimism and hope to the jazz faithful.
Although many people may not realize it, Puerto Rico is the home of a vibrant and thriving jazz scene. It is here that Latin jazz trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda lives and does the bulk of his playing. Born in the Bronx, he appeared regularly in the Big Apple throughout the ’70s and ‘80s with the likes of Eddie Palmieri, Mongo Santamaria, Dave Valentin, Tito Puente and countless others. He currently a professor at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and leads one of the island’s most popular jazz ensembles, The Turnaround. Their new CD, “This is Latin Jazz,” was recorded live early last year at Dizzy’s in New York.
Also this week, drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., marks the recording debut of his exciting new 19-piece big band with “Soul Conversations,” also recorded live at Dizzy’s with special guests Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis and Kurt Elling;
vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, one of the most respected interpreters of the Great American Songbook, unveils “The Rebecca Kilgore Trio, Vol. 1,” the long-overdue recording from her Portland, Oregon-based ensemble.
and “Human Qualities” brings back the 17 members of the progressive New York big band Schapiro 17 led by composer and arranger Jon Shapiro;