Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Certain songs have a way of lingering in the imagination—resonating long after we’ve last heard them. On his new album, “Enduring Sonance,” veteran saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson celebrates the music that has left the deepest imprint on his musical life. Originally conceived as a ballads project, the disc evolved into something broader and more personal. Wilson gravitated toward a sense of lyricism—music whose emotional clarity and melodic resonance endure across genres, decades and listening habits. His deeply intuitive ensemble features pianist and arranger Renee Rosnes, vibraphonist Joe Locke, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Kendrick Scott.
After Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Canadian government interned nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians, stripping them of their rights and homes. In 1942, Sharon Minemoto’s family farm in Strawberry Hill was confiscated and her relatives were sent to Slocan, B.C. After the war, they were barred from the West Coast and forced to choose between moving East or “repatriating” to Japan. The powerful new album from the pianist and composer, “Goodbye, Strawberry Hill,” tells the story of her Japanese-Canadian family from WWII to the present.
Also this week, drummer Joe Syrian and his versatile Motor City Jazz Octet are back for a new round of musical mischief with their second release, “A Blue Time”; the latest album in the SmallsLive Living Masters Series, “Reflections,” comes from alto saxophonist Jesse Davis and his supremely empathetic rhythm team of pianist Spike Wilner, bassist John Webber, and featured guest, drummer Lewis Nash; and “Maraconos” brings together legendary percussionist and composer Airto Moreira and pianist and composer Ricardo Bacelar to celebrate artistic freedom, cross cultural exchanges, and the enduring vitality of contemporary jazz.