Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Pianist/composer and 2021 Guggenheim Fellow Helen Sung celebrates the work of influential women composers on her latest album, “Quartet+,” crafting new arrangements of tunes by Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland and Toshiko Akiyoshi while carrying the tradition forward with her own stunning new works. The album pairs Ms. Sung’s quartet with the strings of the Grammy Award-winning Harlem Quartet in an inventive meld of jazz and classical influences.
Hailed by Downbeat as “a new and important compositional voice,” pianist Victor Gould has earned acclaim as a leader with his three inaugural recordings that established him not only as a fine pianist but a composer of depth and substance, adeptly orchestrating for ensembles with horns and strings in varied compositions. On his fourth outing, “In Our Time,” Gould turns his focus largely to the venerable piano trio format, with bassist Tamir Shmerling and drummer Anwar Marshall. Tenor sax master and fellow Monk Institute alumnus Dayna Stephens also guests on several tunes.
Also this week, pianist Eliane Elias is in duet settings with legendary pianists Chick Corea and Chucho Valdes on “Mirror Mirror”;
the Dave Zinno Unisphere, having bided their time over the last 18 month writing and practicing until the jazz scene reopened, took advantage and managed to piece together the brilliant and beautiful new album, “Fetish”;
and the Jeff Lorber Fusion, with special guests Bob Mintzer, Hubert Laws, Robben Ford and Paul Jackson, Jr., unveil “Space-Time.”