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Time was when a jazz trio without a piano or guitar was a rare occurrence. But once Sonny Rollins went chordless at the Vanguard the die was cast and it became an important subset in the list of saxophone-fronted jazz groups. For the last three years, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover has embraced this format with her regular band featuring colleagues Daniel Duke (bass) and Nic Cacioppo (drums). For her first album with the group, “Strange Lands,” she has attracted the attention of keyboard great George Cables, who appears on four tracks of the recording.
“Open World” stands as NYC saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown’s most daring project yet: a globe-trotting big band album where no two musicians recorded their parts at the same time. The musicians that make up The Global Big Band represent twenty-three countries captured across thirty separate remote sessions. The disc’s featured soloists include Aturo Sandoval, Melissa Aldana, Randy Brecker, Lionel Loueke, Miguel Zenon, Etienne Charles and Bria Skonberg.
Also this week, “Comes Love: Lost Session 1960” is a previously unreleased recording by vocalist Sheila Jordan which would have been the first album released under her name, preceding “Portrait of Sheila” by two years;
arranger and bandleader Mercer Hassy delivers the second release from his Sapporo, Japan, based orchestra, “Don’t Stop the Carnival”;
and 20-year-old keyboardist Matthew Whitaker’s third album, “Connections,” serves as a bold declaration of his maturity as a player, composer and bandleader.