Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Akira Tana has been an elite drummer since the mid-1970s, working with jazz masters like Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson and others. He’s also been immersed in Brazil’s surging rhythms and sensuous melodies his entire career. His new album, “JAZZaNOVA,” was designed to showcase a superlative cast of singers and instrumentalists interpreting some of the Brazilian Songbook’s definitive standards and lesser known gems. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis or trumpeter Arturo Sandoval contribute vivid solos on almost every track, providing incisive commentary for the six extraordinary vocalists.
From jazz and soul to rock and country, the blues are the bedrock and a uniting feature for much of the popular music originating in the United States. Under the command of brilliant writers like the legendary Leadbelly, the blues maintains a unique place between high art and common expression. The discovery of the music of Leadbelly was transformative for a young Adam Nussbaum. It was the image of Huddie Ledbetter on the original Folkways 10-inch record covers that fascinated the five-year old. The celebrated blues and folk musician’s music seared itself into his ears, informing the drummer’s musical approach for years to come. It manifests itself most explicitly on Nussbaum’s new recording, “The Leadbelly Project,” featuring Steve Cardenas on guitar, Ohad Talmor on saxophone and Nate Radley on bass.
Also this week, jazz-fusion composer and drummer Bob Holz releases his third album, “Visions,” featuring bass legend Stanley Clarke.
Bassist Gerald Veasley was captured in concert at Philadelphia’s South Jazz Parlor for “Live at South”.
“Primal Economics” is the debut disc from Brooklyn-based brass brigade Dingonek Street Band, incorporating elements of Afrobeat, Ethio-jazz, post-bop and Balkan brass.