Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
While every great jazz musician knows the value of spontaneity, few understand the true value of being in the moment quite like Johnny O’Neal. A rising star in the early 1980s, O’Neal left New York after a mugging in 1986. Performing and recording in Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal and his native Detroit, he experienced another setback after he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1998. Since returning to New York in 2010, however, both his life and his health have been on an upswing, cementing that long-promised star status at the age of 60. His new album, “In the Moment,” fully captures the elegant pianism and emotionally gripping voice that have made him such a beloved figure on the NYC jazz scene ever since his unparalleled comeback.
“Cerulean Canvas” is a departure from saxophonist Sherman Irby’s earlier projects. In addition to being the sixth release for his Black Warrior Records label, it’s his first leading his working quintet, Momentum. Sherman is also a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It is there that he honed his arranging skills and has brought those skills to bear on his new CD. His work features a frontline of alto sax/trombone, something rarely seen in jazz. He has Vincent Gardner on trombone, Eric Reed on piano, Willie Jones, III on drums and Gerald Cannon on bass. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis also makes an appearance on two of the tunes.
Also this week, clarinetist Anat Cohen leads a tentet on her latest disc, “Happy Song”.
Saxophonist Cory Weeds takes on the E
arth Wind & Fires songbook with “Let’s Groove”.
Trumpeter Bruce Harris makes his recor
ding debut on “Beginnings.”