Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Critically acclaimed and one of the top flute players on the modern jazz scene, Gerald Beckett is a skilled and versatile improviser within the jazz tradition. He’s travelled the world, with a focus on the U.S. coasts, playing some of the hottest jazz clubs. It wasn’t until he moved to San Francisco in 1985 that he began immersing himself in the jazz idiom. He started listening to various flutists, from Eric Dolphy, Frank Wess and Herbie Mann to Hubert Laws, Dave Valentin and Paul Horn. He spent eight years studying flute at the San Francisco Conservatory, eventually conducting Master Classes of his own across the globe. His newest CD, “Oblivion,” is the result of five different studio recording sessions, either as a quartet, quintet or string quartet, involving some of the finest Bay Area musicians.
If you check the newest edition of Modern Drummer magazine, you’ll find Steve Smith on the cover. He’s a winner in three of the polls in the issue. He was also recently inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rock band Journey, and toured Japan last year with the super group Steps Ahead featuring Mike Mainieri, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans and Tom Kennedy. Since 1983, Smith has led the jazz fusion group Vital Information, and just a few years back began its offshoot, Vital Information NYC Edition. It’s that band that is featured on the new release, “Heart of the City,” with Baron Browne on bass, Mark Soskin on piano and Vinny Valentino on guitar.
Also this week, vibraphone ace Behn Gillece is joined by trombonist Michael Dease, saxophonist Walt Weiskopf and trumpeter Bruce Harris on new septet CD, “Walk of Fire”.
Australian-born reedman and flutist Adrian Cunningham offers up his fifth disc as a leader, “Jazz Speak”.
L.A.-based saxophonist Jeff Benedi
ct and guitarist Dave Askren lead a grooving quartet on “Come Together.”