Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Bassist Carlos Hendriquez has built his artistic life through the decades with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, joining as a teenager performing with Wynton Marsalis and becoming a full-time member, with Jazz Times praising his playing as “jet fuel” for the Orchestra. “Monk Con Clave” presents Henriquez’s big band in a large-ensemble tribute rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythm and New York history reimagining the music of Thelonious Monk. Drawing from his long relationship with Monk’s work and the cultural history of San Juan Hill, Henriquez brings together a multigenerational band featuring members of the JLCO for his new project.

The piccolo flute has spent most of jazz history on the sidelines, with very few examples of the instrument in a leading role. One of the closest precedents appears in Buddy Collete’s late-1950s “Swinging Shepards” projects—flute-frontline concept albums where piccolo was explicitly credited as part of the lead sound. With “Picc Pocket,” Erica von Kleist puts it right out front, leading a stellar, straight-ahead small group through a set of original, high-energy jazz compositions with guest appearances by tenor saxophonist John Ellis and trombonist Jennefer Krupa.

Also this week, Emmet Cohen, DownBeat magazine’s 2025 Pianist of the Year, pairs timeless classics with new originals on “Universal Truth,” with special guests Ron Carter and George Coleman; Danish saxophonist and composer Jan Harbeck presents “Conversation,” capturing the natural warmth and immediacy of a quartet that has played together for nearly two decades; and “Ao Vivo” presents pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias in a live setting recorded in San Francisco at the SFJazz Center.

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Three-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Catherine Russell presents her first live album, “Catherine Russll—Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center,” captured during a special weekend at the Appel Room with New York’s Central Park as scenic backdrop. Invited to perform for JALC’s 2023-2024 season theme “Community and Consciousness,” Russell crafted a program honoring The Hot Club of New York, a community of enthusiasts who gather weekly to listen to vintage jazz and blues on 78rpm shellac records, assembling lesser-known gems originally recorded by Hot Lips Page, Cab Calloway, Helen Humes, Eddie Barefield, Tiny Grimes, and her father Luis Russell, among others.

“Any Time After Now” is the new album from bassist, composer, and bandleader Ben Wolfe, featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist Sullivan Fortner, saxophonist Chris Lewis, and drummer Aaron Kimmel. Comprised entirely of Wolfe’s original compositions, the music was shaped across a three-night engagement at Dizzy’s Club in New York City before being captured on a single, highly organic day in the studio. The album continues Wolfe’s run of critically acclaimed work, praised by The New York Times, DownBeat, and the Wall Street Journal for its sophisticated, swinging sound.

Also this week, “Chris Hazelton in Rotation” is a new album from the Kansas City-based organist with Brett Jackson on sax, Peter Schlamb on vibes and John Kizilarmut on drums; Toronto-born saxophonist Pete Mills delivers a fast-paced swinging new recording, “This is Now,” alongside an outstanding lineup of familiar collaborators including drummer Matt Wilson, bassist Martin Wind, guitarist Pete McCann and rising piano phenom Kenny Banks Jr.; and veteran San Jose-based keyboardist Roosevelt Hoover III offers up “Backyard Blues.”